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

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Wow, I’ve had some time (years) away from here. Posted a reply to this thread yesterday about halflings and gnomes and check back in this morning to find ... undead GPS?
Not that I’m complaining; I’d forgotten how tangential conversations can go!
However, undead GPS should be called ‘TombTomb’.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Anyway, here’s a thought/paradox.
Halflings are Lucky, so a whole settlement of them would, conceivably, be a huge nexus of Luck. Good weather, lack of marauders, bountiful harvests without pests, excellent health, etc.
Any society, large as a nation or small as a gang, would LOVE to have some of that sweet Halfling Luck miasma hanging over their settlement/endeavours. So perhaps there might be a ‘thing’ where Halflings are sought out to capture and enslave in order to provide protection. Multiple halflings, for choice.
But, Halflings’ Luck, especially when coupled with the multiplying effect of a settlement’s worth, would help protect them from these self-same seekers of stolen good fortune.
Only solitary Halflings would be vulnerable. Thus, Halflings get on with everybody because everybody goes to them for their food and drink (which Luck has ensured is always the finest), and this avoids the need for Halflings to travel to other markets - people come to them - luckily, of course, only in sufficient numbers that they can deal with.
So where do adventurer Halflings come from, and why are they ‘safe’ from slaver predation? Why, because they are the ‘bad luck’ Halflings. When a Halfling PC uses Luck to avoid failing a saving throw, or fumbling their weapon, it isn’t good luck on their part but a manifestation of bad luck on the part of their opponent. Any party fumbles might legitimately be blamed on the Halfling’s aura.
Thus, Halflings are highly sought after for both trade (on their own terms), and raid (but protected from it); adventurous Halflings are, er, encouraged to go travelling around away from the village, in case they cause a drop in the collective Luck field, and are also protected from raids by their reputation for being unlucky! On their own, they’re ‘dangerous’ and so perhaps drawn to shadowy, stealthy activities.
But the ‘fountain of youth’/‘holy grail’/‘questing beast’ idea of roping a bunch of Halflings into indentured servitude to provide good luck persists, even so.
Hmm. Random brain dump.

 

[Oofta]

Really? You couldn't read the write-up for dragonborn and guess that their main traits are that they have the same resistance as their draconic ancestor and that they have the same breath weapon as their draconic ancestor?

What about dwarves? You couldn't read the write-up for dwarves and guess that the race known for their hardiness, warriors, artisans and for living underground had the traits Darkvision, Proficiency with Artisan's Tools, Dwarven Combat Training and Stonecunning?

Yeah, you caught me. I just blatantly lie about my opinion all the time.

Except, wait. I don't. If I didn't know anything about dwarves? Maybe darkvision and proficiency at smith's tools. But the rest? Masonry? Well, I associate that with laying bricks, not mining tunnels. Everybody builds things, right? Brewing? Where does that come from? Armor proficiency? Resistance to poison? Carry a heavy load without having speed reduced? If I had read other races first, most don't have weapon proficiency so why should dwarves? After the fact they make sense but not from just reading their description.

I certainly would never have guessed any of the features of elves. I mean, they live in the forest why do they have darkvision? Gnomes? Well if I had read up on dwarves I guess I might realize the darkvision thing. Half-orcs? If I didn't know anything about orcs nope, not a clue.

Of course it's hard to say what a newbie would think since I grew up with the tropes about the common races in the PHB.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Yes its directed at you because you said

Nothing about halflings exempt them from the same risk of the undead army that was being discussed from following those same roads"the other races form between their major population centers" to halflings population centers as there is no reason for those other races not to make roads to halfling towns and cities as long as nothing about halflings robs the other races of the same free will & motivations that built every other road from being applied to the route leading to halfling towns and cities. Since the roads are largely the same, those undead can follow them where they go.

Ohhh.. I see.. you're disagreeing and saying there are roads. Max is saying there aren't. Personally, I could see it going either way depending on some setting assumptions.

But please do feel free to engage with me regarding what another poster said. It especially helps when you employ zero context and dedicate no effort to connect your statement to mine.

 

[Oofta]

Ohhh.. I see.. you're disagreeing and saying there are roads. Max is saying there aren't. Personally, I could see it going either way depending on some setting assumptions.

But please do feel free to engage with me regarding what another poster said. It especially helps when you employ zero context and dedicate no effort to connect your statement to mine.

Just for context they're contesting the lore in MToF where it says that halflings find out of the way places and that most people have difficulty finding the paths that lead to the town. Because apparently you need major roads (and carts) when you're largely self sufficient hamlet with a population of less than a hundred that isn't driven by material wealth or trading.

 

[Nellisir]

I live in a rural town of about a thousand and can attest that we barely have roads -now-.

Also, I think a couple of ropes stretched across the road at ankle height would do for the undead marching bands. I mean, a fair portion have 1 hit point, right? One good fall and they're done for.

Just for context they're contesting the lore in MToF where it says that halflings find out of the way places and that most people have difficulty finding the paths that lead to the town. Because apparently you need major roads (and carts) when you're largely self sufficient hamlet with a population of less than a hundred that isn't driven by material wealth or trading.

 

[Maxperson]

Ohhh.. I see.. you're disagreeing and saying there are roads. Max is saying there aren't. Personally, I could see it going either way depending on some setting assumptions.

No. I'm saying that the roads are from human town to human town and the halfling villages are in out of the way places with paths that are hard to find(per halfling lore). A horde of undead sent by a Necromancer who isn't brain dead, isn't going to go wandering the countryside in the hopes of wandering across a halfling village. They are going to go down the roads which are guaranteed to hit towns and cities for them to destroy.

The trolls are arguing otherwise.

 

[Oofta]

I live in a rural town of about a thousand and can attest that we barely have roads -now-.

Also, I think a couple of ropes stretched across the road at ankle height would do for the undead marching bands. I mean, a fair portion have 1 hit point, right? One good fall and they're done for.

When it comes to shambling undead, just a few "fences" disguised as fallen logs or brambles along the easiest routes that rerouted them away would also do the trick. If that happens to direct them to a cliff edge, so much the better.

Some of this is also simply the concentrated halfling luck supernatural effect. I don't see why it's so difficult to accept in a world with flying reptiles that breath fire.

 

[Chaosmancer]

ROFL I called it.

Called what? My basic understanding of the maps of DnD settings? Because if you look at Cormyr, the country you used as an example, their "neighboring cities" are about a days travel apart. That is 24 miles. You want the halflings to be far out of the way so they won't be attacked or threatened, but claim that they are only 12 miles away, leading to this sort of nonsense.

Humans: "Oh no, [Blank] was attacked, that is only a day's travel away, the hordes might be here any moment. We need to [plan of action]"

Halflings: "Oh no, [Blank] was attacked. That's sad. They are less than a day's travel from us. Really liked the market there. Good thing that horde can't find us though since we are so far away."

I gave supporting reasons. If you want to have your necromancers just have their undead wander aimlessly instead of ordering them down the road laying waste to all towns and cities they come upon, go for it. Mine will use their brains.

Undead don't have brains, which is why telling them to follow "the road" means you have just doomed yourself. Because they will never take a turn. They are just going to follow a single road, which means any towns or cities not on that road, are completely safe.

Hence the infection style order, which doesn't require somehow keeping control of thousands of undead miles and miles away (which requires DM handwaving) and doesn't end up with entire sections of the country being safe because you forgot that roads split.


edit: Also. No response to the population numbers showing how weak your assumption of halfling adventuring populations are. No response to the "thousands of miles" and how you seem to be substituting miles for square miles. Lot of holes here.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Is this question even directed at me. If so, literally what point are you driving at here, assuming there is one.

It's just so completely a non sequitur, all I can do is shrug.

The point, though @tetrasodium did a poor job highlighting it, is that Max has claimed that there are "thousands of miles" of empty country side in any given kingdom, using Cormyr as an example which is 180 x 180 miles or there about. Max therefore seems to have been referring to thousands of square miles, as evidenced by him citing the size of Cormyr as about 32,000 sq mi.

This however is not what would ever be considered when someone says something like "thousands of miles". It would be like someone claiming to be "nearly 20 ft" and then saying that is because they are about 18 sq ft in surface area. That is clearly not what they were attempting to say, and was deliberately misleading.

Max has refused to elaborate on this, sweeping it under the rug as me being "King Strawman" or whatever it was his last insult towards me has been.

Edit: Seems I've been moved to "troll" status now