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

[Older Beholder]

In my homebrew halflings generally fill the role of innocence.

Just anecdotally, I have played a lot with a friend since 3E that only ever plays halflings so to write them out of my campaign would seem a bit rough.

In a different group I joined last year the DM has no gnomes or halflings in his world because he hates both the races.

 

[Yaarel]

I agree with the original poster. If one can remove a lineage from a setting, and nothing seems to be missing from the setting, then there is a problem with that lineage.

Generally, Halfling (or Hin) can be a Human ethnic group, such as who lives on an island and happens to be shorter than the global Human average. This ethnic group may or may not have also migrated elsewhere. The Halfling is Human. In other words, there are no Halflings.

The Halfling adds little or nothing to the storytelling tools.



I removed Halflings because they are too Human. I also make an effort to make the other lineages less Human. The Elf is an immaterial nature being (sunray or verdant land), and the ones who live in the material world among the Human are unique individuals. Viceversa, the Humans who live among the Elf are unique individuals. (Well, I also have Drow who immigrated as a group into the material world.) The Dwarf is animate stone and metal, whose individuals exhibit diverse gemmy appearances.

4e was great for expressing a Nonhuman flavor because its mechanics for a lineage were more substantial. For example, when a level 1 Eladrin could teleport, that felt amazing. There is a palpable sense that this is a Nonhuman and somehow relating to a spirit world. This flavor actualized mechanically during each gaming session. Even the 4e Halfling had appeal as a magical creature with a river-nomad mercantile culture, and criminal mafia contacts everywhere.

Because 5e lineage mechanics are so bare-bones, there is less design space to distinguish Nonhumans from the Human.

What I do now is give each lineage a choice of several lineage feats, whose assemblage together helps define the feel of that lineage. I love Tashas and its official customized lineage. It is a fantastic design space. Altho it is actually less power than some of the Players Handbook lineages, the free choice of a feat is potent and amazing to make one lineage feel different from an other lineage. Right now, I homebrew feats to choose from for each lineage. I expect official feats for the Tashas mechanic to choose from to eventually come out in the future.

 

[Mind of tempest]

To paraphrase a quote from WandaVision:

What are halflings, if not Tolkien persevering?

I believe that paraphrase comes from the boys, personally, I want the right of Tolkien to end.

You are confusing NPC halflings with PC halflings. Sure, most halflings (the NPCs) don't pursue such careers - but this can also be said of most NPC humans, dwarves, elves, etc .
But the PCs? They're a different breed.... You'd have to ask the players "Why is your 1/2ling a _____?"

6 of my own:

• Warlock (pact of the Chain, Fey Patron, familiar: pseudo-dragon) - as a child she befriended an ancient pseudo-dragon who began teaching her simple, non-harmful, magic. The P.Dragons goal was to train her & once she was old enough send her out adventuring to acquire loot for him. She jumped the gun by a few years. Nothing unwilling about this adventurer.
• Barbarian (Ancestral Guardian) - the warlocks older sister. Very much the reluctant adventurer. It was her own poor choices that set both her & her warlock sister on the adventuring path. She's a barbarian because she fights in a completely untrained manner (rage) & this was the class that best represented that.
• Fighter 1/Druid +(Circle of the Land) - Before becoming a Druid he was an ordinary hobbit working as a baker & doing his duty serving part time in the towns reserve militia. Until he came into contact with a bad batch of gnomish potions, got transformed into a dog, & at the end of the adventure failed the save vs the effect becoming permanent. So he set off to seek help from the regions Druids. He's now a dog who can wildshape back to his original 1/2ling form. The only way for him to spend more time in his original form is to advance as a druid so as to increase his wildshape duration. It's more of a career change than being an unwilling adventurer. In either form though he helped defend the region during the Tyranny of Dragons.

Ranger/Gunslinger (Pathfinder) - This guy is a big game hunter. He comes complete with an elephant gun, plenty of ammo, a 1/2ling assistant (via leadership feat) & is often found in the wilds of Varisia on Safari. His goal: bag a sphinx.
* Garth, poor Garth.... He's a 1980s redbox basic edition 1/2ling (translates as "fighter with smaller HD & lv cap".). His claim to fame? Well, he doesn't have a negative modifier to his con..... And he's somehow still alive.
Other than that? Yeah, he's pretty special with negative mods on 5/6 ability scores.
* Uno - My very 1st D&D character. He started off as an '80s era Basic edition 1/2ling. So essentially a fighter - though his inspiration was Bilbo. But he's been remade as a rogue type in every edition save 4e, including via house rules in Basic.
Somewhere along the line he definitely turned evil. If memory serves he fell victim to the altar in the Caves of Chaos.
And sometime after that he became an assassin (1st as houserules in 1e) - because he's a sneaky & now evil git + nobody would ever suspect the halfling.... (because the chart in the book tells you that there are no 1/2ling assassins )



They aren't there in worlds I build/run because I'm told they should be. They're there because as the DM I like them.
And I'm the DM, so my whim is reality.

Now if I'm a player & the DM says "There's no 1/2lings in my game"? That's cool. I've got about a million other character ideas. I'm sure I can come up with something that fits.

1) You do know they aren't unique to the FR, right?
2) Or you could just add another page to the PHB with your "better" thing. Then you're happy & everyone else is as well.

several of those highlights the problem I have with them interesting stuff happens to them they would otherwise never go out of their lane for anything.
barbarian rage is not untrained fighting, it is closer to a medical condition do not speak to me of rage as I better than most.

the big game hunter makes no sense, halflings do not care for the thrill of the hunt so they would never become one.

yes, I know fr is not the only setting as I hate that setting but never found one that quite fits and none of them really fit halflings so I as again can you justify them as a major race, gods orc are more important than halflings.
I do not have the luxury of being able to tell wotc to add what I want.

In my homebrew halflings generally fill the role of innocence.

Just anecdotally, I have played a lot with a friend since 3E that only ever plays halflings so to write them out of my campaign would seem a bit rough.

In a different group I joined last year the DM has no gnomes or halflings in his world because he hates both the races.

innocence of what crime? what evil did everyone else commit? do you mean a society with the innocence of children? those are called Eloi.

do you know what your friend likes about halflings as that would be really useful?

look the closes I get to a halfling that I do not hate make cites out of cooled magma like respectable members of society.

I agree with the original poster. If one can remove a lineage from a setting, and nothing seems to be missing from the setting, then there is a problem with that lineage.

Generally, Halfling (or Hin) can be a Human ethnic group, such as who lives on an island and happens to be shorter than the global Human average. This ethnic group may or may not have also migrated elsewhere. The Halfling is Human. In other words, there are no Halflings.

The Halfling adds little or nothing to the storytelling tools.

you have a really good point they are flat out not integrated well with most settings as their core concept is either missing or does not fit but they get stuffed in anyway.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Arcana Evolved was published first.
The original Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed was published in 2003, the updated 3.5 revised version Arcana Evolved was published 2005.
Ptolus was published in 2006.

Whoops

 

[Aldarc]

Arcana Evolved was published first.
The original Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed was published in 2003, the updated 3.5 revised version Arcana Evolved was published 2005.
Ptolus was published in 2006.

Ptolus was Monte Cook's homebrew setting he was using to playtest and run 3rd Edition, so it still predates AU/AE even if it was published later. Young as I am, I still remember MC talking about Ptolus even when he was working under Malhavoc Press on publishing Arcana Unearthed. MC didn't put AU/AE Litorians and Faen in Ptolus; he put his Ptolus Litorians and Faen into AU/AE.

 

[Yaarel]

Heh, I also find it irksome for there to be a sprawling deluge of Small lineages. Yet not a single officially playable Large lineage.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Heh, I also find it irksome for there to be a sprawling deluge of Small lineages. Yet not a single officially playable Large lineage.

same man, same.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Heh, I also find it irksome for there to be a sprawling deluge of Small lineages. Yet not a single officially playable Large lineage.

Justice for half-ogres!

 

[Quartz]

As for the topic of 'why have halflings,' I dunno, why have dogs?

To riff off my earlier suggestion about horses, rather than horses getting larger maybe it was humans that got smaller to be better able to ride the small horses? Humans evolving to be smaller has happened in the real world with Homo Floresiensis.

 

[Quartz]

Heh, I also find it irksome for there to be a sprawling deluge of Small lineages. Yet not a single officially playable Large lineage.

How about centaurs, minotaurs, and half-ogres?