Got Hobbits?

[CleverNickName]

We have always had hobbits, and we've played 3.x for almost a decade now. (shrug) It's no big deal really...we use the stats in the PHB, but we describe them as being sort of tubby with hairy feet. And slightly pointed ears, even.

But I can see their lack of appeal, especially among the younger gamers. MTV teaches us that thick waistlines and hairy feet are things to avoid.

 

[billd91]

I've always run D&D with hobbits. Always will. I simply cannot turn away a culture that honors gardeners, hates long-winded speeches, and loves beer.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't know much about the APG, but isn't it going to follow the 3E conventions, which means 3E-style halflings?

It was to be from Necromancer originally, so it's all about the 1E conventions.

 

[renau1g]

I put same as always, we always used the halflings/hobbits as Tolkien wrote it, rather than any other spin on them (besides an Eberron campaign)

 

[Invisible Stalker]

I allow halflings. The players that use them generally have them act like Tolkein style hobbits. I have never played one myself though.

 

[Set]

I've had no use for them, but I've had players use them, and I'm not going to say no if they want to play a core race.

The last one we had was a Conjurer in 3.0 who liked to get away with murder because of his size and weight (pre-errata, a Lantern Archon could teleport with him and Evard's Black Tentacles ignored size Small creatures, so he had a ball with that sort of stuff).

The cultural thing never mattered to me at all. Some halflings are homebodies, some have wanderlust. Some have big bellies and burp a lot, others are lean and light on their feet. Big whoop.

As long as nobody tried to RP one like a Kender, which would quickly get on my nerves, I'm fine with them.

 

[fba827]

Personally, I don't really care for halflings, so I don't really bother to add them in my campaigns. However, one player wanted to play a halfling, so I went through the trouble of adding a few in the game so that he wasn't the only one in the entire world.

Of course, now that player is gone from the group and I'm stuck with NPCs of a race that I never intended to use.

So really, 4e didn't do anything to change my opinion on halflings, I wouldn't really use them in any edition. But I have them in the game as a result of circumstance.

 

[am181d]

Over the last 25 years, there have always been halflings in the D&D campaigns that I've run and played in, and they've always looked and acted more like Kender than Tolkein's halflings, even before Dragonlance!

They were called Tallfellows, and we liked 'em just fine.

 

[Agamon]

Not a big fan of the hobbit halfling as a PC race. They were based on a race from a book that weren't very adventurer-like at all, the examples in the book were very much exceptions. Basing a PC race on them in an RPG makes little sense.

3e/4e halflings are a bit more interesting. The clannish river folk 4e version is cool enough to base a campaign around, I think.

 

[juk380x]

I always used halflings, but NOT the Tolkien variety. They were usually either urban, gypsy-like, or pirates (both on rivers and seas) before WotC got the same idea. Because in my campaigns small, idyllic, bucolic villages don't exist.