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

[Neonchameleon]

Right... because they can't break down doors?

Depends on the door.

Man, this is some farming village. Fortified doors, covered in entire sections of 4 ft cover that the farmers dart between as they keep mobile to avoid the gnolls, from any angle of attack...

Man, this is some dangerous frontier they live in. Gnolls that replenish from a single gnoll, and always come in with perfect tactics and perfect knowledge of ranges.

How fortified any given settlement is is proportional to the expected threat.

The question is not whether halflings can drive off raiding parties. Clearly they can or the village would not be there. The question is twofold. How can they - and how is that different from how humans would do it as halflings are not actually humans except at the same level elves are? Both have been answered.

I remember when I was eviscerated for daring to suggest they have a single wall, now we've got a literal maze in the streets.

I don't - and don't believe it happened any more than we have a maze in the streets rather than shaped hills that provide corner, and some obstacles the halflings know to avoid.

 

[pemerton]

Don't Halflings defend themselves by having friendly rangers on patrol about their towns and villages?

 

[Chaosmancer]

Once again, why would halflings not pay taxes? Is there some super-secret official lore that says they're freeloaders? They're peaceful neighbors that never cause any trouble, why wouldn't they be a welcome part of any kingdom?

Okay, they pay taxes.

Do they send people to join the patrols? Or do only humans get recruited for the dangerous work, while also paying taxes? Can you think of NO ONE that would be upset that their children get called upon to fight and die while the halflings don't? Or do you think that these are entirely volunteer forces, and the brave halflings known for defending their homes... aren't defending their homes?

For that matter, halflings are small. Much like Tucker's kobolds, I can see them taking advantage of that in numerous ways when defending themselves against larger creatures. Have small bolt holes that medium creatures have to squeeze through with tiny choke points that medium have no hope of getting through for example. Pit traps that will hold their weight with no problem but collapse with another 100 pounds and so on. In addition, slings are actually quite effective as weapons, they've been used in armies for millennia. I seem to remember this story about a guy named Dave that used it quite effectively and they were used by armies as recently as the 12th century.

Yes, I'm aware the IRL slings can be deadly. In fact, slings can deal about 4 hp of damage, enough to kill a full grown human man. But Gnolls have 22 hp. Looking at the DMG on page 268 that means they can take shot from a shotgun or an automatic rifle (11 damage with a +2 dex mod) and still keep going.

How many humans do you know who can just ignore a shotgun blast to the chest? Even with max damage, they will survive that shot (18 damage with that +2 dex mod)

I also have to wonder how these halfling farmer who lead these idyllic lives have their entire community surrounded by pit traps that no wagon or farm animal could go over. It almost seems like they are preparing all these defenses and preparing for trouble... which is about all I've ever said they should do.

But obviously your world is monster world where the only thing a commoner can do is hope to get eaten quickly instead of slowly and painfully. If there are enough "raiders" that an entire race would not survive, civilization would collapse.

And now we get the accusations of Death World-ism. Thanks Oofta. I wanted to avoid this, and yet despite my best efforts of showing that I do believe halflings could survive, I get the same accusations. Again.

 

[Chaosmancer]

It occurs to me, I have the same problem with the Aquatic Elf. The Aquatic Elf is way too similar to the Nixie, and similarly redundant with Mermaid, Triton, and similar. Solutions include, merge the Aquatic Elf into the Nixie, and disambiguate the Nixie from the other aquatic humanoids, thus refer to the non-elf Nixie by the nickname "aquatic elf". Or oppositely refer to the Aquatic Elf as a Nixie, similar to referring to a Dark Elf as a Drow. Make sure the Nixie Aquatic Elf differs meaningfully from Mermaid and Triton. Note, the 2e Eladrin version of the Aquatic Elf is the Noviere which is virtually a Nixie.

Yeah, I just ignore Tritons and Sea Elves. just do merfolk, and leave it at that. I'm not having half a dozen nearly identical aquatic races.

 

[Chaosmancer]

In reallife medieval contexts, bows and arrows that can be made from the woods, are cheaper than the swords and so on that require metallurgy.

Archery requires a significant amount of training, but is relatively inexpensive.

Very true. I went with crossbows because they are like guns.

Point. Shoot.

But shortbows would work just as well, even if they require a bit more training

 

[Chaosmancer]

The PHB tells us that a skilled hireling charges 2gp per day for short term services to extremely dangerous and rich individuals. But this is windfall short term cash; you earn a lot less than that in a stable job.

... nope

PHB pg 187, allows PCs (who are assumed to be traveling) to spend their downtime working. If they are part of an organization that can provide "gainful employment" then they can earn a comfortable lifestyle. Which is 2 gp per day.

Nothing about this price decreasing if you are doing it for a five year downtime instead of a month.

I also believe that comfortable is achievable by people with tool proficiencies, which is also skilled labor, but I can't find the exact passage in the PHB.

Meanwhile the big issue with farming is how seasonal it is. That three person farm is almost certainly referring to growing season. It's going to need a lot more farmhands both in planting season and harvest season, and those are also considered unskilled. The question is what they do the rest of the year.

Fair, it is seasonal. But they could spend that additional time doing other skilled labor and earning the same wages. Or buy selling products like milk, cheese and eggs.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Exandria on the other hand has precisely one sourcebook. I don't even want to know how many sourcebooks there have been for the Realms over the years and I don't think the Realms have done much with halflings since the 80s.

Two sourcebooks.

One by Green Ronin for Tal'Dorie and one by WoTC for Wildemount.

 

[Chaosmancer]

And most "non-humans" in any setting are just types of human with human psychologies of various sorts turned up to 11 being written by humans and played by humans in a way that is comprehensible to humans. I've already shown how elves are the glitterati.

If we're doing this then there are no non-human races in D&D. By definition there can't be because humans can't understand things that different.

Except, halflings in Eberron are more literally just short humans. It basically says as much in the sourcebook. That the halflings who left the Plains traveled with the humans and adopted their customs, dress, ect.

This isn't "everyone is really human behind the mask" but "Eberron specifically says that city halflings have grown to adopt human culture as part of the story of Eberron, and to spark stories of cultural drift"

 

[Neonchameleon]

Two sourcebooks.

One by Green Ronin for Tal'Dorie and one by WoTC for Wildemount.

For comparison the Realms had, I think 20 sourcebooks over the course of 3.X and at least as many over 2e. This is the problem with the Realms having so little stuff.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Depends on the door.

So then the answer is yes, they can break down the door, so the halflings are not fortified.

Man, this is some dangerous frontier they live in. Gnolls that replenish from a single gnoll, and always come in with perfect tactics and perfect knowledge of ranges.

How fortified any given settlement is is proportional to the expected threat.

The question is not whether halflings can drive off raiding parties. Clearly they can or the village would not be there. The question is twofold. How can they - and how is that different from how humans would do it as halflings are not actually humans except at the same level elves are? Both have been answered.

Actually... the gnolls are just following the lore in how they replenish. That has nothing to do with anything. Their "perfect tactics" involve... shooting arrows or throwing spears at people they can't stab, and not just running through a hail of sling-stones and dying without hitting anyone.

And the people with perfect knowledge of ranges seem to be the halflings who are always 30 ft away before firing their slings (and being able to move back 30 ft, since they aren't going to end up in melee)

And, I actually answered that question of how can they drive off raiding parties.

They have crossbows, and have trained a bit in how to fight and drive off gnolls. My only complaint was that slings are an inadequate weapon for defending a town against a threat. I'd also prefer some more militant things, like rangers or scouts and maybe a wall for the village, but that's it.

I don't - and don't believe it happened any more than we have a maze in the streets rather than shaped hills that provide corner, and some obstacles the halflings know to avoid.

Shaped hills? So, they just have windy streets? And the gnolls can't run over the hills and ignore this sudden cover because....

Look, this isn't that hard to get right? Slings just aren't a strong enough weapon with a long enough range. The rest of this is stuff that can potentially work, maybe, but not if the halflings have to be withing 30 ft. A Light Crossbow takes them from an average of 4-5 damage (assuming your +2 dex mod, which I'm just giving you at this point) to an average of 6-7 damage. That is doubling their damage. And their range is massively increased. To the point where the gnolls can't throw the spears at them, and they would need to rely on the bows. Which does make it incredibly dangerous for the halflings still, but gives them a far better fighting chance.

And that is it. That is the miracle I am asking for. Better weapons than a sling, which simply isn't going to cut it against dangerous enemies. Maybe they carry the sling for personal protection while traveling, or in the city, but if you are talking about defending the town from a raid? You need more than slings.