D&D 5E Dragon's Eye View: Halflings, Part 2

[Jester David]

Thanks for the laugh!
...now go make my head bigger!

Sir, yes sir!

 

[Jester David]

I LOVE these new halflings, seriously!

The guy on the right is pretty big and edging into dwarf-sized, but other than that they look great.

I quite liked the concept drawings. They had these fun toddler proportions that really seemed to suit halflings. But I'm okay with making them closer to six-year-olds. The most recent drawings look a hair stockier, but that also be the clothes which look rather bulky.

 

[Kavon]

They look like Gnomes to me.

I had the same feeling, to be honest.. Some of them look like they might be shaven dwarves, as well.
That being said, I'm not sure if that's really a problem (depends on how you explain the races and their connections to each other).

All in all, I like the current direction a lot more than the weird flat-headed mini-elves of 3e.

 

[Klaus]

The new halflings' heads look a tad too misshapen for me (specially the one on the middle-right).

I'd like to see Uldane and Lidda, the iconic halflings of 4e and 3e, done with these new proportions, to get a better feeling of them.

 

[Zaukrie]

Closer.....I do think they should not just be short humans....but I am baffled as to how to do that. Good luck to Jon.

 

[I'm A Banana]

It does bring up an interesting point:

What is the difference, visually, between a gnome, a halfling, and a dwarf?

To me, halflings have child-like proportions. A little chubby, a little stocky, but with great big eyes and big round heads.

A gnome is more like an old person, regardless of their age: sharp angles, tight muscles, skin that maybe hangs a little loose. Tufts of hair.

A dwarf's main notable trait is the stocky roundness of the race. Halflings and gnomes have clever little hands. Dwarves have meaty paws, well suited to wielding heavy, deadly implements.

 

[Garthanos]

Halflings will be judged based on how they match up with things like the hobbits in recent movies.. so not looking like short humans will make them seem misshapen.

 

[Klaus]

It does bring up an interesting point:

What is the difference, visually, between a gnome, a halfling, and a dwarf?

To me, halflings have child-like proportions. A little chubby, a little stocky, but with great big eyes and big round heads.

A gnome is more like an old person, regardless of their age: sharp angles, tight muscles, skin that maybe hangs a little loose. Tufts of hair.

A dwarf's main notable trait is the stocky roundness of the race. Halflings and gnomes have clever little hands. Dwarves have meaty paws, well suited to wielding heavy, deadly implements.

Not to toot my own horn, but I've been doing my own concepting on D&D monsters and races. I think I'll start a thread here to show them.

 

[Animal]

I must admit that i wasn't really happy with 3ed halflings when i first bought the PHB and saw them. I agree that making them just shrunk humans didn't work well for shaping their unique image. So i do think that revisiting halfling appearance is a right move.
But the team seems to be too fixed on body proportions.
Yes, it worked well with dwarves. But look at elves - they are shaped just like humans. But they were made easily recognizable by pointy ears, almond-shaped eyes, high cheek-bones, etc.
Maybe we could pin-point some features, intrinsic to halflings, which are not necessarily connected to anatomic proportions?

 

[DEFCON 1]

Yes, it worked well with dwarves. But look at elves - they are shaped just like humans. But they were made easily recognizable by pointy ears, almond-shaped eyes, high cheek-bones, etc.

The problem we now have to work our way through is that in my opinion, elves shouldn't be shaped just like humans. I think they need to be even thinner than they've been appearing. If you have elves that are just as meaty as humans but have pointy ears and a long face... then where do our half-elves go? That's what I noticed in Claudio's concept art in the other thread... the elves looked way too bulky to me.

And therein lies Jon's difficulties. If even the shape of elves are still up for debate about what looks right or wrong... then the halflings and gnomes are going to be even more disparate in opinion.