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

[Minigiant]

it is nothing to do with lore but mechanics there everyone has to be crazy good to nut be wet cardboard level of useful in dnd it is oddly dumb.

The mechanics are fine to most.

Few have problems with PC halflings being Naruto Ukimaki and Rey Mysterio Jr.

The brought up in this game is that D&Dpurposely makes PC halfflingsout f sync with the rest of the race as the base lore is the boring part of a race designed for another IP copypasted to D&D.

Andd before someone says "they are not boring". Yes, normal halflings in the lore are purposely made boring and many like them that why.

And before someone says "I made halflfings not boring". Well that's the point. That 5e halfling lore serves the goals of very few.

Halflings are popular but few play or run as they are presented in the PHB. So the PHB lore is useless and should be changed. And so should the lore of halflings in many other official settings.

OR D&D should start promoting settings that display halflings as how people actually run them.

 

[Yaarel]

I wouldn’t do ALL ferrous metals, no! As you say, it would be too common a weakness to be playable unless you significantly boost their powers.

“Cold iron” would be some kind of special material, either by nature or ritual. Perhaps the “cold” would be the cold of the void of space- IOW, another name for meteoric steel, aka starmetal.

For me, "cold iron" is mainly an Anti-Fey thing, and is either iron or steel undergoing a magical ritual. Compare "holy water".

That meteoric steel is "natural" cold iron is a fun idea.



Regarding holy water, in reallife lore, some fay are vulnerable to it, and some have no problem with it, and even like it. Same with the sounds of church bells. Some run from its sound, and some like going to church.

For D&D, perhaps some Fey are Undead or Fiend, thus vulnerable to holy water. And perhaps some Fiend or Undead are Fey, thus vulnerable to cold iron.

 

[carkl3000]

Yeah, I've noticed people tend to forget Stoutfellows even exist. Everyone who talks about halflings talk about Lightfoot.

Which make for the better rogues between the two, because of their mechanics.

I didn't forget. I'm playing a stout halfling arcana cleric/spores druid/guild artisan/brewmaster. He's awesome.

 

[Minigiant]

Cold iron was either unforged pure iron or iron somehow magically forged at low temperature.

The idea was that fey and demons were harmed by pure iron. However heating up the iron removed that harming effect. You could hit fey with chunks of iron but they made poor weapons otherwise.

So if you were able to mold iron without heating it or do so at low temperature, the iron would harm fey and demons.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For me, "cold iron" is mainly an Anti-Fey thing, and is either iron or steel undergoing a magical ritual. Compare "holy water".

That meteoric steel is "natural" cold iron is a fun idea.



Regarding holy water, in reallife lore, some fay are vulnerable to it, and some have no problem with it, and even like it. Same with the sounds of church bells. Some run from its sound, and some like going to church.

For D&D, perhaps some Fey are Undead or Fiend, thus vulnerable to holy water. And perhaps some Fiend or Undead are Fey, thus vulnerable to cold iron.

The cold iron = meteoric iron comes from it being natural, but not of THIS world.

 

[carkl3000]

My point is that.
That WOTC creates and continues a base lore AND multiple setting lores where halflings and their gods have weak relationships.

Only a few settings bring halfling in the mix and those are the more "wackier on purpose" settings. Eberron and Dark Sun.


However hobbit lore and structure is how halflings are set up in many settings.

In FR, they start as tribal nomads, then they have a civil war, then they become hobbits.
In other settings, they are just hobbits with no Dunedain covering their collective little butts.


The Weave and Ki wishes it was as cool as the Force.
Shadow Weave doesn't even exist anymore.

Yup. D&D just needs midichlorians. Then when the NPC tells the paladin "these are not the goblins you're looking for" we don't have to blame the paladin's poor wisdom for his being duped. It's the fault of the "magic"al mitochondria.

EDIT: Dangit. @Faolyn beat me to it.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Cold iron was either unforged pure iron or iron somehow magically forged at low temperature.

The idea was that fey and demons were harmed by pure iron. However heating up the iron removed that harming effect. You could hit fey with chunks of iron but they made poor weapons otherwise.

So if you were able to mold iron without heating it or do so at low temperature, the iron would harm fey and demons.

This has never made any sense to me. Certainly the iron was heated when the ore was processed?

 

[Minigiant]

The cold iron = meteoric iron comes from it being natural, but not of THIS world.

Meteoric iron in D&D is star metal.

 

[Yaarel]

Making elves and/or gnomes into true Fey is something I’ve toyed with but never implemented in an ongoing campaign.

If I did that, I’d probably play up the innate nature/illusion magic element of gnomes (so druid & illusion classes would be their strong suit), and the environmentalist/enchantment magic side of elves (more rangers & sorcerers).

Which would leave halflings Vs gnomes as even more analogous to humans Vs elves. Which would mean I’d want to give the Halflings a little bit more to work with, mechanically. Porting over a bit of resistance to harmful magic from Dwarves, perhaps? Strengthening their luckiness might work. Hell..maybe even make them into shapechanging prairie dog type critters. Or just have aspects similar to burrowing mammals, like enormous cheek pouches.

In my campaign, the gnome and goblin are definitely fey, and two sides of the same coin.

For me the Elf are ambiguous.

The British Elf as a kind of Faerie is obviously Fey, and relates to plants.

But the Norse Alfar Elf as a personification of sunlight, might even be an elemental.

Likewise the Norse Dvergar Dwarf as a personification of rock formations, might be elemental.

The Alfar and Dvergar could be fey, in the sense that the Norse later came to equate Norse "troll" with British "faerie".

I am torn about how to assign their planar origin.

So far, I have the Alfar and Dvergar be the actual sunlight and rock in the Material Plane, and be the psionic minds of these natural features, which is animistic enough. This also has the feel of 4e Primal which is the magical aspect of the Material Plane.

 

[Minigiant]

This has never made any sense to me. Certainly the iron was heated when the ore was processed?

wait for it

wait or it

Wait
for
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT!!

A wizard did it.
Shape metal spell on iron heated to temperature well below melting point for casting.

Edit:
I sell cast iron. Pouring temp for good cast iron is ~>2500F/1400C
So you heat iron to 1500F/800C that cast shape metal on it.