R&C: Halflings...

[Wolfspider]

Yoda is a poor example.

Maybe. But I dare you to tell that to his face.

 

[bgaesop]

The reason I've never liked 3' halflings (despite halflings being my favorite race) are that I cannot see how they can possibly backstab someone at that height. If the average humanoid adversary is somewhere in the 6' range, a halfling cannot possibly stab them in the lungs/heart/throat/other vitals with any sort of believability, and I don't want every sneak attack in my games to be "I hamstring him!"/"I stab him in the groin!"

 

[GameOgre]

Ok Im going to lay the REAL reason for the change on you all. This is the honest reason and although it might not be a good one to you now....one day it might make since.

See many Males like myself love to play Halflings. Rogues mostly but it doesnt really matter. Our wives though...tend to play Human,Elven and Half Elven. Now after a number of years both playing and married thing tend to bleed over from the game durring certain alone times with the wife.

3' and 35 pounds just is too hard to umm get into. 4' and 65 is better but to be honest enlarge potions are still going to be needed.

we are pushing for 4'8 and 100 pounds in 6E but its a step by step thing.

 

[JamesP]

Now after a number of years both playing and married thing tend to bleed over from the game during certain alone times with the wife.

*Rocks back and forth, holding his knees*
Make it stop, dear god, make it stop!

 

[pawsplay]

I'll just be happy that halflings will regain their former stature. The "Honey I Shrunk the 3e Halflings" thing always irked me. Small is fine, but I could never figure out why they felt the need to turn them toddler sized... maybe to fit 3e's more formal definitions of size by height and weight? Halflings should be small, but they should be the upper end of Small if they're going to thrive in a human-sized world.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

The height I never had a problem with, it was the weight and proportions.

There are plenty of things that stand under three feet tall that I do not want to get into a fight with.

There's the obvious stuff:

Wolverines: 2 feet tall and can take down a Moose
Badgers
Dogs
Wolves
Some Wildcats

But more Appropos:
I don't really want to fight any of the great apes or baboons, even the smaller ones like Chimps.

And most appropos:

The badger or wolverine riding Gnome Barbarian was a beast.

So you can be short and physically competitive in melee, but I don't think you can do that and be a really miniature human being.

Chimps, for instance, can be very strong and are around three feet, but they also weigh far more than halflings do and are built, well, like chimps rather than pre-schoolers.



On the other hand, if the taller halflings look cool I'll like them better. Whatever the logic or illogic the 3E halflings never really did it for me visually.


What the min-maxer in me really wants to see is centaur-like creature at between three and four feet tall. That way you get all the centaur resonance and awesome without the issues of a large creature.

 

[Sonny]

did halflings wrestle gnolls?

Don't be silly, that would require using the grappling rules.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

Folks - there is an african-american halfling in this freakin' book. Have fun.

While there may be a black halfling in Races and Classes as you say, I have a sneaking suspicion that he is neither African nor American.

 

[Lackhand]

While there may be a black halfling in Races and Classes as you say, I have a sneaking suspicion that he is neither African nor American.

"A black shire-reeve?!"
"Why not? Worked in Blazing Saddles!"

 

[heirodule]

While there may be a black halfling in Races and Classes as you say, I have a sneaking suspicion that he is neither African nor American.

Touv. The word is Touv.

Lawrence Schick, Vice President of Product Development at TSR wrote a response stating that "nowhere in the text of the Gazetteer is there any indication of anybody’s skin color. Nobody here ever gave it any thought, because it doesn’t matter."