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?

 

[Faolyn]

That is one option. I think tremorsense will either be amazing or practically pointless depending on campaign. Other than that, I still prefer have ability score modifiers at the race level because it gives typical species member a default so if my dwarf is below average strength but extremely dextrous it stands out as being odd, not just "Oh, gee, another dextrous character" followed by a yawn.

But odd in comparison to who? Unless there's bunches of other dwarfs in the party to compare it to, your character being better or worse than others of your race only affects you insomuch as you choose to have it affect them and it affects the rest of the party. Literally nobody in the party is going to care if you have a weak, dexterous dwarf unless you choose to make an issue or you're trying to play a Strength-based fighter and fail all the time and the rest of the group gets annoyed by that.

And who says dwarfs can't be dexterous? They're known for their craftwork; that requires nimble fingers. Because remember: Dexterity in D&D covers a lot of fine motor skills.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Using the typical "monster" Goblin as an example here (IMO Goblins shouldn't be PC-playable):

Goblins are good with their hands and can build things. They, along with most living creatures*, have an inherent sense of self preservation. And yet for some reason they have yet to invent or adopt technology and-or ideas that would allow them to build solid defensible shelters such as castles, nor have they yet been able to grasp arcane casting which would help greatly with such endeavours. Why?

I'll leave determination of the answer up to you.

Because they can and do use arcane casting, and there is literally no reason they can't build solid defensible shelters. In actual fact, in bog standard DnD, unless they have slaves to do the work for them, who do you think are building all of the hobgoblins well-designed and well-built fortresses? It certainly wasn't the hobgoblins or the bugbears.

So, in actual fact, they are fully capable and actually do use both things.

 

[Chaosmancer]

That is one option. I think tremorsense will either be amazing or practically pointless depending on campaign. Other than that, I still prefer have ability score modifiers at the race level because it gives typical species member a default so if my dwarf is below average strength but extremely dextrous it stands out as being odd, not just "Oh, gee, another dextrous character" followed by a yawn.

But... it doesn't. It literally does not give the races a default. What it has done in this most recent edition is give people the illusion that it still gives a default, when it really really really doesn't.

And frankly, a dexterous dwarf isn't interesting or unique. They ARE just another dexterous character. I mean, seriously, that is the most boring character concept. It is like someone whose entire character concept revolves around being strong. Okay, your character is strong. Anything actually interesting about them?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Because they can and do use arcane casting, and there is literally no reason they can't build solid defensible shelters. In actual fact, in bog standard DnD, unless they have slaves to do the work for them, who do you think are building all of the hobgoblins well-designed and well-built fortresses? It certainly wasn't the hobgoblins or the bugbears.

So, in actual fact, they are fully capable and actually do use both things.

I think a lot of goblinoid societies in traditional games, particularly hobgoblin ones, do in fact use slave labor.

Doesn't mean goblins couldn't do it, of course.

 

[Lanefan]

Because they can and do use arcane casting, and there is literally no reason they can't build solid defensible shelters. In actual fact, in bog standard DnD, unless they have slaves to do the work for them, who do you think are building all of the hobgoblins well-designed and well-built fortresses? It certainly wasn't the hobgoblins or the bugbears.

Goblins are not Hobgoblins. And yes; in the real world an elephant can help build a house by providing labour but that doesn't mean elephants can design, engineer, and build houses by themselves.

Same is true of standard Goblins and Kobolds. They can provide labour to help other, smarter creatures build what those others have designed but other than the rarest of exceptions they can't design, engineer, and build anything similar on their own.

 

[Hussar]

Goblins are not Hobgoblins. And yes; in the real world an elephant can help build a house by providing labour but that doesn't mean elephants can design, engineer, and build houses by themselves.

Same is true of standard Goblins and Kobolds. They can provide labour to help other, smarter creatures build what those others have designed but other than the rarest of exceptions they can't design, engineer, and build anything similar on their own.

That might be goblins and kobolds in your campaign, but, that's very much not how they are presented in D&D. Goblins and kobolds are both builders and miners, very capable of doing both. Both are described as being very capable of building traps and mechanical devices as well. Never minding that goblins and kobolds are just as smart (on average) as humans.

See, this is largely where things get really weird. Neither goblins nor kobolds are described as being incapable of doing anything a human can do.

 

[FrozenNorth]

As a semi-aside. If you're in a 3d6 world and randomly pick someone from a fantasy species with a +2 ASI and someone from a species with no ASI, the one without the bonus would have a higher score around 28% of the time and have a tie another 8%. So, there is certainly a difference, but it hardly condemns everyone of the non-ASI species to be worse and certainly doesn't make everyone of the ASI species better on that stat.

If you enjoy the greater randomness of rolling your stats, one way to do it would be to have the players choose their race first, then have the number/type of dice rolled depend on the race.

 

[Cadence]

If you enjoy the greater randomness of rolling your stats, one way to do it would be to have the players choose their race first, then have the number/type of dice rolled depend on the race.

I'm not a fan of rolling stats in general, but sometimes use it when thinking about the population at large.

Your idea seems like a neat alternative to ASIs when rolling that puts a finger on the scales but doesn't limit the max or mins that are possible.

 

[FrozenNorth]

I'm not a fan of rolling stats in general, but sometimes use it when thinking about the population at large.

Your idea seems like a neat alternative to ASIs when rolling that puts a finger on the scales but doesn't limit the max or mins that are possible.

I’m not a big fan of rolling either, but this is definitely something I’d try for a one-shot.

 

[Oofta]

But... it doesn't. It literally does not give the races a default. What it has done in this most recent edition is give people the illusion that it still gives a default, when it really really really doesn't.

And frankly, a dexterous dwarf isn't interesting or unique. They ARE just another dexterous character. I mean, seriously, that is the most boring character concept. It is like someone whose entire character concept revolves around being strong. Okay, your character is strong. Anything actually interesting about them?

I've answered these questions multiple times now. We have different preferences. You don't seem to have a point any more other than borderline harassment. Have a good one.