D&D General My Problem(s) With Halflings, and How To Create Engaging/Interesting Fantasy Races

[Alzrius]

In seriousness, though, halflings weren't even allowed to be spellcasters other than clerics until 3rd edition so they couldn't make any items until then. Most magic items are legacy items, with relatively few that are new to this edition.

Minor correction: Halflings were allowed to be druids in AD&D 1E, albeit only as NPCs, and were restricted to 6th level.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Just as a mental image - and one that informs my homebrew worlds:

• Elves: bowyers/archers, forest dwellers. Arts and longevity; sometimes philosophy. Airy.
• Dwarves: smiths (weapon, armor, precious metals), warriors (but "defender", not "conqueror"). Drinkers, and concerned about honor. Earthy.
• Gnomes: artificers and alchemists, tinkerers and fey jokesters. Scientists, but also most likely to breach the Far Realm. Abssent-minded professor.
• Goblins: evil vicious "rats". anywhere there are towns, there are goblins nearby or underneath. Chaotic Selfish personified, with a healthy (?) helping of Sadism. Com[ete for space with "good" races. In my current world, the "dominant" civilization!
• Kobolds: dragon-worshipping mining minions. In one world, also powerful shamen.
• Warforged: These are placeholders for each world's idea of sentient constructs. In one, the PC warforged was unique; in another, the PC warforged was unusual, but no more so than any other thing in a magical world.
• Tielflings: Only exist if there's a backstory in the world for the ancestral "deal with the devil" homeland. Somtimes, they are unique like a warforged, not a "Race" as much as a "cast out hybrid".
• Aasimar: See "Tiefling".
• Dragonborn: sometimes slaves of the dragons, sometimes magical creations, sometimes "unique cast-out hybrid".
• Human: What everyone else thinks are "neutral, vicious rats" -- the standard by which everything else is measured, spread everywhere, get underfoot, need to be weeded out every few centuries, mostly concerned only with the happiness of their own lives, but with the potential for exemplars that exceed any other race. I.e. default PC race.
• Orcs: Usually the go-to evil version of Humans. [In my current campaign, by design choice, they don't - and never did - exist.]
• Halfbreeds: Half-Elfs, Half-Orcs, Dwelves, Elcs, whatever... hybrids always caught between their parent societies (I see you over there, Tanis!); sometimes accepted, sometimes not, depends on the society. My own PC right now had a happy home life with elf mom and human dad (until dad died and mom lost interest), and was a respected shopkeeper in his hometown until Story..

What's missing from that list? Oh, right... Halflings. [Okay, also a whole host of edge-case creatures like aarakocra, kenku, rabbitfolk, etc.]

In my mental picture of a (mostly) bipedal humanoid world, there just isn't a default picture of where halflings fit in. Gnomes are from the Fey; eladrin are "Fey-er" elves. But "short lucky humans" isn't a biological/societal niche that makes sense to me. Though I might be virtually stoned for saying it, Kender make sense more than any other "halfling" concept! I can see a Loki/Trickster type god throwing in a lithe careless/carefree thieving race "just to spice things up"; I don't ever see any god (including Evolution) saying "let me make a sedentary race of half-height farmers that are likely to get stoned/fat/drunk". Unless, I guess, I specifically created such a diety (like the OP said), who then specifically created the halflings... but then... I see them all getting wiped out (enslaved?) by any of the above races.

Maybe, with some tinkering, they become strongly water-based - like some lore tried to do - and they become master sailors (merchants and traders), finding a niche on the water than no other race fills. I would need to lean heavily into that, though, and throw away any other "common" concepts; halflings would become the "watery" match to the gut-instinct "earthy" and "airy" dwarves and elves. (Maybe Gnomes are the "fiery"?). But then... why do they need to be halflings at all?

I mean this with respect, but I don't really see how you've demonstrated that any of these niches or races are more necessary than your understanding of halflings.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Here's Shannon Applecline's write up for the Five Shires, the Mystara gazetteer written by Ed Greenwood (and later plagiarized by himself for halflings in the Forgotten Realms). The PDF is available for $5 if you want to see what Greenwood did. (I think it's one of the best of the GAZ series, myself.)

GAZ8: "The Five Shires" (1988), by Ed Greenwood, is the eighth book in the "GAZ" series of Gazetteers for the Known World. It was published in September 1988.

Origins. By 1988, Greenwood was already working hard on Forgotten Realms sourcebooks and novels. However, when Bruce Heard asked him to write "The Five Shires", as part of the rapid expansion of the Known World, he was happy to contribute.

Greenwood approached "The Five Shires" as a world designer. He opted to create a "golden land of plenty", in contrast to the more violent and unstable countries that filled the Known World. The trick was then to place danger and adventure within this seemingly utopian landscape.

Famous Personalities! While driving across Canada, Greenwood chanced upon a hobby store in rural British Columbia just as "Five Shires" was released. He accidentally outed himself as the author by quoting a paragraph for a young customer who found his copy marred by an ink blotch. Afterward, the GAZ fan ran out and told the whole town about the author's presence; Greenwood found himself signing many autographs on diner napkins before he and his wife fled.

Continuing the “GAZ” Sourcebooks. "The Five Shires" continued the "GAZ" series of geographical sourcebooks for the Known World. Like its immediate predecessors, "The Five Shires" contained two books, one for players and for GMs; the players book contained lots of crunchy game bits, while the GMs book was full of fluffy source material.

"The Five Shires" was also the third of the race-oriented "GAZ" sourcebooks, the previous two being GAZ5: "The Elves of Alfheim" (1988) and GAZ6: "The Dwarves of Rockhome" (1988), both published earlier in the year.

Expanding Basic D&D. As with many of the later "GAZ" books, "The Five Shires" contains expansions to the Basic D&D rules. Most importantly it includes a new halfling subclass, the Master, who can go up to 35th level, where normal halflings were limited to 8th level. "The Five Shires" also describes a special "denial" ability available to halflings in the Shires, has mechanics for influence and clans, and expands the blackflame rules originally found in the D&D Companion Set (1984).

A History of Halflings. Halflings first appeared in OD&D (1974) as hobbits, clearly borrowed from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (1954-1955). However Elan Merchandising, who held Tolkien rights in the US, objected to TSR's use of Tolkien material and sent them a cease & desist in late 1977. Hobbits became halflings, but still remained very hobbit-like. The main exception was in the world of Krynn (1984+) where halflings became the child-like kender.

Halflings have never been as popular as dwarves or elves, so there weren't any major halfling sourcebooks from TSR prior to "Five Shires". Unsurprisingly, the halflings described here are still hobbit-like, with a rural country full of pipe smokers. However, "Five Shires" also details highwaymen and pirates, giving some variety to its halfling people. Greenwood also introduced a new name for halflings — hin — which allowed him to save space in the manuscript.

Half-a-decade later, TSR would release PHBR9: The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings (1993), their first generic look at halflings (and gnomes).

Expanding the Known World. "The Five Shires" expands on an area of the Known World that hadn't previously received much attention. Greenwood's detailed descriptions of individual communities within the Shires, complete with smaller scale maps of the areas, is reminiscent of his later work on the Volo's Guides (1992-1996, 2000) for the Forgotten Realms.

Many of the Known World setting books are linked to real-world countries. "The Five Shires" has the rural feel of the British countryside, though it doesn't seem connected to any specific part of the British Isles.

Expanding the Forgotten Realms. Greenwood also uses the word "hin" to describe the halflings of the Forgotten Realms. When asked whether "The Five Shires" could generally be used for Forgotten Realms play, Greenwood said:

"Sure. Superimpose the Luiren cities and government structure, shift places 'just a little' to make room for them, and, yes, it works admirably for that. Almost as if someone designed it that way."

Expanding the Outer Planes. "The Five Shires" also touches upon the unique cosmology of Mystara by connecting the Halfling's blackflame with the Sphere of Energy.

Future History. Greenwood wrote specifically about the halflings of the Realms in "Hin Nobody Knows" for Dragon #269 (March 2000).

About the Creators. This was Greenwood's second non-Realms book for TSR, following CM8: "The Endless Stair" (1987) and preceding SJR1: "Lost Ships" (1990). By 1988, Greenwood was extensively writing Realms books for TSR, with his first novel, Spellfire (1988), being his most notable release for the year.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Minor correction: Halflings were allowed to be druids in AD&D 1E, albeit only as NPCs, and were restricted to 6th level.

Of the many dumb tables in 1E, that was one of the dumbest. I remember everyone I played with back in middle school immediately deciding that NPC-only classes, both here and in Dragon magazine, was a completely pointless restriction.

And man, for people who are unhappy with how half-orcs have been treated over the years, that stuff started with Gygax. "Sorry, you can't be a high level thief, like every other PC race can be, just a high level murderer."

 

[Alzrius]

On an expanded note, I'm pretty sure that halfling clerics could make magic items in AD&D 2nd Edition:

 

[Alzrius]

And man, for people who are unhappy with how half-orcs have been treated over the years, that stuff started with Gygax. "Sorry, you can't be a high level thief, like every other PC race can be, just a high level murderer."

Not to mention how half-orcs are apparently regarded by the gods and their divine servitors as being spiritually unclean, hence the restriction to 4th level as clerics.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Not to mention how half-orcs are apparently regarded by the gods and their divine servitors as being spiritually unclean, hence the restriction to 4th level as clerics.

Suggesting that 21st century people saying "gosh, a lot of this stuff about orcs looks a lot like real-world racism" are not exactly plucking this stuff out of the air.

 

[Alzrius]

Suggesting that 21st century people saying "gosh, a lot of this stuff about orcs looks a lot like real-world racism" are not exactly plucking this stuff out of the air.

And draconians from Dragonlance.

 

[Umbran]

if this is true then it sickens me.

Mod Note:
I made a note upthread about perspective. Please keep it in mind.

If you are literally sickened by this, then maybe it is time to step away from the discussion. If you are not, it is definitely time to stop using emotionally loaded hyperbole to discuss the fictional position of people with hairy feet.

 

[Mind of tempest]

They trade those scones for metal.

you do know what the scones to metal exchange rate is even today?

Near their mining communities? Are dwarves the only people who get to mine? Where do you think the halflings get all the pots and pans they need for second breakfast? Also they can trade for them, like literally everyone else if they have a mind to. This line of questioning confuses me.

no one ever talks of them mining just farming and eating.

I mean, I believe there's a good argument that golf courses are just for drinking as well.

I hate golf courses waste of fertile land.

Not to mention how half-orcs are apparently regarded by the gods and their divine servitors as being spiritually unclean, hence the restriction to 4th level as clerics.

now that is just depressing and likely racist.