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

[Cadence]

Innocence, Authenticity, Tranquility, friendship, just plain being comfortable and in harmony with one's self and surroundings are not things you fight for,

It kind of feels like it is. There's a really popular cartoon telling kids it's magic and has the main characters fighting for it all the time. (And now I'm seeing the request for Pony characters).

nor are they particularly heroic they are the things people who only care about the immediate care about which tend to end up producing a population of "f you, I got mine" not necessarily a population of good people.

Feels like you're conflating greed with those positive things. But taking your line, maybe the power halflings have is wanting those things and not producing greedy kids.

 

[Yaarel]

Maybe I just haven't read the right stuff, but... what are the equivalent stories for humans, elves, and dwarfs? I honestly can't remember, beyond maybe that elves, when faced with such tragedy, withdraw from the world.

For me,

The High Elf is mainly (Tolkien movie-esque) treehouse towns (with East Asian and Euro Art Nouveau aesthetic), each with its own military that all adults participate in, mainly an Eldritch Knight force and a Bladesinger force, depending on individual preference. When not on duty, the High Elf can adventure as part of experiencing life and discovering oneself before becoming an "adult" at 100. The elven adventures themselves are often quests to discover and understand magic.

Wood Elves are wilderness nomads, and mainly keep to themselves unless provoked.

Eldarin adventures are entirely of mages, for mages, and by mages.

Udadrow adventures are often defined by their relationship to Lolth-center culture.

 

[Mercurius]

No it doesn't. That's nonsense. Halflings being in the PHB means excluding another race. Another race which would likely be more popular. As noted, I fully expect them to be there, to avoid "rocking the boat" too much with lineages already providing a lot of boat-rocking, but really, they're on the outs.

What would you suggest?

I still think that the PHB should include the traditional races, plus two or three new ones. Not only does everyone, even younger players, know the traditional races, but the "gonzo" races stand out more as alternatives if they're the minority. Too many such races ends up diluting the waters.

 

[Aldarc]

FWIW, I feel like it's a wave of people all disagreeing with one person, whether rightly or wrongly doesn't really matter, and I suspect the conversation would be better off (i.e., considerably less heated) by not engaging with them rather than inviting further back and forth discussion through replies.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

can you define such lore?

Well, as simplistically as I can…

Birthright halflings are all refugees from a cold and eternally twilight parallel reality that has been taken over by the Shadow Lord. Now, living in enclaves throughout whatever human settlements have welcomed them. They possess an innate shadow sense that allows them to see in or out of the shadow realm they are hunted in, and are able to travel into and out of the parallel world at will where otherwise it would require powerful magic for anyone else.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I still think that the PHB should include the traditional races, plus two or three new ones. Not only does everyone, even younger players, know the traditional races, but the "gonzo" races stand out more as alternatives if they're the minority. Too many such races ends up diluting the waters.

This shows a misunderstanding of the realities of the situation.

Halflings are a gonzo race. Tieflings and Dragon born are the norm. Literally - the most detailed evidence we has, has the top four as humans, combined elves, tieflings, and dragonborn (I think combined dwarves are the fifth, but it might be half-elves). I think as long as the list of PHB races only grows, it's fine to include halflings, but if they start cutting, halflings need to be one of the first to go.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No it doesn't. That's nonsense. Halflings being in the PHB means excluding another race.

The 5E PHB has more player character races included than any in the game's history. This is not a last lifeboat off the Titanic situation.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Kender without kleptomania is fine template for halflings though. Somewhat naïve, inquisitive and brave. Makes good adventurers. I said this before but everyone overlooked it: one issue with D&D halflings is the competing influences of kender and hobbits, as those are many ways complete opposites of each other.

The 3E halflings were really close to kender who'd been to therapy.

 

[Yaarel]

This shows a misunderstanding of the realities of the situation.

Halflings are a gonzo race. Tieflings and Dragon born are the norm. Literally - the most detailed evidence we has, has the top four as humans, combined elves, tieflings, and dragonborn (I think combined dwarves are the fifth, but it might be half-elves). I think as long as the list of PHB races only grows, it's fine to include halflings, but if they start cutting, halflings need to be one of the first to go.

I agree.

Despite devilish flavor not being my thing, the "domestication" of devilish flavor is what many newer players want to explore. The Tiefling is less than 10% of the characters, but is a more significant player interest than other lineages. Keep in mind too, that once upon a time, genies, vampires, goblins, and even elves were taboo, but now are thuroly domesticated.

 

[Yaarel]

Fortunately for everyone it is possible to look at what Halflings are actually presented as - there's a D&D Beyond entry for the halfling.

On rereading this, my response is still, huh, the Halflings are identical to humans.