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

[Maxperson]

You mean am I still referring to the text in the book that explicitly says this? Yes, yes I am.

No, no you're not. The text never says that is all that they have, and you are specifically referencing a holy act listed under one of their gods.

 

[Chaosmancer]

He's too invested in that position to let it go.

I love how you accuse me of being "too invested" and yet right above that you agree with my point by saying this.

They also would have access to spears, axes, short bows, daggers, perhaps longbows, and some others.

So, commoners would have more than sticks and rocks.

Halflings are specifically said to use sticks and rocks. And yet I'm supposed to accept that because that is all commoners would have, except they wouldn't have just those.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The point of Hobbits were that they were the idyllic simple folk that could save the world from the evils of power and industrialization. No one else could carry the ring, because no one else was so pure. If the world had been full of hobbits, Sauron's evil would never had grown and infected Rohan, Gondor, and the other powers of the world.

False. Firstly, you’re implying allegory where none exists. Second, the hobbits aren’t “pure”, they’re just not ambitious or greedy, in general. Merry and Pippin could not have carried the ring, however. They’d have wanted too badly to do things with it. Bilbo was, at best, better at it than most humans would be, but still not great. Had he still had it when Sauron reached out to it in earnest, he’d have fallen to it.
Frodo wasn’t even great at it, he was maybe slightly better than Bilbo.

Only Sam was mostly impervious to the bloody thing, but eventually it would have twisted his thoughts to use his dedication to Frodo to tempt him to use the ring.

But Hobbits aren’t at all immune to the influence of greed and lust for power. There is a whole subplot about Sackville-Bagginses, if you’ll remember? And their greed and jealousy toward Bilbo?

 

[Chaosmancer]

You know, I tend not to include halflings in my campaigns, but this thread has made think about how I would incorporate them into a setting without falling on hobbit tropes that don't make much sense outside Middle-Earth.

Looking at the stats, the main thing they have going for them is Luck. Mechanically this isn't so much drawing a good result but averting a bad one. So, what if halflings had a relationship to apotropaic magic in the way that gnomes do to illusion?

Every halfling barn has a prominent hex sign painted on it, halfling ladies wearing nazar earrings, and halfling gents sporting shiny coppers in their loafers. Some halflings take this warding magic to the next level and initiate into the School of Abjuration. These Abjurers may appear as simple trinket makers to outsiders, but it is their magics that make the halflings' bucolic lifestyle possible.

That'd be pretty neat

 

[Maxperson]

I love how you accuse me of being "too invested" and yet right above that you agree with my point by saying this.

So, commoners would have more than sticks and rocks.

You're the only one here incorrectly claiming that all Halfling commoners would have are sticks and rocks.

 

[Chaosmancer]

So... the sci-fi equivalent to a varmint rifle?

Yep, totally effective against the worst scum of the universe. I can just see Owen trundling out to the shed to hop in the Skyhopper while Tuskan Raider smack him repeatedly with gaffi sticks...

Or I can just accept that the moisture farm wasn't constantly under siege even though it was situated in Space Hell (and yes, I know Star Wars has an actual Space Hell in Mutafar and the Sith homeworld. There's a lot of Space Hells okay?)

Dang, a flying car with a gun is the equivalent of a varmint rifle?

Oh, and a "varmint rifle" is still a deadly weapon. Even a .22 can kill a man if he is shot with it.

Edit: Oh yeah, and rememberf the rats are 2 meters. That is close to 6 ft. The size of a man.

 

[Chaosmancer]

No, no you're not. The text never says that is all that they have, and you are specifically referencing a holy act listed under one of their gods.

The holy act of "these are the tactics inspired by those stories that they use to defend their villages"

Ah yes, I always love when things called "tactics" are really "religious acts"

 

[Chaosmancer]

False. Firstly, you’re implying allegory where none exists. Second, the hobbits aren’t “pure”, they’re just not ambitious or greedy, in general. Merry and Pippin could not have carried the ring, however. They’d have wanted too badly to do things with it. Bilbo was, at best, better at it than most humans would be, but still not great. Had he still had it when Sauron reached out to it in earnest, he’d have fallen to it.
Frodo wasn’t even great at it, he was maybe slightly better than Bilbo.

Only Sam was mostly impervious to the bloody thing, but eventually it would have twisted his thoughts to use his dedication to Frodo to tempt him to use the ring.

But Hobbits aren’t at all immune to the influence of greed and lust for power. There is a whole subplot about Sackville-Bagginses, if you’ll remember? And their greed and jealousy toward Bilbo?

Funny how you guys keep attacking the same strawman position that I never made.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Never mind that many of your examples aren't world ending apocalypses. Here's the thing. During almost everything you listed, the vast majority of little Halfling villages in out of the way places, blissfully went about their lives and survived just fine.

Luiren, one of the two major halfling kingdoms on Faerun, got flooded during the Spellplague (the other, Delmyr, never gets talked about for some reason). Some of the population were trapped on mountains that became islands known the Great Sea; the rest of them scattered across Faerun, most of them settling in Amn. The Chondalwood also got messed up by Akanûl slamming into it, and thenw as further devastated during the Wailing Years.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Dang, a flying car with a gun is the equivalent of a varmint rifle?

Oh, and a "varmint rifle" is still a deadly weapon. Even a .22 can kill a man if he is shot with it.

This is like all those militia dudes who think having an AR-15 is going to save them from a Apache helicopter squadron when the time comes.

Like you expect sweaty farmer Owen to run out, strap into the Skyhopper and then use it to gun down a tribe of Tuskan Raiders with the saddest vehicle mounted weapon in Star Wars (the Skyhopper is playable in a number of video and tabletop games. Comparing it to a varmint rifle is... charitable. You can barely take out a probe droid in one shot).

Also, a thrown rock or stick? The thing you keep saying is all halflings have? Can also kill a man, come with the infinite ammo cheat and require no maintenance. And halflings get a bonus with them. I hear there's even a story about a short dude one-shotting a goliath with one in a sling.