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

[Minigiant]

It's interesting that genasi are so popular (7th place). They're the only race in the top ten that have never appeared in a PHB.

Elementalists and element tinted people are popular in fantasy.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

name a nation or a culture without a history, the halflings could have been made two seconds ago and nothing changes, it is not logical or even reasonable I need the sense that they did things or had things happen to them otherwise you have no story with them.
the Canadian army was known to be apparently terrifying in world war two plus you can still look them up they did things halflings literally did nothing other than building a house and smoke since their creation, look I am not ambitious but that is just nuts.

They have a history in every published setting.

 

[Mind of tempest]

No.

then what are halflings?

 

[Mind of tempest]

They have a history in every published setting.

of what? name them and define their historical points.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Would just putting the halflings back with the exotics fix that (like with the Dragonborn, Gnome, and Half-orc.)

Their blandness is their exoticism!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, for one, it wouldn't have the three goblinoids as a part of it. There's also the fact that Dhakaan is compelling because it takes a spin on typically evil races and gives them an interesting and compelling culture and acceptable motivations for disliking humanity. IMO, that story would be much worse if you were to just change the nation of typically monstrous races of Goblins, Bugbears, and Hobgoblins to the bland short people of Halflings.

lol sure it'd be less interesting to you, you don't like the race involved!

If you took Talenta and replaced halflings with goblins, you're changing at least as much.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

of what? name them and define their historical points.

I'm not your research assistant. You can read the history of halflings in FR, Greyhawk, Eberron, Dragonlance, etc, on the internet. For free.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

then what are halflings?

I already answered this.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Then they got put in D&D settings, and then they had to keep providing rules for them, because even though no-one plays them

Nobody who starts these sorts of threads makes them. (By that measure, I guess nobody plays elves, either, since I never play them.)

In point of fact, halflings are right around the median in how many people play them, per D&D Beyond.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

One big part of the issue is that things in PHB must be pretty generic. Like halflings in Dark Sun and Eberron are actually rather distinct and do not feel similar to gnomes but that applies to only to those settings.