What do you like about them?
I like their optimism. A D&D race that sees the bright side of their situation and caresdeeply about friends and family is a nice thing for the game to have. It's a good hook for a PC. You follow your crazy ambitious adventuring buddy because he or she is your friend, you enjoy being around them, and you earnestly wish to keep them safe.
What lore do you use from the books, and what do you specifically ignore, if anything?
Not much. I use 4e's fondness of rivers and the halfings being close to dwarves in relations.
How have you used them in your worlds?
In my Six Kingdoms world, not so much. They just have good farmland and feed the world during famine.
In my Klassico setting, halflings are the go-between for dwarves. Dwarves mine the mountains, halfling trade food for dwarven metal, stone, and gems. Othe races trade withhalflings for metal and gems. Halflings don't inflate rices that much so they are good trade partners but they have limited stock,
The patron goddess of halflings is Hestia, Goddess of the Heath. In order to control all aspects of the hearth, Hestia births a son and had him marry the dwarven goddess of the plants.
Results:
- The halfling pantheon has a female dwarf in it.
- The union of the halfling god of protection and the "dwarven" goddess of plants causes the existence of stout/strongheart halflings.
- Dwarven no longer have a nature goddess as they married theirs to the halflings.
- Religious halflings are honorbound to feed hungry dwarves and must always trade with dwarves.
- Halflings are overrall skilled with trading and running caravans. Humans allow them to make their own quarters and live on the borders to obtain their relatively cheap but mundane trade.
Do you consider them mechanically powerful, and if not have you done anything to add to them?
Not really. However my chances to the game system help them a lot so I didn't chance the race.
Should they get proficiency and better damage with slings?
No. But the halfling magic weapon is a magic sling that deals more damage.
Should Kender influence Halflings, insofar as giving halflings the ability to taunt?
No. But I think D&D should have a base taunt action.
What edition has the best Halfling writeup?
4e
Any of the above questions, or anything else you want to talk about halflings that is positive, and/or directly about developing them in ways you find interesting, are fair game for discussion, here.
Some halflings in my Klassico setting as straight up ninjas. In the "The Littlefoots aren't potato farmers, they are ninjas and will suddenly disappear then thrown 4d4 shurikens at you with sneak attack damage if you start trouble."
