Pathfinder 2E Halflings & Gnomes: More Pathfinder 2nd Edition Races; Plus Ability Boosts & Flaws Explained

We've seen goblins, elves and dwarves; now it's time to take a peek at Pathfinder 2nd Edition's small folk - the halflings and gnomes! All to be added, of course, to the Pathfinder 2nd Edition Compiled Info Page!

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• Halflings --
  • 8 racial hit points
  • Size small; speed 20 feet
  • Dexterity and Charisma boost, plus one flexible boost; Strength flaw
  • Ancestry feats --
    • Distracting Shadows (sneak using large creatures as cover)
    • Plucky (overcome fear)
    • Titan Slinger (damage bonus with slings vs. large creatures); also the sling does more damage than in PF1
    • Lucky Halfling (reroll one skill check or save you critically fail per day)
• Gnomes --
  • 8 racial hit points
  • Con and Cha boosts, plus one flexible boost; Str flaw
  • Low light vision
  • Ancestry feats --
    • Fey Fellowship (more charismatic when dealing with fey)
    • First World Magic (bonus cantrip with various options)
    • Discerning Smell (find invisible creatures)
    • Animal Speaker (talk to animals)
• What do ability boosts and flaws do? "We've mentioned ability boosts and flaws a few times now, so let's go into more detail about how those work! At 1st level, your ability scores all start at 10. Your ancestry then gives you ability boosts, each of which increases the score by 2. Most ancestries get three ability boosts, two of which have to go into specific scores. The remaining free ability boost can go into any score except the two set ones. Most ancestries also get a flaw, which decreases a designated score by 2. You can put your free ability boost in the same score as your flaw if you want to get back to 10."

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[Shasarak]

But you can’t even tell she’s a halfling most of the time. I agree that the Jose was weird though.

In the Lord of the Rings movies they did not need to have Frodo with a big head to show he was a Hobbit. Most of the time when you are looking at the Hobbit village you can not even tell they are Hobbits because it is built proportionally. Only when Gandalf is in his house can you notice it is a different scale.

So why do we need Halflings with monstrously big heads just to show that they are Halflings/ I would vastly prefer your Hobbit foot idea.

 

[Charlaquin]

In the Lord of the Rings movies they did not need to have Frodo with a big head to show he was a Hobbit. Most of the time when you are looking at the Hobbit village you can not even tell they are Hobbits because it is built proportionally. Only when Gandalf is in his house can you notice it is a different scale.

So why do we need Halflings with monstrously big heads just to show that they are Halflings/ I would vastly prefer your Hobbit foot idea.

I don’t think we need big heads necessarily, we just need something to make them visually distinctive. Proportions are an easy way to do that, whether it be heads, feet, limb length, torso width, whatever. Or it doesn’t have to be proportions, but it should be some physical attribute.

 

[Charlaquin]

Oh my goodness, this thread is all out of order

 

[Sunseeker]

Oh my goodness, this thread is all out of order

That would explain why my reply to your reply to me is now...before it. Well then.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I hope gnomes' acentry traits now allow more flexibility. Not always they are going to be only rogues or illusionist spellcasters. This time they could be good in not-warrior classes. Do you bet we will see a Tyrion Lannister's clone PC?

 

[Charlaquin]

That would explain why my reply to your reply to me is now...before it. Well then.

Yeah, looks like something went wrong on trying to merge the original thread with Morrus’ new one.

 

[Sunseeker]

What did folks think about the partial reveal of the ability score generation system?

My response is: "What ability score generation system?"

That is to say: this isn't an ability score generation system.

EDIT: some other thoughts:

Unless classes are going to give ability score boosts (as part of the class starting package like ancestry). But we haven't seen that previewed in any of the class previews, so I suspect thatisn't the case.

This also explains some other elements I've been seeing that I found odd, such as how small the numbers were in their expertise system. Such a system would never work with a high-score generating game like PF1.

It also explains why ancestries determine HD rather than classes.

It's also starting to look like PF2 isn't for me. AND THATS OKAY. But disappointing to me nonetheless.

 

[barasawa]

I agree with the folks not happy with the small races all getting Cha boosts.

Halflings getting a Cha boost is ok by me, but if they got a Wis boost instead, I'd be ok with that too.

Gnomes lacking either an Int or Wis boost just seems weird. Having the Con boost seems rather dwarf like to me.

Goblins having a Cha boost is a total laugh! Are the authors of PF2 sure they didn't plan to post this on April 1st? Goblins have never seemed to be the type for Int, Wis, or Cha boosts ever! Flaws for those 3, sure, but definitely not boosts. A Con boost for gobos makes sense though. After all, have you seen where they live and what they eat? If they don't have magnificent Cons, they'd probably die of sepsis or the like within a week.

As to the drawing of the "halfling". I have to ask, is that football head an homage to "Hey Arnold" ? I know goblins also have wide heads, and wide toothy maws to go with it, but somehow they just don't evoke the football head idea in me. That halfling though, I begin to wonder if I can punt him. Great drawing though, I'm just questioning the visual design not the skill.

 

[Ancalagon]

My response is: "What ability score generation system?"

That is to say: this isn't an ability score generation system.

EDIT: some other thoughts:

Unless classes are going to give ability score boosts (as part of the class starting package like ancestry). But we haven't seen that previewed in any of the class previews, so I suspect thatisn't the case.

This also explains some other elements I've been seeing that I found odd, such as how small the numbers were in their expertise system. Such a system would never work with a high-score generating game like PF1.

It also explains why ancestries determine HD rather than classes.

It's also starting to look like PF2 isn't for me. AND THATS OKAY. But disappointing to me nonetheless.

Based on what is written on the blog, it's starting to look a lot like the starfinder stat generation system. I agree with you that it is incomplete at this time, but I wanted to point it out because it was a partial piece of the system which we didn't have before.

 

[Sunseeker]

Based on what is written on the blog, it's starting to look a lot like the starfinder stat generation system. I agree with you that it is incomplete at this time, but I wanted to point it out because it was a partial piece of the system which we didn't have before.

Yeah, I see that now, and wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. Looks like the ancestries start with quite a bit more HP tho.