D&D 5E My sister wants to be a Halfling Barbarian (Starter Set)

[Nemio]

Background info:

I'm new to DnD and will be DM'ing the Starter Set for newbies in a few weeks time.
I asked all my players to give me their top 3 preferred pregen chars in advance so that I could assign them.

The rogue was quite popular so my sister offered to create a new character which surprised me a bit because she and my girlfriend are those that were a bit reluctant to play.
I used the PHB yesterday and asked her questions to create what she wanted.

First time I've created a character from scratch and it felt amazing
She ended up with a Halfling Barbarian which is an unusual choice.
It sounded fun to her and that's what's most important.

There are some downsides that I've found (no Heavy weapons) but she's not a (power)gamer so she doesn't mind.

Does anyone have experience or advice for using a Halfling Barbarian?
When I look at the abilities it seems to be an allround character.

Character:

Stats	Info
Class	Barbarian
Background	Outlander with Exile / Outcast origin
Player name	Anton (Male)
Race	Stout (+1 Con) Halfling (+2 Dex)
Alignment	Chaotic Neutral

Ability	Points	Modifier
Strength	15	+2
Dexterity	15	+2
Constitution	15	+2
Intelligence	8	-1
Wisdom	12	+1
Charisma	10	+0

Default array was used (15 14 13 12 10 8)

Stat	Points
HP	12 + 2 Con = 14
AC	10 + 2 Con + 2 Dex = 14

Weapon	Name	Damage + to hit
Primary weapon	Battle axe	1d8 (1d10) +2 slashing, +4 to hit
Secondary weapon 1	2 x Hand axe	1d6 + 2 slashing, +4 to hit
Secondary weapon 2	4 x Javelin	1d6 + 2 piercing, +4 to hit

Personality:

- I have a lesson for every situation, drawn from observing nature
- I'm always picking things up, absently fiddling with them and sometimes accidentally breaking them

Ideal:

- Nature The natural world is more important than all the constructs of civilisation (Neutral)

Bond:

- An injury to the unspoiled wilderness of my home is an injury to me.

Flaw:

- I am slow to trust members of other races, tribes, and societies.


I would also like some help to give her character a good tie-in to the story like the other pregens have.
Any suggestions?

My sister specified that he would be a loner, that he doesn't really have a clan to live with.
So I have a loner Exile / Outcast that is Chaotic Neutral and loves nature above all else.

Now I need a reason for him to join the group that Gundren recruited.
Perhaps he knows Gundren from before his loner days and asked him to help with the removal of several threats to Nature that have recently appeared (the Dragon, the Goblins, the Orcs,...)

 

[MortalPlague]

First off, welcome to D&D! I hope you have a blast running this game, it sounds like it'll be a lot of fun.

Secondly, everything about the character looks pretty good. The weapon choices are solid, battle-axe offers some nice barbarian flavor. She should have a lot of fun with that character.

Min/maxy tweaking to follow:

I'd consider giving him a shield so he can trade off between damage and AC depending on what sort of foe he's facing. Getting up to AC 16 is pretty big. I might even make that the default; axe and shield, and he could toss the shield aside and two-hand the axe when he gets really mad!

Also, I would change the default array and instead buy some stats with point buy. It would be much better to go for a 16 Strength, just to get into the +5 to hit range. You could afford to lose a point in Dexterity or Constitution without much in the way of a drawback, or possibly both.

This is just the mechanical tweaking from someone who tends to play a lot. You'll have fun either way.

 

[Nemio]

Thanks about the advice, I'll keep it in mind

The character doesn't start with a shield but I'll remind her of the possibility when they get to Phandalin.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I have no problem with Halfling Barbarians as a concept.

I do however, find it a bit incredulous to have 35lb Halflings with a Strength of 15. There is no official ruling for this but I find it so defying of physical reality that it is disruptive to my suspension of disbelief at the game table.

I house rule that diminutive races (Halflings and Gnomes) should basically use their lowest stat for Strength. It’s my one and only house rule. Some may find this unfair, but why play a small race if you want to play a powerhouse character I say?

So, sure, I would allow Halfling Barbarians - but they’d be more reliant on Dexterity, Constitution and maybe Wisdom as their primary stats.

 

[CapnZapp]

While your opinion is very valid, TrippyHippy, I feel it is inappropriate in a thread of this nature.

A halfling barbarian with Strength 15 is perfectly okay, Nemio.

When you have more experience as a DM, I'm sure you will want to start creating your own adventures and your own worlds.

But for now, I wouldn't worry in the slightest about hafling strength

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I have no problem with Halfling Barbarians as a concept.

I do however, find it a bit incredulous to have 35lb Halflings with a Strength of 15. There is no official ruling for this but I find it so defying of physical reality that it is disruptive to my suspension of disbelief at the game table.

I also felt the urge to say, that this advice is not called for int this thread.
[MENTION=6775814]Nemio[/MENTION]:

I would suggest to arrange the stats a bit different, as a 15 in 3 stats is not the best idea, because it does not give a benefit that a 14 in those stats would give anyway.

So my proposal is switching the 14 and 13 assigned to Dexterity and Constituion resulting in those stats:

15 Strength
16 Dexterity
14 Constitution

This way, your sister´s armor class while not wearing armor, intitiative and ranged attacks with a short bow are a little bit better, as well as the attacks with light melee weapons while not raging.

On the other hand, if she uses medium armor, and uses only the weapons you listed, she won´t notice a big difference beyond a difference of 1 to initative. And if she intends to raise stats at level 4, she will be ale to raise strength and constitution to 16 easily.

Your sister will have a great barbarian, hitting well enough and hard enough and able to withstand most danger. She should consider wearing a chain shirt as soon as possible.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I’m not sure why providing advice based on providing internal logic in a fantasy world along with a rational, is any less appropriate than advising someone to rearrange their stats for tactical/strategic reasons…..but whatever, dude…enjoy your game!

 

[Paraxis]

This is a fantasy roleplaying game, this young lady can have a 20 strength and an 8 charisma.



This little halfling can have a 20 dex and and 20 strength and 20 charisma (well maybe thats a lot of ability score increases or some lucky rolls).


My suspension of disbelief leaves the door with things like hit points, so long before someone sits down at the table with a halfling barbarian that has a good strength, just let people play what they want.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Oh gawwwd! You don’t expect me to rise to this argument do you….?

Good. I won’t.

 

[Nemio]

Don't worry everyone, all advice is appreciated
[MENTION=27252]TrippyHippy[/MENTION]

I agree that if the average (Human) Commoner only has 10 on all stats then having a halfling only half their size be much stronger than them can seem a bit off.

I'm trying to find a good balance between realism and fun.
If my sister thinks it's fun to make a little raging guy full of muscles to be kicking the butt of things twice as big as her then I'm going to let her.

But believe me, it's not what I had in mind either

I'm just rolling with it, I've learned alot about being a new DM (from this board and others) and one of the most important things was always try to say Yes (even though it might be followed by a but ...)

Like in this case I told her that she couldn't use Heavy weapons because of her size, which she didn't care that much about.

[MENTION=59057]UngeheuerLich[/MENTION]

Thanks, that's some good advice.
I already thought that all those 15's might not be ideal but I think I'm going to leave it like that for now anyway.

We went over all the attributes together and she ranked them in the order that she found to be important.

I'm trying to resist the habit of optimizing characters like I sometimes do in other games.
It's refreshing to see my sister just picking what she think is cool even though it might not be optimal.

Once she gets to level 4 I can indeed suggest to get 2 attributes to 16 in one go