D&D (2024) No Dwarf, Halfling, and Orc suborgins, lineages, and legacies

[Epic Meepo]

My two cents on halflings: Halflings as a core species make sense if all humans are required to be Medium, since halflings can fill the "Small human" niche. But once actual Small humans are an option, halflings start looking a bit redundant, especially if halflings don't have any new, more-interesting lineages to set them apart.

Small humans with the right feat can be lucky (with slightly different mechanics), so they can stand in for vanilla halflings if necessary. Or they can skip the Lucky feat and be nothing like vanilla halflings. So, thematically at least, Small humans are a more versatile version of vanilla halflings.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Tyrion Lannister from "Game of Thrones" is a good example of how a smaller humanoid can be a very loved and charismatic character.

Gnomes are wellcome in any setting with steampunk elements.

The weak point of the halflings is they have been typecasted for a very long time as rogues or stealth classes, because their racial traits were focused into this. They need to can play other archetypes, for example monster rider/trainer.

 

[Minigiant]

The weak point of the halflings is they have been typecasted for a very long time as rogues or stealth classes, because their racial traits were focused into this. They need to can play other archetypes, for example monster rider/trainer.

This is because for the first 25 years of D&D, racial bonuses were rather minor and til this day CLASS > RACE.

So halfling's minor abilities only benefited sneaky lasses for a long time and playing anything else was playing for funsies as the few racials halflings got were often determental to anything else.

 

[Remathilis]

This is because for the first 25 years of D&D, racial bonuses were rather minor and til this day CLASS > RACE.

So halfling's minor abilities only benefited sneaky lasses for a long time and playing anything else was playing for funsies as the few racials halflings got were often determental to anything else.

It also really didn't help that they only had two class options (fighter and thief) and only one of them allowed any real level of advancement into high level.

Halflings should have been rangers (stealthy skirmishers with an affinity for nature) and bards (good natured storytellers and dabblers) but AD&D was obsessed with cramming everyone into tight boxes to preserve Lord of the Rings party dynamics that halflings got stuck being Bilbo or Frodo and nothing else.

 

[CreamCloud0]

It also really didn't help that they only had two class options (fighter and thief) and only one of them allowed any real level of advancement into high level.

Halflings should have been rangers (stealthy skirmishers with an affinity for nature) and bards (good natured storytellers and dabblers) but AD&D was obsessed with cramming everyone into tight boxes to preserve Lord of the Rings party dynamics that halflings got stuck being Bilbo or Frodo and nothing else.

It probably didn’t help that one of the major original influence of the ‘ranger archetype’ also came from LotR so it kind of put that conceptual distance between hobbitshalflings and rangers as the hobbits definitely weren’t doing the same things that aragorn was, but they do have surprisingly strong bard tones in those movies though, merry and pippin’s rousing songs and sam drawing courage and inspiration for himself and frodo by drawing on and referencing stories of heroism.

 

[Minigiant]

It also really didn't help that they only had two class options (fighter and thief) and only one of them allowed any real level of advancement into high level.

Halflings should have been rangers (stealthy skirmishers with an affinity for nature) and bards (good natured storytellers and dabblers) but AD&D was obsessed with cramming everyone into tight boxes to preserve Lord of the Rings party dynamics that halflings got stuck being Bilbo or Frodo and nothing else.

Indeed.

The hard obsession of D&D fans to force TSR and WOTC to enforce LOTR stereotypes as well as Gygax's extreme desire to make D&D human centric pushed elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, and their hybrids into boxes.

Gnomes got some freedom by not being in LOTR.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Gnomes got some freedom by not being in LOTR.

Don't tell anyone, but gnomes are just halflings who aren't into marijuana and don't have the munchies all the time.

 

[Remathilis]

It probably didn’t help that one of the major original influence of the ‘ranger archetype’ also came from LotR so it kind of put that conceptual distance between hobbitshalflings and rangers as the hobbits definitely weren’t doing the same things that aragorn was, but they do have surprisingly strong bard tones in those movies though, merry and pippin’s rousing songs and sam drawing courage and inspiration for himself and frodo by drawing on and referencing stories of heroism.

For all the noise Gary made about not liking LotR, he made sure his races hewed as close as possible to its lore.

Indeed.

The hard obsession of D&D fans to force TSR and WOTC to enforce LOTR stereotypes as well as Gygax's extreme desire to make D&D human centric pushed elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, and their hybrids into boxes.

Gnomes got some freedom by not being in LOTR.

Which is why I generally am happy they are pushing away so hard from having species that are broader and less pigeon-holed. Halflings are one-note because for most of their D&D history, they weren't allowed to be anything but Bilbo (or less-annoying Tasselhoff). 3e did a good job of loosening the reigns, but the persistence that halflings are "the thief/rogue race" has never gone away.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Which is why I generally am happy they are pushing away so hard from having species that are broader and less pigeon-holed. Halflings are one-note because for most of their D&D history, they weren't allowed to be anything but Bilbo (or less-annoying Tasselhoff). 3e did a good job of loosening the reigns, but the persistence that halflings are "the thief/rogue race" has never gone away.

I really like the Tales of the Valiant take on them, which does a great job of separating culture from ancestry. And by sticking both the halfling and gnome cultures in the same box, the results feel a lot less like LotR cosplay.

 

[Remathilis]

I really like the Tales of the Valiant take on them, which does a great job of separating culture from ancestry. And by sticking both the halfling and gnome cultures in the same box, the results feel a lot less like LotR cosplay.

I've not seen TotV beyond what they released pre-kickstarter, but as a general rule I'm not a fan of the trend of combining previously separate races into one. I didn't like it when Pathfinder did it with aasimar/tiefling/nephilm, I don't like it with gnome/halfling.