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

[bedir than]

A poster accused those who disagree with them of “hating halflings”.

My words were chosen specifically and didn't indicate what you are saying. I didn't say that those that disagree with me hate halflings. I merely said that those who think that halflings can be easily replaced by humans because they ignore every bit of lore about every other race hate halflings.

There's no strawman. No insistence or pointing to you or anyone.

I didn't make it personal and I don't know why you would.

 

[Yaarel]

My words were chosen specifically and didn't indicate what you are saying. I didn't say that those that disagree with me hate halflings. I merely said that those who think that halflings can be easily replaced by humans because they ignore every bit of lore about every other race hate halflings.

There's no strawman. No insistence or pointing to you or anyone.

I didn't make it personal and I don't know why you would.

To be fair, the 5e lineages are frustrating, because they lack enough design space to distinguish the other lineages from human.

But in the case of halfling, even the lore itself is simply "scrappy" Short human. Every single example of a halfling in the official adventures, can be replaced by a human, SEAMLESSLY. There is no sense of anything missing from the story.

There is no otherworld origin, like Elf.

 

[Hussar]

You said:

Those that only object to halfling lore because it's "too human" merely hate halflings and aren't having an authentic debate.

I didn't do this. Any natural reading of English couldn't read this statement into my words.

You might want to check your definition of "natural English" because I do not think it means what you think it means. You are telling anyone who does something is only doing it because they hate halflings and are arguing in bad faith. That's pretty much by definition ascribing motives. You are not allowing for any other possibility - you are 100% stating as a fact that the only reason someone might think that halfling lore is "too human" is because the poster hates halflings and is arguing in bad faith.

If that's not what you meant to say, then perhaps clarifying your point might help. Or, as a better solution, simply refrain from ascribing motives to other people.

 

[bedir than]

You might want to check your definition of "natural English" because I do not think it means what you think it means.

Sure. Let's get into this.

What specific phrase of yours did I use that ascribed a motive to you specifically? How did my choice of words indicate you specifically and ascribed a motive to you.

Be quite specific, as you've described me as unable to understand English.

Do all of this while treating me with the respect and dignity I've treated everyone in this conversation.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Forging steel requires Earth (metal), Fire (melting), Air (bellows), and Water (tempering).

Perhaps Fey can overcome their vulnerability to cold iron, by means of some kind of elemental magic − or perhaps "cold iron" is itself elemental magic?

Well cold-iron is just "unforged" wrought iron. You could make maces and clubs out of it. You just need chunks of unforged iron large enough. Just stick a chuck of iron to a wooden stick. It would be a poor ugly weapon but double damage with a mace is better that normal damage with a steel longsword.

The issue is making blades and arrowheads out of it. Then you'd need magic or "secret forging techniques."

What if:

1) ”Starmetal” is just meteoric nickel iron that has been forged into whatever by standard smithing techniques, with materials otherwise natural to the planet

while

2) “Cold Iron” is starmetal (or, for consistency’s sake, elemental iron) that has been forged using fire, water and air of elemental origins. (Again, “cold” because of the iron’s origins.)

So that the “Cold Iron“ is anathema to Fey because NONE of the materials is truly native to the campaign world. It’s therefore not inherently magic, and anyone who has the right materials and blacksmithing skills can make it. The trick, of course, is obtaining and contro the elemental sources to complete the forging,

 

[Faolyn]

There is no otherworld origin, like Elf.

The vast majority of races have no otherworldly origin. (Unless you count "created by a god" to be otherworldly.)

 

[Yaarel]

What if:

1) ”Starmetal” is just meteoric nickel iron that has been forged into whatever by standard smithing techniques, with materials otherwise natural to the planet

while

2) “Cold Iron” is starmetal (or, for consistency’s sake, elemental iron) that has been forged using fire, water and air of elemental origins.

So that the “Cold Iron“ is anathema to Fey because NONE of the materials is truly native to the campaign world. It’s therefore not inherently magic, and anyone who has the right materials and blacksmithing skills can make it. The trick, of course, is obtaining and contro the elemental sources to complete the forging,

Also, I view the Feywild and Shadowfell as aspects of the Ethereal, adjacent Positivity and Negativity, respectively.

The Ether (force) of the Ethereal Plane is the "fifth element".

So, it makes sense if the concerted cooperation of the four elements interacts in a special way with the Ethereal, Fey and Shadow.

So it might affect ghosts too, for example.

 

[Yaarel]

The vast majority of races have no otherworldly origin. (Unless you count "created by a god" to be otherworldly.)

I singled out the elf because it looks human, but is otherworldly, thus feels nonhuman.

The other races look nonhuman − dragonborn, tiefling, orc, warforged, etcetera.

Dwarf is actually problematic for me.

But the halfling feels indistinguishable from a short human ethnicity, or a precocious human child of any ethnicity.

 

[Faolyn]

I wouldn't make iron weapons too hard to make. Lycanthropes can be taken down by silvered weapons, and silver's pretty common. Making a silver weapon is costly, yes, but not super-difficult. Fey-killing iron should be about the same. (Also demon-killing iron; they used to share that weakness in earlier editions.)

Perhaps the simplest way to go about it is to just add something to the metal as its forged. @Yaarel suggested that Feywild and Shadowfell are parts of the Etheral. Perhaps... add ether?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, if the starmetal is forged with elemental forces, it might damage Fey because elemental Earth is not being used in the creation process. That means that it has sort of a mystical ”square peg forced into a round hole” character. It’s very presence might be detectable by Fey as giving them a taste of iron in their mouth, or a ringing in their ears.

All of which opens the door for OTHER exotic material types, each made with 3 elemental materials and one unusual non-elemental material.

IOW:

Elemental _________ + Elemental _________ + Elemental _________ + Non-Elemental _________ = exotic crafting material