Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8692950" data-attributes="member: 6877472">So should we not look to a race's traits to tell us more about who they are as a people?  This seems to fly in the face of race design.Way back in AD&D, Elves were given a +1 to use longswords, short swords, and bows.  These are traditional elven weapons.  We were told that all Elves receive training with these weapons at some point.  Thus, this was indicative of Elven culture, where every child was given some combat training, even if they chose a life path that made such training irrelevant, such as being a Cleric or Wizard.We were told that Elves were almost immune to sleep and charm effects- in 2nd edition, we were told that these were side effects of the dreamlike trance an Elf could enter in lieu of sleep, the Reverie.Over time, these traits morphed and changed, to fit the mechanics of the edition- in one edition, Elves became totally immune to sleep, but only got a +2 bonus on saves versus charm.  In another, they gain advantage on saves vs. sleep and charm due to their "Fey Ancestry".So we see the existence of some traits remains constant, even if their expression and explanation can change.Now let's look to Halflings.  The original Halflings weren't lucky, but instead were plucky.  They seemed rather ordinary, but the race produced the occasional scamp and rogue.  They were naturally very good at thieving pursuits, despite the fact their race didn't really have thieves in their own culture.They were resistant to magic and had fairly fantastic thieving bonuses overall.It was 3rd edition that gave us the concept of Halflings who were resistant to fear and slightly luckier than other races- the fear resistance surely doesn't come from Tolkien.  Hobbits could be frightful or brave, just like anyone else.  For every Samwise Gamgee, there was some country bumpkin who was terrified of fireworks.Lucky was similarly up to debate from the source material- if you read The Hobbit, Bilbo sure seems lucky, finding a magic ring and escaping misadventure after misadventure.  But once you find out what The One Ring is, well, not so lucky now?3e Halflings, and their descendants, the 4e Halflings, were a redesign of the race.  And yes, they were a little fear resistance (perhaps having acquired this trait from the Kender), and they were a wee bit luckier than other folk, having a small bonus to all saving throws (which later turned into the 4e Halfling's ability to force rerolls).And they were stealthier, partly due to their size, but also in that they were more agile than Gnomes, and had a +2 on Climb, Jump, and Move Silently checks.5e attempts to bring some sort of parity here, by creating a "greatest hits" Halfling that is also definitely not-Tolkienish.  The art shows them as being very different, and they retain some of the abilities of their 3e kin (if being far less handsome than the balloon-headed monstrosities in the PHB).So they retain some resistance to magical fear (the primary source of the frightened condition, though there are exceptions, like Battlemasters)- perhaps we could better say they are resistant to extraordinary fear.They lost a big chunk of their ability to hide since the 5e team decided that Small size didn't need to grant a bonus (outside of theoretically giving you more options for things to hide behind), but to point at their stealthiness, there was at least one subrace that got a minor stealth benefit.They kept their ability to reroll dice, but it was much more limited now, only protecting them from the worst of failures.  5% of the time you trigger some kind of pseudo-advantage.  Not great, but it's still something no other race can do, a unique little ribbon ability all their own.We can look at these traits and suppose that they point to something about the nature of Halflings in the narrative, despite the fact that their impact is low on many games.But again, most of the PHB race design is ultra conservative.  Dwarves can wear armor they are not strong enough to wear without penalty- but how often is someone going to put heavier armor on a weak Dwarf?  They maintain some sort of preference for certain weapons, and some resistance to poison, but some things are lost as well- we have no traits that point at their greed, their undying hatred of foes, or their ability to hold grudges (all things that no doubt the design team felt were negatives).So if you want to argue that Halflings no longer have a place because their traits are weak, and non-indicative of personality or heritage, I could point to several other races guilty of the same problem.The answer isn't to cut them from the PHB, because people expect them to be there, the answer is to rewrite these traits to have relevance to what it means to be a Halfling.  Or any other race that is similarly lacking.</blockquote>

Verification