Of Gnomes and Halflings...

[Daeorian]

From an in-game perspective, if you're an average character walking down the cobblestone street of an average medieval town and see a mix of about half a dozen gnomes and halflings walking your way, how would you tell the gnomes from the halflings -- aside from the fact that gnomes may be as much as half a foot taller then the halflings?

Also, what if one race was trying to blend in with the other? Say a gnome wanted to be perceived as a halfling or vise-versa? How might that gnome/halfling go about doing that?

I'm inclined to think that it could be difficult to tell one from the other.

I've got a situation in an upcoming session where this is going to be an issue.
Thanks in advance to everyone for their input.

 

[GreyLord]

Check your pockets.



With that many coming at you...if they are halflings there's bound to be one that's...ahem...has kenderfingers...

If they are Gnomes there's one bound to be an illusionist, bard, or charmer...so the less attention you pay them....

 

[fdnickerson]

Disguising yourself as a member of another race imposes a -2 modifier on your disguise check. In my opinion, gnomes and halflings share no more similarities than elves and humans do.

 

[Daeorian]

Disguising yourself as a member of another race imposes a -2 modifier on your disguise check. In my opinion, gnomes and halflings share no more similarities than elves and humans do.

That makes a lot of sense: gnomes to halflings as humans are to elves.

A bit of backstory: the halfling in question has been raised by an elf in secrecy because of an edict that mandates the slaughter of ALL halflings in the land. (Has to do with a prophecy, yada-yada.) This halfling has spent his life in hiding. My players are going to have to escort this halfling to safety when his adopted father ... um ... falls into difficulty.

There are two things I, as DM/GM, have to make sure I cover well. 1st, I need to have a good handle on whether gnomes might be mistaken to be halfings by particularly stupid denizens who might then try to kill the gnomes to collect the halfling bounty. 2nd, how well might this halfling be able to disguise himself. Since his very existence has depended on his ability to either conceal himself completely, or to effectively disguise himself, I think he'll probably be able to manage the disguise adequately. He'd have invested a LOT of his skill points in "disguise".

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The two races consciously using that sort of confusion is actually a standard point in my campaign. From outsiders' perspective, the difference between the two appears to be cultural. In reality, they share a common ancestor, and cannot interbreed, but "tall folk" have a hard time distinguishing between the two, unless they're dressed in stereotypical ethnic garb.

As DM, I've even invented a gospel of Garl Glittergold in the form of letters written to the halflings, prostelytizing them and talking about their common ancestry.

If you see my "Unified Theory of Gnomes" link below (I need to reactivate my supporter status to make it actually work as a link), I believe I reference gnomes using this as a form of camoflague -- the people who think of gnomes as rich gemcutters worth robbing likely only think of halflings as indigent nomads not worth robbing, so just being a generic "short guy" is a smart move for gnomes, and part of the reason they seem rarer than they really are.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Beards.

Haflings look like really short elves; gnomes look like short, slim dwarves.

 

[Mojo_Rat]

If it is golarion you can easily tell the two groups apart int he same way you could spot groups of boys and girls walking together at a distance. In this case Halflings are the Boys and gnomes the Girls.

Gnomes tend to be lighter than Halflings and are likely to be alot more flamboyant. Unless they are hiding it they should be easily identifiable at a distance.

 

[Glade Riven]

In Pathfinder, gnomes have exagerated features (like oversized eyes, mouths, or ears), technicolor hair, and skin with unusual color (slightly pinkish, or bluish, or whatever). In short, they look more fey-ish. Other settings typically describe gnomes as dumpy, miniature dwarves with big noses and well trimmed facial hair.

 

[Dingo333]

In the advanced player's guide, there are some halfling specific feats, one of which gives them a bonus to disguise and bluff when being a human child.

The feat is Childlike, CHA 13 and halfling race requiremnts.
Effect: take 10 on bluff to convince others you are telling the truth, as long as you are being made out to be innocent.
+2 to disguise when disguised as a human child, and ignore the penalties for another race and age

Might help explain his backstory, changing the elf dad to human dad as long as that isn't a crucial plot point. And even if it is, you could rule the feat is good when being a half elf child or full elf, depending on how close elf and halflings are in this world

 

[Tovec]

In pathfinder the gnome has the purple hair.

In 3.5 the gnome has a beard (if male) and somehow seems more magical.

Oh and the height thing.

Oh, halflings (at least in 3.5 unsure about PF) have elongated heads.. like footballs. I'm serious, go look at some of the 3.5 artwork.