D&D 5E Halflings are the 7th most popular 5e race

[FitzTheRuke]

The main thing this list does for me is give me a sinking feeling that they're making a very big mistake leaving out the Half-Elf from OneD&D. I have a solution for them, though. The half-elf's abilities are not much like a human's nor an elf's. So why don't they make it a unique species called "Elfkin" (if they want to avoid the problematic "Half" part).

THEN they can say in the fluff something like, "Either your parentage involved an elf and a parent of another species, or your upbringing or ancestry involved living with elves long enough for their innate fey magic to rub off on you. You gain the following abilities... yadda yadda."

Boom. You have a half-elf without the baggage. Half-orc, on the other hand, is pretty much an orc with a human/other parent, so I'm not sure any half-orc fans would really mind the orc species abilities just subbing in for half-orc ones. (IDK, I could be wrong).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I agree this is a change in methodology in this unofficial presentation using characters created and the official using characters used.

However, you posit that "That's going to skew things, rather a lot". Can you provide evidence of this? Specifically that there there is a large skew between all characters and all played characters in terms of race/class? It seems sort of truthy when looking at things like levels most commonly played, which we have seen official statements on, but I haven't seen and evidence that the set of all created characters deviates dramatically (or does not) from it's subset of played characters.

I used to watch every dev update from DDB, and multiple times in multiple contexts they said the rankings change very little when you view all characters vs all characters with all content unlocked or vs characters they can tell are being used.

They also recognized that their method of telling if people are using a character absolutely unavoidably misses anyone who just prints a sheet and uses that, or who otherwise don’t mess with their sheet actively on DDB.

So, yeah, I’d need to see evidence before taking seriously any claim that this data is wildly skewed by viewing all characters, much less the idea that there is any significant difference between what people build and what they play.

I could go along with only considering the data accurate within, say, 1 or 2 ranking spots, at most, and that would be a compromise for the sake of being conservative with a reading of the data.

IIRC, the last data we ever got with races ranked split subraces out, and mountain and hill dwarf were both within the top 10-15, with numbers that would put them in the top 10 if combined. I could be wrong on the details, tho.

Either way, a reversal of a trend, multiple years later, wouldn’t even be a surprise. Especially when the trend is “new thing that’s been in popular (for the hobby) media displaces classic favorites in popularity”. Like, yes, that trend is more likely than not to be reversed eventually.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

There was an article in Dragon Magazine about "variant races" to be "primal" classes (druid and ranger). It was "Class Act Warrior Martial Cultures" from Dragon Magazine ,#341

In the past the PC r... species may be too typecasted into certain classes, but the last changes have tried to fix this.

Halflings are perfect if Hasbro wants a kid-friendly D&D farm-simulation videogame style "Disney Dreamlight Valley".

The class+specie combo is like the clothing of urban tribes. If they are used too much by the most of the people then they aren't so interesting for me.

I love gnomes because these are like the D&D Tyrion Lannister, the "little ugly duckling", the brother in the middle marginalized by the rest. And I love gnomes riding some monster mount, or piloting some mixture of mecha-construit and powered exosuit.

I don't like tielflings being more popular than aasimars. It sounds as "me, the bad boy is am the popular superstar in the high-school" and the good teenages who study hard and pray before sleeping the forgotten". We could the aasimars are like Cinderella washing up.

* What about "elftouched", "orctouched" or "specietouched" as racial feat? Maybe one of your ancestors was from other lineage, and you enjoy some special "atavism", reactivated after several generations.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The main thing this list does for me is give me a sinking feeling that they're making a very big mistake leaving out the Half-Elf from OneD&D. I have a solution for them, though. The half-elf's abilities are not much like a human's nor an elf's. So why don't they make it a unique species called "Elfkin" (if they want to avoid the problematic "Half" part).

THEN they can say in the fluff something like, "Either your parentage involved an elf and a parent of another species, or your upbringing or ancestry involved living with elves long enough for their innate fey magic to rub off on you. You gain the following abilities... yadda yadda."

Boom. You have a half-elf without the baggage.

Works for me, though I think that using them as an example of using stable populations of mixed heritage folks in worldbuilding, citing Eberron’s Khoravar, and maybe just adding a group to FR because it’s FR, would be useful beyond the erasure of taking out the only representation in the game of cultures like Creole culture and Mexican culture, that are stable cultures born from mixed ancestry but that became indispensable of any “parent” ancestry.

Half-orc, on the other hand, is pretty much an orc with a human/other parent, so I'm not sure any half-orc fans would really mind the orc species abilities just subbing in for half-orc ones. (IDK, I could be wrong).

I’d be annoyed, but if the half-elf stayed with a new name and the above recognition, I’d eventually accept it.

Still, I think half-orcs deserve the same recognition, and they should be adding to the game, not deleting representation from it.

 

[James Gasik]

I like Halfling warriors. I've played Halfling Barbarians, Fighters, Monks, and even (in 4e), a Hybrid Assassin/Blackguard. For me, I'm always amused by the idea of a person about the size of an 8 year old (or shorter, depending on edition) wielding oversized weapons and being able to kick monster tail, even with their disadvantages (in a similar vein, I have a 2e Gnome Fighter/Priest dubbed "The World's Strongest Gnome").

Not only are smallfolk popular in D&D just for their size, but I think for many players, they present a way to play a "kid hero" without ruffling feathers (I recall an incident where someone wanted to play a Child Vampire in V:tM, and several other players, who have children of their own, were not ok with the idea).

A quick Google image search will find you a sea of short heroes, so obviously someone finds them popular. No, they're not as edgy as Tieflings, born with cursed blood. Or as pretty as Elves. Or have wings (because some players just want feathers). But Halflings have their fans, and 7th most popular out of, what, 50 odd races? That sounds about right to me.

In fact, other smallfolk have devoted fanbases as well, such as Goblins and Kobolds. As for why Gnomes get the, forgive the pun, short shrift here, I think it has to do with the same issues that have plagued the race since AD&D- their niche is ill-defined.

There's overlap between Gnomes and several other, more popular races. They burrow underground. They live in forests in harmony with nature. They are magical and long-lived. They are small and known for being good folk, if mischievous.

Once the cap was thrown off on what races were allowed to be magic-users, the Gnomes became pretty bland, with only their role as mad scientists and alchemists remaining (which has always been badly supported in D&D, with many players despising anything more advanced than bastard swords or articulated plate armor).

Certain settings, like Dragonlance and Eberron have given Gnomes a unique place, but in generic D&D? They're just, there, man.

I'm not giving Halflings a free pass either; their culture is either a ripoff of Tolkien, nomadic river people (sometimes who travel in Romani-style caravans for extra cringe), or, thanks to Dark Sun and Eberron, wild savages. In fact, the most unique thing about Halflings is that they are not really unique; they hang out in human settlements, adopt human culture, and are basically like us, but smaller. But ironically, I think that gives them an edge because they are also familiar. It doesn't take a lot of effort to figure out how to play a Halfling.

You don't have to put yourself in an alien, detached mindset (like being a long-lived Elf) or be grumpy and grouchy (like the stereotypical Dwarf). You don't even need to worry about whether or not you'll eat your best friend today or tomorrow (yes, I still despise lizardmen)!

 

[Mistwell]

You can make up your own arbitrary limitations if you want. My fighter is an excellent archer, like Yennenga, Rama, or even Lu Bu.

I don't think it's arbitrary. There are definitely classes which tend towards ranged attacks and Fighter isn't really focused on that mechanically. Their armor indicates they will be near enough to creatures to be targeted in melee. The small number of archery feats and the increase in the number of feats a fighter gets tends to tilt toward melee where there are many more feats to be found. Their subclasses, when they make a choice between melee and ranged, tend to make more choices towards melee.

You can absolutely make a great ranged-focus fighter. But I think it's fair to say the fighter as mechanically written along with the rest of the rules tends more towards melee than ranged focus. And that halflings have some somewhat arbitrary limits on their melee focused abilities as well. You can certainly make a melee halfling fighter, but I think it's correct to characterize the rules as somewhat discouraging that.

Then if you compare it to the data we got, halfling ranks last for Fighter choices, and is completely off the list for Paladin.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

Archery is probably the best Fighting Style, helps a lot with the Sharpshooter power attack. I'd say a ranged Fighter is usually better than melee, they just have slightly lower AC and can't do attack of oppurtunity as well, but the ranged advantages outstrip the melee ones most of the time.

 

[Minigiant]

Halfling don't get banned.

There I said it. Again.

At old school, middle school, and new school tables, halflings are rarely banned by DMs. You can make a halfling rogue or DEX fighter ahead of time and almost never worry about the DM banning your PC idea.

I had a Halfling Rogue on DDB called Jim "Shorts" Backups.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

One big advantage of Halflings as well: they're the most overpowered race in the game if the DM is using fumble tables. You'll be vibin' while all your party members are tripping on their own feet and breaking their swords into rocks.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I could go along with only considering the data accurate within, say, 1 or 2 ranking spots, at most, and that would be a compromise for the sake of being conservative with a reading of the data.

Then dragonborn falling three places, dwarf rising two places, and elves collectively somehow increasing by almost fifty percent compared to the last time we got actual numbers (from 11.2% to 16.1%) should all be reasons to raise an eyebrow.