How about a survey on the 3E halfling?

[MeepoTheMighty]

I love the old halflings, and I'm 22.

However, the new halflings do serve a good role within the party.

See, they weigh around 25, maybe 30 pounds at most.

So instead of climbing places, it's much easier to hand them a rope and let the half-orc throw them

 

[mirzabah]

what's a pooncy?

Also "poncy". It's the adjectival form of "poonce" (also "ponce"). A poonce is a twink - and I mean that in the sense of being an irritating waste of space, not in the sense of being homosexual...

Real halflings don't wear shoes.

 

[mirzabah]

See, they weigh around 25, maybe 30 pounds at most.

So instead of climbing places, it's much easier to hand them a rope and let the half-orc throw them

Yes, I suppose they do have that redeeming feature. Also, with them being lighter than hobbits it means that it's not quite as tiring when you're dangling them at the end of a 10' pole to set off traps... though they do tend to wriggle more, but that stops after the first trap or two.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

an irritating waste of space - gotcha!

thanks

 

[mirzabah]

Additional question for discussion: if we revert to the "old" halfling, as LOTR reminds us, would the 3E stats require alteration?

Missed this question first time around...

Off the top of my head I'd say that you'd mainly want to add lowlight vision and that may require a little tweaking to other stuff bring it back to balance - though I personally wouldn't worry. That's if you just wanted to make it the old 1E/2E one-size-fits-all halfling. If you wanted to bring the different breeds into it, things get a little hairier.

 

[Kal Torak]

I Hate kenders, the new halflings are alright as long as I forget that they are kenders in disguise (or that a halfling fighter of the same level and same total bonus is more powerful that my dwarven fighter!)

I think that the stars need only slight change to return them to proper hobbitness, but I still have'nt got round to doing that.


(must try the halfling throwing and de-trapping!)

 

[hong]

Real halflings don't wear shoes.

Aha! So REAL halflings are from Queensland!


Hong "or Alabama, for you Americaians out there" Ooi

 

[Mahiro Satsu]

I always thought that the 2e halflings were darn near identical to the 2e gnomes. Then I played some dragonlance and fell in love with the Kender. Now that they are the basis for the 3e halflings i love them.

Halflings in FR have a great feel and an interesting background. I am playing one now. He's my favorite character ever. I love him.

Oh, I'm 23.

PS. Now that they arent a rip off of LotR, I enjoy them more.

 

[Wolvorine]

3e, definately

Well, I'm 30, started playing with 0E, and I vastly prefer 3E Halflings. Interestingly enough, they are pretty close to the halflings I had created for my own homebrew world/system around '91, so that helps a lot.
I always loved the kender though, but what really did it for me was... I've hated Tolkien-Hobbits since I first read the books as a kid. If there was ever a race that was far too easilly analogous to the stereotypical 'helpless girl who needs rescuing', hobbits always qualified in my mind.

 

[hong]

Re: 3e, definately

I've hated Tolkien-Hobbits since I first read the books as a kid. If there was ever a race that was far too easilly analogous to the stereotypical 'helpless girl who needs rescuing', hobbits always qualified in my mind.

I wouldn't go quite that far, but that's a good point, and it's also why I prefer the 3E portrayal of halflings. Hobbits in the LOTR trilogy aren't "heroic" in the sense of characters like Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. Their virtues are the traditional English ones of endurance, determination, and perseverance.

The thing is that these qualities, while certainly admirable, are essentially _passive_ ones. Hobbits as a race, while they can absorb a lot of punishment, aren't particularly dynamic or charismatic. They're not larger than life the way an elf, dwarf or Dunadan is, or even a Rohirric cavalryman.

For a book, this isn't a problem, but it is a problem when you want to make up an adventuring race for an RPG. Adventuring is an active occupation, and if a race doesn't capture the imagination, they probably shouldn't be in the game, at least not as PCs.