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

[Faolyn]

True that...although any adventurers stupid enough to listen to tavern gossip might think it meant "I surrender."

In one game I was in, "I surrender" was code for "close your eyes because I'm going to throw a flashbang."

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Seen plenty of humans smile all the time.

Pretty much never seen a smiling dwarf.

If you want to expand your experience of smiling dwarves might I recommend the first hour of The Hobbit (when they are joking around with Bilbo) or a playthrough of DragonAge where Varrik smiles fairly frequently.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

In one game I was in, "I surrender" was code for "close your eyes because I'm going to throw a flashbang."

For the last 30nyears at my table "Cauliflower" is code for "I am leaving NOW, save yourselves!"

 

[Oofta]

Y'know, as much as I adore cats in real life, I think I would actually prefer playing a canid. It's really weird that none of the various canid races ever really caught on outside of Mystara.

Yeah, I have a cat on my lap right now (demanding attention) but I've never really had the desire to play a tabaxi. Maybe because I just can't bring myself to play an evil PC.

 

[Don Durito]

I find furry races tedious unless they are deeply integrated into symbolism and setting lore.

I feel they're almost always easy but lazy design. Pick some animal that people know and let that do 90% of the work for you. There's a reason they were a mainstay of fantasy heartbreakers.

 

[Hussar]

Comes in waving a flag of truce

Not arguing or anything. Just happened to be noodling around and found this piece and thought it was a REALLY cool halfling:

Loyal Warhound by Dmitri Burmak

 

[Minigiant]

1) hyenas are neither cats nor dogs. Hyenas would be closer to cats anyways.

2) I still dream of a proper D&D 4X or strategy video game and wonder would the halfling faction would field.

Race	Melee Infantry	Ranged Infantry	Cavalry	Other
Dragonborn	Greatswords	Sorcerers	Drake Rider	????
Dwarf	Axedwarf	Crossbowdwarf	Screw mounts Hammerdwarf!	Defender
Elf	Swordself	Bowelf	Unicorn Rider?	Bladesinger
Halfling	Bounder	Slinger	????	????
Human	Pikeman	Crossbowman	Knights	Paladins
Orc	Greataxes	Javeliner	???	Berserker
Gnome	Breechgnome	Catapults	???	Illusionists

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A lot of people go with ponies for their Halfling cavalry. Which is fine. Especially for chariot cavalry.

OTOH, imagine Halflings riding tibetan mastiffs (90-115kg).

https://i2.wp.com/fawndog121dogtraining.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-tibetan-mastiff.jpg?w=640&ssl=1

 

[Yaarel]

Y'know, as much as I adore cats in real life, I think I would actually prefer playing a canid. It's really weird that none of the various canid races ever really caught on outside of Mystara.

Werewolf?

 

[Hussar]

A lot of people go with ponies for their Halfling cavalry. Which is fine. Especially for chariot cavalry.

OTOH, imagine Halflings riding tibetan mastiffs (90-115kg).

https://i2.wp.com/fawndog121dogtraining.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-tibetan-mastiff.jpg?w=640&ssl=1

Yeah, I could very much see dog cavalry for halflings. IIRC, I actually played a halfling paladin for a while back in 3e to take advantage of all the lance cheese I could. Small character on medium mount actually fits REALLY well in pretty much any campaign in the way that a medium character on a large mount really doesn't.