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

[Mind of tempest]

This is where I would mention the Custom Lineage rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and get the usual responses.

Anyway. This is a different argument from the previous one about Dragonborn being the first to allow a proud, warlike character. I maintain that humans were the first--or dwarves, if you disqualify humans for whatever reason. We've had proud, warlike humans and dwarves in D&D for almost half a century.

humans are a jack of all options to list them is cheating it is like saying humans are scholarly, dwarves feel more like they are defined by great craftsmanship they fight as more a necessity than some grand need to fight, why fight because they have to not because they want to.
dragonborn fight because it is fundamental to them it is who they are they just seek worthy reasons to do so.

One could - and some would - argue that's the direction in which WotC are incrementally going, whether intentionally or otherwise.

The high- or low-ness of standards isn't the point; the point is that core is by definition "must-have" to play the game while optional is not. Which means, when we're told "everything is core" we're being told that every release will immediately become a must-have in order to play the game.

Pretty sure the first time(s) I heard the phrase was in/from WotC marketing....quite possibly at the same GenCon seminar where they told us 3.xe (that at the time they'd been pushing for years) was garbage.

It's a long time since I looked but the phrase might even show up in the DMG I. I don't recall.

The physical production quality was pretty good across the board, and remains so through 5e from all I can tell. The material presented and-or the manner of presentation...well, I suppose that's open to opinion.

core can be ignored at your pleasure worry less that things exist and more about why others want them.

Because frankly you could give them laser beams for eyes and no one would care.

giving laser eyes to who?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If a creature has "half" (by dimension) size, it may have a quarter strength (by cross-section) but will also have an eighth weight (by volume).

And one eighth the brain mass, so by the same argument they should have about -4 INT. Fortunately D&D isn't based on science.

Why not enable some form of mobility.

Because people who play halflings want to emulate Bilbo Baggins, a character who was too fat to squeeze through a doorway without losing his buttons.

For players who would rather emulate Bugs Bunny, we have the Harengon.

 

[greg kaye]

...why fight because they have to not because they want to.

Most fight because, when they started, they thought it would be to their advantage according to their priorities.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Most fight because, when they started, they thought it would be to their advantage according to their priorities.

Most fight because their government tells them too.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If we are talking about the lore, in each tabletop it may radically different. In a game they speak with German accent, and in others with Scottish one. In some games halflings speaks with Irish accent, and in others with a funny Spanish accent.

Even in the canon settings there are some differences among the species from diverse worlds/wildspaces, or even in the same planet but from other continent.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Most fight because their government tells them too.

Most fight because, when they started, they thought it would be to their advantage according to their priorities.

the population fights because they are told to, dwarves would in their ideal state just turn the world into Minecraft peaceful mode and build to there heart's content.

a dragon-born fight because fundamentally they enjoy it the difference between a warrior and a soldier is whether war is work or if war is home

 

[Mind of tempest]

If we are talking about the lore, in each tabletop it may radically different. In a game they speak with German accent, and in others with Scottish one. In some games halflings speaks with Irish accent, and in others with a funny Spanish accent.

Even in the canon settings there are some differences among the species from diverse worlds/wildspaces, or even in the same planet but from other continent.

accent is hardly a major difference.

secondly, halflings are designed for midlands they are statistically more likely to sound like Ozzy Osborn than the several Irish accents that I can never spell right.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

accent is hardly a major difference.

secondly, halflings are designed for midlands they are statistically more likely to sound like Ozzy Osborn than the several Irish accents that I can never spell right.

When my players encountered a halfling village I gave them broad Yorkshire accents. But that was because I can't do a rural midlands accent.

 

[Mind of tempest]

When my players encountered a halfling village I gave them broad Yorkshire accents. But that was because I can't do a rural midlands accent.

replace t with L it works that seems to be the accent more or less I struggle to hear accents which is a strange problem to have.

 

[Lanefan]

When my players encountered a halfling village I gave them broad Yorkshire accents. But that was because I can't do a rural midlands accent.

I've always seen Hobbits (Halflings) as more West Country myself.