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

[Umbran]

Without knowing the intimate details of the setting, the promise of a disproportionate response can be an effective deterrent.

Yes. But keeping up constant preparedness of disproportionate response is very, very expensive. Those little villages should not be expected to have the wealth to manage it.

 

[Chaosmancer]

There are plenty of reasons, they would just require admitting that eberron & darksun style hakflings exist & to be fair the darksun style ones are a bit extreme into the capital E Evil end of the spectrum in ways that would take some development to tone down.

Dude, "Eberron Halflings exist" doesn't tell us anything about generic, general halflings.

They are dinosaur riding barbarians, and that is cool, but most settings don't use them

 

[Chaosmancer]

Wait are we arguing that

1) Halflings aren't well described at a cultural level and not integrated into the setting OR
2) Faerun, as presented in the RPG, doesn't make sense, due to the juxtaposition of large metropolises and somehow monster-infested wildernesses.

Because 1) is false and 2) is true but neither is related to the other.

I think it is a bit of 1 and how that ties into 2.

I don't think halflings feel well integrated on a cultural level. "Simple agrarian farmers who are lucky and therefore don't suffer much of the world's problems" isn't great. It honestly almost feels like normal halflings are just living in a very different world than the rest of the races. The Shires aren't like anywhere else, in how idyllic and unconcerned they are with the ravages of the world. I'm not saying Halflings don't make for fun characters, but as presented they seem to float above the normal story of the world.

And that is exacerbated by #2, by the commonality of deadly monsters and organized evil forces in most of the worlds of DnD. A Halfling Shire is even less protected than a human village, which already seems to lack the protections needed to actually survive in the DnD frontier lands.

 

[Blue]

But, the rules for starvation don't say that small characters eat less. So, it is fair to assume that they eat the exact same amount of food, just from a rules perspective

No, it's really not. Same reason I said before. Lack of a rule or detail does not imply it does not exist in 5e. They explicitly cut down on the huge list of simulation-centric rules of earlier editions. They streamlined things, leaving out a lot of details, and told the DMs to put in those details that matter for their world. Rulings, not rules. So lack of a detail is not a proof of anything except that detail is not needed mechanically for most gameplay and that they trust thje DMs to introduce something if it is.

Again, doing the same amount of activity you will burn a hell of a less calories with the greatly reduced weight. Eatting many smaller meals is actually a weight reduction strategy in the modern world.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Yes. But keeping up constant preparedness of disproportionate response is very, very expensive. Those little villages should not be expected to have the wealth to manage it.

Agreed, which is why little villages on the frontiers of dangerous territory don't make a lot of sense. They can't afford to protect themselves, and they can't rely on distant cities to protect them from their neighbors.

Relying on adventurers can work, but it is fully reactionary, unless you have a massive spy network like the Harper's supposedly are, who are going about keeping an eye on every threat to every small village in the entire world. Which... strains credibility.

 

[Chaosmancer]

No, it's really not. Same reason I said before. Lack of a rule or detail does not imply it does not exist in 5e. They explicitly cut down on the huge list of simulation-centric rules of earlier editions. They streamlined things, leaving out a lot of details, and told the DMs to put in those details that matter for their world. Rulings, not rules. So lack of a detail is not a proof of anything except that detail is not needed mechanically for most gameplay and that they trust thje DMs to introduce something if it is.

Again, doing the same amount of activity you will burn a hell of a less calories with the greatly reduced weight. Eatting many smaller meals is actually a weight reduction strategy in the modern world.

Okay, but you are entering into house-rule territory. The rules state you need a pound of food a day. It does not say this is less for small characters.

The rules also state that if you want to do a long jump, and you have a running start, you jump equal to your strength score. This is not reduced for being small, so a 6 ft man with a 12 strength jumps the same distance as a 2.5 ft halfling with a 12 strength. Even though logically, this doesn't make any sense.

You want to house rule it differently? 100% in your rights to do so. But, the other side isn't wrong to follow RAW and say that halflings eat and jump the same as humans.

 

[Minigiant]

Wait are we arguing that

1) Halflings aren't well described at a cultural level and not integrated into the setting OR
2) Faerun, as presented in the RPG, doesn't make sense, due to the juxtaposition of large metropolises and somehow monster-infested wildernesses.

Because 1) is false and 2) is true but neither is related to the other.

It's that

1. Halflings are placed on the pedestal of a race of high tier importance to the idea of D&D
2. Halflings are not as integrated as well into the standard setting defaults as the other races of this tier
   1. Because Halflings don't get as much description of their culture
   2. Because what decription that are given about Halflings are copy and pasted from a world with totally different assumption with little changes
   3. Because the source that Halflings draws from has cutural elements that are incompatable wit the game it is being placed in if it is not altered

This is in contranst with Halfling in Warhammer who are placed in the middle of 2 Empire duchies. So major enemies have to go through the humans before they get to the Moot. And Halflings make theirway into the kitchens of human noble houses to gain favor with the mover and shakers of the Empire. So there halflings can and do adventure but they don't need an army and barely have to worry about financing defense of their homes.

Why don't the Halflings there have an army?

Because the orcs, goblins, beastmen, ogres, and chaos have to go through Stirland or Averland to get them. And if the enemy force is big enough t do thato, the other Elector Counts will send aid.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Because that is kind of what Mordenkainen's tells us.





Sure, the halflings have tactics, but read them. They are mostly "The entire village hits it with sticks and rocks". There is no mention of using bows, wearing actual armor or using actual shields. They... don't have a military defense. What they have is luck that just means these type of things never happen to them.

I’ve said it about every other race writeup in that terrible book, I might as well say it again. There is very little of any value in MToF when it comes to playable race lore. It actively makes Corellon a crappy god that merits no worship, ever, and makes the dwarves and probably Moradin the bad guys in the history of the Duergar, and it goes so far out of its way to reverse engineer a way to make halflings look cute and stupid that it ends up in fracking cheap cartoon territory.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Halflings:


Two sentences. And the second one undercuts the first.

It doesn’t undercut the first at all.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

They seem to happen with rather alarming frequency. Especially considering how many of those monstrous raiders are described as doing nothing except raiding and pillaging.

They do? Not IME.

And those numbers are not good odds. You need to have 1) Halflings who left to adventure 2) Halflings who survived adventuring 3) Halflings who survived adventuring and became large enough threats to stop a force that outnumbers them fairly significantly, or can handle the exact threat attacking 4) Those halfling adventurers being in town and still capable of fighting when the threat comes.

Those are long odds for every single halfling village.

Not really. Halflings live up to what, 130? And being lucky, not fearful, and quick and nimble, means they’re more likely to survive danger than most races.

I’d posit that by thier 5e lore, a halfling town should have 2-3 more retired adventurers per capita than a human town.