D&D (2024) The new halfling description is extremely good

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

After years of hearing complaints about halflings, WotC seems to have addressed them head-on in the first One D&D playtest document:

Cherished and guided by gods who value life, home, and hearth, halflings gravitate toward bucolic havens where family and community help shape their lives. That said, many halflings are blessed (some might say cursed) with a brave and adventurous spirit that leads them on journeys of discovery, affording them the chance to explore a bigger world and make new friends along the way. Their size—being not unlike that of a human child—helps them avoid unwanted entanglements and slip into and out of tight spaces.

Anyone who has spent time around halflings, and particularly halfling adventurers, has likely witnessed the storied “luck of the halflings” in action. When a halfling is in mortal danger, it seems as though an unseen force intervenes on the halfling’s behalf. Many halflings believe in the power of luck, and they attribute their unusual gift to one or more of their benevolent gods, including Yondalla, Brandobaris, and Charmalaine.

Now, I think a lot of the complaints about halflings are overblown, or even outright clickbait -- "I don't understand why they'd be adventurers!" complain human beings who live within 15 miles of the high school they graduated from 20 years ago -- but WotC wants to put those complaints to rest.

We get sedentary, homebody hobbits as the societal default, but we also have Tooks or 3E and 4E halflings, who feel the urge to wander and explore (dreadlocks and river-rafts optional).

Why is your halfling an adventurer? Because many halflings get that urge.

Basically, whatever your (mainstream) view of halflings, the next PHB will explicitly say "yep, those halflings are represented here."

HALFLING TRAITS
Creature Type: Humanoid
Size: Small (about 2–3 feet tall)
Speed: 30 feet
Life Span: 150 years on average

As a Halfling, you have these special traits. Brave. You have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Frightened Condition on yourself.
Halfling Nimbleness. You can move through the space of any creature that is of a Size larger than yours, but you can’t stop there.
Luck. When you roll a 1 on the d20 of a d20 Test,* you can reroll the die, and you must use the new roll.
Naturally Stealthy. You have Proficiency in the Stealth Skill.

These are all pretty good. As an old fart, I wouldn't mind if halflings had proficiency with slings by default, but I'm not sure if there's any classes that don't get proficiency with slings anyway.

HALFLINGS OF MANY WORLDS
On many worlds, halflings are walking, talking contradictions: home, tradition, and pastoral pursuits collide with a gods-given love of adventure and a knack for getting into and out of trouble. Halfling communities come in all varieties. For every sequestered halfling shire tucked away in some unspoiled corner of the world, there’s a halfling crime syndicate like the Boromar Clan on the world of Eberron or a territorial mob of halflings like those found on the world of Athas.

Some halfling settlers, particularly ones who prefer to live underground, are thought to have a little bit of dwarven blood coursing through their veins and are sometimes called strongheart halflings or stouts. Nomadic halflings, as well as those who live among humans and other tall folk, are sometimes called lightfoot halflings or tallfellows.

WotC went ahead and killed off lineages for halflings, like I wish they would have for gnomes. But with the death of racial ASIs, there's not much left to differentiate halfling lineages.

Hot take: I wish they'd have explicitly said that kender were just what halflings were called on Krynn, where they have a unique culture, but that would likely clash with the new Dragonlance book coming out and upset a lot of fans.

 

[Parmandur]

Hot take: I wish they'd have explicitly said that kender were just what halflings were called on Krynn, where they have a unique culture, but that would likely clash with the new Dragonlance book coming out and upset a lot of fans.

Well, Kender : Halflings as Deep Gnomes : Gnomes, maybe? At least the Kendr have magical powers that are different, not just an ASI and some cultural traits.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, Kender : Halflings as Deep Gnomes : Gnomes, maybe? At least the Kendr have magical powers that are different, not just an ASI and some cultural traits.

I don't recall the 5E kender having any abilities that halflings haven't gotten in some previous era of the game.

Kender are halflings with manbuns, which is the real reason to hate them.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't recall the 5E kender having any abilities that halflings haven't gotten in some previous era of the game.

Kender are halflings with manbuns, which is the real reason to hate them.

The latest playtest version had some distinct powers. It's at least mechanically distinct.

 

[Charlaquin]

It’s also looking like the 5e Kender are going to have fey ancestry, which I don’t think is true of halflings.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It’s also looking like the 5e Kender are going to have fey ancestry, which I don’t think is true of halflings.

I thought they had rolled that back after the internet freaked out.

 

[Charlaquin]

I thought they had rolled that back after the internet freaked out.

Oh, right. I misremembered how that went.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

After years of hearing complaints about halflings, WotC seems to have addressed them head-on in the first One D&D playtest document:

Now, I think a lot of the complaints about halflings are overblown, or even outright clickbait -- "I don't understand why they'd be adventurers!" complain human beings who live within 15 miles of the high school they graduated from 20 years ago -- but WotC wants to put those complaints to rest.

We get sedentary, homebody hobbits as the societal default, but we also have Tooks or 3E and 4E halflings, who feel the urge to wander and explore (dreadlocks and river-rafts optional).

Why is your halfling an adventurer? Because many halflings get that urge.

Basically, whatever your (mainstream) view of halflings, the next PHB will explicitly say "yep, those halflings are represented here."


These are all pretty good. As an old fart, I wouldn't mind if halflings had proficiency with slings by default, but I'm not sure if there's any classes that don't get proficiency with slings anyway.


WotC went ahead and killed off lineages for halflings, like I wish they would have for gnomes. But with the death of racial ASIs, there's not much left to differentiate halfling lineages.

Hot take: I wish they'd have explicitly said that kender were just what halflings were called on Krynn, where they have a unique culture, but that would likely clash with the new Dragonlance book coming out and upset a lot of fans.

The actual improvement seems to be no more of that horrible bobble headed Halflings.

 

[Parmandur]

The actual improvement seems to be no more of that horrible bobble headed Halflings.

Wait for the art.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The new halfling VTT miniature: