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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Toryx" data-source="post: 4011675" data-attributes="member: 56441">Tolkien's hobbits/ halflings are generally uninteresting mechanically for D&D. For all that they're the defacto heroes of both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, you have to remember that the traits that made them so heroic and successful are not traits that can mechanically be reproduced for game play.If you actually read the books, you'll see that there's very little contribution any of the hobbits made to actual combat. Bilbo's strongest encounters -- getting away from Gollum and later sneaking into the dragon's lair -- were primarily instances of quick thinking and good luck. These are not things that can be reproduced in any fashion that would aid gameplay. It was Frodo and Sam's determination that got them to the volcano. Pippin and Merry contributed to combat occasionally by throwing rocks, by the actual damage they did beside Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli were insignificant. Maybe you could reproduce that in game by giving them a better chance to hit (as halflings have always had) with little damage, but it's not generally fun to play mechanically.The most martial elements of the hobbits in any of the books were found in Bilbo's sword and chain shirt, but these a character do not make.Of course certain campaigns can utilize the kinds of abilities a defacto Tolkien Hobbit would have, but to a general audience it would never work. If you actually take a Tolkien Hobbit and reproduce him for gameplay, what you'll end up with is something very colorful but mechanically, not very useful. In a high roleplay game, that might be enough. In your standard dungeon crawl gaming group, the halfling would likely never be played.</blockquote>

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