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

[Oofta]

I'd love to have halflings use those weapons

Too bad I have to homebrew their lore to do so. Which is the entire problem I keep talking about.

Would you have to "homebrew" a human using anything other than a club?

 

[Chaosmancer]

And again, I don't see halflings run as jokes as much as I do gnomes and half-orcs. How many non-big, dumb half orcs do you see?

Not very many at all actually. I haven't seen an actual big dumb half-orc in... I might not have seen one in all of 5e.

 

[Chaosmancer]

1) It was WW2. the Mourning is a clear A-bomb analog.

It is a mix. The Mourning is a A-Bomb analogy, but the breakdown of treaties and everyone out to fight each other, plus the march of the technology of death is very WW1, as is the period they are in, which is right on the precipice of another big war.

Also, a lack of facism really makes it hard to be a pure WW2 analogy.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Would you have to "homebrew" a human using anything other than a club?

Would you like to show me where in the human lore their tactics to defend their homes limit them to sticks and stones like they do for halflings?

 

[Swarmkeeper]

I'd love to have halflings use those weapons

Too bad I have to homebrew their lore to do so. Which is the entire problem I keep talking about.

You can actually consult this bit in the MM and give halfling commoners whatever weapon upgrade/downgrade you wish... without homebrew.

MM p342 under Customizing NPCs:

Armor and Weapon Swaps.
You can upgrade or downgrade an NPC's armor, or add or switch weapons. Adjustments to Armor Class and damage can change an NPC's challenge rating, as explained in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

 

[Oofta]

Would you like to show me where in the human lore their tactics to defend their homes limit them to sticks and stones like they do for halflings?

According to the MM commoners use clubs. If they ever use anything else you're home brewing.

Not that it's a big deal I assume most DMs ignore a line or two here and there and make minor tweaks. On the other hand most people don't write hundreds of posts because of one line in an non core book they disagree with.

 

[Maxperson]

Which is not what they do, since they use them in actual combat to actually defend their villages.

Show me where it says that they use sticks and stones for actual combat. It says they use the same tactics, but those tactics will work with spears and axes, too.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Sigh

I've posted the text so many times. I'm getting a little sick of it. Not posting all of the tactics.



Look at the bolded and green text. Note that it says they are getting practical expeirence in executing these tactics to fight off raiders. Note that they call these the tactics they use. Note how they specifically mention using sticks and rocks.

Note how they don't say that these are just religious rites. Note how they don't say that these are simply practice for when they fight with real weapons. Note how they don't mention using other weapons.

So, no, these tactics are not religious activities or community games, and they are specifically mentioned as being used against the raiders. Not target dummies. Not people pretending to be the enemy. The actual enemy.



Really? So you can quote me specifically saying that Hobbits were immune to the Ring? That seemed to be a rather important part of your rebuttal, and yet I can't see where I said that.

Hmm. Think I hadn't actually read that text right before. Was actually leaning more your way there. On second look, it seems to read that they practice versions of Avoreen's favored tactics, and then provides a list of Avoreen's favored tactics. Now can kinda see it going either way.

It's certainly reasonable that versions of these tactics could replace stones with sling bullets, and sticks with clubs, staves, swords, etc...

Or it could mean different kinds of sticks and stones. Ymmv.

 

[Oofta]

Show me where it says that they use sticks and stones for actual combat. It says they use the same tactics, but those tactics will work with spears and axes, too.

Good point. The tactics listed in MToF are to "confuse the monster, persuading it to seek other prey."

Halflings aren't murder hobos like PCs, driving a monster off is good enough. Well, that and the assumption is that attacks happen "so rare that a single one might be talked about for generations".

 

[Vaalingrade]

And so the goal posts shift.

No.

At first it was ridiculous that Uncle Owen and Aunt Bera might even have a blaster for personal protection.

Still is! He doesn't have on on hand when the Jawas roll up and there were no blasters on the burnt out skeletons. They never made a move to defend themselves!

Now it is ridiculous that they expect owning a flying car with a gun might protect them, because the video game version made them weak enough to have a hard time with military hardware.

1) Your solution to being attacked by raiders is to jump into an aircraft that requires a takeoff sequence.

2) Probe droids are basically weaker than people. They're scouting equipment made by the same people who made TIE fighters, which can be destroyed by stray sneezes and dust bunnies.

And, for some reason, it is ridiculous that a halfling might use a wood axe, or skinning knife. Because everyone knows that commoners only have sticks ans rocks... even though we've established that is not the case.

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You. You are the one that keeps saying they only have sticks and rocks!

No one else has or ever would because we believe Halflings are at least sapient omnivorous primates. They use tools. They make tools. They eat meat. They therefore need ways to convert animals to meat. Therefore they have weapons. No one but you has ever insinuated they don't have or use weapons because you misread one passage and won't let it go.

The argument in the post you think is shifting the goal posts is that Owen and Beru are peaceful farmers living on a genuine Death World who aren't constantly being murdered as the anti-halfing folks are trying to insinuate that halflings (and only halflings) will be.