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

[Mecheon]

Yeah, I just use Shifters for this, but I could see a Lupin/Canid race being added to the game. We currently have 2 cat-races in the game (Leonin and Tabaxi), but no Dog-race. I wouldn't play one, because I'm still disturbed by the idea of a dog-human hybrid (but not most other human-animal hybrids, for some inexplicable reason), but would like them being an option for those that do want to play them.

Dog-headed people are a bit of a Thing in some mythologies, so I'm surprised they haven't brought the Lupin back as yet to fill that role

 

[Casimir Liber]

Dog-headed people are a bit of a Thing in some mythologies, so I'm surprised they haven't brought the Lupin back as yet to fill that role

Funny - I think there have been many dog-race starters over the generations but none have ever really caught on wholeheartedly....(?)

 

[Chaosmancer]

Right, the empathetic race displays some empathy, where the other ones don't. That sounds about right.

The empathetic races displays some empathy. In a specific way to show they are like the race canonically they have always been the most like. And that they don't show to any other race. And that never appears between any other two races. And it means nothing more...

OR: Halflings are like humans and they acknowledged that in the book.

"Very distrustful" serms like a lot to read into: "you never know what's going on behind their smiling faces, surely more than they ever let on".

To be honest, it reads as another example of empathy to me, that they can detect that there is more there than what's being expressed outwardly, even if they are unsure what it is.

Can see it as open to interpretation though.

That isn't empathy. That is intuition.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share emotions. That isn't what I feel like is being expressed here.

Actually, thinking about it... halflings would be terrible at Empathy. Their luck, bravery, and contentment with life that is intrinsic to their race is presented as a emotional core to a personality, and to have empathy you have to be able to understand the emotions of others. Could halflings empathize with someone who is discouraged or too terrified to change when they never feel those sensations? Or if they do feel them they are fleeting moments gone tomorrow?

I could see a case made for halflings being the least truly empathetic race out there. They simply don't understand the struggles with rage, depression or other negative emotions of the other races. That doesn't mean they don't care, or that they are less kind, just that... they don't get it.

 

[Cadence]

The empathetic races displays some empathy. In a specific way to show they are like the race canonically they have always been the most like. And that they don't show to any other race. And that never appears between any other two races. And it means nothing more...

They only give those descriptions for the four "common races", and humans and halflings are the only short-lived ones, right?

I could see a case made for halflings being the least truly empathetic race out there. They simply don't understand the struggles with rage, depression or other negative emotions of the other races. That doesn't mean they don't care, or that they are less kind, just that... they don't get it.

"You know how you feel when you don't get second lunch or have to defend the village instead of working on the garden? Now imagine your brain made you skip second lunch and gardening like every other day!"

 

[Chaosmancer]

The Fey origin works well for the British elf, who are explicitly faerie.

D&D has an awkward disconnect between Fey and Elemental. Both would be nature beings, and both would be primal power source.

The Elf could be Elemental. The British elf is a land spirit associating with the plants. The Norse elf is a sky spirit associating with the sunlight, which feels even more Elemental.

One solution might be that all of it is aspects of the Ethereal Plane. The ether includes the four elements, and also includes the fey and the shadow. Potentially some earth elementals might be fey land spirits, including Gnome.

Altho a land spirit, the British sith elf might specifically be a Fey Plant Elemental, relating to fertile soil. And altho a sky spirit, the Norse alfar elf might specifically be a Fey Fire Elemental, relating to sunrays.

If the Feywild itself includes Elemental beings, the aspect would be the four elements coexisting with each other, in a dynamic equilibrium that brings forth and sustains life.

(This elemental eqilibrium compares to the Dark Sun concept of preserver magic where the four elements are in a lifegiving harmony. Perhaps Athas became unable to access the Feywild because it became too out of balance because of the destruction of water.)

Similarly, the Norse Dvergar dwarf would be a Fey Earth Elemental.

The Norse alfar and dvergar are Fey in the sense of personifying human fates, successful and unsuccessful, respectively. But they retain their elemental aspects, respectively.

I feel comfortable relating the alfar with D&D both Fire and Air, and the dvergar with both Earth and Water. There are a number of Norse texts that correlate this.

If each elf correlates with two elements, then the British elf is definitely both earth and plant. Whence the D&D Wood Elf is earth and plant, and the High Elf might be plant and air. The Drow Elf is obviously earth, possibly water too, thus correlating but nonidentical with the Norse Dvergar.

I tend to drop the Ethereal plane, but I think that Eberron hints at a good way to go about the Feywild and potentially the Shadow Fell. Well, they at least have the direction.

The Feywild is not only life plus, it is a realm of dreams made reality. The Shadowfell is nightmares made reality. I think the Sorrowsorn highlight this the best. The Hungry is a creature that ( in some versions of the lore) comes about when a mortal in the Shadowfell is starving and obsessed with hunger. Meanwhile, in Faerie, you would have something similiar in a creature that is constantly feasting, and draws others into participating in an endless feast and party. It is less about the elements and more about the emotions.

The problem is creatures like Dryads. The feywild is also where we find the nature spirits. But, thinking about it... I'm not sure how much sense that actually makes.


Pivoting, the elemental planes are pure expressions of the elements. Water, Earth, Fire, Air. They aren't a source for plants and animals. You can have plants in a purely water sense, with plankton, but pure earth isn't conducive to plant growth. Plants and Animals are expressions of the Prime. I'd almost consider it more likely that plants and animals migrated from the prime back to other planes, while the raw stuff that made the Prime came from those other planes.

This actually ties into why I prefer the Elemental Chaos to the four planes. The only usage I can think of for the four planes is to make them the raw stuff that was used to make the Prime. The only planes that have any real major civilizations I've seen are the Water and Air planes. Fire has the City of Brass, but that is a single city. Water has... so much. But, I could easily see transferring it to just be in a distant ocean. The Oceans of the Prime are vast and generally underutilized, and the Elemental Plane of Water is just Ocean plus so I could see moving some of that into the Prime with little disruption.

So, how does this tie to Dryads? I think maybe you steal an Eberron concept. In Eberron the Rakshasa and a few other inhabitants of Khyber are "native fiends" they are fiends native to the Prime, whereas something like the Balor or Pit Fiend is an Outsider, a fiend from the plane of Fierna. Dryads are fey, but they are fey native to the Prime. They are less a dream and more an extension of a dreaming plant. A Naiad would be the same way. Not a fey of the Feywild, but a fey of the river's dreams.

Does the feywild have Dryads and Naiads? I think so, but I think that is because the Feywild is a reflection of the prime, and therefore it has things from the prime in it. I'd also then say we would have Dryads and Naiads in the Shadowfell. The hungry spirit of a hangman's tree would be a type of nightmare Dryad.

I haven't developed this idea at all, it just came to me while reading your post, but I'd be curious if it has legs.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Y'know, that's an interesting point that I never really considered.

As a small race, medium flying creatures become viable mounts. Giant Wasps (reskin as Bees as I could totally see Halfling bee keepers) would easily carry a halfling rider. Ooo, that would actually be pretty cool. Halfling communities, known for their honey and beeswax, field giant bee riders in battle. Slings wouldn't work, but, crossbows certainly would.

Shame that 5e giant bees don't have magic honey that heals. I always thought that was something they should bring back.

Giant bees and wasps are awesome, and I support this message.

 

[Gnarlo]

Are clockwork or Artifice contraptions for gnomes too advanced for "base D&D"?

Modrons for the win

 

[Gnarlo]

Yeah, I just use Shifters for this, but I could see a Lupin/Canid race being added to the game. We currently have 2 cat-races in the game (Leonin and Tabaxi), but no Dog-race. I wouldn't play one, because I'm still disturbed by the idea of a dog-human hybrid (but not most other human-animal hybrids, for some inexplicable reason), but would like them being an option for those that do want to play them.

Always played Vargr in Traveller, but as my profile pic shows I’ve always been a dog person

 

[Oofta]

I can’t argue the cuteness of bees.

But dragonflies have their own charms as well.

Just need to find the right one

 

[Gammadoodler]

The empathetic races displays some empathy. In a specific way to show they are like the race canonically they have always been the most like. And that they don't show to any other race. And that never appears between any other two races. And it means nothing more...

OR: Halflings are like humans and they acknowledged that in the book.



That isn't empathy. That is intuition.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share emotions. That isn't what I feel like is being expressed here.

Actually, thinking about it... halflings would be terrible at Empathy. Their luck, bravery, and contentment with life that is intrinsic to their race is presented as a emotional core to a personality, and to have empathy you have to be able to understand the emotions of others. Could halflings empathize with someone who is discouraged or too terrified to change when they never feel those sensations? Or if they do feel them they are fleeting moments gone tomorrow?

I could see a case made for halflings being the least truly empathetic race out there. They simply don't understand the struggles with rage, depression or other negative emotions of the other races. That doesn't mean they don't care, or that they are less kind, just that... they don't get it.

Or at least one halfling feels kinship with some humans. It's a pretty weak bit of text to make sweeping generalizations based on.

Assuming you are right about halflings and empathy (though if swear I'd seen something explicit to the contrary), what you are describing would be a race that differs significantly from human beings (and wouldn't even know that they are different).