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

[Faolyn]

mechanics is not the problem the things that get you to care however are.

Those things have already been talked about dozens and dozens of times.

Seriously, it's like this:

Pro-halfling people: We like halflings for X, Y, and Z reasons.

Anti-halfling people: So why do you like halflings when they're just [hobbit clones/short humans/whatever]?

Pro-halfling people: We already said, for reasons X, Y, and Z.

Anti-halfling people. Those reasons are dumb. So why do you like halflings when they're just [hobbit clones/short humans/whatever]?

and so on.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I have but it seem to boil down to a thing that only really works once in a setting.

Just check my posts, then. I've posted multiple things I like about them.

 

[bedir than]

They'll bean you with a sling stone in the noggin if you don't agree with my list

I want to circle back to this, because dang to I miss the expert stone-throwing and sling using halfing tropes.

 

[FrozenNorth]

In the 2017 and the 2019 data they are ahead of gnomes, a race which they are on an even footing with by your definition. It seems disingenuous to claim that halflings are the great unpopular race when gnomes exist.

Not my definition: the PHB’s definition. There are 4 core races: humans, elves, dwarves and halflings.

You may disagree, but please do not ascribe things to me that I haven’t said.

Correction: according to the 538 article halflings (5.9%) are more played than both gnomes (4.6%) and half orcs (5.0%). Are you by some chance instead referring to the sidebar declaring some races to be uncommon? And do you realise that the four non-gnome "uncommon races" in D&D were, as of December 2020, the four most popular non-human races? While gnomes remained less popular than halflings.

Suggesting that halflings should not be a core race makes no statement about gnomes. As some have suggested, maybe kill two birds with one stone and combine halflings and gnomes. You would get a race “demi-humans” that would be as popular as dwarves.

Who are these people? Where are they?

I've said throughout three things.
1: There is no consistent argument based on popularity for the elimination of halflings from the PHB that doesn't involve doing unto gnomes first.
2: It would be a bad plan to remove halflings and gnomes at the same time because they have significantly related niches.
3: Halflings have a unique niche in a way gnomes don't - but gnomes are sitting in some of the niches that could easily fit halflings.

And others have argued that no changes should be made to halflings because they have a niche and they personally like them.

 

[FrozenNorth]

I mean no one is making threads about other races if you want to see if you can get the same out of the others be my guest.

Maybe someone should start a thread about getting rid of Humans because they are too halfling-like.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Halflings are the corgi of PHB races... WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL CORGIS?

The better question is WHY AREN’T YOU TRYING TO KILL THE CORGIS?

 

[Mind of tempest]

Maybe someone should start a thread about getting rid of Humans because they are too halfling-like.

I would but I am not feeling it, Friday is dragons so we should do something dragon-themed.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Maybe someone should start a thread about getting rid of Humans because they are too halfling-like.

You joke, but I'm not sure the game would be worse.

Using humans allows you to take and use a lot of narrative shortcuts, which makes for easier worldbuilding. But it can also lead to bringing in a bunch of baggage and a disabling of critical thinking.

 

[Chaosmancer]

So, we need to change the description of humans bacause everyone is playing against type? Or we accept that the PHB description of races is just a small description to give you a base idea of the race and they don't need to be changed?

Or we could accept that humans (as I have said every single time) are an exception to the PHB Descriptions, because they are humans. It could have literally been left blank and it wouldn't have mattered.

But yeah, if people are saying that "halflings are more human than humans" because every single human is supposed to be filled with boundless ambition and drives for wealth and power... then we need to change the human description, because that isn't how anyone is playing most humans, as NPCs or as PCs.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Go to an orchard and tell them you don't think what they are doing is difficult back-breaking work...

Why would I say that? I never claimed that elves working in an orchard weren't doing difficult back-breaking work. You said that they weren't tilling and clearing the land. Which is what I was talking about.