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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9629990" data-attributes="member: 6799660">Interestingly, if it were just about lifting capacity, we could have low strength halfling adventurers (even fighters). A couple bags of holding, armor weight that is size-dependent, and so on and it works. It is the to-hit and damage that really kill it for things with a strength penalty (or just plain not trying to maximize strength whenever possible for most warrior types). It's the same reason why it is hard to make Taran the pig tender turned fighter, or have special rules for characters (PrCs or feats or cantrips) for PCs that want to use their skill and wits but not strength.Ah. I think we see where the subtextual (and hard to discuss) issue might lie. Yes, someone somewhere has definitely painted all... gamers who might associate themselves with ThAC0... with this brush. However, so far as I'm aware, WotC hasn't (the in-book disclaimers specify - so much as they do at all - in-book language, much less the creators, much less the fans). I guess I don't see how a despondent clown named ThAC0 fits into the same frame as this.Because of the background-gated initial attributes, they can start with the same Str as the humans, orcs, and goliaths (edit: and end up with the same maximum).The problem happens because D&D wants +/-2 strength to matter significantly enough that you want to improve the score, yet made the difference in carrying capacity small -- making 'realistic' halflings (or horses) a huge score shift. GURPS 3e had the same issue -- making a talking horse character or the like would require strength scores way off the end of the normal chart (and thus cost huge amounts in build resources, based on the resultant combat benefit). So D&D instead (when it has) gives halflings a much more moderated strength deficit, not one that can line up with (certain views of) realism. It's pretty much in the '8 is less than 10 is less than 12, don't worry about by how much' level of verisimilitude. Of course the game has not always been very realistic about how much things weigh, either (TSR era 1/10 lb coins, for instance), so maybe it's the using of real-world units of measurement that's the questionable decision.</blockquote>

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