D&D General My Problem(s) With Halflings, and How To Create Engaging/Interesting Fantasy Races

[Oofta]

I agree with this.

The appearance would need to be an obviously nonhuman characteristic, to count as a nonhuman appearance.

By the way, I have seen reallife people who had somewhat pointy ears. It happens.

For me, the concepts of elf and dwarf are supposed to look human. Because they actually arent humans but are taking on a human form. They still retain subtle hints of their true form, being some feature of nature.

For example, the alfar are sunlight, and sometimes the human form glows an aura of sunlight. That would count as a nonhuman appearance.

So how does a homebrew elven race affect the conversation? I have no problem talking about how I've given halflings more depth in my campaign, but your alfar are a departure from standard lore. That's not necessarily a bad thing. If that's what it takes to make halflings unique to you then add something.

 

[Yaarel]

In short you can pick the two 4e/5e races but not the classic ones from humans once they cover their ears. Which is why some people find dragonborn and tieflings to be too exotic for their D&D.

In hindsight, it seems the earlier resistance against dragonborn and tiefling was because of a palpable sense of D&D trending away from Tolkien assumptions.

Most of these reactionaries seem to have made peace with the trend, and figured out how to coexist with the less-Tolkien playstyles. Fortunately for them, the Tolkien movies are popular, and WotC still wants to ride the aspects of that popularity.

I wish that D&D would do more to ride the popularity of Harry Potter, and soon Strixhaven seems to be granting that wish!

 

[lingual]

Over 5k!

I congratulate the OP and all of you who have contributed to this thread.

May it live on long after we have all passed.

 

[Yaarel]

So how does a homebrew elven race affect the conversation? I have no problem talking about how I've given halflings more depth in my campaign, but your alfar are a departure from standard lore. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

The alfar and dvergar are clearer as examples of what nonhuman races can be. As opposed to the Tolkien elf and Tolkien dwarf that do feel too human.

If that's what it takes to make halflings unique to you then add something.

Yeah. Something analogous to the alfar is what it takes to make the halfling feel nonhuman.

But I dont want to be the one who decides what unique features to add, because I want the fans of the halfling to be the ones that decide.

I can offer suggestions and critiques, and have done both in this thread. But the fans need to be the ones that determine the traits.

 

[Oofta]

The alfar and dvergar are clearer as examples of what nonhuman races can be. As opposed to the Tolkien elf and Tolkien dwarf that do feel too human.


Yeah. Something analogous to the alfar is what it takes to make the halfling feel nonhuman.

But I dont want to be the one who decides what unique features to add, because I want the fans of the halfling to be the ones that decide.

I can offer suggestions and critiques, and have done both in this thread. But the fans need to be the ones that determine the traits.

I have no idea where you got alfar from other than your own personal homebrew race or from some 3rd party. If that's what you need to make them different, more power to you. Do the same for halflings.

Personally I just accept that all non-human races are just humans with makeup and prosthetics and adding more minor cosmetics isn't going to change anything.

 

[Yaarel]

I have no idea where you got alfar from other than your own personal homebrew race or from some 3rd party. If that's what you need to make them different, more power to you. Do the same for halflings.

I get the alfar from the Norse heritage, the same source that Tolkien borrows from.

Meanwhile the 5e elf traits of otherworldly fey ancestry and magical nature, cohere with the mythological accuracy, better than some of the earlier editions of D&D.

Personally I just accept that all non-human races are just humans with makeup and prosthetics and adding more minor cosmetics isn't going to change anything.

From a game design point of view, a player race is an important design space that needs to avoid gratuitous clutter.

Each race needs to consolidate a salient concept that is significantly different from an other race.

 

[Oofta]

I get the alfar from the Norse heritage, the same source that Tolkien borrows from.

Meanwhile the 5e elf traits of otherworldly fey ancestry and magical nature, cohere with the mythological accuracy, better than some of the earlier editions of D&D.


From a game design point of view, a player race is an important design space that needs to avoid gratuitous clutter.

Each race needs to consolidate a salient concept that is significantly different from an other race.

Which, for a lot of people, halflings do. Or at least do as much as any other race.

It's a game. A game played by humans. There's only so much you can do.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Shouldn't be difficult, after all, halflings share nothing with humans according to poster after poster

You mean according to literally no one, ever.

 

[Faolyn]

So, without looking at the Reddit thread, can you find the 2 non-halflings in this picture?View attachment 141059

Curious how you cut off the feet in all of these pictures. I'm guessing that some of them had the traditional bare and furry feet. Maybe all of them did.

Would you like to take a bunch of pictures of elves and humans but not show us the ears and demand we tell the difference? Or maybe a bunch of gnomes and dwarfs, but none of them have beards?

 

[Faolyn]

All I am saying is.

I am unsatisfied with Small and innocent counting as a separate species.

If such would count as a species, the dog would be hundreds of separate species, each breed with separate sizes and temperaments.

No.

But there's more to halflings than just "Small" and "innocent," just like there's more to dwarfs than "Medium" and "gruff." The last 230+ pages have been filled with adjectives describing halflings.