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

[Hussar]

Not that big, proportional to their bodies (i.e., not in original hobbit/halfling-sized ratio).

Unfortunately, we've seen the reaction when the artists try deviating from the "standard" halfling. People LOATHE the 5e halfling art.

So much for being able to make any changes.

 

[Yaarel]

You mean ... like giving them enormous, hairy feet?

5e Halfling has small feet.

So whether the feet are big or small, the Halfling is way too Human.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Heh, I get the impression that @doctorbadwolf is somewhat worried that D&D might get rid of the Halfling.

Not especially. It literally isn’t even on the table. 100% guarantee.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Are they Norse? Name these tales.

You’re on the Internet. I trust you can find a list of Scandinavian stories of dwarves.

 

[Yaarel]

You’re on the Internet. I trust you can find a list of Scandinavian stories of dwarves

Dude, they dont exist. I am asking you to prove your assertion.

The Old Norse texts specify the Dvergar petrify in sunlight.

Later Scandinavian folkbelief doesnt really have dwarves, as the concept of them merged with trolls. Some trolls petrify, some dont.

In the 1300s, there is a story about a German dwarf in Germany, but even this is presumably nocturnal. Unlike Norse Dvergar, the German dwarf is short.

 

[Mecheon]

Y'know, thinking on how to do stuff with halflings... Just keep going with the underground theme. Give 'em claws. Just make them all live underground. Squint in the sunlight.

Just, make 'em molemen.

 

[Yaarel]

Compare vampires that avoid sunlight.

And drow. Heh, the sunlight might hurt drow eyes, but the true terror is losing drow magic items.

 

[Hussar]

Not especially. It literally isn’t even on the table. 100% guarantee.

Unfortunately I totally agree with this. We saw in 4e what happened when you try to futz with the core races. Never minding that playable gnomes we’re added back in within a month or two of release. That didn’t matter. Gnomes weren’t in the phb and it was torched and pitchforks time.

Lose a Tolkien race? Good luck with that. People would lose their collective minds.

 

[Mind of tempest]

These are decent Dwarf cultures. They remind me of classic martial Fighter Dwarf versus recent primal Druid Dwarf.

But I wish the Dvergar (using a reallife culture term) were more mythologically accurate. These "dwarves" are different.

Dvergar Traits
• Actually is the mind of a feature of rock or clay
• Petrifies in sunlight (when reaching zero hit points from radiant damage)
• Personifying an ineffective fate, whence curses and destruction
• Typically same height as human
• Black hair, sunless pale skin
• Somber, protective or cruel, generally uncooperative
• As rock, are unmoving, perceived as shamanic trance, mind outofbody
• Powerful mages: psionic, primal, elemental (earth)
• Superlative makers of tools and technology
• Extreme Strength while holding something up without moving
• Typical classes: Druid, cosmic force Cleric of fate, Artificer, Wizard

I would make those into some form of primal dwarves the original form who are now very rare in modern-day but are what dwarves were originally supposed to be, mostly found deep underground on the plane of earth or in the land of their god.


I have a simple way to prove halflings lack lore, to groups of halflings with armies in the thousands have gone to total war with each other what would they fight about? and it is not a war of pure economic stuff like land or resources just to remove that crutch.

 

[Yaarel]

I would make those into some form of primal dwarves the original form who are now very rare in modern-day but are what dwarves were originally supposed to be, mostly found deep underground on the plane of earth or in the land of their god.

Primal makes sense.

The Norse Dvergar are animistic. They dont have gods. They dont have any leaders except their own elders among them.

The Plane of Earth is too far away. These Dvergar are actual rock formations that one can see and touch, here in the Material Plane.

I deal with them by keeping them part of a regional setting in the north of the planet. There they are normal, but rare elsewhere.