RPG Evolution: The Trouble with Halflings

Over the decades I've developed my campaign world to match the archetypes my players wanted to play. In all those years, nobody's ever played a halfling.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

So What's the Problem?​

Halflings, derived from hobbits, have been a curious nod to Tolkien's influence on fantasy. While dwarves and elves have deep mythological roots, hobbits are more modern inventions. And their inclusion was very much a response to the adventurous life that the agrarian homebodies considered an aberration. In short, most hobbits didn't want to be adventurers, and Bilbo, Frodo, and the others were forever changed by their experiences, such that it was difficult for them to reintegrate when they returned home. You don't hear much about elves and dwarves having difficulty returning home after being adventurers, and for good reason. Tolkien was making a point about the human condition and the nature of war by using hobbits as proxies.

As a literary construct, hobbits serve a specific purpose. In The Hobbit, they are proxies for children. In The Lord of the Rings, they are proxies for farmers and other folk who were thrust into the industrialized nightmare of mass warfare. In both cases, hobbits were a positioned in contrast to the violent lifestyle of adventurers who live and die by the sword.

Which is at least in part why they're challenging to integrate into a campaign world. And yet, we have strong hobbit archetypes in Dungeons & Dragons, thanks to Dragonlance.

Kender. Kender Are the Problem​

I did know one player who loved to play kender. We never played together in a campaign, at least in part because kender are an integral part of the Dragonlance setting and we weren't playing in Dragonlance. But he would play a kender in every game he played, including in massive multiplayers like Ultima Online. And he was eye-rollingly aggravating, as he loved "borrowing" things from everyone (a trait established by Tasselhoff Burrfoot).

Part of the issue with kender is that they aren't thieves, per se, but have a child-like curiosity that causes them to "borrow" things without understanding that borrowing said things without permission is tantamount to stealing in most cultures. In essence, it results in a character who steals but doesn't admit to stealing, which can be problematic for inter-party harmony. Worse, kender have a very broad idea of what to "borrow" (which is not limited to just valuables) and have always been positioned as being offended by accusations of thievery. It sets up a scenario where either the party is very tolerant of the kender or conflict ensues. This aspect of kender has been significantly minimized in the latest draft for Unearthed Arcana.

Big Heads, Little Bodies​

The latest incarnation of halflings brings them back to the fun-loving roots. Their appearance is decidedly not "little children" or "overweight short people." Rather, they appear more like political cartoons of eras past, where exaggerated features were used as caricatures, adding further to their comical qualities. But this doesn't solve the outstanding problem that, for a game that is often about conflict, the original prototypes for halflings avoided it. They were heroes precisely because they were thrust into difficult situations and had to rise to the challenge. That requires significant work in a campaign to encourage a player to play a halfling character who would rather just stay home.

There's also the simple matter of integrating halflings into societies where they aren't necessarily living apart. Presumably, most human campaigns have farmers; dwarves and elves occupy less civilized niches, where halflings are a working class who lives right alongside the rest of humanity in plain sight. Figuring out how to accommodate them matters a lot. Do humans just treat them like children? Would halflings want to be anywhere near a larger humanoids' dwellings as a result? Or are halflings given mythical status like fey? Or are they more like inveterate pranksters and tricksters, treating them more like gnomes? And if halflings are more like gnomes, then why have gnomes?

There are opportunities to integrate halflings into a world, but they aren't quite so easy to plop down into a setting as dwarves and elves. I still haven't quite figured out how to make them work in my campaign that doesn't feel like a one-off rather than a separate species. But I did finally find a space for gnomes, which I'll discuss in another article.

Your Turn: How have you integrated halflings into your campaign world?

 

[Chaosmancer]

How do you do it while allowing the doctors to be effective in 5e?

I mean, off the top of my head?

If you have proficiency in medicine, add prof bonus to any direct magical healing. Expertise, add double prof bonus.

Most of the properties I've read that allow for medical knowledge to be applicable show that in-depth knowledge of the body allows the mage to heal more, heal more energy effectively, or heal what otherwise could not be healed. In the series "How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom" it is known that "Light magic" (which is used for healing) cannot cure diseases, but then an individual who has been studying medicine under the isekai'd hero's direction and improving her medical knowledge ends up able to do just that, because she is able to recognize what parasites and viruses are, and that additional knowledge allows her to target that with her magic.

In the series "Binding Words" it has allowed the protagonist to regrow limbs and reshape people's bodies, because instead of just throwing energy at the problem, he knows about bones, muscles, nerves, ect.

Now, I've never done this in 5e, and I have no idea if it would be balanced in any manner, but it is just how I would translate these ideas from literature into DnD mechanics. I can't reduce the cost of a spell slot, but I can make magic more effective if you have medical knowledge.

And then, well, most doctor's wouldn't actually serve adventurers. Adventurer's live lives too fast for a doctor's treatment. But they would still be a vital source of healing for a local community, and deal with things like surgeries that are not something in the life of an adventurer. Magical healing can do a lot, but it can't remove an iron arrowhead from your stomach, remove a damaged organ, or other major surgical needs. Not until you get to truly stupendous levels of magic.

 

[Cadence]

The main character in the Black Company is their medic...

 

[Hussar]

Oh, but people have absolutely insisted that the current version of halfling is archaic, should be removed from D&D and is "no longer popular" despite the fact that they are part of the most popular fantasy show released in 2022

No they really haven’t.

The strongest argument is that halflings could get bumped to the monster manual while still having pc creation stats like many other humanoids to make room in the phb for something that might get more traction.

No one in these threads has said halflings should not be in the game at all.

 

[Hussar]

The main character in the Black Company is their medic...

A simple system I saw allowed you to spend 1 hp off your max to gain 1 hd worth of healing. But of book keeping but a neat system nonetheless.

And as usual everything is reset on a long rest.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Allow a Medicine check to force someone to spend a healing surge when dying; or grant a bonus to regular surge healing after a rest. Maybe a check used to allow the spending of a healing surge to make a new saving throw against poison or disease?

Do you mean hit dice?

 

[James Gasik]

Do you mean hit dice?

Yes, lol. I was just talking to a friend about 4e, got my wires crossed.

 

[Faolyn]

So, humans can meditate and relive memories of their past lives? Not like, one or two people, but every human as just a natural part of their existence can do this as easily as we fall asleep and dream? Elves do.

Some people in the real world claim they can. In a fantasy world, it may very well be possible. I see no reason to not give that ability to humans of a particular culture, or make a monk archetype based around it.

And, I like how we immediately cast aside magic like it doesn't matter for a fantasy race.

Because it kind of doesn't. Every race can learn magic. There's nothing that an elf (or any other race) can do magically that a human can't do magically as well.

Also, some halflings are innately telepathic or magical. In fact, four out of the six subraces of halflings have innate powers. If you choose to ignore the dragonmarked halflings, you're still left with two out of four subraces having innate powers (lotusden and ghostwise). So if magic matters for a fantasy race, then halflings are pretty magical in nature.

Sure, it is magic, but it is still part of the gnomish identity to be able to speak with beasts and cast illusions. Some versions of rock gnomes or other inventor style gnomes are depicted with extreme cognitive abilities. For example, I have talked before about Cornie Fizzlesprocket from a fantasy series. One of the things that gets her in trouble is her ability, as a gnome, to literally count every second in the day. She has an internal clock so precise that she realizes the mind-affecting things she is being subjected to, because she has lost a full minute of time. I know it isn't a classiv DnD-ism, but that level of attention to detail, where you can just think "It has been 25,261 seconds since I woke up" is something that if any human is capable of it is rare.

Cornie Fizzlesprocket is from a web story. She is not a D&D character.

What about being able to touch a stone wall and sense any and all weaknesses in it? Heck, now Dwarves can SEE through stone with tremorsense. Not many humans how can just touch stone and then list off its properties. Dwarves have been shown to do that with stone and metal.

And no, I wouldn't go with traditional monster goblins and orcs. There have been quite better versions of them made. I'm currently enamored with the idea of orcs from MCDM who is making DnD 5e supplemental material. Their orcs have something called "Bloodfire" representing the typical passionate version of orcs, but tying it to a biological factor that their blood can literally burn in their veins as they fight. Goblins I am still enamored with the version from The Wandering Inn fantasy story, where it seems that they go through a multi-stage life cycle, growing from Goblins to hobgoblins to massive ogre like beings.

And you're... citing what are basically someone's home brew orcs and goblins as if it's supposed to mean something when talking about official D&D depiction of races? Big deal. I can home brew super-mega-awesometastic halflings. Would that convince you?

Right, how about this. How often have the Goliaths gone to war? The Firbolg? How bout a softball, surely something as violently aggressive as Trolls have waged wars right?
Halflings are defined by peacefulness, and "lack of waging wars" is also pretty false. Especially considering that halflings have been depicted going to war to support humans.

Beats me. So what? None of these races have the types of organizations that allow for war, nor have they been given pages upon pages of text over the decades. Halflings actually have a god of war and have had a lot of ink spilled about them. But halflings rarely go to war. That says a lot about their character as a people.

And the rest is just cooking and being nice. And I think considering some of the things I've listed for the other races it should be fairly self-explanatory why "cook good and nice" isn't really living up to the same standards.

Says who? You? Are you the sole arbiter of what makes a race unique and interesting? I think that they're cool.

And, if nothing has ever shown how badly DnD needed to rebrand orcs and goblins, it is that their only defining feature for DnD fans is "kills people and takes their stuff."

This I will agree with.

But so far, they haven't, and you can't claim that D&D orcs and goblins are somehow capable of doing things that humans can't because you can point to Matt Colville's personal take on them.

Reincarnations and the ability to change gender overnight isn't combat-effective either. Yet somehow I seem to be satisfied with that for defining elves. It is almost as if, and I know I have only said this dozens upon dozens of times, it isn't about combat and war.

So in that case, being the best, most cheerful hosts and chefs is equally as useful as whatever abilities elves and dwarfs are. Probably more useful, in fact, because you being able to change your gender over night doesn't affect me in anyway, but you being able to cook me a good breakfast does.

So if "cooking and nice" aren't what you're looking for, and "combat and war" aren't what you're looking for, and halflings can learn magic just like every other race... what are you looking for?

 

[Lanefan]

But when we look to halflings, there is nothing fantastical. And then we are told that that's the point, they aren't fantastical.

Neither are Humans, and yet they're front-and centre in the game and in the PH.

Which leaves us scratching our heads because why would we want a fantasy race that isn't fantastical?

Some species are more fantastical than others. It's a spectrum, not a binary.

 

[Hussar]

Some people in the real world claim they can. In a fantasy world, it may very well be possible. I see no reason to not give that ability to humans of a particular culture, or make a monk archetype based around it.

The point being is that they actually don't though. Humans don't remember past lives and never sleep. That's something that is distinctly elven and serves to separate them from humans. That you could give that power to a human doesn't invalidate elves any more than short humans invalidate halflings.

Humans don't live below ground, although, sure, they could. Nor do they innately see through stone. Again, you could certainly make a human that could see through stone and live underground, but, all you've done now is turn a human into a dwarf.

Which would be the point that's been made over and over again. Halflings don't really have anything that makes them distinctly halfling. Not being fantastical is what humans are.

To me there are several very strong reasons why halflings are problematic:

1. Many settings, while leaving elves and dwarves more or less alone, rewrite halflings in an attempt to make them different and attractive to players. Whether it's the anti-hobbit kender, cannibal halflings, river trader halflings, dinosaur riding halflings or whatever, there have been so many very different takes on "halfling" that defining a halfling is actually pretty problematic. I mean, you, yourself mention that there innately magical halflings - which runs exactly counter to what everyone has talked about as the core of being a halfling - that they aren't special. That they aren't magical. So, "define halfling" becomes a game of throwing stuff at the wall and hoping that something will eventually stick.

2. Halflings never play much of a roll in any of the settings. They are always the "and also" race. They never really matter and removing them from the setting would pretty much have zero impact. Even settings like Dragonlance where kender are actually a big thing, they don't actually DO anything in the setting. It's the humans and the elves and the dwarves that fight back the dragonarmies. The Kender are just kinda mentioned in a couple of paragraphs at the end. In most settings they don't even play that much of a role.

3. According to the information we have, and a fair bit of anecdotal information, halflings have never actually been very popular. Again, they are the "also ran" race. If they are in an adventure at all, it's a very, very minor role. "Save the halfling town" hasn't been a plot in a module that I can think of (although, I'm sure it does exist somewhere). Yet "Save the (Human/Elf/Dwarf) town has featured repeatedly. According to what we've seen on D&D Beyond, they aren't played all that often. Think of it this way. If I told you that my 5 PC group was 3 humans and 2 elves, no one would bat an eye. Heck 3 elves a dwarf and a human would be pretty standard. When's the last time you had 3 halfling PC's at the same time? And if you have, would you say that that's a regular occurrence at your table?

 

[James Gasik]

2. Halflings never play much of a roll in any of the settings. They are always the "and also" race. They never really matter and removing them from the setting would pretty much have zero impact. Even settings like Dragonlance where kender are actually a big thing, they don't actually DO anything in the setting. It's the humans and the elves and the dwarves that fight back the dragonarmies. The Kender are just kinda mentioned in a couple of paragraphs at the end. In most settings they don't even play that much of a role.

House Jorasco and House Ghallanda beg to differ, being two of the noble houses of Khorvaire. Having access to the best healers and medics was huge during the Last War, and while the Ghallanda may not have a monopoly on the best inns and restaurants in the Five Nations, they set the gold standard for what is the best. Both Houses are fantastically wealthy, and if you think their role as "support services" is minor, well, I don't know what to tell you, because a lot of things would simply grind to a halt without them.

Also, in the Forgotten Realms:

"Halflings underwent something of a cultural and philosophical change through the Hundred Years of Chaos. During this time, the typical halfling aversion to adventure for its own sake was overcome by a powerful sense of wanderlust. Halfling-run adventure companies became common in many major cities of Faerûn."

"Since then (The Spellplague), halflings were found in their greatest concentrations within the nation of Amn. Though formerly met with prejudice, halflings earned acceptance through their skill as merchants and business partners. Halflings could also be commonly found along the Sea of Fallen Stars, particularly human-dominated cities. In fact, human cities were often the most common place to find halflings, who frequently found ways to exploit the ever-changing climate of human societies, although dwarven cities were also accommodating."

So in another setting, we find that Halflings became very un-Hobbitlike, forming adventuring companies across the world. They became great merchants, able to find a place for themselves in a highly competitive region, and have adapted to become natural city dwellers.

So what are you really looking for? A setting where Halflings rule the world? Because really, few races have that. In most settings the Elves are in decline, the Dwarves are isolationists, and anyone who isn't a Human is a backwards savage or keeping to themselves to not draw attention to themselves.