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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8691765" data-attributes="member: 6801228">Sure, a nat 1 is worse on death saves. But you probably missed your attack roll on a 2 as well. Think the only time I saw a character who didn't miss on a two, they had advantage and the DM just asked them to stop rolling, because it didn't matter, they hit. But yeah, halflings are hard to kill. Halflings don't miss when stabbing people as often. And people use homebrew rules. But that isn't the same as what we consider to be "lucky". You don't need to convince me that re-rolling 1's is a useful ability, sure it is a useful ability, my objection is that that alone constitutes enough to claim that the entire race is lucky. Lucky characters don't just bleed out slower. That's never how supernatural luck is presented in basically any fiction. Here, let's give an example, because people hate examples, [ATTACH=full]253755[/ATTACH]This is a comic depicting a halfling thief. The Halfling is stealing a gem while her party is fighting a dragon. She gets the gem free, but loses her balance and hits those stalactites. Those stalactites fall down and kill the dragon, preventing a TPK. So, I bet someone is going to say that this was an example of a nat 1 turning into a nat 20. So, I'll ask this. How many times have you had a Nat 20 "steal object" roll, auto-kill a dragon that was above half its hp and about to kill the entire party? This is how halfling luck is depicted in narratives, this is an officially licensed DnD comic (for 4e) and what it depicts is something that would never once happen at a serious table. But, this is exactly what we are told halfling luck IS. Despite it never actually happening at any table I've ever played or seen.But I'm not complaining about the trait. I'm complaining that when someone was asked "What makes a halfling different from other races" the answer was 1) They are stealthier than other races (Only even conceivable true with the Dex mod, though they originally meant the lightfoot ability) 2) They are braver than other races (see my discussion on why that doesn't work) 3) They are luckier than other races. To defend point three, everyone is pointing to the Lucky feature. "There!" they say "There is why halflings have supernatural good luck that differentiates them from all other races" But, as I'm trying to point out... it doesn't actually do that. It allows a few re-rolls when you might roll a 1. That's it. It isn't causing fortuitous cave-ins, it isn't causing them to find the secret key to lost vault hidden in the sands, it isn't allowing them to stumble on the secret dryad's grove, it isn't causing NARRATIVE luck. Not unless the DM forces it to happen.  Exactly. Thank you. Therefore Halflings are not particularly braver than other races. They are not uniquely brave in any way. They just have a trait that grants advantage. I'd never say elves have "Iron Wills" because they have fey ancestry that gives them advantage against charm. So why do we want to say that halflings must be uniquely and strangely brave when compared to other races just because they have advantage on the roll? Especially since, again, failing the roll doesn't mean you are not brave. Is advantage on fear rolls a useful and powerful ability? Sure. Mechanically it is a good ability. But I'm not talking about the mechanics of the trait. I'm talking about the narrative.</blockquote>

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