D&D 5E Kender a hafling subrace

[RangerWickett]

Based on some other comments, if you are afraid of thievery shenanigans and want kender to not cause trouble, you could just say, "Your PC never steals things. I don't want you ever consciously stating that you take something in any way that could be considered theft. However, you are unconsciously handling incidental things here and there, and you can use the kender pockets ability to sometimes discover that you kept something unintentionally. We aren't going to devote game time to you stealing, but rather we'll treat it as a comic bit."

 

[wicked cool]

See I don't have a problem with insestive jerks to a degree.

I'm watching critical role-Often times one of the characters causes shenanagins to in his mind help another character gain information that ultimately helps them both. his behavior could upset other characters however he has a personal quest ( i don't want to spoil much)

This personal quest is what drives roleplaying. Hes not a kender however he believes his actions are justified.

99% of the time a good DM has their plan thwarted by the party. You have mapped out in your mind go a+b=slay monster however its much more fun memorable when

1) nobody expected Carter Burke to sacrifice the others for the goal of the corporation
2) Raist left the companions to die but at the same time had pity on the gully dwarf
3) while at camp the kender took some of the partys gold or the thief rummaged through anothers belongings in the hopes to find a cure or clue to something

I would concede to your point it gets so obnoxious that your barbarian is trying to kill the wizard every day but putting limits is taking away part of the spirit of the game

I have participated in games where the party had all evil intentions. I have participated in a one shot where the party goes to stop a demon summoning but it turns out only 1 pc was a good guy and the rest were out to stop him (probably my favorite one shot of all time)

The only time ive been stopped by a DM (maybe 30+ years ago) was when I wanted to try something from dragon magazine and at that time my DM was only recognizing official book materials

By stopping kender fun its only going to piss you off when your at a sanctioned event or maybe your not running the game but instead its the other person who wanted to be the kender and you are instead wanting to be something they don't like

 

[GreenTengu]

I think it is pretty obvious that Kender are a kind of very extreme Halfling.
Similar to how the Tinker Gnomes are a very extreme Gnome.
And then there are Gully Dwarfs....

Dragonlance went very cartoony with its races like that, everything having to be over-the-top to the point no one could take it at all seriously. And within the context of you having a single writer, perhaps it all works out quite well. The issue is what happens when you put such concepts in the hands of PCs who actually want to play out such concepts. Because with a single writer, their antics can be leveraged solely for plot device to further the story, whether it be the stakes or the humor, and never to disrupt, undermine or sidetrack the story in undesirable ways. The sole writer controls what they do, what the consequences of what they do are and how all the other characters react to it. But when the person choosing when and what to do is different from the person who controls the results of those actions and each of the other characters is controlled by a different person with their own agendas... it just doesn't work.

But, nonetheless, Kender are just more extreme Halflings. And if the Kender didn't have a reputation for being so toxic, I would even go as far to say that it is perhaps a better name for Halflings than "Halflings" are. "Halfling" is a terrible name for a race (then again, so are "Dwarfs") because it is just something a race would not call itself-- after all, they aren't going to consider themselves "half" or in any way less or smaller than normal-- they would define what is normal by themselves. They would have their own term for themselves. And if you had a decent number of humans with regular contact with them they would eventually respectfully call them whatever the race calls themselves and not continue to refer to them by something that is quite obviously a slur.

Seriously-- calling a group of people "half" people simply because they are smaller than humans? It's just weird.

And that it was not just normalized in D&D, but made its way into dozens of games inspired by D&D and no one ever just thought that through and fixed it when importing them into their own fantasy worlds is kind of mind-boggling to me.

 

[Coroc]

...

I have participated in games where the party had all evil intentions. I have participated in a one shot where the party goes to stop a demon summoning but it turns out only 1 pc was a good guy and the rest were out to stop him (probably my favorite one shot of all time)
...

Wow, please try to recall what it was this would be a cool thing for helloween, if it gets to you could you post the titel of it?

 

[Flamestrike]

Kender Traits

Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increase by 1

Age: A kender reaches Adulthood at the age of 18 and generally lives no more than a century.

Alignment: Most Kender are Chaotic good. As a rule, they are good-hearted and kind, hate to see others in pain, and have no tolerance for oppression. They are also very unpredictable and have a love for personal freedom.

Size: Kender average about 3 feet tall and weigh about 40 pounds. Your size is Small.

Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Fearless: Kender are immune to the frightened condition.

Kender Nimbleness: You can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.

Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.

Handler: All Kender are proficient in Sleight of Hand.

Taunt. As an action you can taunt an enemy that shares a language with you and that can hear you. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw (the DC is 8 plus your proficiency bonus, plus your Charisma modifier). On a failed save, the target has disadvantage on all attack rolls against targets other than you until the end of your next turn.

Kender pockets: Once per long rest, you may reach into your pouch or pockets as an Action see what item you find that may have worked its way in there by mistake. Pick one small object owned by an ally and not currently held. You now have that item in hand. Your ally is aware you have the item (suddenly realising it's missing, or witnessing you pulling it from your pouch) and can re-roll any one ability check, saving throw or attack roll they make within the next hour. You must return that item to that ally at the first possible opportunity if your ally requests its return.

Alternatively you may roll on the following table and see what you find. Any item from this table can be given away to others, but regardless of where it is, it mysteriously dissapears at the end of your next long rest (likely finding its way back into your pouch by 'accident').

1- Uncle Tas’ Belly button lint
2- White chicken feather
3- Silver spoon
4- Three polished river stones
5- Five steel pieces
6- Ring of Teleportation (as the Helm)
7- Piece of wood that resembles a minotaur (but it isn’t carved)
8- Orange stockings
9- Rat skull
10- A dead rat
11- Sea shell
12- Lock of griffon hair (actually horse hair)
13- Fossilized frog skeleton
14- Magic Glasses of True Seeing (as the Gem, such as Tas used in Dragons of Winter Night)
15- Handle of a dagger (minus the blade)
16- Unicorn horn
17- Three pages of a Knight of Solamnia’s War Journal
18- Vial of acid from a black dragon
19- Jar with an insect inside
20 -Two rubies (50 steel pieces each)
21- A mug from a respectable tavern
22- A potion of healing
23- Holy Item (DM’s Choice)
24- Piece of deer antler
25- Piece of untanned leather
26- Minotaur hoof (it’s really just a cow hoof)
27- Keys to an unknown jail cell
28- A piece to a Khas game
29- Half a deck of cards
30- A miscellaneous magic item (DMs choice)
31- Magical Snowball that doesn’t melt
32- A piece of blackroot
33- Horse shoe
34- Seven leaf clover
35- Four leaf clover
36- A rabbit’s foot (actually it’s only a cat’s paw)
37- Whale bone needle
38- Completely unraveled fishing line
39- Fishing hook
40- A red feather
41- A toe nail claw from a Kyrie
42- A fish skeleton (with attached head and eyes)
43- A love letter that belongs to someone else
44- Small jar of invisibility salve (as a potion)
45- Small bag of acorns and seed
46- A piece of “Space Rock” (it’s really just a normal rock)
47- A beaded necklace (non-magical)
48- A baby’s rattle
49- Rattle snake tail
50- A wanted poster of someone
51- A wanted poster of the kender who owns the pouch
52- Moldy cheese
53- A boiled egg
54- A sun dried cricket
55- A small tin with wax in it
56- A boot lace
57- A piece of sky (it’s just a piece of a blue paint chip)
58- A miniature hoopak made from tooth picks
59- Half of a Solamnic Knight’s moustache
60- A funny hat
61- Monkey’s paw
62- Cow bell
63- A bottle of tree sap
64- Candle
65- Candle stick
66- A child’s doll
67- Tavern menu
68- A potion of greater healing
69- Part of a bee’s hive
70- A cork to a bottle
71- Gnomish tool set
72- A bit of wool from a sheep
73- A bit of flesh from a zombie
74- A vampire’s tooth
75- Seventeen dead rollie pollies
76- A dead butterfly
77- A piece of cactus
78- An old cracked smoker’s pipe
79- A potion of superior healing
80- Small shriveled up octopus tentacle
81- A small star fish
82- A flute (rumored to once be owned by Uncle Trapspringer)
83- A paint brush
84- Four marbles
85- An apple
86- A half eaten carrot
87- A slice of jerky
88- A salt shaker (full)
89- A pepper shaker (empty)
90- A green ball of slime
91- A live ferret
92- A twelve sided die
93- A potato peeler
94- An artist’s chisel
95- A deed to someone’s house
96- Cooled lava rock
97- A mushroom
98- Nothing (the pouch has a hole in it)
99- Another kender’s pouch (roll again)
100- DM’s choice

 

[GreenTengu]

Kender pockets: Once per long rest, you may reach into your pouch or pockets as an Action see what item you find that may have worked its way in there by mistake. Pick one small object owned by an ally and not currently held. You now have that item in hand. Your ally is aware you have the item (suddenly realising it's missing, or witnessing you pulling it from your pouch) and can re-roll any one ability check, saving throw or attack roll they make within the next hour. You must return that item to that ally at the first possible opportunity if your ally requests its return.

Alternatively you may roll on the following table and see what you find. Any item from this table can be given away to others, but regardless of where it is, it mysteriously dissapears at the end of your next long rest (likely finding its way back into your pouch by 'accident').

Rolling on a table for a random item defeats the narrative purpose of element just as much as them randomly swiping stuff from the other party members. Within the books, the idea would generally be that the Kender just happens to have picked up the correct item for the situation.

It would make more sense if it was something like "Once per a long or short rest, you may find that you have picked up any item worth less than a number of GP equal to your level. The items are generally used or tarnished and have no resale value, but they can otherwise be used normally. Unless in consistent use, the items generally get misplaced within an hour."

 

[wicked cool]

Wow, please try to recall what it was this would be a cool thing for helloween, if it gets to you could you post the titel of it?

Was a homebrew
I played the part of a dwarf paladin and our job was to investigate a demon summoning

the rest of the party were 2 that were controlled by the demon. the players knew ahead of time their goal was to stop me once I reached the area

the other 2 were agents of some group. their job was to stop me as well but they didn't know about the other 2 being turned

Long story short. I had no idea it was me vs them but at the same time the agents didn't know the other 2 were turned so when we reached the area the agents started shooting at all 3. I was left standing as I was lucky and had their unintentional help

I did however end up losing in the end after a heroic fight with the demon (I cant recall what type)

Dm did a masterful job as it was a simple one shot with 3 groups and for me it was the greatest player vs player battle-Should be easy to recreate