Design & Development: Halflings [merged]

[Turjan]

Hell, maybe he comes from a family or clan of halflings that have rejected the watery ways, and live in small hills, smoking pot and whatnot all day long, living for the next meal.

Sneaky, those WOTC designers! Living under a hill and smoking weed as halfling rebellion against the boring life on a river! Brilliant!

 

[Zaruthustran]

Hennet leaves, dragging some belts on the floor as he goes.

Hahahahahaha!!!

 

[AllisterH]

Also not a good example because I'd pick Francis Castliagione otherwise known as Frank Castle over a few of the X-Men.

I think the choice should be, would you rather play Aunt May or Iceman?

But I honestly don't feel too many players are going to pick really low-powered characters. Even the role-playing opportunities will dry up if their characters good at nothing at all even skills, they'll just end up being a bad joke of a character.

Exactly.

Worse, putting into the 4E book, a race that is mechanically inferior to other races and NOT telling people upfront, "This race sucks!" gets back to the system mastery problem of 3.x (toughness versus Power attack)

 

[fuindordm]

Awesome scene, KM. Kudos!

The Cha bonus makes sense to me. Wandering cultures are everyone's scapegoat, no matter how innocuous. If the halflings are to prosper, they have to make people happy to see them come through. They need to be traders, negotiators, and entertainers. And even if they do nothing wrong, people will still bring out the torches and pitchforks, just because they're outsiders.

I see halflings as happy-go-lucky entertainers on the surface, self-reliant and secretive underneath. Even after traveling for years with a party, a halfling won't volunteer their true beliefs and private thoughts.

 

[vagabundo]

These guys sound like Irish Travellers ..

Well that's how they are in my campaign:

"Dey ya like Dogs??!!"

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I hoped for for some halfing stats. But it's nice to know that they get a Charisma bonus - I definitely see this as fitting for them.

 

[Derren]

Poor Pit Fiend who faces Halflings. 2 of his abilities useless.

But wait, didn't WotC want to reduce the number of absolutes? Fearlessness doesn't make much sense in that context. Maybe its "just" a bonus vs. fear?

 

[Steely Dan]

Worst, article, ever!


Well, that and I hate Halflings…

 

[Mighty Halfling]

+2 swim? Would make sense for a water-borne race.

If they go in this direction, I hope they do that AND allow Halflings to move at their normal movement rate while swimming, rather than one-half or one-quarter. That's a way to let their life-by-the-water fluff shine.

 

[Wolfspider]

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.

Hmm. Interesting, then, that halflings have existed for so long in D&D as basically hobbit-clones then, ain't it?