RPG Evolution: The Trouble with Halflings

Over the decades I've developed my campaign world to match the archetypes my players wanted to play. In all those years, nobody's ever played a halfling.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

So What's the Problem?​

Halflings, derived from hobbits, have been a curious nod to Tolkien's influence on fantasy. While dwarves and elves have deep mythological roots, hobbits are more modern inventions. And their inclusion was very much a response to the adventurous life that the agrarian homebodies considered an aberration. In short, most hobbits didn't want to be adventurers, and Bilbo, Frodo, and the others were forever changed by their experiences, such that it was difficult for them to reintegrate when they returned home. You don't hear much about elves and dwarves having difficulty returning home after being adventurers, and for good reason. Tolkien was making a point about the human condition and the nature of war by using hobbits as proxies.

As a literary construct, hobbits serve a specific purpose. In The Hobbit, they are proxies for children. In The Lord of the Rings, they are proxies for farmers and other folk who were thrust into the industrialized nightmare of mass warfare. In both cases, hobbits were a positioned in contrast to the violent lifestyle of adventurers who live and die by the sword.

Which is at least in part why they're challenging to integrate into a campaign world. And yet, we have strong hobbit archetypes in Dungeons & Dragons, thanks to Dragonlance.

Kender. Kender Are the Problem​

I did know one player who loved to play kender. We never played together in a campaign, at least in part because kender are an integral part of the Dragonlance setting and we weren't playing in Dragonlance. But he would play a kender in every game he played, including in massive multiplayers like Ultima Online. And he was eye-rollingly aggravating, as he loved "borrowing" things from everyone (a trait established by Tasselhoff Burrfoot).

Part of the issue with kender is that they aren't thieves, per se, but have a child-like curiosity that causes them to "borrow" things without understanding that borrowing said things without permission is tantamount to stealing in most cultures. In essence, it results in a character who steals but doesn't admit to stealing, which can be problematic for inter-party harmony. Worse, kender have a very broad idea of what to "borrow" (which is not limited to just valuables) and have always been positioned as being offended by accusations of thievery. It sets up a scenario where either the party is very tolerant of the kender or conflict ensues. This aspect of kender has been significantly minimized in the latest draft for Unearthed Arcana.

Big Heads, Little Bodies​

The latest incarnation of halflings brings them back to the fun-loving roots. Their appearance is decidedly not "little children" or "overweight short people." Rather, they appear more like political cartoons of eras past, where exaggerated features were used as caricatures, adding further to their comical qualities. But this doesn't solve the outstanding problem that, for a game that is often about conflict, the original prototypes for halflings avoided it. They were heroes precisely because they were thrust into difficult situations and had to rise to the challenge. That requires significant work in a campaign to encourage a player to play a halfling character who would rather just stay home.

There's also the simple matter of integrating halflings into societies where they aren't necessarily living apart. Presumably, most human campaigns have farmers; dwarves and elves occupy less civilized niches, where halflings are a working class who lives right alongside the rest of humanity in plain sight. Figuring out how to accommodate them matters a lot. Do humans just treat them like children? Would halflings want to be anywhere near a larger humanoids' dwellings as a result? Or are halflings given mythical status like fey? Or are they more like inveterate pranksters and tricksters, treating them more like gnomes? And if halflings are more like gnomes, then why have gnomes?

There are opportunities to integrate halflings into a world, but they aren't quite so easy to plop down into a setting as dwarves and elves. I still haven't quite figured out how to make them work in my campaign that doesn't feel like a one-off rather than a separate species. But I did finally find a space for gnomes, which I'll discuss in another article.

Your Turn: How have you integrated halflings into your campaign world?

 

[FrozenNorth]

If they honestly believe a lie of their own telling, then they're an entire race of people with delusional psychoses, which is not really appropriate as a PC race.

And if they don't believe their lies, then they're a race of pathological liars, which is also not really appropriate as a PC race.

Absolutely. I would take it even further. Do these bizarre memory lapses apply to anything other than taking things that don’t belong to them? Then they are lying, not delusional.

Do they? Because I never see them written as people who give freely. Instead, they're written about as takers. If kender truly don't understand personal property, then they'd give away things a lot more readily than a human, who does.

Agreed.

Europeans and Native Americans had two very different cultures, separated by thousands of miles and thousands of years of different cultural development. This is true.

Agreed. Furthermore, Europeans and Native Americans had different concepts of land ownership. Kender are incapable of understanding private property. That is different, and incoherent in a supposedly intelligent race.

So kender, as written, are some combination of delusional, pathological liar, kleptomaniacal, sociopathic, anarchal, and/or vicious hecklers that aren't fit for even impolite company. That we're all supposed to find charming because of reasons.

Authorial fiat.

 

[FrozenNorth]

cute and English are not compatible it defies the laws of nature, aside from maybe dogs.

I object to the suggestion that dogs bred in the United Kingdom are “English” in any meaningful sense. Therefore, they can be cute eithout invalidating your point.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I object to the suggestion that dogs bred in the United Kingdom are “English” in any meaningful sense. Therefore, they can be cute eithout invalidating your point.

fair point

 

[Gammadoodler]

Different heritages provide different baselines. The baseline provides what different members of an ancestry have in common.

To use halflings as an example, all halflings have 6 base hp instead of 8, are small instead of medium, have a +2 Dex and +2 Wis and -2 Str and Keen Eyes.

By way of contrast (using the term loosely), all elves have 6 base hp instead of 8, are medium instead of small, have +2 Dex, +2 Int and -2 Con, and Low-Light Vision.

Note that one of the heritages, Twilight Halfling, gives halflings low-light vision, further blurring the distinction.

So within the base class (no heritages), they have the same base hp and dex bump, but nothing else in common including either size or move speed and you find this..indistinct?

(Edit/Note: base hp in pf2e I'd only actually applies in the hp calculations at level 1 and beyond level 1 become increasingly irrelevant to total char hp. Char size in Pf2e is mostly irrelevant except with respect to trips and grapples. Movement speed is huge though as movement costs actions and cannot be broken up. Wis vs Int bump means elves have more skills but less perception relative to halflings. Str vs con flaws mean halflings typically do less damage with weapons while elves have fewer hp.. these are not insignificant differences in total)

You do bring up twilight halfling which is one several halfling heritages and indeed does give lowlight vision, but you do not bring up cavern elf, which is one of several elf heritages and gives darkvision (a step better than low light vision). A further distinction.

And then there are the feats, which, especially for halflings and elves, are radically different between the two of them.

If you are intending to say that ancestries in PF2e are same-y, this is a poorly chosen example.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Also the game where your wood elf character can get a climb speed without spellcasting or class feat expenditure.

At 9th level, by using the highest of their 3 racial feats, for a climb speed of 10’.

Also the game where an elf being long-lived can have any mechanical relevance.

But only if you spend a feat on it. So if you are investing in that feat tree, your 400-year old elf is unlikely to know Elf lore.

 

[Gammadoodler]

At 9th level, by using the highest of their 3 racial feats, for a climb speed of 10’.

But only if you spend a feat on it. So if you are investing in that feat tree, your 400-year old elf is unlikely to know Elf lore.

Compared to 5e where neither of those things is achievable within those races' portfolios.

(Note: a lack of Elf Lore does not impact the history skill at all, which elves are better at by virtue of having a higher INT.)

 

[Dragonhelm]

That may be part of the problem. There are more halfling distinctive examples by other game companies like Paizo. For example, Lem:
View attachment 253481
You pretty much can't look at that picture and not realize it's a halfling.

Paizo nails halflings on the head. That's why I always envision halflings in D&D as Pathfinder halflings.

 

[Charlaquin]

Paizo nails halflings on the head. That's why I always envision halflings in D&D as Pathfinder halflings.

View attachment 253576

God I love Pathfinder’s character designs. They’re just the right amount of busy.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Is it a lie if they honestly believe it? Dictionary.com defines "lie" as "a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth. "

Key word there is "deliberate."

Kender will often say something like "You must have dropped it" or "I was afraid someone else would take it."

Per Dragonlance Adventures...



As there is no deliberate telling of an untruth, no lie present.

Problem. The players know it is a deliberate telling of an untruth. The players know that the kender player chose to steal something as a conscious decision, and is now lying about it. They then have to accept that the narrative conceit is that the player is lying, but the character is not, and they aren't supposed to get upset with the character, because the narrative states it was an accident and the character doesn't know any better.

This is why playing Kender is difficult for a lot of groups. The narrative says they will act in ways that most parties find unacceptable, but that they have no idea they are doing so and no one can stay mad at them for it. And that disconnect causes strife.

Now, it is possible to play them well, and to not have this issue, but it is very very easy to fall into this trap at the table. They work narratively, but not in real play.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Your ranger who is still fighting despite being frightened is rolling with disadvantage, and cannot move closer to the source of their fear. They are debilitated while the halfling is not (or at least are more likely to be debilitated holding all other things equal). Sure they are brave, but not the way that halflings are brave.

Would changing the feature name to "unshakeable" or something ease the semantic angst related to this ability? Because, unless I'm missing something, the whole issue seems to revolve around the definition of "bravery" rather than anything related to the effect of the ability.

That is because you are taking the effect of the ability and using it as proof of the narrative, which cannot exist without that ability. And in fact, you are literally saying "both are brave but in different ways" Which also applies to the fighter who made their save and ISN'T debilitated by fear.

So, now we have a character who is brave for fighting despite the fear.
We have a character who is brave for not being afraid against something scary

And we have a character who is brave because they will roll twice and take the better result, which may leave them to be brave by fighting on despite the fear or brave because they are not afraid against something scary

Which.... is exactly like the first two? Halflings don't create a third type of bravery. They just have a dice mechanic. And there are a lot of dice mechanics that can help with saves against fear.

Yes, a wood elf has a similar feature to improve stealth in the woods. And that wood elf gets less use out of that feature when they are a paladin or cleric too. It does not make the wood elf feature any less definitive for a wood elf. And, yes it is one subrace. IIRC, from what little and godawful lore there is, it is the predominant one, so probably(?) not 5/6 but who knows really. In either case, the other subraces have other things they can do with varying effectiveness.

So, wood elf has a similar feature. Has anyone ever put forth that Elves are particularly stealthy and sneaky? Is that a defining feature of the elves, how unobtrusive they are? No, that isn't really something we talk about with elves. It comes up if you want to talk about Wood Elves in specific in the forests in specific, generally with respect to specifically being rangers, but it isn't anything more than that.

And yeah. five out of the six halfling subraces aren't stealthy, so why say halflings are stealthy? The majority of "types" aren't, even if the lightfoot happens to dominate the others in terms of population (which we have zero way to confirm)

The lucky thing is a fine narrative with a weak mechanic. Improving the mechanic to support the narrative is an easy fix, and I'd like it I'd there was one. But such a fix should require no adjustment to the narrative.

And played experience tells me it isn't a fine narrative, because it never actually comes up in anyway at the table. And unless you drastically changed the mechanic, that won't change.