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

[Maxperson]

No it's "Why haven't the 6ft green people eaten all the 3ft foodie people?. Do the foodie people have warriors and spellcasters? I wanna make a PC based on one. What! They don't exist!"

We know for a fact that they have spellcasters, because they have gods. That means clerics. We also know that Halflings are one of the most common adventuring races, ranking up there with Humans, Elves and Dwarves, so they will have adventurers in the village.

 

[FrozenNorth]

This "different perspective" is that somehow having advantage against fear means they are going to succeed on risky manuevers more often, because they can't get frightened and therefore they won't mess up.

Not having fear also means that you are going to die more often. I mean, fear first purpose is to keep us safe. The fact that it often fails at that doesn’t obviate the fact that fear is USEFUL.

So a bunch of halflings have already died because they totally thought they could swim to the far side of the lake and back.

 

[FrozenNorth]

The sort of magic that doesn't involve spells, and wizards like Mordenkainen don't understand.

It really seems that Minigiant and Chaosmancer are saying “if you look at the write-ups of halflings in D&D, there isn’t a lot of support for why they would be adventuring compared to other races or why their settlements wouldn’t be looted.”

When your response is “according to my headcanon, unspecified magic of a type not covered in the core books protects them”, it’s really emphasising their point.

 

[Maxperson]

Not having fear also means that you are going to die more often. I mean, fear first purpose is to keep us safe. The fact that it often fails at that doesn’t obviate the fact that fear is USEFUL.

So a bunch of halflings have already died because they totally thought they could swim to the far side of the lake and back.

They got lucky and survived.

 

[Maxperson]

It really seems that Minigiant and Chaosmancer are saying “if you look at the write-ups of halflings in D&D, there isn’t a lot of support for why they would be adventuring compared to other races or why their settlements wouldn’t be looted.”

When your response is “according to my headcanon, unspecified magic of a type not covered in the core books protects them”, it’s really emphasising their point.

They don't need more support. Their curiosity is sufficient. Couple that "adventurers often widely differ from the norms of their race." and you have a race that produces lots of adventurers.

 

[Oofta]

It really seems that Minigiant and Chaosmancer are saying “if you look at the write-ups of halflings in D&D, there isn’t a lot of support for why they would be adventuring compared to other races or why their settlements wouldn’t be looted.”

When your response is “according to my headcanon, unspecified magic of a type not covered in the core books protects them”, it’s really emphasising their point.

The PHB justifies halfling adventurers just as much as any other race:

Halflings usually set out on the adventurer’s path to defend their communities, support their friends, or explore a wide and wonder-filled world. For them, adventuring is less a career than an opportunity or sometimes a necessity.​

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It really seems that Minigiant and Chaosmancer are saying “if you look at the write-ups of halflings in D&D, there isn’t a lot of support for why they would be adventuring compared to other races or why their settlements wouldn’t be looted.”

When your response is “according to my headcanon, unspecified magic of a type not covered in the core books protects them”, it’s really emphasising their point.

Sure. And my headcanon tells me any race without farmers would be extinct. I guess there will never be any agreement, so I will just have to settle for knowing that I'm right and they are wrong.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If the ewoks from "the return of the Jedi" were very popular in the past, even with their own cartoon show then halflings and gnomes also can. These are perfect for a kid-friedly D&D cartoon with a low level of fantasy violence. No-lethal magic may be relatively "cheap" or easy to be got by the characters.

Usually halflings would rather to live in safe regions, nothing of natural disaster or attacks by the neighbours. They are wellcome because their communities are like a blessed amulet of good fortune. If there is some potential menace they get ready, for example something like underground refuges linked with a net of little tunnels with secret doors and hidden traps. And local priest could be warned by magic visions. If it is necessary halflings could be masters of urban guerrilla, like Spanish people against Napoleon's troops. They also could hire sentient monsters as defenders, for example just-nest-left dragons who are starting their new indepient life, in exchange for food and allowed to participate as partners in the local business. Even the deities could send summoned petitioners to defend a sacred santuary or pilprimage route.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Not having fear also means that you are going to die more often. I mean, fear first purpose is to keep us safe. The fact that it often fails at that doesn’t obviate the fact that fear is USEFUL.

So a bunch of halflings have already died because they totally thought they could swim to the far side of the lake and back.

But they aren’t immune to fear, they have advantage, which means greater control of thier fear than humans have.

It doesn’t mean their brains don’t tel them they’re in danger, it just means that fear doesn’t stop them from doing what they need to do about the danger.

Tangentially, in war, fear is...a huge deal. Like, if one side is more afraid than the other, they lose, barring overwhelming advantages on their side.

 

[Mind of tempest]

It really seems that Minigiant and Chaosmancer are saying “if you look at the write-ups of halflings in D&D, there isn’t a lot of support for why they would be adventuring compared to other races or why their settlements wouldn’t be looted.”

When your response is “according to my headcanon, unspecified magic of a type not covered in the core books protects them”, it’s really emphasising their point.

it is not the adventuring it is also the profound lack of any goals or how they would survive in a world full of deadly monsters beyond the words they get lucky.

they feel like something that crawled out one of those works the preach if only we just wanted the joys of home, family and good food nothing bad would ever happen which just does not add up it breaks immersion in-game.
they feel like they are out of a fairy tale but without the magic or fun.