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

[Crimson Longinus]

I'd disagree. If I sat down at a table and the DM described the world and the various factions, and they didn't mention elves or dwarves, I'd be asking them where they are.

But halflings are supposedly on the same tier and if they aren't mentioned... I don't notice.

That sounds like a you problem. I'd just ask what known intelligent species there are and which of them are playable.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Butting in... I disagree. You can exclude any race and not really have an impact. Even humans. As you said, there are over a hundred races, plus homebrew is super-simple. Get rid of any one race and there are two or three more to take its place.

Unless, for some reason, you decide to do a thing like say "there are no mines or good smiths anywhere on this world because there are no dwarfs." Which is silly. If there are no dwarfs, then humans, goblins, kobolds, gnomes, drow, etc., would take their place and the only players who would care are those who desperately want to play dwarfs for a reason. If there are no elves, you have humans, gnomes, firbolg, and that new faery race to take the place of "woodland dwellers who are in tune with nature and the fey and makes beautiful, natural goods and is probably a bit of a snot." If you get rid of tieflings, you have drow and shadar-kai to take their place in the edgy loner club. If you got rid of dragonborn, well, there's nothing else that has a breath weapon, but you still have lizardfolk and playable yuan-ti.

D&D is a crowded system and there are probably relatively few people who would be truly horrified if your world didn't have one or more of the Core Four.

I think I wasn't clear.

Let's look at the Forgotten Realms for a second. If you removed all Elves from that setting, would people notice? Yes. Immediately the history of the world has massive holes in it. Things have to be fundamentally changed.

What if you remove halflings? Not really. I have yet to find anything major that halflings as a race participated in. Individuals sure, but the race? Not so much.


And it even comes in when doing world-building for a fresh world. Sure, you can cut dwarves and and kobolds, gnomes, or something else is going to take their place... but it is very different. If all elves are replaced with Firbolg, you have a very very different feel to the forests and the people who deal there. And you need to replace them. Something has to live in the forest, likely something fey related, and it leaves a noticeable gap to be filled.

What is the gap halflings leave? Pastoral Farming people are just humans. They don't leave a noticeable gap that needs to be filled up.

This isn't to say that other races are irreplaceable. Sure, you can swap elves for gnomes or elves for firbolg, but it is a very noticeable difference, and leave a big impact on the world. But who do you swap halflings for and why? Are you just replacing them as a small race? Why do you need a small race? Something needs to live in the ancient forests. Something needs to live in the mountains. Something needs to live in the dark depths. But... who needs to live in the farmlands in human territory? Because that is what halflings are. They just... live with humans.

 

[Chaosmancer]

That sounds like a you problem. I'd just ask what known intelligent species there are and which of them are playable.

So, you are telling me that if a DM laid out the world for you and said "here to the north are the humans, here in the mountains are the giants, south we have the shifters, and on the coasts we have the dwarves" you would never think "huh, no elves."

It would never even register to you that they didn't mention elves at all? I'm not saying you would have an issue with it, or ask about it, but are you trying to say you wouldn't even notice that one of the most common fantasy races of all time was absent?

I find that hard to believe. But, as a counter, that is EXACTLY what has happened to me with halflings. I literally just today realized that in a 4 year campaign they were not mentioned even once.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I think I wasn't clear.

Let's look at the Forgotten Realms for a second. If you removed all Elves from that setting, would people notice? Yes. Immediately the history of the world has massive holes in it. Things have to be fundamentally changed.

What if you remove halflings? Not really. I have yet to find anything major that halflings as a race participated in. Individuals sure, but the race? Not so much.


And it even comes in when doing world-building for a fresh world. Sure, you can cut dwarves and and kobolds, gnomes, or something else is going to take their place... but it is very different. If all elves are replaced with Firbolg, you have a very very different feel to the forests and the people who deal there. And you need to replace them. Something has to live in the forest, likely something fey related, and it leaves a noticeable gap to be filled.

What is the gap halflings leave? Pastoral Farming people are just humans. They don't leave a noticeable gap that needs to be filled up.

This isn't to say that other races are irreplaceable. Sure, you can swap elves for gnomes or elves for firbolg, but it is a very noticeable difference, and leave a big impact on the world. But who do you swap halflings for and why? Are you just replacing them as a small race? Why do you need a small race? Something needs to live in the ancient forests. Something needs to live in the mountains. Something needs to live in the dark depths. But... who needs to live in the farmlands in human territory? Because that is what halflings are. They just... live with humans.

This is just blatantly absurd. There's a forest outside of my window, and I am relatively confident that there are no elves or firbolg living there. There might be rabbits, but I doubt they replaced the elves.

 

[Cadence]

This is just blatantly absurd. There's a forest outside my window, and I am relatively confident that there are no elves or firbolg living there. There might be rabbits, but I doubt they replaced the elves.

I'd guess squirrel, deer, fox, and raccoon. Rabbits sound like what you'd run into where the halflings aren't living.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

So, you are telling me that if a DM laid out the world for you and said "here to the north are the humans, here in the mountains are the giants, south we have the shifters, and on the coasts we have the dwarves" you would never think "huh, no elves."

It would never even register to you that they didn't mention elves at all? I'm not saying you would have an issue with it, or ask about it, but are you trying to say you wouldn't even notice that one of the most common fantasy races of all time was absent?

I find that hard to believe. But, as a counter, that is EXACTLY what has happened to me with halflings. I literally just today realized that in a 4 year campaign they were not mentioned even once.

I mean I'd probably notice it in in sense that I'd be aware that they're not included, just like the dragonborn and the halfling etc don't appear to be. But this seems to be the GM telling me that the playable races are humans, shifters and dwarfs. My first question would probably be whether the giants include goliaths or other such playable mini-giant equivalents. And now that you mention it, I realised that the setting I played in for about a decade did have dwarves but it didn't have elves. But before this I really didn't think 'oh this setting has no elves'. Also there were forests, which somehow managed to exist without elves, or indeed any particular fantasy species living in them.

 

[Yaarel]

This is just blatantly absurd. There's a forest outside of my window, and I am relatively confident that there are no elves or firbolg living there. There might be rabbits, but I doubt they replaced the elves.

But are there trollfolk there?!

 

[Crimson Longinus]

But are there trollfolk there?!

No, I think they live in Norway.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

That isn't why I'm advocating that they need something done, but it would be nice.

They could also rewrite them to make them more engaging and interesting. That would work too, but people seem to think that changing them in anyway is bad, which leaves me in an odd position. I don't think the status quo is good, but every change to the status quo is met with fierce opposition.

If people don't want halflings to change, then it seems the simplest solution is to make them less prominent, and that would lessen the tension I feel between how they are talked about as a major part of DnD and how they are presented as... not a major part of DnD.

I've been reading this thread pretty closely and I don't think I've seen one person have the position that "you can't change the halfling lore". Almost everyone on the halfling side is saying "The lore is good enough. If you want more then add it yourself".

If I might hop back to dwarves for a moment, since you laid out your case that their lore is strong enough....let me ask you this tangent question.

Where is the lore to support a difference between Hill and Mountain dwarves? Do Hill dwarves build vast underground cities? Do they build surface cities? If surface cities, how are they not pallette swap of a human mining town?

 

[Cadence]

Where is the lore to support a difference between Hill and Mountain dwarves? Do Hill dwarves build vast underground cities? Do they build surface cities? If surface cities, how are they not pallette swap of a human mining town?

I have to believe Dwarves brew good beers and not IPAs or American style lagers...