Design & Development: Halflings [merged]

[Sir Brennen]

... named Little Bunny Foofoo.

Scoopin' up the field mice
and blastin' em on the head.

 

[Wolfspider]

Right, because given the choice between doing all the cool stuff Boromir, Aragorn, Gimli, Eomer and Legolas (BAGEL) get to do, and the somewhat less cool stuff the Hobbits were doing in most of the movies, how many potential new D&D customers would pick "Hobbit"? The fact that Sam and Frodo were the main characters, and that Pippin and Merry got lots of lines, may have distracted you from the fact that (for the most part) the Hobbits didn't really do anything other than eat a lot, talk a lot, get stabbed, get kidnapped, get drunk and get high. And Sam's only two fight scenes were not nearly as dymanic and badass as any of BAGEL's. Or Gandalf's. Or Eowyn's. Or Treebeard's.

Good point. Reinforces the fact that D&D 4e is all about the cool powers and ability to kick arse and take names and chew bubblegum and all that. The ability to play a heroic yet low-powered, un-cool character like Frodo or Sam or Bilbo is not a priority.

Hmmm. I wonder if 4e halflings will dual weild kukris?

 

[Lizard]

Do we get -2 STR for small? How to balance that? -2 STR, +2 DEX, CON, CHA!?

I believe no PC race gets negative modifiers to anything in 4e. Either there's no Str mod for small size, or PC halflings are assumed to be the bodybuilders of their kind and are unusually burly.

 

[Turjan]

I believe no PC race gets negative modifiers to anything in 4e. Either there's no Str mod for small size, or PC halflings are assumed to be the bodybuilders of their kind and are unusually burly.

Well, they are bigger now. They don't bite your ankle anymore, but rather your butt.

 

[humble minion]

I was actually hoping that size-based Str penalties would be more rather than less significant in 4e. Since melee damage seems set to be based more on the PCs talent tree/feats and less on their raw ability score, you can penalise Str without reducing small characters to utter uselessness in combat.

3e's 30-40lb halflings with even a mere 14 Str blithely running around carrying twice their bodyweight in equipment was rather silly, imho.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I personally prefer no negatives simply because since the base-stat: 8 is for your average person and the races closer in size, then it be weird that there would be such a HUGE discrepancy between the strength of a human and a halfling. Now this would make sense for a Minotaur but then they would have a natural strength bonus.

 

[mach1.9pants]

I believe no PC race gets negative modifiers to anything in 4e. Either there's no Str mod for small size, or PC halflings are assumed to be the bodybuilders of their kind and are unusually burly.

Oh, I interpreted the modifier change to mean PC races have an overall positive effect not no negative at all. I would imagine that once we get to half ogres and minotaurs we will have negatives to balance STR.
And it is ridiculous that WotC can say we've made halflings bigger cos they were really silly small then with the same breath say that some one the size of a pre-teen will have the same STR as an adult human! Bollaux!
But 4E is all about fun and a STR penalty does suck for any non spell casting class so I reckon you are right about body building, web footed halfling dread-lords

 

[AllisterH]

Good point. Reinforces the fact that D&D 4e is all about the cool powers and ability to kick arse and take names and chew bubblegum and all that. The ability to play a heroic yet low-powered, un-cool character like Frodo or Sam or Bilbo is not a priority.

Hmmm. I wonder if 4e halflings will dual weild kukris?

Hmm?

What makes a good novel != make a good game. The thing is, unless a DM tailored the encounters to make the hobbit useful a la Tolkein, it is hard to see the classic Tolkein hobbit being useful in the typical D&D scenario.

I'm not sure why you think Hobbits as presented in LoTR would make a good adventuring race without DM-hedging.

 

[FadedC]

Yeah in general the whole point of hobbits in LoTR was that they were kind of wimpy and not at all suited for being adventurers. That did work great for the story because it increased the sense of vulnerability of these little guys completely out of their league entrusted with destorying a powerful source of evil. But it doesn't work well in a game, unless your planning to make everyone like that (in which case I might be inclined to agree that 4e may not be the right system for that campaign).

 

[Bishmon]

I like the stuff about halfling warlocks. In my world, halflings are a product of their physical disadvantage. After all, they can't afford to wage traditional battlefield war against the larger races without a significant numerical advantage, which they've never been able to achieve. So they've taken to the water, inhabiting islands, building up unparalleled naval power, developing likable, diplomatic personalities, and bargaining with supernatural beings for arcane power fits that theme. Maybe not bargaining with infernal sources, but fey sources, sure. Plus, my halfings already have a positive outlook towards nature because it doesn't harbor prejudices about their size.