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

[Doug McCrae]

Halflings are not just hobbits. D&D halflings have quite a bit of kender genes, making them adventurous and inquisitive.

Isn't the adventurousness of some D&D halflings consistent with the traits of the Took family in Tolkien?

The Hobbit

It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures. They discreetly disappeared, and the family hushed it up

It is probable that Bilbo... got something a bit queer in his make-up from the Took side

Then something Tookish woke up inside him [Bilbo], and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.

The Fellowship of the Ring

The Took family… was liable to produce in every generation strong characters of peculiar habits and even adventurous temperament.

 

[Aldarc]

Isn't the adventurousness of some D&D halflings consistent with the traits of the Took family in Tolkien?

Considering that four of the five hobbits that have gone on a journey are strongly Took-blooded, yeah.

 

[BrokenTwin]

For me, personally, I'd split the gnome, giving their fae traits to the halflings (but seriously, halfling is a terrible name for a people to call themselves), and their tinker traits to the kobolds, and let the kobolds be the little inventor ancestry and let dragonborn more fully take the "dragon-like" ancestry. Let the kobolds still be obsessed with dragons, but instead of growing wings and breathing magical fire through devotion, they build mechanical wings and brew alchemist fire so they can emulate them in their own way.

In the end though, I'd be fine with merging gnomes and halflings together in any fashion, though I'm still keen to calling them Pech (ala Fantasy Craft).

 

[Faolyn]

race slot is an abstraction, if I have dwarves orc, minotaurs and goliaths they all compete for strong guy role and clutter the setting, realistically you only need one per setting unless you know how to make them all feel super different, hence the term race slot, there are lots of things who are nearly elves in fantasy but are clearly not so elf is design to fit in a slot.

That example role is very narrow and not useful. Those four races have very different narrative roles. And maybe I'm unique, but I've never once looked at a race's ASIs to determine if they belong in a world I make.

I have, I learned the answer is not in me thus I seek it, it might be because no one has thought of it yet in which case minds must be set in motion to generate the answer hence I am in this thread as either I will generate it or one of the other participants will.

You're selling yourself short. You know what you don't like. Once you eliminate that, you can use what's left to determine what you do like.

 

[Mind of tempest]

That example role is very narrow and not useful. Those four races have very different narrative roles. And maybe I'm unique, but I've never once looked at a race's ASIs to determine if they belong in a world I make.


You're selling yourself short. You know what you don't like. Once you eliminate that, you can use what's left to determine what you do like.

your looking from the dm view not the player since at the end of the day a race is what they play use in the process of making a character thus people who want looks or association look for things that get them that, hence they are big buy race know for battle and war.

knowing what you do not like and what you want is the great gulf I will likely ever know, plus making something good is not the exact same as what I like.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Gnomes are the Magical Little People, and that's a ridiculously longstanding niche from mythology. Halflings are that stuck into their theme that adding gnomes in would not be a good fit at all, but ironically the looseness of the gnome theming would make it easier for them to consume the halfling niches in turn.

Gnomes could absorb the halfling niche and trappings without too much trouble, because when it really gets down to it is "Enjoy living nice life" which can easily be worked into their whole illusion/trickery thing. Halflings could not absorb the Gnome niche because its going to swing either heavy into illusions, or heavy into tinker, the one lasting gnomish niche ever since Mystara and that whole flying gnomish steampunk city they had. Its just too far from what Halflings have always tried to set themselves as.

Halflings have that problem of certain 3.5E races where they're way too narrow on a Very Specific Concept to their detriment, which is ironic given 3E was one of the ones that tried to give them a bit of a revamp

I use both in my games, but gnomes definitely have a lot of halflings' cultural views in place. (In Ptolus, it's actually part of the core setting that they have a lot of overlap, although that may be been a comment on this issue by Monte Cook, who of course had to wrestle with this during the development of 3E.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For me, personally, I'd split the gnome, giving their fae traits to the halflings (but seriously, halfling is a terrible name for a people to call themselves), and their tinker traits to the kobolds, and let the kobolds be the little inventor ancestry and let dragonborn more fully take the "dragon-like" ancestry. Let the kobolds still be obsessed with dragons, but instead of growing wings and breathing magical fire through devotion, they build mechanical wings and brew alchemist fire so they can emulate them in their own way.

In the end though, I'd be fine with merging gnomes and halflings together in any fashion, though I'm still keen to calling them Pech (ala Fantasy Craft).

The gnome/kobold cosmology is actually one of the best known and enduring parts of D&D lore, stretching back to 1E.

Can you tell me a myth about Yondalla that anyone might have ever heard of?

If you gave free proficiency in tinkers tools to forest gnomes, you could drop rock gnomes entirely and gnomes would go back to being coherent with previous versions throughout the ages.

And "gnome" is a much better known name that "pech." Older posters will remember there was a whole Gnomes brand for decades, spinning out of a series of quite nice art books about the secret lives of gnomes. And that, in turn, was elaborating on their existing cultural niche. You don't find "garden pech" in the garden store or have kid's movies (made in the 21st century, even!) about them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife.

Old Man Took was into gnome women and who can blame him?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If the book offers premades, for a common mix, using the multilineage mechanic, that is fine.

Nah. Half-elves and half-Orcs, as such, belong in the game.

 

[Faolyn]

your looking from the dm view not the player since at the end of the day a race is what they play use in the process of making a character thus people who want looks or association look for things that get them that, hence they are big buy race know for battle and war.

I am also looking at it from the player side, because I don't pick my PC race based on ASIs either. Instead, I look for the race's narrative view and their traits. This is doubly important now that WotC is moving away from racial ASIs.

knowing what you do not like and what you want is the great gulf I will likely ever know, plus making something good is not the exact same as what I like.

Keep practicing. It won't do you any good in the long run in life only knowing what you hate.