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

[Mind of tempest]

I don't sound indifferent because I keep repeatedly getting attacked and d. Over and over again. I MUST hate halflings. There is no other possible explanation. No one could EVER want to have new races in the PHB unless they HATE HALFLINGS. It's incredibly frustrating. The only reason I pick on halfllings is because they scrape the bottom of the barrel and always have (FOR RACES IN THE PHB, NOT INCLUDING OTHER RACES THAT DON'T APPEAR IN THE PHB).

So, yeah, after having people repeatedly tell me what I'm thinking, I do get a tiny bit shirty about it.

Even in the statistics being touted as "great for halfligns", halflings make up almost dead on 6% of all PHB Race (ONLY, NOT COUNTING OTHER SOURCE BOOKS) only characters. And they're only half a percent point above half orcs.

That's not exactly covered in glory. And, dovetails pretty nicely with the numbers we had before.

I find the mischaracterization of you frustrating as I am the guy who hates halflings.

I do think fundamentally halflings should be moved out of the fourth most common race slot as that was not even their function in Tolkien stories they are designed to be minor bit parts from the setting scale the ents have had more large-scale implications.

something to can have large nations empires and deed should be in the fourth slot so the halflings can be what they are supposed to be small under dogs

 

[Paul Farquhar]

something to can have large nations empires and deed should be in the fourth slot so the halflings can be what they are supposed to be small under dogs

Which races are listed for PCs in the PHB has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with which races have large national empires. PCs are, by their nature, a tiny minority anywhere.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Eberron still does the thing where they're not a blended culture. I love Eberron, and I love that it broke up D&D's love of monocultures, but it didn't fix all the things.

Eberron literally gives half-elves a culture of their own that draws from the human and elven cultures they come from.

I know you mean that as a joke but that’s precisely the reason.

It isn’t. The idea that it is, is a joke.

After all, you wouldn’t be worried about half elves or half orcs if not being in the phb didn’t matter. They’ll be exactly as popular going forward as they are now. Right? Being in the phb has zero impact on whether a race gets played according to you.

You’re assuming a false premise. I don’t care how popular they are.

So what’s the problem with moving something out of the phb?

Representation.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Which races are listed for PCs in the PHB has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with which races have large national empires. PCs are, by their nature, a tiny minority anywhere.

that is not how the settings were built you had to have dwarves elves and halflings plus humans it limited things badly.
secondly I was proposing moving the halfing away from core four populations no idea what should have the slot but someone who makes cool artefacts would be useful

 

[Vaalingrade]

You keep bringing them up. There are plenty of other races that are less popular than halflings, but it's always halflings you are objecting too. Generally, people who are "indifferent" to something do not keep going on about it.

Yeah, the issue is that the apparent 'indifference' keeps presenting as actual distain repeatedly offered up, often unprompted.

Compared how I talk about wizards and gnomes to how halflings are talked about.

 

[bedir than]

that is not how the settings were built you had to have dwarves elves and halflings plus humans it limited things badly.

Since zero setting featured halflings as a dominant empire there's pretty hard evidence that settings aren't built with the core four races being required to have empires -- see Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and every other setting until Dark Sun (and every one since Dark Sun).

 

[billd91]

that is not how the settings were built you had to have dwarves elves and halflings plus humans it limited things badly.
secondly I was proposing moving the halfing away from core four populations no idea what should have the slot but someone who makes cool artefacts would be useful

That strikes me as putting the cart before the horse. I don't think races were included in the core rulebooks of any edition of D&D based on whether or not they were the focus of empires/kingdoms in any of the extant settings. Most of them were included to give players a chance to play iconic character types in some of the inspirational literature.

 

[CleverNickName]

Since zero setting featured halflings as a dominant empire there's pretty hard evidence that settings aren't built with the core four races being required to have empires -- see Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and every other setting until Dark Sun (and every one since Dark Sun).

Not in the more recent editions of D&D, no, but some of the old-school D&D campaign settings had them. I remember in the Mystara campaign setting there was a Halfling-dominant realm called "The Five Shires," which they later released an entire Gazetteer for. (It's one of the better books in the GAZ series, too.)

Halflings were a lot more prominent in older editions of the game, so a lot of older players like myself can't imagine D&D without halflings any more than we can imagine D&D without dragons. Even though the game has added dozens more ancestries over the years, the original four (human, dwarf, elf, and halfling) remain the most popular. I don't know why that's a problem, but it's clearly a problem for some players.

 

[bedir than]

Not in the more recent editions of D&D, no, but some of the old-school D&D campaign settings had them. I remember in the Mystara campaign setting there was a Halfling-dominant realm called "The Five Shires," which they later released an entire Gazetteer for. (It's one of the better books in the GAZ series, too.)

Halflings were a lot more prominent in older editions of the game, so a lot of older players like myself can't imagine D&D without halflings any more than we can imagine D&D without dragons. Even though the game has added dozens more ancestries over the years, the original four (human, dwarf, elf, and halfling) remain the most popular. I don't know why that's a problem, but it's clearly a problem for some players.

Mystara had 1000s(?) of empires. Having a single halfling one doesn't show that halflings are important. Having player characters be halfings is what is important.

All the evidence from players is that they like playing halflings more than a half-dozen other free and easily available races, that they are not the least played or even second least played, that they're the most popular small race, and they are in the top five races by class for four classes (Rogue, Ranger, Monk, Bard).

They remain a key race is the most popular (or second depending on if House of the Dragon is new that week) fantasy show streaming right now (Rings of Power). Halfing adjacent concepts are plentiful and the respect for their ability to showcase the plight of little people and being underestimated for it is undeniable.

Halflings are popular. D&D players like them.

 

[Parmandur]

I remember in the Mystara campaign setting there was a Halfling-dominant realm called "The Five Shires," which they later released an entire Gazetteer for. (It's one of the better books in the GAZ series, too.)

Fun fact, that book was written by Ed Greenwood, who has somewhere pointed out the canonical hooks for a known Halfling nation in Faerûn to use that book pretty much unaltered.