D&D 5E Halfling Barbarians-Finally a edition that lets the monster out of it's cage.

[BigVanVader]

I do recognise that the Strength score is an abstract in D&D, but in the case of Men/Women the distinction is negligible and non-player monsters aren’t really under scrutiny as PCs in the same way either. All that is really noted is the attack and damage amounts - which in the case of Giants are suitably strong anyway.

However, Strength in the game does denote specifically measured features like weight capacity and the like. So when a 3’ tall, 40lb Halfling sakes a score that allows him/her to lift more than 10 times his/her own body weight - to me, that is cartoon physics.

The cap I use isn’t that much of a penalty, insofar that no actual score is penalised (they’d still have to put that score on another Ability if it wasn’t Strength) and the use of Finesse weapons makes STR a bit of a dump stat if you don’t want it. Athletics can be boosted by proficiency, and it’s really just the lifting and carrying that is left. Moreover, Halflings and Gnomes as Small sized classes are penalised (disadvantaged) from using Heavy weapons anyway, so in a sense they are already restricted in their use of weapons.

Still, if you want to play ‘Mighty Mouse’ in your game, no-one’s stopping you - not even the official rules.

What if you just put a cap on lifting? So the 20 str Halfling can pull a dogsled that the rest of the party is riding, but he can't quite lift a boulder. Even if he can roll it around at his leisure.

 

[TrippyHippy]

What if you just put a cap on lifting? So the 20 str Halfling can pull a dogsled that the rest of the party is riding, but he can't quite lift a boulder. Even if he can roll it around at his leisure.

That’s another way of handling it I suppose - designate what ’Small’ size denotes in relation to lifting/carrying limitations - or just clarify what ’Small’ means in the game generally. For me though, I just like the simplicity and up front statement at character generation.

 

[BigVanVader]

That’s another way of handling it I suppose - designate what ’Small’ size denotes in relation to lifting/carrying limitations - or just clarify what ’Small’ means in the game generally. For me though, I just like the simplicity and up front statement at character generation.

Well yeah, but that's because you're not trying to make a high strength Halfling.

 

[TrippyHippy]

True, but I have enjoyed playing Halfling characters - I just tend to prefer playing up the advantages of being a small size (nimbleness, hiding, stealth, etc) rather than trying to fly in the face of them. But, as I say, each to their own.

 

[Leugren]

Barbarians ending up with super strength? Class feature, not a natural born trait."

I see. So it's not cartoon physics if it's granted by a class feature, but it is cartoon physics if it's a natural born trait. I find the types of distinctions people tend to draw in order to justify racial or gender ability score caps to be quite arbitrary, at best. Everyone is, of course, free to run the game in any way they like, and to draw whatever arbitrary lines they like. However, in a world where ants regularly haul around objects that are over 50 times their body weight, and where human barbarians can wrestle down frost giants, I have no problem finding justifications for halflings with a 20 Strength. All it takes is a bit of imagination!

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

However, Strength in the game does denote specifically measured features like weight capacity and the like. So when a 3’ tall, 40lb Halfling sakes a score that allows him/her to lift more than 10 times his/her own body weight - to me, that is cartoon physics.

I see. So it's not cartoon physics if it's granted by a class feature, but it is cartoon physics if it's a natural born trait. I find the types of distinctions people tend to draw in order to justify racial or gender ability score caps to be quite arbitrary, at best. Everyone is, of course, free to run the game in any way they like, and to draw whatever arbitrary lines they like. However, in a world where ants regularly haul around objects that are over 50 times their body weight, and where human barbarians can wrestle down frost giants, I have no problem finding justifications for halflings with a 20 Strength. All it takes is a bit of imagination!

It's only cartoon physics if you ignore every species except humanity. It doesn't help that, for lifting capacity, humans are one of the weakest primates to walk the Earth. Or that nature itself has created organisms that science thinks can lift fifty times their body weight. So the idea of a primate species that evolved with a greater lifting capacity than the primate average isn't far-fetched, given the opposite already happened, and would easily explain away the capacity of halflings.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I see. So it's not cartoon physics if it's granted by a class feature, but it is cartoon physics if it's a natural born trait. I find the types of distinctions people tend to draw in order to justify racial or gender ability score caps to be quite arbitrary, at best. Everyone is, of course, free to run the game in any way they like, and to draw whatever arbitrary lines they like. However, in a world where ants regularly haul around objects that are over 50 times their body weight, and where human barbarians can wrestle down frost giants, I have no problem finding justifications for halflings with a 20 Strength. All it takes is a bit of imagination!

its not arbitrary at all. In fact I thought the distinction is pretty clear. In a world where a person can learn to hurl lighting bolts, they can learn to do superhuman feats of strength too. But both require training. That's completely separate from having an innate power. Neither is born with the superhuman traits.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I see. So it's not cartoon physics if it's granted by a class feature, but it is cartoon physics if it's a natural born trait. I find the types of distinctions people tend to draw in order to justify racial or gender ability score caps to be quite arbitrary, at best. Everyone is, of course, free to run the game in any way they like, and to draw whatever arbitrary lines they like. However, in a world where ants regularly haul around objects that are over 50 times their body weight, and where human barbarians can wrestle down frost giants, I have no problem finding justifications for halflings with a 20 Strength. All it takes is a bit of imagination!

There are physiological reasons, however, that an ant can live several times it’s own body weight, that are in tune with real world physics.

It’s not a question of imagination.

I can easily imagine a 40lb Halfling swinging a dragon around by the tail….in a cartoon! The thing is, a fantasy game requires a suspension of disbelief, and if there are aspects of the rules that are incongruous to that, then it’s an issue. For me, it is incongruous that small humanoid races can match the strength of humanoid races twice their size, and I don’t want my fantasy to have the feel of a cartoon. Hence, I house-rule it*.

I don’t think it’s a major house rule because I don’t actually require any adjustment of stats - just an acknowledgement by the player (in the stat allocations they make) that they are playing a small character and their combat style and so one is reflective of that. A Barbarian doesn’t have to be a Strength based fighter to be effective, and a Halfling does get other sized based traits as advantages also.

* I do note that WotC effectively ducked out of this issue by not mentioning it as a rule, but nevetheless including the Halfling Rogue iconic character - that did in fact stick the lowest stat into Strength. They did, thankfully, remove the rule that had ‘Halfling Weapon Proficiencies’ during the playtest, so we weren’t forced to include the Halfling Warrior race as a norm.

 

[CM]

One of my players has a mountain dwarf wizard. Only at 3rd level so far. It's fascinating how much like a fighter/wizard they end up being. Medium armor, battle axes, he has insanely good Str and Con... He only uses cantrip attacks in specific situations. Often, he just relies on the axe.

He's also a grumpy tomb raider who recovers lost relics to return to the people, and alongside the axe he carries a whip and a pistol-gripped wand as his focus.

Indiana Stones?

 

[Henry]

I can easily imagine a 40lb Halfling swinging a dragon around by the tail….in a cartoon! The thing is, a fantasy game requires a suspension of disbelief, and if there are aspects of the rules that are incongruous to that, then it’s an issue. For me, it is incongruous that small humanoid races can match the strength of humanoid races twice their size, and I don’t want my fantasy to have the feel of a cartoon. Hence, I house-rule it*

In that case, your medium-sized and smaller adventurers really should be running the other direction every time they see a Troll, Wyvern, Ogre, or Dragon, because non-cartoony or non-cinematic physics dictates there's not a darned thing a human or smaller could do to these 8 foot to 50 foot behemoths with puny Greatswords or Bows.

For them to be able to even exist, they would have to have denser flesh, bones, and hides than real world creatures, and have strength greater than what their scores would indicate just to stand up or take flight.

As I said, look at it too closely with those pesky Biology degrees and square-cube laws, and this whole thing falls apart. It always has, not just from 4e or 3e, but ever since the days of "How heavy is my giant?" From dragon magazine back in the day.