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

[Aldarc]

@AcererakTriple6, I am sympathetic to your overall point and I may add more thoughts to it later if I am able to get around to it.

I would like to say though that halflings are much bigger to Dark Sun’s lore than you are giving them credit. It’s not that they are just short cannibals; they are basically the progenitor ancestry of other humanoids. The Big Bad of the setting launched his mass genocide so that halflings could go back to ruling the planet. It was only when the Sorcerer Champions learned that halflings, and not humans, were meant to inherit the earth that they turned on the Big Bad.

 

[Mind of tempest]

@AcererakTriple6, I am sympathetic to your overall point and I may add more thoughts to it later if I am able to get around to it.

I would like to say though that halflings are much bigger to Dark Sun’s lore than you are giving them credit. It’s not that they are just short cannibals; they are basically the progenitor ancestry of other humanoids. The Big Bad of the setting launched his mass genocide so that halflings could go back to ruling the planet. It was only when the Sorcerer Champions learned that halflings, and not humans, were meant to inherit the earth that they turned on the Big Bad.

I heard a lot of people complained about that revelation but also any humanoid could have filled that role really.

 

[Aldarc]

I heard a lot of people complained about that revelation but also any humanoid could have filled that role really.

So did the Sorcerer-Kings, but it also doesn’t change the fact that removing halflings from Dark Sun would have some pretty big lore ramifications to the setting receptus.

 

[Mind of tempest]

So did the Sorcerer-Kings, but it also doesn’t change the fact that removing halflings from Dark Sun would have some pretty big lore ramifications to the setting receptus.

how so? say it was the orcs instead do things really change all that much.

 

[Mercurius]

It really depends upon the world, and the same applies to other races. Warforged have a reason to exist within Eberron, but not so much in other settings, except for players who want to play a "kewl robot."

Kender are pretty embedded within Dragonlance which was really explicated most fully in the novels, particularly the Chronicles. Tasslehoff was both comic relief and also representing a kind of "eternal child." Whether or not this translates to gaming is debatable.

In Lord of the Rings, the hobbits were essentially stand-ins for English country folk. Tolkien was having a bit of fun making jest of his own people. But also, as someone said above, the "reluctant adventurer."

I think, also, that "reason to exist" could be looked at in a variety of ways. I kind of think primarily in terms of world-building, and whether or not something fits the aesthetic that I'm trying to capture. For me, warforged, tiefling, dragonborn etc don't fit, so they don't exist. Meaning, the primary "reason to exist" is to flesh out and inhabit the themes and atmosphere that I want to capture. If something is incongruous with that, I don't include it or, at the least, modify it greatly, and I tend to modify most D&D tropes to suit my aesthetic.

 

[Mind of tempest]

It really depends upon the world, and the same applies to other races. Warforged have a reason to exist within Eberron, but not so much in other settings, except for players who want to play a "kewl robot."

Kender are pretty embedded within Dragonlance which was really explicated most fully in the novels, particularly the Chronicles. Tasslehoff was both comic relief and also representing a kind of "eternal child." Whether or not this translates to gaming is debatable.

In Lord of the Rings, the hobbits were essentially stand-ins for English country folk. Tolkien was having a bit of fun making jest of his own people. But also, as someone said above, the "reluctant adventurer."

I think, also, that "reason to exist" could be looked at in a variety of ways. I kind of think primarily in terms of world-building, and whether or not something fits the aesthetic that I'm trying to capture. For me, warforged, tiefling, dragonborn etc don't fit, so they don't exist. Meaning, the primary "reason to exist" is to flesh out and inhabit the themes and atmosphere that I want to capture. If something is incongruous with that, I don't include it or, at the least, modify it greatly, and I tend to modify most D&D tropes to suit my aesthetic.

may I ask what you're building exactly?
also the warforged have the second niche of being a cool robot which sounds dumb but is more to work with than you would think.

 

[Aldarc]

how so? say it was the orcs instead do things really change all that much.

If the human kingdoms of Eberron were replaced by some other ancestry, would it really change things all that much?

 

[el-remmen]

I don't understand. That seems like a lot of writing to say "I don't want halflings in games I run," which is your prerogative (I don't have Dragonborn. A friend of mine is starting a game where humans are the only playable race).

Now if what you are trying to argue is that "no one else should play a halfling at a table in which I am a player either because I don't see a niche for them," well then. . . that seems off.

Ultimately, it is a matter of taste and that's fine.

 

[Mind of tempest]

If the human kingdoms of Eberron were replaced by some other ancestry, would it really change things all that much?

one of them no, all of them yes then you would have no humans.

 

[Vaalingrade]

First, I personally don't get the need for a racial niche as PCs should be individuals anyway.

Second, as I've said before, halflings are pretty much the most human race in the game. Humans are ambitious weirdos and hyper adapters while halflings are the ones who seek comfort and ease instead of going 100 MPH all the time.

They're also the short race that's not 1) constantly disrespected and discriminated against or 2) historically used to be 'silly' or mock sci-fantasy.