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

[Chaosmancer]

None of the racial write-ups discuss percentage of NPCs in a specific community are anything other than commoners. You're holding the halflings to a higher standard.

Did I ask for percentages? At any point in my statement of "They should be added into the community." Did I say I was requiring 25% of all able bodied men and women to serve in the military?

No. I said they should exist. And that is a standard I hold all races to.

You want to see it as me asking for a specific percentage and a higher standard, but it isn't. It never has been.

 

[Oofta]

Except that even a human village generally has a Lord who is in charge of their defense. Or they have connections with a stronger military power and authority.

Or, like Phandolin, they are overrun by other interests within a few years and propped up as a smokescreen. As I showed in the timeline, the same year Phandolin was "well established" after a joint venture of two stronger city-states, it was subverted by the Drow backed Red Brands and surrounded by Goblins and Orcs.

Now, I'll admit, the fact that they Red Brands were working for Glasstaff who was supposed to be the constable of Phandalin means that having a wall or guards wouldn't have done much good. Corruption can't be stopped by walls, but I think it really shows why I keep insisting that the world is dangerous enough to warrant those defenses.

In your world perhaps there is a connection. Not in any non-campaign-specific source book that I know of, certainly not for small villages of 100 or less being described.

Details like social structure and specifics of governance are left up to individual campaigns. If you're running a home brew campaign it's up to you to fill in those details as you see fit.

 

[Oofta]

Did I ask for percentages? At any point in my statement of "They should be added into the community." Did I say I was requiring 25% of all able bodied men and women to serve in the military?

No. I said they should exist. And that is a standard I hold all races to.

You want to see it as me asking for a specific percentage and a higher standard, but it isn't. It never has been.

Where in any publication that was not campaign specific have you seen this?

 

[Maxperson]

Every definition of Monarchy ever conceived? Though, I suppose "asks" is very generous phrasing when it is usually more "demands". You have no leg to stand on to try and tell me that halflings, who do trade, so would have contact with their neighbors, would be exempt from government taxation.

That is Cormyr's land, and they are getting their taxes from it.

In your game. In my game, a King is plenty capable if granting a small group or small groups of Halflings, exemptions. Nothing in RAW says one way or the other. Don't try to push your way on me.

 

[Minigiant]

The problem I have with shires being "unrealistic" is that if they are unrealistic then so are most human dominated rural farming villages are unrealistic well. Take a look at maps from modules. Most have no walls, even towns like Phandalin that is specifically set in the frontier.

False equivalency. Humans have nobles and kings. Halflings fonts. So halflings need to borrow human lords.

 

[Oofta]

False equivalency. Humans have nobles and kings. Halflings fonts. So halflings need to borrow human lords.

I doubt many villages with 100 individuals or fewer are going to have nobles or kings. Halfling villages are run by the elders, it's a gerontocracy not a hierarchy with nobles and kings. So?

 

[tetrasodium]

Here's also a Hobbit.

View attachment 132578

actually no, I believe it's a picture of martin freeman or elijah wood with a stylized but simple sword wearing a costume that looks heavily inspired by a mashup of historical 1700s-1800s dress playing the role of frodo(?). Trademark law is not so easy when human actors & historical dress get involved for the same reason that universal pictures can't trademark the concept of a black tank top & jeans just because vin diesel wore them along with some weird tacticool nylon belt/suspenders as riddick. Even in art there needs to be a very high degree of similarity that mm206, mm188, & really none of the darksun/eberron halfling art come close to. The phb/mtof halflings come closer to being problematic but are still likely distinct enough to be fine given the lack of lawsuits.

I doubt many villages with 100 individuals or fewer are going to have nobles or kings. Halfling villages are run by the elders, it's a gerontocracy not a hierarchy with nobles and kings. So?

They will absolutely have a taxman who comes around at harvest time or whatever to represent the noble, king, priest, or other government who has claimed that land as part of their holdings. You might as well be saying that most people alive today don't have a king president PM or similar & go untaxed because they live in a different city or town.

 

[Oofta]

They will absolutely have a taxman who comes around at harvest time or whatever to represent the noble, king, priest, or other government who has claimed that land as part of their holdings. You might as well be saying that most people alive today don't have a king president PM or similar & go untaxed because they live in a different city or town.

So it works just like all small rural villages in the region would. I agree. If that village happens to be in a hierarchical society then there will be a king or duke, if it's in a theocracy it will be an agent of the church and so on.

At the level of the village governance, the default is that they are a gerontocracy not a hierarchy.

 

[Gammadoodler]

So it works just like all small rural villages in the region would. I agree. If that village happens to be in a hierarchical society then there will be a king or duke, if it's in a theocracy it will be an agent of the church and so on.

At the level of the village governance, the default is that they are a gerontocracy not a hierarchy.

Or it just won't happen. Despite what they say, taxes are not absolute in fantasy settings.

 

[Oofta]

Or it just won't happen. Despite what they say, taxes are not absolute in fantasy settings.

Absolutely. If it's in a wilderness area and/or well hidden there may not be taxes. Same as any other small village.