D&D General Not *Another* Halfling Thread! (+)

[John Lloyd1]

My last character was a Morris Dancer halfling dressed in black tatters called either Garner or Merry that I used for a series of casual games. He would dance for drink and grub at the local taverns. Either you paid him for his performance or you paid him to stop, he didn't care.

I played the beginning of Avenus with him. We were bunch of football hooligans (mostly Ogres) as a mainly evil party. He used to favour hitting his opponent in the 'fork' with his long stick.

I built him as a monk of the way of shadows. I quite liked the idea of him suddenly jumping out at you from the shadows with his tatters and bells and wacking you in the fork (when he had got shadow step).

 

[CreamCloud0]

None of my characters have ever seen play but out of all of them i had a particular favourite in a Mark of Hospitality Halfling-UA variant Ranger-Fey Wanderer-Charlatan Background with the ritual caster feat(find familiar/unseen servant), they were spun as someone(with their pet weasel) who didn’t really have great big ambitions of their own but they wanted to see the world and figured tagging along with some capable adventurers for protection while making themselves useful in small everyday ways to compensate(all the rituals from the various sources) but they were a bit of a quick talker and sneaky too.

 

[Minigiant]

A. What is your favorite halfling PC you've played or played alongside or DMed for?

A friend ran a halfling Starlock/rogue in 4e that quests the world to see every kind of eye. His patron was a mysterious pair of eyes who wished to find a new form. So he went around merrily drawing pictures of eyes in his sketchbook and presenting them to his patron. Anyone killed with his curse would have their eyes harden to marbles and added to his Jar of Eyes. And he'd carry that creepy jar everywhere while smiling and joking. But it was his "precious" jar of eyes.

Then he got a robe of eyes. So he had 3 "precious" items.

2. What have you done with halflings in a homebrew world, or done to mod their place in a published world, that you're particularly proud of?

One of my world uses generic personifications as gods (Sky Father, Father Time, New Year's Baby, Mother Earth, Mother Nature, Mistress of the Sea).


Basically Mother Earth, Mother Nature, and the Fairy Queen crafted Halflings to tend the land.

Lady Luck and the Mistress of the Sea were not invited. So they plotted to wait to when the other goddesses stopped looking. The cursed Halflings with bad luck and fear of the water.


Halflings realizing they never venerated these too goddesses, threw them a celebration. Happy with their own holy days in the Halfling Religion, Lady Luck and Mistress Sea reversed their curses.


This made Halflings the best farmers and gatherers and most other races invited them in. But because of their curses, they became bad luck in large groups. So no halfling cities nor kingdoms lasted over a decade.

 

[DeviousQuail]

A. Kinda cheating since it's a video game but I'll always have a soft spot for Mazzy Fentan from BG2. The racial restrictions didn't allow her to be a paladin but she did what she wanted.

2. Ran a campaign where everyone had to live in cities protected by magical shields against soul stealing storms and earth shaking titans. The only city without one of these shields is a massive tree that produces its own protective aura. Halflings learned of this and made it their home. So instead of being burrow dwellers they are arboreal with a climb speed and a once a day featherfall.

Third. Not just halflings but working on giving every race a set of subraces based on bending elements for an Avatar the Last Airbender setting.

Quatrieme. Don't really have a favorite piece of halfling art. I'm a big fan of the art of the dragon age tarot cards Tarot Cards | Dragon Age Inquisition Wiki but halflings aren't in that game.

 

[Xamnam]

A. What is your favorite halfling PC you've played or played alongside or DMed for?

Played: Arnor Rumnose, barbarian, a crotchety hermit, who couldn't forsake the call of duty from his old military pal and got swept up in preventing a total coup of the royal family, taking them to sea, thrilled to leave civilization behind, only to end up having to traverse a massive island metropolis and wrestle with the anxiety that caused.

Played with: Milo, the explorer of a new land who was ever curious and going to catalog every new creature and feature he saw so he could publish an adventurer's guide. Naive and excitable in the way that creates fun situatuons for the table.

Kith: The rogue with a heart of gold, who realized the second that she had a family that didn't let her run away that maybe being a hero not just more satisfying, but also more fun than being a scoundrel. Convinced that she could singlehandedly take on the world.

2. What have you done with halflings in a homebrew world, or done to mod their place in a published world, that you're particularly proud of?

The second they encountered gnomes and realized they weren't alone in the world, went on a massive expansionist campaign over the empty lands, taking control of the primary river path through the continent, only to eventually end up having a gentle skub/anti-skub style schism that divided their nation in half, each side now doing everything they can to gain the economic upper hand over the other, while not tipping into outright hostility. Incredibly jealous/envious behind a gregarious exterior. The second they hear of some new discovery, creation, invention, they need their own version of it.

Third. What's an idea for either of the above that you haven't gotten a chance to use yet, or haven't finished working out?

Just last night, had a session zero where I'm finally getting to play Perrin Barrelchest, a Drunken Master Monk, who is going to take the lucky feat as soon as possible, to reflect the charmed life he has had where everything has fallen into his lap, aside from getting kicked out of the monastery he worked for decades to join. A lighthearted character who hasn't been a good fit for the save the world type campaigns I've been in.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A friend of mine played a ninja-themed Halfling in a brief 2Ed Dark*Sun campaign. Refined in social situations- an oddity in Athas- and dangerous in combat. Fun PC to play alongside.

Yes. My Sembian thief farmboy turned thief turned assassin turned Hexblade turned thief/swashbuckler is like that. He’s had a bit of an odyssey getting to where he is lol

I personally played a halfling who was all about ranged combat. Lots of fun to play.

I wish slings didn’t suck in 5e, because I’d love to do a stoneslinger halfling.

For one homebrew, I designed a small-sized flying Thri-Kreen variant that was culturally very halfling-like.

Nice! Bug halflings! I really like how many races can be small now, too. It creates a potential dynamic where the small folk talk about the big folk kinda like RL meme era of different marginalized groups talk about their non-marginalized counterparts.

Like, we aren’t the same group, but there is this thing we have in common.

My love for that dynamic is a big part of why I reject the “we already have one of those” arguments about fantasy races.

I still haven’t had a chance to play my halfling barbarian who used 2WF with bladed gauntlets.

Ooooo I like that!

None of my characters have ever seen play but out of all of them i had a particular favourite in a Mark of Hospitality Halfling-UA variant Ranger-Fey Wanderer-Charlatan Background with the ritual caster feat(find familiar/unseen servant), they were spun as someone(with their pet weasel) who didn’t really have great big ambitions of their own but they wanted to see the world and figured tagging along with some capable adventurers for protection while making themselves useful in small everyday ways to compensate(all the rituals from the various sources) but they were a bit of a quick talker and sneaky too.

I like that. I really want to play a halfling based on the dynamic of the entirely mundane companion of someone with a BIG DESTINY, who is just quietly competent and willing to work their butt off to become what they need to be to protect their friend, which has a similar vibe, and is also a perfect halfling idea.

 

[BrokenTwin]

In Fantasy Craft (never actually got to play the system, but that's another story) halflings are called Pech, and I had a setting idea that I'd still love to port over where the pech and the rootwalkers (FC's treant equivalent) lived in a semi-symbiotic relationship. Not in the biological sense, but in the socialogical sense. By assisting each other in areas where their respective sizes made things difficult, they both benefitted. Also made the Shire aesthetic really easy to work in, as the pech would build their homes under hills and the roots of the large trees they would help cultivate.

My favorite halfling character that I've played... was probably in AiME (an actual name-brand hobbit!). She had been shunned in her village for her very... aggressive and proactive response to some Big Folk raiding her home, left to travel and became a Slayer (AiME's barbarian equivalent). After meeting some friendly dwarves and gaining the Foe-Hammer subclass (granting her the ability to wear heavy armor without penalty), she took to dressing and acting like a dwarf out in the "big world" as a form of cover. Ignorant big folk were a lot more likely to accept her as an odd dwarf than whatever the heck a hobbit was.
She was rowdy, loud, and a blast to play. Won more than a few feats of strength thanks to her class features.

 

[Voadam]

Quatrieme. Share your favorite piece of halfling art, an example of your preferred art style or art direction for them. I guess we have to follow our own rules here, too, and not make fun of art styles for halflings that we reeeeeally dislike. Keep it positive!

I am a big fan of the 4e halfling portrayals.

Although I also really like the B/X era pointy eared barefoot halflings out of the Cook Expert set.

 

[Stormonu]

As for artwork:

Greatest Influence for me

Spoiler

2nd Greatest Influence

Spoiler

I've already given my homebrew's take on halfings - which interestingly enough was somewhat based on the background for one of my campaign's player characters, who played a halfling named Roflon.

Spoiler

As far as my homebrew goes, they're called hillenfaey, and they live together in a kingdom with the gnomes, the kingdom is called Llinn (Lyn). It's a rural realm, but the gnomes and halflings are just as adventurous as any other race, and twice as mischievous. Hillenfaey have a presence just about everywhere, preferring rurals areas just on the outskirts of big cities or rural areas in civilized areas. But they're just as brave to make and defend a home in border areas as well - with their housing having deep, easily defended cellars.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I could, but not with the constant badgering from people who tell me my fun is wrong

OH hi!

In Fantasy Craft (never actually got to play the system, but that's another story) halflings are called Pech, and I had a setting idea that I'd still love to port over where the pech and the rootwalkers (FC's treant equivalent) lived in a semi-symbiotic relationship. Not in the biological sense, but in the socialogical sense. By assisting each other in areas where their respective sizes made things difficult, they both benefitted. Also made the Shire aesthetic really easy to work in, as the pech would build their homes under hills and the roots of the large trees they would help cultivate.

I really like that. My Forest Gnomes mostly live in homes built like root burrows, and thus like to live in forests with really big trees, and will often end up living like squirrels, up and down from root burrow to high perch hollow, with Ewok style contraptions hidden in the trees for various purposes. I had one town that was Forest Gnomes and Halflings had hydraulic elevators in the heartwood of their great trees (basically giant sequoias), as well as rope and pulley lifts in the branches.

My favorite halfling character that I've played... was probably in AiME (an actual name-brand hobbit!). She had been shunned in her village for her very... aggressive and proactive response to some Big Folk raiding her home, left to travel and became a Slayer (AiME's barbarian equivalent). After meeting some friendly dwarves and gaining the Foe-Hammer subclass (granting her the ability to wear heavy armor without penalty), she took to dressing and acting like a dwarf out in the "big world" as a form of cover. Ignorant big folk were a lot more likely to accept her as an odd dwarf than whatever the heck a hobbit was.
She was rowdy, loud, and a blast to play. Won more than a few feats of strength thanks to her class features.

My wife played a Brandybuck in a TOR game years ago that was a lot of fun. IIRC, she was competitive and impulsive, and had a big mouth. Very fun to GM for.