D&D 4E Reinvisioning the Halfling for 4E

[Afrodyte]

I like the new direction of halflings. I never found the previous incarnations of the D&D halfling very interesting. Now I do. I dunno. Maybe it's novelty.

However, now that I think about it, I can imagine them being very similar to the Maori, whom I find more interesting from an adventuring perspective than rustic English folk.

I concur with the posters who called for art to shift the proportions a bit. As of right now, the only time I can tell a halfling from a human is if the captions says so. a 1:6 head:body ratio and larger eyes may do the trick. Makes them all "cute" and "childlike" for people who don't know better.

 

[Steely Dan]

I say switch them out for another race entirely to fill in the swamp-rat thing:

-Human "little people"

-Tibbits

-Vegepygmies

-Italians

 

[Traycor]

I told my wife about this thread, and she decided to redesign halflings to look like aye-ayes. I'm not really sure where that came from, but it's definitely interesting.

Awesome pics! Your wife did a great job.

 

[Grimstaff]

WotC wants halfling that look like this:
http://magicstyle.bizland.com/MagicStyleClub_ENG/_images/cornrows_mutter_und_sohn.gif
Mine will continue to look like this:
http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/photos/BilboInTheHobbit.jpg

 

[Grimstaff]

I told my wife about this thread, and she decided to redesign halflings to look like aye-ayes. I'm not really sure where that came from, but it's definitely interesting.

Gah!

 

[Bishmon]

I concur with the posters who called for art to shift the proportions a bit. As of right now, the only time I can tell a halfling from a human is if the captions says so. a 1:6 head:body ratio and larger eyes may do the trick. Makes them all "cute" and "childlike" for people who don't know better.

I can't possibly hope against that more than I already do. The 3E halflings were very childlike, especially in regards to their personalities. And here we are, trying to reimagine the halfling for 4E.

I think it's important that 4E halflings grow up and move away from resembling human children, either in appearance or personality. There needs to be something done with the art to make them more distinctive from the typical humans depicted in D&D art, but I'm not sure what.

 

[Traycor]

I can't possibly hope against that more than I already do. The 3E halflings were very childlike, especially in regards to their personalities. And here we are, trying to reimagine the halfling for 4E.

I think it's important that 4E halflings grow up and move away from resembling human children, either in appearance or personality. There needs to be something done with the art to make them more distinctive from the typical humans depicted in D&D art, but I'm not sure what.

I can understand this feeling. But really, I shouldn't need to have a halfling drawn next to a human or stepping over a giant helmet to tell that they are small. We should be able to see a picture of a halfling standing in place, yet still be able to instantly grasp the size of the subject.

Currently the 4E halflings are human. No way to tell beyond the dreds. Soo.... if we ever have a black human character with dreds, are we all to assume that it is a halfling until someone tells us different?

 

[Sadrik]

I welcome disagreement, critiques, and further suggestions on how to make the Halflings distinct and exciting. If you are going to offer further suggestions on improvement, I would ask that you stay within the design that Wizards has laid out for 4E:

Halflings are river and swamp dwellers, nomadic, traders, and live in clans.

Well, my complaint is with your premise. A warrior class of people would not necessarily be running around with a fish gutting knife and using it as a weapon!

I guess halflings could get axed from my game with no problems. I like adding in the goblin and filling in the exact role that the halflings occupy. I'll probably say no 1/2-things (elf or lings) and instead make them "goblins" and "noble-born" humans.

 

[Traycor]

Well, my complaint is with your premise. A warrior class of people would not necessarily be running around with a fish gutting knife and using it as a weapon!

Here's how I see it. Halflings wouldn't view themselves as "warrior people" but they are very capable in combat in a practical way. Halflings are very polite and amiable, but if you screw with them, one would have no problem jumping up and sticking their fish gutting knife through the underside of your jaw.

 

[broghammerj]

I struggle with this whole thread a bit and the new incarnation of 4E halflings and here's why:

1. People want halfings to look different than humans. Well, the old hobbits were short, rotund, big heads, and hairy feet.....check! Now it's the Tasselhoffs that look human and become the problem.

2. Hobbit culture is not prone to adventuring....well no wonder in this POL setting where the wilderness is dangerous and holds evil things. No ones culture should want to adventure because it's not safe, but then again hasn't DnD been about the forces of evil driving the ordinary man to action.

3. What was wrong with living in the hillside? No one else lived there unless you count hill dwarfs. But then again we are dumping all the subraces and I think most of us would think of dwarfs as mountain dwellers.

4. The new swamp dweller motif. Name a successful group of people that live in swamps. The Cajuns don't count because they don't technically live on swamp land. The culture grew up on the banks of the Mississippi and near the ocean. Swamps carry disease, insects, have little in the way of agriculture, etc. Very inhospitable. Why would a short, mobile, non tree living race choose a swamp as their land. Talk about drowning.

4. IMHO, players view gnomes and halflings similarly. By that I mean both are rarely played but the few players who like them seem to be big advocates. The rest of us seem to play them once and a while for a change of pace and move on to something else. It seems to me you could have flipped a coin and replaced halfling with the word gnome to have the new reinvisioning of the gnome.