What are your Halflings like?
- Thread starter mhensley
- Start date
Spell
First Post
i've always liked them to look and act like hobbits, unless there was some strong setting reasons to change that (as there was in dark sun).
lately, i've been toying with the idea of starting an homebrew campaign and have the a race (which i immaginately call: "gnomes"
) looking like a mix between folkloric gnomes and 3e halflings.
lately, i've been toying with the idea of starting an homebrew campaign and have the a race (which i immaginately call: "gnomes"
) looking like a mix between folkloric gnomes and 3e halflings.
Nikosandros
Golden Procrastinator
So far always hobbit-like... if I get a 4e campaign going, I'll probably go with the new look & feel.
mhacdebhandia
Explorer
Personally, I have never used them in any setting of my own creation.
Fourth Edition halflings seem a lot more interesting, but prior to that the only place I can tolerate them is in Eberron.
Fourth Edition halflings seem a lot more interesting, but prior to that the only place I can tolerate them is in Eberron.
captaincursor
First Post
My players always end up playing halflings like Belker Bitterleaf.
Flavor wise I'm making them the former servitor race of the ancient and now defeated necromancer kings. They have a eastern European gypsy feel about them and are a little creepy and mysterious.
The water rat trader vision of them fits in nicely for me. I can merge it almost effortlessly.
Though I was reading "The Golden Compass" last night and occurs to me they just made halflings "Gyptians" straight out of that book.
Flavor wise I'm making them the former servitor race of the ancient and now defeated necromancer kings. They have a eastern European gypsy feel about them and are a little creepy and mysterious.
The water rat trader vision of them fits in nicely for me. I can merge it almost effortlessly.
Though I was reading "The Golden Compass" last night and occurs to me they just made halflings "Gyptians" straight out of that book.
Rolzup
First Post
I've been very tempted, after seeing someone else's idea in a thread at RPGnet, to steal his idea and make Halflings into a Machenesque race of savage little people, euphamistically called the "fair folk", or the "good people" by the terrified peasants who leave oatcakes and bowls of milik sitting on their doorsteps at night, in hopes of appeasing them.
Conflate the more savage tribes with the Sawney Beans, and then you've got some real fun.
It makes PC Halflings a lot more unusual and rare, however, which is a definite down side.
Conflate the more savage tribes with the Sawney Beans, and then you've got some real fun.
It makes PC Halflings a lot more unusual and rare, however, which is a definite down side.
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing (He/They)
Mine are the hobbity hobbits of Tolkien's novels, or at least that is what my players seem to like. Whenever one of my players chooses a hobbit, the character almost always ends up being played like a clone of Sam or Pippin.
I'm 100% okay with that.
I'm 100% okay with that.
hazel monday
First Post
A hobbit by any other name is still a hobbit. Even if you shave his feet.
DaveyJones
Explorer
human influenced hobbits. ala OD&D(1974)
Dragonhelm
Knight of Solamnia
I'm not sure this poll has all the options it should. I tend to use kender since I play Dragonlance mostly.
For "generic" worlds, I'd use the following setup. This is reposted from the other halfling thread....
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For the longest while I didn't care for the 3e halfling because it was such a ripoff of kender and the old hobbit style halflings were gone. I mean, I love kender, so why would I want to play a "bad ripoff" of the real thing?
Recently, I had a brainstorm which solved all of my issues. This goes right along with what Piratecat is saying. Rather than have just one halfling race, why not have a variety of subraces that can have an interesting dynamic between them?
So I could still have my hobbit-style halflings with the hairfeet. Then rather than bemoaning the "unoriginality" of 3e halflings, I'd simply take them for what they are - "kender lite" - and play them that way as lightfoot halflings. The 4e halfling then becomes the Tallfellow, which works with his height. The polar version are furchins (aka frostlings). I haven't totally figured out the Stout halfling yet.
I kept going with the idea of rounded homes, so I got the idea of having not only hobbit holes for hairfeet, but also igloos with round doors for frostlings, riverboats with rounded domes and round portholes and doors for Tallfellows, and lightfoot halflings would live in Free Spirit Spheres.
So bam, I've got a whole variety of halfling subraces that keep the traditional stuff yet heads into new directions. There's all sorts of nifty interactions that can go on here.
Just remember, the PHB halfling is the baseline that WotC wants to support. The ultimate power of the universe, though, is the DM. Make halflings your own, and go with the version that works for you. And sometimes, the answer when deciding between X and Y is "both."
For "generic" worlds, I'd use the following setup. This is reposted from the other halfling thread....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the longest while I didn't care for the 3e halfling because it was such a ripoff of kender and the old hobbit style halflings were gone. I mean, I love kender, so why would I want to play a "bad ripoff" of the real thing?
Recently, I had a brainstorm which solved all of my issues. This goes right along with what Piratecat is saying. Rather than have just one halfling race, why not have a variety of subraces that can have an interesting dynamic between them?
So I could still have my hobbit-style halflings with the hairfeet. Then rather than bemoaning the "unoriginality" of 3e halflings, I'd simply take them for what they are - "kender lite" - and play them that way as lightfoot halflings. The 4e halfling then becomes the Tallfellow, which works with his height. The polar version are furchins (aka frostlings). I haven't totally figured out the Stout halfling yet.
I kept going with the idea of rounded homes, so I got the idea of having not only hobbit holes for hairfeet, but also igloos with round doors for frostlings, riverboats with rounded domes and round portholes and doors for Tallfellows, and lightfoot halflings would live in Free Spirit Spheres.
So bam, I've got a whole variety of halfling subraces that keep the traditional stuff yet heads into new directions. There's all sorts of nifty interactions that can go on here.
Just remember, the PHB halfling is the baseline that WotC wants to support. The ultimate power of the universe, though, is the DM. Make halflings your own, and go with the version that works for you. And sometimes, the answer when deciding between X and Y is "both."
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