Elfling

[Klaus]

They're short, ugly, angry, hairy and quite mad. IIRC, they're called Pucks.

 

[Nyeshet]

Elfling - new version

Okay, I'll admit I did not realize until now that the Elfling was meant to be a Elf / Halfling hybrid.

So, what do they have in common?

+2 Dex, +2 Listen, and weapon proficiencies favoring range weapons (sling / thrown vs longbow / shortbow)

We are adding in Small size, which has almost as many problems as it does advantages, so we'll drop Sleep immunity for that.

-2 Str makes more sense for a small race, and coupled with the reduced carrying capacity (3/4), decreased damage from weapons, etc, I think that it is significant enough to balance the +2 Dex.

Blood? Elven blood allows half-elves to be treated as elves for magical effects, favored enemy, etc. Perhaps Elflings have the benefits and penalties of being considered both Elves and Halflings for the purpose of magical effects, favored foes, etc? I'll even toss in Elven immunity to Ghoul paralysis with this, considering that two favored enemy types will now be able to harm them, and little benefit comes from having "Halfling Blood".

Both Elves and Halflings are resistant vs certain types of MAEs: Elves +2 vs Enchantment magic effects, Halflings +2 vs Fear [Necromancy, for some odd reason]. After careful consideration, I decided to drop these in favor of another ability that makes them a little more able to survive, described below.

Survivor: +2 on Survival checks, two rolls made when rolling vs Massive Damage, Stabilizing, and Death Effects - take the better of the two rolls. As this only applies when the character's life is on the line (literally), I do not think it is *too* powerful.

I kept the Halfling +1 to saves and dropped the Elven 'find the door' ability. The former makes more sense considering the above.

While Elves gain Martial Proficiency, Halflings gain +1 to their attack rolls for their specific weapons. I am thinking that perhaps this should be averaged in a way: Auto-proficiency in slings, thrown weapons, and shortbows. This is less than 4 martial proficiencies or +1 in 3+ weapons, but it is still useful - especially for classes that list weapons usable (Rogue, Wizard) or (for the shortbow) have only Simple Weapon Proficiency.

This leaves the speed and the skills. I would still leave the speed at 30 ft. It may or may not need a balancing factor, so I will consider it again later.

Skills. We already have +2 Listen, but both races have other skill bonuses, so this race should probably as well. We drop Search, as without the auto-search function it seems far less likely to develop as a racial skill. Climb and Jump seem odd, considering the Str penalty. Move Silently nicely complements the +2 to Listen, so we might keep that one. That leaves Spot for consideration. As each race has 3 or 4 skill bonuses, I would think that perhaps another skill should be present, but should we use Spot or choose another.

After consideration, I decided that it would make the race more distinct to choose another. Considering the increased speed, I chose Tumble. Another poster suggested Escape Artist as well, which seems fair considering its limited utility (or, at least, it does not come up very often in my campaigns). Having dropped Spot, I also dropped the Low Light Vision.


So, we have:

+2 Dex, -2 Str

Small: As a Small creature, an Elfling gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but she uses smaller weapons than humans use, and her lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.

Elfling base land speed is 30 feet. Despite their small size, they move with uncommon swiftness.

+2 racial bonus to Escape Artist, Listen, Move Silently, Tumble, and Survival skill checks.

+1 racial bonus on all saving throws. Elflings seem to have an uncommon luck in surviving dangerous situations.

Racial Proficiency: (martial) Shortbows, (simple) Slings, and (simple and martial) thrown weapons.

Survivor's Luck: Whenever an Elfling must make a roll vs a Death Effect, Massive Damage, or to Stabilize, two rolls are made, and the better of the two is used.

Blood: An Elfling is considered both Elven and Halfling for the purpose of magical effects, feats, class specials, etc.

Automatic Languages: Common, Elfling. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Orc, Sylvan.

Favored Class: Scout. A multiclass elfling’s scout class does not count when determining whether she takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

Elflings are wanderers, often traveling in small semi-nomadic bands. Their speed, stealth, and survivability make their use as scouts and messengers highly valued by those of other races.

To emphasize their wandering nature, etc, I would suggest that the following alternate class feature:

An Elfling Scout may choose to replace the bonus feat at 4th level with the Bardic Knowledge class ability. However, the bonus the Elfling Scout receives is half that of a bard of comparable level. (Thus it starts with +2 + Int, and at 20th level it is +10 + Int. Hopefully this is not too strong an ability, considering it replaces only a single feat.)


Hmm. This race is now about as strong as the Elven race, perhaps a touch more, but they are not as strong as the Dwarves. All in all, I *think* this race is balanced, albeit a touch on the strong side of balanced (say 60% to 65% on a scale from 100% [overpowered] to 0% [underpowered]; I'd place dwarves around 75%, elves around 60%, humans around 50%, half-elves around 40% on this same scale.)


I see the Elflings as nature themed. Wizards would be rare, Druids would be the primary casters of choice, Bards would not be uncommon, Sorcerers would be the uncommon (but not rare) arcane caster of choice. Scouts, Rangers, and (Wilderness) Rogues would be common, while due to their slight tendency towards Chaos Monks and Paladins would be as rare as wizards. Barbarians would not be uncommon, but neither would they be common. I just can't envision a 3 ft tall Elfling Barbarian wielding a small axe all that well. Even with Rage the Elfling is simply *not* a melee character. Skirmish, Favored Enemy, and Sneak Attack help it, but it is primarily a ranged combative rather than a melee one. For similar reasons, the Fighter would be as uncommon as the Barbarian.

 

[ChimericDream]

Thanks for all of the advice. I've updated the class and reposted in the first post. I'd like more feedback on whether it's at "that point" or still getting there.

 

[Jon Potter]

Dog Soul Publishing has a PDF out titled "Races of Consequence", which has half-races for all the core races, so you can have halfling/half-orcs, gnome/humans and even half-orc/half-elves. There are a couple of Prestige Classes, too.

Caveat: I illustrated the thing.

I didn't work on the product, but I second the suggestion to pick it up. It's a great look at fantasy "genetics" and can lead to some very interesting family trees, indeed.

What's a Horcling look like?

They are indeed "short, ugly, angry, hairy and quite mad" as Klaus said. But it's madness born of hunger pairing the hobbits' love of food with the orcs' table manners. They're called Powry (not Pucks) and they do have a sort of power build feature in that they can use either small of medium armor and the like.

They're my favorite race in the book, actually.

 

[Nyeshet]

I think that will work.

I'm guessing that since you do not have 'Elfling' as a language that they are not a separate race - merely the occasional by-product of short elves with tall halflings?

 

[ChimericDream]

I think that will work.

I'm guessing that since you do not have 'Elfling' as a language that they are not a separate race - merely the occasional by-product of short elves with tall halflings?

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I don't really consider them a completely separate race. All of the crossbreeds that I'm working on will be simply for the sake of statting them out, and will not be major races in my world. Hence the lack of an Elfling language.