D&D 4E Reinvisioning the Halfling for 4E

[mhensley]

IMO, the game that gets halflings right is Warhammer. They're overweight, pie eating, lecherous little thieves with mad cooking skillz and a resistance to chaos. Yeah their stats suck and they get pwned in combat, but this is a roleplaying game and not everybody wants to play a superhero.

 

[The Little Raven]

Those issues don't pose a problem for humans, who behave identically.

Humans weren't described, almost exclusively, as an anti-adventuring culture composed of overweight, potbellied farmers and pipe-smokers.

 

[Stormtalon]

So, I guess the real question is....

How many of us are deathly afraid that every halfling played once 4th Ed is release is going to sound like a bad version of Gambit from the X-Men?

 

[Michael Morris]

For my own setting one of the reasons that losing gnomes is a big deal to me is that halflings aren't anything like in 3e in cultural motive and, for half the members, in abilities. Rather than do a knockoff of Tolkien or Dragonlance I long ago co-opted gelflings - though in the setting they are known as 'oyasini'

For those unfamiliar with The Dark Crystal this means the females have wings and can glide. Now with 4e's racial feats the oyasi (female halflings) will have a noticably different tree of things to pick from than the males.

Gnomes in my world took on the homebody type associated with hobbits. Role-wise you could say halflings moved out to a fringe to give the gnomes some room.

Interestingly, in my setting the gnomes are already established as the swamp and river rats of the setting. Maybe I'll just use 4e halflings for gnomes and build out the oyasini (the setting's proper halflings) out anew.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

So, I guess the real question is....

How many of us are deathly afraid that every halfling played once 4th Ed is release is going to sound like a bad version of Gambit from the X-Men?

I wasn't at all... Until just now.

Later
silver

 

[mach1.9pants]

A way to help give a vision to halflings would be, I am afraid, to go back to bare feet. I am not advocating big hairy LotR feet. But sailors of the past on wooden ships mostly wore bare feet. More grip on the wood and ropes. Feet also don't rot badly when continually wet then dry (although they do if they stay wet all the time- errgh trench foot).
If you are a swamp, river and boat dweller, bare feet are de riguer

 

[Irda Ranger]

While this is a neat idea, it is widely divergent from what WotC is doing with halflings in 4E. I would like to use this thread to find ways to use the direction WotC is already taking, but make it more distinctive and exciting.

A - I did use the direction WotC gave. I used the fluff, and changed the racial conception/appearance to match.
B - You can't both do it WotC's way and make it interesting. Something has to give.
C - You asked for criticism. You got it.

There is still time for WotC to fix the art/gear/distinctive direction on Halflings.

The PHB is at typesetting. That ship has sailed. I thought this was a wide open discussion of brainstorming. If you wanted me to guess what WotC could do right now to fix the Halflings, my answer would have been: Jack Squat.

They said just a couple of days ago that most of the art orders are still out.

As in "The artists are still putting finishing touches on the work." That's quite a bit different from "Let's start over from scratch on the racial conception." The run up time on that is way too long.

I like these suggestions! The mini-pirate motif is a good match to the swamp rat motif. Both would blend well and it would open up more options for variations in dress.

I hope that's sarcasm. "Pirate" is a profession/culture, not a race. Get those confused and I'm sure Whizbang can straighten you out on the differences, given the issues he has with the Halflings in one of the 3E splats.

Pirates are popular these days. I'm sure lots of folks would latch onto that!

Again, I hope that's sarcasm. I can't think of a worse reason to make all of one race be pirates. They become one-trick monkeys like they're evil cousins, the Kender.

 

[Irda Ranger]

Their stats suck and they get pwned in combat, but this is a roleplaying game and not everybody wants to play a superhero.

The 4E designers do not subscribe to your newsletter. If it sucks in combat, it has no place in 4E. That's not a criticism of 4E; it's just the way it is. Why do you think Bards are gone and Rogues are Swashbuckler-Ninja's now?

 

[Wyrmshadows]

So we have gone from FrodoOD&D/1e/2e to Lidda in 3e which was a HUGE change from the D&D/Tolkien tropes of fantasy. However, giving halflings dreadlocks and making them riverfolk is wildly unacceptable?

I don't quite understand the controversy.



Wyrmshadows

 

[Connorsrpg]

@Bishmon - wow, this is exactly what our halflings (often called helflings by humans, as they are really a long offshoot of elves). They are expert mariners for all the reasons you point out AND keep their bare feet for the reasons Mach 1.9 Pants points out below.

Our setting was guilty of the 'many' subraces, but most people loved the elves , especially the wanderer elves of which the helflings were a part.

If you want to mine for ideas for maritime halflings have a look at Kage link in sig (Races > Elves > Wander Elves > Helflings).

I think some of what we have could be applied to the swamp dwelling bargefolk halflings quite easily).

C