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?

 

[Mind of tempest]

Motivations are internal to characters. You don't have to say "these are the good boys". You just describe what they do, which on average would be things you think are good. Players and other forces within the setting can interpret the motives however they like.

And reasonable people often disagree about how to "be good". Halfling can easily employ the "give a fish" brand of goodness on a grand scale, without ever "teaching how to fish" or vice versa. Such a disagreement can occur between factions in the setting or between PCs at the table without compromising either party's "goodness".

As far as what any race would "likely" be, that is defined between the rulebook and the DM. The rulebooks say what the designers' expectations are for them and the DM interprets how that fits in the setting they are using and adjusts as necessary. At the end of the day, it comes more down to the DMs personal set of values than anything else.

Halflings are smaller, not weaker. There is nothing implicit or explicit within the PHB that suggests they'd fight poorly and a fair amount within the PHP to suggest the contrary.

Edit: The funny thing is, the way you describe halflings is actually more similar to the PHB description for elves.

look trying to make the most morally good races is just a bad idea conceptionally and unworkable.

less carrying capacity is legally weaker plus less leverage.

they can't use the really big damaging weapons and are not known for strategy, tactic or literally anything beyond being peaceful villagers who go places sometimes, thus they would suck in war.

of course, they have a lot in common with elves both are idealised ideas of humanity thus both are just like us without the bad stuff.

 

[James Gasik]

Oh yes, because the difference between a 20 Strength Halfling Fighter and a 20 Strength Elf Fighter, one wielding a longsword in two hands for d10+5 and the other wielding a greatsword for 2d6+5, is just light years of difference! A whole point and a half of damage!

Or maybe the Halfling just takes Dueling Fighting Style and uses the thing in one hand for d8+7, losing half a point of damage and can use a shield....

 

[Gammadoodler]

look trying to make the most morally good races is just a bad idea conceptionally and unworkable.

less carrying capacity is legally weaker plus less leverage.

they can't use the really big damaging weapons and are not known for strategy, tactic or literally anything beyond being peaceful villagers who go places sometimes, thus they would suck in war.

of course, they have a lot in common with elves both are idealised ideas of humanity thus both are just like us without the bad stuff.

We can have bests in all kinds of activities except good behavior? That's silly.

Small races do not have less carrying capacity in 5e, tiny races do. (Note that this means that halflings are stronger on a pound for pound basis than most medium-sized races).

The difficulty with heavy weapons mostly just "forces" them into using one handed weapons (and shields presumably). It mostly a limit on versatility rather than effectiveness. Grappling is an issue, and the heavy trait on the longbow hurts, but this is consistent across all small races. On the other hand, the fact that they are small gives them access to mounts that medium sized creatures can't use (e.g. medium sized flyers or burrowers). And they can fit in spaces that larger creatures can't. This is mostly a wash on an even playing field. On home turf, the advantages for halflings would be huge.

They are known for being cooperative and ferocious (when threatened). Lucky, Bravery, Halfling Nimbleness and all the PHB subclass features are combat-relevant, even moreso in a war scenario than in normal D&D encounters as critical failures can be more impactful, frightened can be impactful, poison can be impactful, and it is much more likely for there to be a bunch of medium-sized or larger creatures to get through and/or hide behind on the way to high value targets.

Seriously, Halfling Nimbleness, by itself would completely change how an army would have to organize itself to fight against it. There would be no front line. Flanks could and would be happening everywhere.

On a normal battlefield, halfling would be dangerous. In a war for their homeland, halflings would be terrifying.

 

[Maxperson]

Rulings, not rules.

At one table a wyvern might count as a Dragon, at another not so. Ditto charm vs a satyr. As long as each DM is consistent and sticks to their own established precedent within a campaign, all is good.

This. Back in 1e we counted humans, demihumans, orcs, goblins, etc., but not giants or fey creatures.

 

[Maxperson]

In my experience? They're ongoing and variable-sized moments of chaos and anarchy.

Pretty sure that they are just small sized.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Oh yes, because the difference between a 20 Strength Halfling Fighter and a 20 Strength Elf Fighter, one wielding a longsword in two hands for d10+5 and the other wielding a greatsword for 2d6+5, is just light years of difference! A whole point and a half of damage!

Or maybe the Halfling just takes Dueling Fighting Style and uses the thing in one hand for d8+7, losing half a point of damage and can use a shield....

your mechanical point stands but all small races have it thus not a true defence of halflings.

We can have bests in all kinds of activities except good behavior? That's silly.

Small races do not have less carrying capacity in 5e, tiny races do. (Note that this means that halflings are stronger on a pound for pound basis than most medium-sized races).

The difficulty with heavy weapons mostly just "forces" them into using one handed weapons (and shields presumably). It mostly a limit on versatility rather than effectiveness. Grappling is an issue, and the heavy trait on the longbow hurts, but this is consistent across all small races. On the other hand, the fact that they are small gives them access to mounts that medium sized creatures can't use (e.g. medium sized flyers or burrowers). And they can fit in spaces that larger creatures can't. This is mostly a wash on an even playing field. On home turf, the advantages for halflings would be huge.

They are known for being cooperative and ferocious (when threatened). Lucky, Bravery, Halfling Nimbleness and all the PHB subclass features are combat-relevant, even moreso in a war scenario than in normal D&D encounters as critical failures can be more impactful, frightened can be impactful, poison can be impactful, and it is much more likely for there to be a bunch of medium-sized or larger creatures to get through and/or hide behind on the way to high value targets.

Seriously, Halfling Nimbleness, by itself would completely change how an army would have to organize itself to fight against it. There would be no front line. Flanks could and would be happening everywhere.

On a normal battlefield, halfling would be dangerous. In a war for their homeland, halflings would be terrifying.

halfling villages are not hard to sigie you just burn all the food and move on.

since when have they been described as ferocious, most are simple civilians and do not know battle tactics luck will not teach you how to fight.

a world with magic changes battle lines far more and honestly, most foes have magic.

 

[Irlo]

halfling villages are not hard to sigie you just burn all the food and move on.

No one lays siege to villages, halfling or otherwise. Halflings do live along other people though, in cities that might be subjected to a siege. I don’t understand your point here.

since when have they been described as ferocious, most are simple civilians and do not know battle tactics luck will not teach you how to fight.

The PHB notes their ferocity defending friends, family, and communities. You might find your animosity to halflings fading a bit if you read the text and don’t dismiss half of it.

Most humans and dwarves are simple civilians too.

a world with magic changes battle lines far more and honestly, most foes have magic.

Halflings have magic too.

 

[Gammadoodler]

your mechanical point stands but all small races have it thus not a true defence of halflings.

halfling villages are not hard to sigie you just burn all the food and move on.

since when have they been described as ferocious, most are simple civilians and do not know battle tactics luck will not teach you how to fight.

a world with magic changes battle lines far more and honestly, most foes have magic.

So to be clear halflings are not weaker.

Halflings work readily with others, and they are loyal to their friends, whether halfling or otherwise. They can display remarkable ferocity when their friends, families, or communities are threatened. (PHB)

And sure, magic does change battlefield tactics quite a bit with widely varying degrees of impact. That said, most racial magic features (mostly cantrips) are typically locked behind a subrace, and they're kind of a nothingburger from a battlefield perspective. Single target damage, tiny aoes, save for zero damage, super minor buffs and debuffs. They aren't bad, but they certainly aren't transformative. Not in the way that resource-free "ignore the army standing between you and the back line; focus fire anyone you can reach" would be.

Higher level stuff, sure maybe we get there, but then it becomes class levels, resource costs etc. It becomes an exercise in quantum wargaming.

 

[Maxperson]

halfling villages are not hard to sigie you just burn all the food and move on.

If anyone is going to have large stores of food inside the village, it's going to be halflings.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Or, one could not take it literally and not conclude that halflings are celestial avatars and the exclusive and source of small moments of good and triumph all the time and without exception. I don't understand what leads you there. That's okay, I guess. After so many pages in this thread, I'm pretty sure I won't get it.

What does it make the adventurers? Maybe they're bombastic epic sweeping moments of good and triumph. Maybe they're scoundrels scraping by on whatever they can drag out of the tombs in the hills. Or anything else the players want them to be?

If you can't see Faolyn's post, the thing that led me to them being the source of small moments of good and triumph was this line: "And halflings are, by definition, small moments of good and triumph." They don't have to be exclusive for it to be a problem. Unicorns aren't exclusively the only good-aligned, horned, horse-like Celestial. But they are by definition good-aligned, horned, horse-like celestials, and so they have all of those traits. If Halflings are, by definition, good then we have run face-first into the same exact problem you get when you make goblins, by defintion, evil.

And, I think it is starkly telling that people will go forth and say things like "Halflings are by definition small moments of good and truimph" or "Halflings are the race that care about other people more than the other races" and it is only when someone points out what that means if taken at face value that they then back-pedal and say that you are taking their points too literally, and halflings aren't like, perfect. And that's their counter-argument. Not that their initial post was wrong, they believe that, but that you taking what they said and applying to the same degree you apply racial traits to other races, is wrong and extreme and only done because you hate halflings.

(Tangent: Pfft, and isn't that hilarious for the Mary Sue angle. Everyone who doesn't like halflings are evil villains who just hate them because they are [insert reasoning here]. Seriously, I can't even make this up to this degree.

Sigh Laughing over, let me be clear. No, I don't think that anyone has flat out called me an evil villain. I've just been repeatedly attacked via ad hominems and told that this is all a me problem, because halflings are fine, I'm the one who has the problem)