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

[Dannyalcatraz]

We'ren't nunchuks devised from farming implements? The road to halfling ninjustu becomes clearer.

Re-name them, though. Kneechuks? Nutchucks? Yesssss, nutchuks.

 

[Hussar]

That's a safe bet. As far as published modules I think I've only played B2, the G's, the Judge's Guild Dragon Crown, something about Ravnica, something old B/X or AD&D in a castle, the start of the B/X or AD&D slave pits, OG White Plume, OG Barrier Peaks, and I think Paladin in Hell, and some 3.5ish Conan thing with the elephant thing in a tower. Were any of those demi-human focussed?

Heh. Kinda making my point though. You can probably name modules, or at least heard of ones, where elves or dwarves (or certainly humans) play a featuring role, right? I mean, sure, there's a handful of halflings in Dragon Heist, but, Drow Elves play the key villain role in 1 of the 4 seasons. Speaking of B/X Keep on the Borderlands has exactly zero halflings in it. You might (10% chance) meet a Wanderer in the tavern that, if the DM decides, is a halfling and you could meet halflings with 1 in 20 chance as a random 1st level encounter. Note, there is a chance to get an elf and a dwarf NPC as part of the slave pens in the Bugbear Lair, but, that is also at the DM's option.

But, my point being, halflings playing such a minor role in the game has a very, very long history.

 

[Hussar]

/snip

And finally, who cares? So what if halflings haven't been the "focus" of adventures? That has nothing to do with anything, especially not with the nearly 6% of people on D&DBeyond who played a halfling PC.

Well, it does rather directly speak to the point that halflings are not particularly being utilized in the game when they barely appear in any published material. So, yes, that's why I care.

 

[Hussar]

Re-name them, though. Kneechuks? Nutchucks? Yesssss, nutchuks.

LOL. Nutchucks. You sir, win the thread.

 

[Cadence]

Heh. Kinda making my point though. You can probably name modules, or at least heard of ones, where elves or dwarves (or certainly humans) play a featuring role, right? I mean, sure, there's a handful of halflings in Dragon Heist, but, Drow Elves play the key villain role in 1 of the 4 seasons. Speaking of B/X Keep on the Borderlands has exactly zero halflings in it. You might (10% chance) meet a Wanderer in the tavern that, if the DM decides, is a halfling and you could meet halflings with 1 in 20 chance as a random 1st level encounter. Note, there is a chance to get an elf and a dwarf NPC as part of the slave pens in the Bugbear Lair, but, that is also at the DM's option.

But, my point being, halflings playing such a minor role in the game has a very, very long history.

It doesn't feel like that's any of the races playing a big part in the actual story. What was the hermit and what were the priests in B2?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I don’t care that the game’s corporate stewards haven’t used them the way they’ve used the other races.

As an avid homebrewer, that just means I have more leeway with them. If I wanted, I could make halflings kind of analogous st the Fremen of Dune, with the ones who have eaten enough specially seasoned second breakfasts transmogrifying into bulettes or one of the Wurms, dining on the other species that dare encroach upon them.

 

[Don Durito]

Heh. There is so much irony here.

In 4e, a single fighter's power, Come and Get It was held up as everything wrong with 4e. How could you possibly have non-magical mind control? It made 4e the worst game ever written.

5e has the EXACT same thing, and everyone is falling over themselves to prove how it's non-magical. The times sure have changed.

Well yes, obviously they have. I've been saying since Xanathar's that 5e has demonstrated that the edition war talking points from the release of 4e are no longer relevant.

Even WotC seem to have realised that, as they have been making less and less effort to present things so that they would seem innocuous to people who were bothered by such things in the early days of 4e. I mean, we now have Barbarians who catch fire when they're angry.

 

[Fenris-77]

But we don't have Halflings who catch fire when they're angry...

 

[Don Durito]

But we don't have Halflings who catch fire when they're angry...

Only if they're Barbarians.

 

[Faolyn]

Well, it does rather directly speak to the point that halflings are not particularly being utilized in the game when they barely appear in any published material. So, yes, that's why I care.

And? You snipped the bit where I asked how many adventures revolve around other main PC races.

How does their supposed lack of use as NPCs in older adventures—also, please provide evidence that’s true—mean they’re not useful as PCs?