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

[Chaosmancer]

Somewhere up thread @Cadence (I think?) made some references to Thanksgiving Dinner. I think comfort food provides a good analogy to what I like about halfling culture. If you eat nothing but mac and cheese or mashed potatoes and gravy and pot roast all the time, 1)It eventually becomes less appealing than the first meal you had, and 2)There will be negative consequences to your health and well-being. So I'm talking about halflings as being comfort food with no consequences. They are (for the most part) care free, content with what they have, accepting of others, generous, humble, reluctant to get involved with the troubles of the wider world, and so on, and as many have pointed out, that kind of attitude towards the world would likely have negative consequences for other cultures, BUT for whatever reason, it's not a problem for halflings. They can go on being their trusting, guileless, maybe kind of complacent, maybe naive, selves and major hardship seldom befalls them. This may not comport with everyone's views of halflings, but that's how I think of them. They are, as it goes, lucky and plucky and brave and optimistic because they have little reason not to be.

When I said that I think of them as the distillation of the ideal of the commoner, I was thinking about the typical commoner not really having much privilege, but working hard to scrape out a living. (Which, by the way is a great commoner archetype and a more appropriate commoner for some stories IMO than a halfling would be) But every common person who is working their hardest just to get by certainly wishes that everything could just be a little easier. For many people, the ideal life is not to be rich and famous it's just to be able to work a little less hard and worry a little less and to just be able to enjoy life. That's what halflings get that other D&D races don't.

For me, I guess humans come closest to being able to fill a similar role, but humans just don't have the same culture to build off of. If halflings are guilt free thanksgiving dinner that tastes as good the seventh time you've had it in a week as it did the first, Humans are steamed broccoli and a grilled chicken breast, or a salad, or a bowl of raisin bran with skim milk.

This is all good and wonderful... but it is all just the personality.

Care Free
Content
accepting of others
generous
humble
reluctant to get involved with the troubles of the wider world
trusting
guileless
complacent
naive
lucky
plucky
brave
optimistic

And, the only thing I can't do with any other race in the game with that list... is have a whole society of people just like me. A village though? I can do a village of people like this. It isn't that hard. A large extended family is even easier.

So, is this the trick I'm missing? That halflings work for people because the vast majority of halflings are the same, and the character you are playing relies on you having multiple villages of people exactly like you?

 

[Yaarel]

What would you say are five class archetypes that best inform Halfling flavor?

• Rogue Thief (self defense, cheerful mafia)
• Rogue Swashbuckler (?) (river nomad)
• Fighter Champion (?) (Dex Fighter)
• Bard Eloquent (?) (diplomatic)
• Sorcerer Divine (?) (healer?)

Too bad there isnt a Ranger that is specifically for farmer flavor. It would be home defense and nature magic.

These archetypes or other archetypes might help gel the Halfling lore.

 

[Cadence]

that is literally impossible as a defence dullness does not grant safety, armour, poison, violence and camouflage grant safety also large numbers it might work on supernatural threats but hill giants will still eat their village.

camouflage against natural none sapient does not work that way and unless they are all super assassins I doubt it will work on sapients.

can we have the characterisation essence? maybe that will help?

Many boring professors find their classes massively under attended. Natural defense against questions and papers to grade?

Which series had the forgettable gray men?

 

[Chaosmancer]

I view elves as telekinesing and shaping wood, stone, etcetera, to build tree house towns, supertower spires, and floating cities. Elves build by means of magical rituals.

Wood Elves hunt, but similar to Legolas still smell good and look polished while doing it.

Elves weave, especially weave fate, and the fabrics are pristine and precise.

Do elves domesticate animals? I say, no. But elves befriend wild animals, and sometimes shapeshift into wild animals.

Elves do metalwork. And various technologies. But if elves can keep themselves clean in mud, they can probably stay clean while working metal.

Elves go to war. In folkbelief, they only fight be means of magic. Properly, elves are fullcaster mage classes only. But the High Elf Eldritch Knight engages the martial power source in combat. Ancient Paladin is appropriate too. Of course, the elf knight prioritizes combat effectiveness over appearance. Nevertheless, the elf knight has magical ways to stay clean during combat, and to clean up after combat. For example, the elf chain armor of the knight is probably the Mage Armor spell, that appears pristine clean under any circumstance.

Elves do magic. They dont work hard in the same ways that humans work hard. If an elf ever looks unkempt, it is because the elf has an urgent circumstance, or else, the elf is having fun. Occasionally, an elf looks awry because an other elf cursed their fate to look that way, and then the awry elf prioritizes a remedy. Elves are like human actors on movie sets. For the elf, that is who they are.

Looking good and wearing fashionable clothing is an aspect of the charm factor, for the aura of mystery.

The charm and glamor of an elf is their true self, not a role.




The more one acculturates an elf into human ways of doing things nonmagically, the less elf the elf becomes.

For an elf, magic is the solution to every problem. Magic is fate.

Elves in DnD just can't be that level of magical. The Faerie? They can do that. But Elves are mortals. They may want people to believe that about them, but a wood elf has no natural magic, they can't do the things you are talking about unless they are getting trained in both arcane and druidic magic and have special elf magic that no one else has. Which is possible, but it isn't how the elves are presented.

Elves are magical, I will grant that, but they don't have this super prescence you are presenting.

 

[Cadence]

You do know to many, that explanation sounds ridiculous within the context of D&D logic.

That's partially why this thread exists.

One of the reasons I like E6 or E8 is that I can't justify a lot of usual medieval things D&D has for cities and fortifications when high level magic, giants, dragons, etc... are around.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Nothing I do to make halflings fit into the larger world changed their nature or contradicted the base lore. They are not putting themselves front and center by being diplomats or having halfling outrider units or being cannibals or any of the other things some people have suggested. Your suggestions along with the others changes the very nature of what halflings stand for.

Having them being known for negotiating peace between different parties and traveling as bards collecting doesn't change them any more than making them the Post Office.

 

[Gammadoodler]

What would you say are five class archetypes that best inform Halfling flavor?

• Rogue Thief (self defense, cheerful mafia)
• Rogue Swashbuckler (?) (river nomad)
• Fighter Champion (?) (Dex Fighter)
• Bard Eloquent (?) (diplomatic)
• Sorcerer Divine (?) (healer?)

Too bad there isnt a Ranger that is specifically for farmer flavor. It would be home defense and nature magic.

These archetypes or other archetypes might help gel the Halfling lore.

A hunter or beast master could each fit that bill.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Having them being known for negotiating peace between different parties and traveling as bards collecting doesn't change them any more than making them the Post Office.

Yes it does. It gives them an agenda. I would also like halflings out in the world more, and I like them positively affecting communities.

But being mobile peacemakers feels a little too active to me.

 

[Chaosmancer]

The D&D Elf ambiguously straddles the human ethnicity of Tolkien and the beings of magic of folkbelief.

Even in 1e, where the High Elf is more of a gish, the Grey Elf is a fullcaster mage.

There is room for both concepts.

In either case, magic officially perfuses and informs all aspects of Elf cultures. Indeed, even minimalistically, the Elf is a "magical people".

I insist on the fullcaster for the Elf. Which fullcaster classes gain prominence depends more on the specific community.

At the same time, I find the Eldritch Knight and the Ancient Paladin to be appealing elven tropes, and sufficiently magical. So I make room for them.

For me, the High Elf culture is militaristic, in the sense of walk quietly and carry a big stick. Each treehouse town requires military enlistment for the common defense of the town. Each adolescent from age 13, depending on aptitude, begins military training in either the Eldritch Academy or the Wizard Academy. (Whence weapon proficiencies.) At age 20, they become available to war.

In war, the High Elf utilizes prescience, seers and divination, as part of the military strikes, and also with regard to the alliances that lead to the best fates. All fullcaster military units coordinate their assaults to support the gish military units. And viceversa, the gish units prepare the battlefield for the heavy magic of the fullcaster units. Certain Elf towns befriend griffons (a 1e thing) who fight with them in cavalry.

Of course, there are unique individuals who do their own thing. This is how the High culture of the Elf works.

While I emphasize certain aspects of the High Elf culture, all of this derives from references in the Players Handbook.

The problem I have with this.... is that this is what EVERYONE should be doing. Dwarves and humans and everyone else should be using seers and divination in war and politics. Fullcaster military units, ect.

I can accept elves are more magical than the norm, but when you lay "and they should use magic in statescraft" that is something that everyone should be doing.

 

[Oofta]

Small creatures eat as much as medium ones. And halflings are not more dangerous than humans.

I like halflings.
My complaint is that 5e rules and lore for halflings is dumb and no DM can run halflings seriously without houseruling the mechanics and/or changing the lore.

Really? Based on what? Ever have a big dog? A small dog? Compare the amount of food they needed? I don't care what the book says about rations, PCs are special and some things are simplified. It makes no sense that someone that weighs a third of a human would need as much food.

As far as changing lore or houseruling, that's just total complete hyperbole. Your campaign world may be monster world where every peasant is in mortal danger seven days a week, my campaign world is not.