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

[Gammadoodler]

luck and dex are rogues greatest loves.

not just number presence that does not feel utterly replaceable with any other race, if saltmarshes hill had orc or Dragonborn villages would it change anything? not really, I desire proper setting place if they are to be considered common and lore that is not hobbits with the serial numbers filed off, the elves and dwarves at least had a new coat of paint and some minor back story stuff I want mood and character which not utterly identical to happy human presents as the is hell to include in a setting.
how hates them who backs them what thing beyond the immediate do they care about?

I get that you want a lot of things.

But you are saying as a specific argument that "not enough" people are playing them. For that argument to have any weight, "enough" should have some discrete meaning. People may disagree on what the number should be, but you should have something that would work for you.

As it relates to setting integration, that's not a PHB issue, it's not the tool to define settings.

The other stuff you want is a matter of personal taste. Different people may agree or disagree with those tastes, and it's unlikely you'll convince those who disagree to change their tastes.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I get that you want a lot of things.

But you are saying as a specific argument that "not enough" people are playing them. For that argument to have any weight, "enough" should have some discrete meaning. People may disagree on what the number should be, but you should have something that would work for you.

As it relates to setting integration, that's not a PHB issue, it's not the tool to define settings.

The other stuff you want is a matter of personal taste. Different people may agree or disagree with those tastes, and it's unlikely you'll convince those who disagree to change their tastes.

we have the problem of lack of hard figures as well as the reasoning behind those figures.
surveys could help but I suck at making such things.
the PHB is the default assumption for first-time players so you got to get them excited by a concept then get the settings to allow people to use those options in interesting ways most people dislike the more one-note race lore.

But.... Living too near such things would interfere with enjoying their creature comforts.

why do none other these things more towards the halflings?

I still don't get it but perhaps I am of below average intelligence. If you don't like halflings remove them, don't play one, or change them until you do like them.

"Like" is a pretty subjective term in my opinion. I believe it is hard to prove how much ppl "like" halflings. The only objective stat we have is the number of halflings players on DnDBeyond. And 5.9 percent definitely seems like a pretty good number to me. Are 5.9 percent of players are objectively "wrong"?

If you have ideas on how to improve lore, please share them! Or ideas on how to increase the 5.9 percent...

If you are just arguing that a race doesn't belong in the PHB (which I can only assume which means you want them removed)...then that is something else. Most tables don't buy all the books, etc. A lot of ppl don't want to wait for a splat book to be able to play halflings. Well at least 5.9 percent of the ppl - which imo is a lot of ppl.

Trying to argue that someone is wrong with thinking halflings are fine is going to be fruitless. Sharing cool ideas on how you think they can be improved is something else entirely. I'm not sure which of the two is being proposed here

on improving them I lack ideas as their core idea lacks hooks and I am utterly familiar with what they are copies of like literal family relatives familiar.
I suppose I could make a vampire halfling based on my mother.

 

[Chaosmancer]

No, it doesn’t.

Okay, what do you think it means then? Because that is a rather fundamental breakdown of language and communication we are having.

It isn’t bizarre at all. A people that try to avoid such things, in a world of peoples that seek them out, will probably avoid them.

So... how do you avoid disasters? How do avoid the Ordning being broken? The summoning portals to the Abyss? Armies marching through your lands? Flights of dragons burning the countryside? Evil wizards altering the region to siphon energy and souls?

You know, a lot of people would have really liked to avoid the black death or the hundred years war... but they kind of couldn't. Saying that halfligns can just choose to avoid these events is kind of ridiculous. The whole point of them being disasters is that you can't just opt-out.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Man, you know what would be great? Some sort of game where an imaginative bunch of players could create worlds & fill them in with as much detail as they please..... If only such a thing existed. It'd probably make alot of $ too.

Oh, wait. IT DOES. It's called D&D!
It's just that some of those playing lack the creative spark and insist that others think & create for them. And then when they don't like what's been done/not done with a particular tool (like 1/2lings for ex) they pitch a fit & even argue that tool should be removed.

The problem isn't that TSR/WoTC/Paizo/etc hasn't filled reams of pages with interesting halfling lore. It's that you & yours haven't done so in the most important game of them all - yours'.

And if you insist upon only playing published adventures & don't like how many NPCs are described as being 1/2lings/elves/etc? Change the descriptions to suite the %s you like.

Yeah it isn't like they wrote reams and reams of interesting lore for Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Dragons, Fiends, Gods, Illithid, Orcs, Goblins, Lizardfolk...

Oh wait. They did. Huh, wonder why they wasted their time on all that. I mean, it only matters that I make up things for my own table, it isn't like all of that information can create a shared setting where people can discuss how the various aspects of the world affected their games. Like, you know, greyhawk, or Forgotten Realms, or Eberron, or... oh wait. They did that too.

Man, they sure do seem to write a lot of stuff that they have no reason to write. I wonder why people expect them to write things as a publishing company.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I still don't get it but perhaps I am of below average intelligence. If you don't like halflings remove them, don't play one, or change them until you do like them.

"Like" is a pretty subjective term in my opinion. I believe it is hard to prove how much ppl "like" halflings. The only objective stat we have is the number of halflings players on DnDBeyond. And 5.9 percent definitely seems like a pretty good number to me. Are 5.9 percent of players are objectively "wrong"?

If you have ideas on how to improve lore, please share them! Or ideas on how to increase the 5.9 percent...

If you are just arguing that a race doesn't belong in the PHB (which I can only assume which means you want them removed)...then that is something else. Most tables don't buy all the books, etc. A lot of ppl don't want to wait for a splat book to be able to play halflings. Well at least 5.9 percent of the ppl - which imo is a lot of ppl.

Trying to argue that someone is wrong with thinking halflings are fine is going to be fruitless. Sharing cool ideas on how you think they can be improved is something else entirely. I'm not sure which of the two is being proposed here

Well... I shared my ideas on how to improve halflings... about a half dozen to a dozen times. In fact, I through a few ideas into a post just.... five posts above yours. And yet, you still seem to think that no one is proposing anything except deleting halflings from the game, and are asking us why we don't propose any changes to them.

And that is alongside the people who are insisting we are wrong for even considering that they might need changed beyond our own individual tables. Because of some bizarre reasoning that WoTC isn't a company that publishes lore for the game on a yearly basis and the only thing that matters is the table you are sitting at... even though settings sell all the time.

 

[lingual]

Well... I shared my ideas on how to improve halflings... about a half dozen to a dozen times. In fact, I through a few ideas into a post just.... five posts above yours. And yet, you still seem to think that no one is proposing anything except deleting halflings from the game, and are asking us why we don't propose any changes to them.

And that is alongside the people who are insisting we are wrong for even considering that they might need changed beyond our own individual tables. Because of some bizarre reasoning that WoTC isn't a company that publishes lore for the game on a yearly basis and the only thing that matters is the table you are sitting at... even though settings sell all the time.

Then what is all the fuss about still? Sorry I just checked in on this thread. No I do not read every post. I hate to say it, but if people aren't interested in your ideas or are just shooting them down unfairly, you should just move on and make a new thread with your halflings homebrew improvements. Maybe catch fresh sets of eyes.

 

[Oofta]

Well... I shared my ideas on how to improve halflings... about a half dozen to a dozen times. In fact, I through a few ideas into a post just.... five posts above yours. And yet, you still seem to think that no one is proposing anything except deleting halflings from the game, and are asking us why we don't propose any changes to them.

And that is alongside the people who are insisting we are wrong for even considering that they might need changed beyond our own individual tables. Because of some bizarre reasoning that WoTC isn't a company that publishes lore for the game on a yearly basis and the only thing that matters is the table you are sitting at... even though settings sell all the time.

Your suggestions change the very nature of halflings into something completely different.

Most people don't want that. Most people like halflings just the way they are. The fact that you can't accept is not anyone else's problem than yours.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Okay, what do you think it means then? Because that is a rather fundamental breakdown of language and communication we are having.

To assume something in a non-hypothetical context, and it was not presented by you as hypothetical, means to move forward as if that thing were definitely the case. To posit something means to suggest that it could be the case/is a plausible idea.

So... how do you avoid disasters? How do avoid the Ordning being broken? The summoning portals to the Abyss? Armies marching through your lands? Flights of dragons burning the countryside? Evil wizards altering the region to siphon energy and souls?

You know, a lot of people would have really liked to avoid the black death or the hundred years war... but they kind of couldn't. Saying that halfligns can just choose to avoid these events is kind of ridiculous. The whole point of them being disasters is that you can't just opt-out.

2 things.

First; I didn’t say they avoid disasters. I said they avoid becoming the focus of realms shaking events, wars, etc.

Second…bro they’re literally lucky. Their percentage chance to fail is reduced by 5% just from taking the 1 on the d20 effectively off the table, and their chances of success are increased by having a second roll 1/20 times they try to do anything, have to make a save, etc.

So…yeah, it’s likely that they’ve had fewer major plagues, misstepped into fewer armed conflicts, failed less to talk their way out of conflicts, been in the path of destruction less, etc.

It’s completely in keeping with their lore and mechanics.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Then what is all the fuss about still? Sorry I just checked in on this thread. No I do not read every post. I hate to say it, but if people aren't interested in your ideas or are just shooting them down unfairly, you should just move on and make a new thread with your halflings homebrew improvements. Maybe catch fresh sets of eyes.

Generally I just still respond to people.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Your suggestions change the very nature of halflings into something completely different.

Most people don't want that. Most people like halflings just the way they are. The fact that you can't accept is not anyone else's problem than yours.

Yes, I want to change them from farmers who try and avoid notice and never get involved, but who are warm and friendly to everyone, to be traveling bards, diplomats and storytellers actively working to unite people and prevent the forces of light from allowing concerns over wealth and territory from fracturing them and allowing evil to reign.

I want to take them from passive "we are nice" to actively advocating and helping relieve tensions in the world.

And, no, it wouldn't be every single halfling who is doing this. There would still be cobblers, innkeepers, and farmers, but I want them to have an active role in trying to do something about the state of the world.

Edit: And you have no idea what "most people want" you are reacting based on what you want. The fact that you can't accept that...