D&D General why do we have halflings and gnomes?

[Minigiant]

Off the top of my head hobgoblins and bugbears talk about it but they are the exception to the rule. The others? Where does it ever discuss their military? Why do you keep pushing this claim?

The books label and describe where the different races live a bit differently, that's about it. I also don't see why it matters. There's still plenty of motivation for halflings to adventure that have been pointed out repeatedly by multiple posters.

Other races get racial weapons or armor proficency. Other races get frequent official images of them in armor. Other races get frequent reminders of their armors and weapons. Other races get repeated imagery and descriptions of them as spellcasters and priests within their society. Other races get repeated lore on their magic items.

Halflings get less of this than orcs. And orcs has never been a first PHB race. I just want the 4th iconic race to be fully integrated into the game and not just included because tradition.

 

[Voadam]

I just realized this is a D&D General thread, and not an OSR or OD&D, so this may seem out of place, but in BECMI (or at least in my copy of the Rules Compendium), halflings don't even seem to have their own LANGUAGE. Elves and Dwarves are called out as speaking their own language, plus a few other racial languages. Halflings don't seem to have a culture that's distinct from humans. They have their racial artifact, sure, but they seem to be a subset of human society, not a seperate society with their own culture, governments and language like the Elves and Dwarves.

Plus, in that era of gaming, level limits was how they expressed how much they didn't want you to play a given class, and halflings had the lowest level limit of any class.

It is the same throughout versions of Basic D&D, in B/X, Basic of BECMI, and Rules Cyclopedia the halfling class does not list languages the way dwarves and elves do but halfling is in the list of common languages. For the Rules Cyclopedia it is page 258 lower right, No 11 on the common languages chart.

I would assume they speak common and halfling and their alignment tongue and not any besides those the way elves and dwarves speak extra ones beyond common alignment and their own language.

In Moldvay B/X it says "Halflings can also be NPCs. They live in small villages of 30-300 inhabitants. Each village will have a leader (level 2-7) and a village guard of 5-20 militia (each with 2 hit dice)."

In Mentzer and the Rules Cyclopedia it says the same thing.

In Rules Cyclopedia page 13 it says "The demihuman race of dwarves, elves, and halflings have a different way of life than humans."

And on page 26 "Halflings are outgoing but not unusually brave, seeking treasure as a way to gain the comforts of home, which they so dearly love. Halflings prefer to live in pleasant areas of fair countryside near rolling hills and gentle streams. When not working or adventuring, halflings will spend most of their time eating, drinking, talking with friends, and relaxing. Their communities are called shires, and their recognized spokesman is called a Sheriff. Halfling families live in Clans.
"Halflings are woodland folk, and usually get along well with elves and dwarves."

On page 257 it says "Halflings live on good farming land or gentle hills if they can."

And then significantly page 272 in Appendix One on the D&D Known World it discusses the Five Shires of the halflings.

You can see the in-depth sourcebook dedicated to halfling lands and culture in Gazetteer 8 The Five Shires.

 

[Charlaquin]

Other races get racial weapons or armor proficency.

Well, elves and dwarves do. They’re both long-lived and have the time to master several different weapons before even going on their first adventure. Few other races get weapon and armor proficiencies.

Other races get frequent official images of them in armor.

Halflings are more typically Dex-based combatants, so you tend to see them in light or no armor.

Other races get frequent reminders of their armors and weapons. Other races get repeated imagery and descriptions of them as spellcasters and priests within their society. Other races get repeated lore on their magic items.

More than halflings? I’m not sure that’s true. I haven’t done a comprehensive analysis or anything, but I doubt you have either. Have you considered the possibility that your perception of this is a product of confirmation bias?

Halflings get less of this than orcs. And orcs has never been a first PHB race. I just want the 4th iconic race to be fully integrated into the game and not just included because tradition.

Well good news, halflings are fully integrated into the game and not just included because of tradition. They represent one of the most popular heroic archetypes of all time (I notice you still haven’t addressed this argument), and they are well-loved by many players. Sorry you don’t like them.

 

[Oofta]

Other races get racial weapons or armor proficency. Other races get frequent official images of them in armor. Other races get frequent reminders of their armors and weapons. Other races get repeated imagery and descriptions of them as spellcasters and priests within their society. Other races get repeated lore on their magic items.

Halflings get less of this than orcs. And orcs has never been a first PHB race. I just want the 4th iconic race to be fully integrated into the game and not just included because tradition.

Some, not all, elf subraces get weapon proficiency. Of the PHB races, only dwarves get automatic weapon training, only mountain dwarves get light and medium armor.

As far as images ... I will agree that it seems like they didn't really know how to draw halflings. But it's also incredibly subjective and hardly indicative of any racial traits especially considering how few images we have of halflings. I think they finally started figuring it out in XGTE where we get this:

Which I always assumed was a halfling.

Anyway, feel free to make whatever claim you want. I see no justification, I thought maybe I was missing something, but no. Have a good one.

 

[Minigiant]

Well, elves and dwarves do. They’re both long-lived and have the time to master several different weapons before even going on their first adventure. Few other races get weapon and armor proficiencies.

Halflings are more typically Dex-based combatants, so you tend to see them in light or no armor.

More than halflings? I’m not sure that’s true. I haven’t done a comprehensive analysis or anything, but I doubt you have either. Have you considered the possibility that your perception of this is a product of confirmation bias?

Well good news, halflings are fully integrated into the game and not just included because of tradition. They represent one of the most popular heroic archetypes of all time (I notice you still haven’t addressed this argument), and they are well-loved by many players. Sorry you don’t like them.

I long addressed halfling adventurers being a popular archetype.

I have stated that they are a rather 3 note race which most halfling adventurers share the same 3 stories as their culture is very narrow and removed many popular motivations for adventure and replacing it with just one.

Had halflings not evolved from a series popular at the time of the games creation, they likely would be regulated to an "uncommon race" due to how narrow it is.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Other races get racial weapons or armor proficency. Other races get frequent official images of them in armor. Other races get frequent reminders of their armors and weapons. Other races get repeated imagery and descriptions of them as spellcasters and priests within their society. Other races get repeated lore on their magic items.

Halflings get less of this than orcs. And orcs has never been a first PHB race. I just want the 4th iconic race to be fully integrated into the game and not just included because tradition.

It is fully integrated into the game.

 

[Minigiant]

It is fully integrated into the game.

Not to me it isn't.

Halflings to me feel like the designers felt obligated to include them and just made the windows open just enough for DMs to change them without being accused of rewriting the whole race.

But that's just me.

 

[Blue]

I dont see why Halflings would need any less land than a human peasant. They may be half the height, but Hobbits had 7 meals a day and I've seen nothing to state that Halflings eat substantially less than Humans do. If the Haflings are agraian then they would not about as much land as a human settlement of the same size

Averaging 40 pounds, they burn significantly less calories than larger sized creatures. The many meals a day si not detailed in the PHB, just outside sources like Tolkien, and that also doesn't mean that those are large meals. One real world diet method is eating lots of small meals during the day in order not to feel hungry and binge.

Please, try to discuss in good faith. When there isn't any discussion about food consumption in general for the races, using weasel words of "I've seen nothing to state that" as a method of overruling both common sense and what we observe in the modern world of calorie consumption of smaller mammal bipeds - that's just trying to win an argument, not actually trying to be right.

 

[Charlaquin]

Not to me it isn't.

Halflings to me feel like the designers felt obligated to include them and just made the windows open just enough for DMs to change them without being accused of rewriting the whole race.

But that's just me.

Yes, it is just you.

 

[Blue]

Folks, let's stop feeding the troll. Minigiant is arguing in bad faith. Even after multiple times that he has been told about it, he cherry picks information from the PHB, claiming it as a source, yet ignoring parts that disprove his point. He's been told multiple times, making his behavior intentional. He also makes unsupported claims and then doesn't produce any evidence when confronted. Just stop engaging with him.