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

[Chaosmancer]

True. Halflings have luck to make those easy saves, and to get an abnormally high number of hits and crits against the enemy. A force of Halflings in combat would be a truly scary thing to face. Even for 3 of those demons.

Not how Lucky works.

 

[Chaosmancer]

That's exactly how it works.

"Lucky. When you roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll."

1 in 20 will be a crit. 1 in 20 will be a 1 that is re-rolled to a hit or a crit. Same with saves. More halflings will make that easy save than humans. More will hit or crit the demons. It's basic math.

They re-roll a 1, but that only happens 5% of the time.

Then, the re-roll is whatever it is. If it is a 1 on the re-roll, they get a 1. Making it no more likely that they get a 20, than getting a second 1.

All Lucky does is prevent catastrophic failures, it does not make them more likely to roll a crit.

Edit: And, even if it did, it would be an increase of .25% to get a 1 then a 20. That is so incredibly low it would be a rounding error.

 

[TwoSix]

Gnomes and halflings, like every other race, exist entirely to be a well-known trope that can be built off or inverted as needed for your own game. The fact that their presentation in the core rules might not be particularly cohesive or coherent isn't relevant. The PHB exists to be a set of paints and paintbrushes for creating a playable setting, it is in no way a finished painting.

 

[Maxperson]

What do those monsters in the dungeon eat? If you have a dungeon full of goblins near a town, how are they getting their food? Traditionally, they are raiding the town. That is why the adventurers get called in.

They're usually out in the wilds where there are plenty of animals. And no, traditionally dungeons do not raid towns. Traditionally they sit there with some powerful item in it that PCs quest for, or dungeons sit there for PCs to try themselves on. If raids are happening, traditionally it's an above ground enemy.

And again, if every single monster is so rare that only PCs encounter them, and only once or twice in their entire lifetimes... then why do the Adventurers fear those monsters? There are no goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, ogres, trolls, girallons, displacer beasts, bulletes, phase spiders, ettercaps, owlbears, Blights, manticores, wyverns, griffons, hippogriffs, hags, Ankhegs, Basilisks, Bullywugs, Carrion Crawlers, Cyclops, Ettins, Zombies, Skeletons, wights, Wraiths, specters, ghosts, shadows, darkmantles, mimics, demons, devils, dryads, man-eating plants, ghouls, giants, gnolls, gricks, grimlocks, trogolodytes, lizardfolk, harpies, kobolds, kuotoua, oozes, perytons, yetis, peircers, ropers, Sahuagin or stirges out in the world.

After all, there might have been once, but the only known time of them being encountered, they were killed by adventurers and the entire region has been safe since then. And monsters can't just magically appear out of thin air.

They fear them due to knowledge from stories and lore. Very rare(outside of PCs) does not equal unknown.

 

[Minigiant]

People are assuming that since they are not interested in conquest or kingdoms that they are defenseless and/or must be protected by others.

I don't think that makes any sense any more than halflings don't try to defend themselves through brute strength.

The books say they rely on the protection of others and activel move into other race'scities for protection.

Again the issue is not that halflings can't defend themselves or that they don't.

The issue is the game describes

• dwarven warriors and spellcasters
• elven warriors and spellcasters
• gobliniod warriors and spellcasters
• human warriors and spellcasters
• orcish warriors and spellcasters
• gnomish warriors and spellcasters
• dragonborn warriors and spellcasters

but not that of halflings.
It leaves that up to the DM or worldbuilder. Which is fine.But it does mean that halflings are less integrated in the base game setting, makes their interpretations vary a lot, and make them look tacked on for "nostalgia points".

Halflings are the Beastmaster Ranger of races. Something put in to capture a feel but not worked on enought to make... work. So the onus become of the buyers to make sense of them and fix it.

 

[Maxperson]

They re-roll a 1, but that only happens 5% of the time.

Then, the re-roll is whatever it is. If it is a 1 on the re-roll, they get a 1. Making it no more likely that they get a 20, than getting a second 1.

All Lucky does is prevent catastrophic failures, it does not make them more likely to roll a crit.

Edit: And, even if it did, it would be an increase of .25% to get a 1 then a 20. That is so incredibly low it would be a rounding error.

With halfling village with 400 halflings slinging stones, it will happen almost every round. In multiples a lot of the time. And that's just for crits. I also love how you singled out crits and omitted all of the extra hits that I also mentioned. It didn't go unnoticed.

 

[Oofta]

The books say they rely on the protection of others and activel move into other race'scities for protection.

Again the issue is not that halflings can't defend themselves or that they don't.

The issue is the game describes

• dwarven warriors and spellcasters
• elven warriors and spellcasters
• gobliniod warriors and spellcasters
• human warriors and spellcasters
• orcish warriors and spellcasters
• gnomish warriors and spellcasters
• dragonborn warriors and spellcasters

but not that of halflings.
It leaves that up to the DM or worldbuilder. Which is fine.But it does mean that halflings are less integrated in the base game setting, makes their interpretations vary a lot, and make them look tacked on for "nostalgia points".

Halflings are the Beastmaster Ranger of races. Something put in to capture a feel but not worked on enought to make... work. So the onus become of the buyers to make sense of them and fix it.

Okely dokely neighborino. I have no idea where you're getting this stuff, but what the PHB says is:

They rarely build kingdoms of their own...​

Many halflings live among other races, where the halflings’ hard work and loyal outlook offer them abundant rewards and creature comforts. Some halfling communities travel as a way of life, driving wagons or guiding boats from place to place and maintaining no permanent home.​

​

So yes, many halflings live among other races. Do all of them? No. They aren't a militaristic race. That's all.

 

[Minigiant]

Okely dokely neighborino. I have no idea where you're getting this stuff, but what the PHB says is:

They rarely build kingdoms of their own...​

Many halflings live among other races, where the halflings’ hard work and loyal outlook offer them abundant rewards and creature comforts. Some halfling communities travel as a way of life, driving wagons or guiding boats from place to place and maintaining no permanent home.​

​

So yes, many halflings live among other races. Do all of them? No. They aren't a militaristic race. That's all.

The point is that they don't treat halflings equally. The game describes how the other 3 iconic core races survive and defend themselves. However they leave that open to interpretation for halflings.

Q: Why do we have halflings?
A: Because they are an iconic race to the D&D fantasy?
Q: Does the game treat them like an iconic race?
A: No.
Q: Why?
A: I don't know.
Q: So why do we have halflings?

 

[Oofta]

The point is that they don't treat halflings equally. The game describes how the other 3 iconic core races survive and defend themselves. However they leave that open to interpretation for halflings.

Q: Why do why have halflings?
A: Because they are an iconic race to the D&D fantasy?
Q: Does the game treat them like an iconic race?
A: No.
Q: Why?
A: I don't know.
Q: So why do why have halflings?

I have them because people enjoy playing them and I've had them in my campaign world for a long time. The default behavior and outlook on life is distinct and different from other cultures. While all races are to a large degree just a reflection of human characteristics, they fill a specific niche.

They are very unconcerned about power or glory and simply take life as it is. They will be the ones that bounce back from bad times faster, while they aren't suicidal they will be the ones that literally laugh in the face of danger. They rarely hold grudges and if life gives them lemons they'll be happy that they have lemons. When I play halflings they're always smiling and cheerful. No matter how bad things are, little can change their attitude and being negative won't change the circumstances. Think "Well, things look bad and we're all going to die. Unless someone has a better idea, how about a game of canasta while we wait?"

Besides, they make great evil NPCs. Think of small Harley Quinn's running around killing people all while being super bright, cheerful and extremely polite.

 

[Minigiant]

I have them because people enjoy playing them and I've had them in my campaign world for a long time. The default behavior and outlook on life is distinct and different from other cultures. While all races are to a large degree just a reflection of human characteristics, they fill a specific niche.

They are very unconcerned about power or glory and simply take life as it is. They will be the ones that bounce back from bad times faster, while they aren't suicidal they will be the ones that literally laugh in the face of danger. They rarely hold grudges and if life gives them lemons they'll be happy that they have lemons. When I play halflings they're always smiling and cheerful. No matter how bad things are, little can change their attitude and being negative won't change the circumstances. Think "Well, things look bad and we're all going to die. Unless someone has a better idea, how about a game of canasta while we wait?"

Besides, they make great evil NPCs. Think of small Harley Quinn's running around killing people all while being super bright, cheerful and extremely polite.

But that's all unofficial interpretation.

My halflings could be little happy murder ninjas with alchemist techniques and not break any of the ideasof the PHB since it barely describes any of it.

Hence my point.
How can halfling be iconic if little of the race is locked down and everyone is running different versions of it since the ggame isn't trying to weave the race into it?