D&D 4E Call a kender a kender? What should 4E "halflings" be called?

[Cam Banks]

We gave the kender 30 ft speed in Races of Ansalon. Will the 4e halflings have that?

I do have to say, though, that all of this is making the prospect of coming up with a 4e conversion for Dragonlance very easy indeed.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I voted Kender, but what about Hin? That's the name that Ed Greenwood came up for them in Gaz8: The Five Shires for Mystara, and which then migrated over to his Forgotten Realms.

Hin would be fine, but I like the name kender better.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

To the people who voted halfling: If they called them kender but dropped the kleptomania, topknots, and other weirdness, would that be acceptable?

I'm not calling anyone out, nor do I think halfling is a bad name. I'm just curious.

 

[billd91]

Problem in, there's no real reason to call them Kender, it doesn't really bring anything to the table, whereas changing the name from Halfling to anything else will just annoy all of the Grognards, who'll complain about them "forcing flavor" or "change for the sake of change" (and they'd have a point with the second one), not to mention that they're called halflings in FR, Eberron, Darksun etc which means the settings would have to change them back.

Too late to avoid annoying the grognards. I'd suspect a significant portion of them will ditch the new default flavor in favor of hobbits anyway. I do it for 3E and I'll be doing it for 4e as well, assuming I like the mechanics of 4e enough to switch.

Halflings with an affinity for water? Queer as a Bucklander, that is.

 

[Wormwood]

If they called them kender but dropped the kleptomania, topknots, and other weirdness, would that be acceptable?

Isn't that essentially what a 3e halfling is: a kender with the annoying bits removed?

 

[Rykion]

I prefer the term Halfling, and want them and Kender kept seperate. I don't mind them becoming similar in nature as long as Halflings don't become fearless kleptomaniacs. Kender is too close to kinder for my taste. It would feel about the same as calling them kidlings to me.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

Isn't that essentially what a 3e halfling is: a kender with the annoying bits removed?

Basically. They just call themselves "kender," like how elves call themselves elves or dragonborn call themselves dragonborn. There's no reason IMO a race of small people would call themselves halflings (unless it's like Birthright halflings ... SPOILER

Spoiler

which are in fact from the shadow world

). It's the ignorant "big folk" who call them halflings.

I think the name kender - just the name - is a good one. I just wonder if the name by itself is a problem separate from the behavior of the diminutive inhabitants of Krynn, or if the two are so intertwined that people can't help but read "kender" as those things from Dragonlance.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't mind them becoming similar in nature as long as Halflings don't become fearless kleptomaniacs.

Check the front page at ENWorld.

 

[pawsplay]

Other possible names:
Munchkins.
Similarly... Winkies.
Marshwriggles.
Brownies.
Halfpintings.
Fullpintings.
Stout fullpintings.

 

[Kesh]

Don't care. I'm just happy that they're taking a bigger step away from Tolkien and coming into their own as a marriage between (imo) two good ideas.
Halflings = great, but too Tolkien
Kender = great, but too DragonLance

"Kendlings/Halflers 4e" = just right

This.

IMO, I won't have them played as "kleptomaniacs," as some folks are saying. Rather, they're collectors: they take things that are no longer wanted. If someone wants it, they trade for it (and not in the kender "I leave a rock for this shiny silver knife" way). That fits in with the "wandering merchant" concept a lot better, and is kinda how I ran my halflings anyway.