What's your opinion on halflings?
I'll halfta tell ya later, I'm a little short on time.
both the greatest thing ever and worst than Hitler. It depends on the setting.
>>44199465
I always wanted to play a perpetually pissed-off halfling, but I'd probably come off as That Guy.
>"Everyone asks where the other half is. It's in the dagger I put between your ribs, smartass."
>>44199465
I usually ignore them. I never consider them as an option when I'm a player, and forget to write them into the campaign setting until I'm 98% done background stuff when I GM.
I don't hate them, but I also don't really care about them. I feel the same way about gnomes. They're both just so bland to me that I can't muster up any fucks to give. Not even shortstack porn does anything for me regarding halflings.
>>44199707
>They're both just so bland
I'd say gnomes are way more. Halflings have that 19th rural england century appeal to them, whereas gnomes rarely even have a society and culture besides being goofy tinkers.
I love the buggers, but need more art.
I also can't say I prefer gnomes over them at any point, besides deep gnomes in forgotten realms, and then just because there isn't any sort of underdark halfling so they actually have room to do something interesting, unlike surface gnomes who just bite chunks off of dwarves, elves, and halflings.
>>44199538
Incase setting is best setting
>>44199465
They're the comfiest of races. That makes them alright in my book.
>>44199465
I don't want to play a fat lazy gluttonous manlet with hairy feet, I play RPGs to escape from my life, not simulate it.
>>44199819
>gnomes rarely even have a society and culture besides being goofy tinkers.
I feel like more could be made of their relationship to nature, getting meaningful help from wild animals and helping out people who are in trouble. They'd be sort of like a softer, friendlier, quieter version of elves. They should be kind little pastoral hermit guys who live in homes carved from unobtrusive places (under a tree or bush, or in a hole in the ground), but they don't see themselves as superior and don't go around judging people all the time. They're friendly, polite, and helpful as long as you treat the environment with respect, and even then they aren't likely to do much more than give you a stern lecture. Elves and fey might lynch a kid for littering, but gnomes would take up arms only reluctantly in the most extreme scenario, and would usually stop once their homes were secure.
A lot of that is diluted by making gnomes normal residents of urban environments. If they live in cities at all, they should be hanging out in obscure places like attics and interacting with the rural environs, riding rats and pigeons, keeping roaches as pets, maintaining small gardens, and sewing up peoples' tattered clothes. They'd be essentially unseen, sometimes being discovered only when a structure or tree is scheduled for demolition. Giving them regular artisan jobs steps on dwarves' on halflings' toes way too much. Also, I think the "tinkerer mad scientist gnome" thing should be handed off to dwarves instead.
>>44199483
*Rimjob*
I mean *Rimshot*
>>44199465
Only minmaxers play them.
>>44199566
The funny thing is he can't even reach my ribs!
>>44199465
Fine when Tolkien writes them, bad when anyone else writes them.
>>44199465
Full Genocide Run
>>44200780
>>44201129
>>44199465
Half of each dimension means a halfling is 1/8 of a full person
Combine 8 of em to make a fulling
Or, since halflings are inspired by hobbits,
Call it a hobbyte
>>44199465
Really only like Tolkien's comfy Shire halflings. Any different depiction of a halfling society just doesn't do it for me.
>>44201129
S'truth.
>>44201546
Yes. I want this.
I wonder if anyone made a David the Gnome hack for Mouseguard?
>>44200957
>he can't even reach my ribs!
You've clearly never seen a hobbit jump. They'll run up your back like Shadow of the Colossus and slam dunk that dagger right through your neck.
>>44199465
they're beneath my notice
Would /tg/ read a story about a tyrant Hobbit-king who goes conquering the world Alexander-the-Great-style?
>>44202102
Well I sure wouldn't. Also despite how I know someone will point out how totally not short he was, isn't napoleon the better comparison?
>>44203058
What if it was pure tongue-in-cheek?
I can't imagine an ancient Macedonian/Greek being that tall
Not sure why they need to bee a separate species from goblins in ye olde fantasy setting.
>>44201129
Tolkein's halflings were magical realm as fuck.
>>44203135
They were the "regular and unassuming person" race. That's why they were effective as main character, because the readership could relate to these unassuming creatures thrust into a strange world.
>>44199465
They need to shave their fucking feet and wear some shoes, backwoods ignorant rednecks.
>>44203135
fucking disgusting
>>44203091
I'd say a race of comfy seeking underdogs is pretty different than a bunch of sometimes mechanically inclined canon fodder. They're both small but they don't really have much else in common. Goblins can be all over the place though particularly when people downplay or remove the evil parts (though personally I don't really see the point)
>>44203135
How?
>>44203248
The thing is, if you have a human triba of suicidal barbarians and a human vilage full of comfy peacefull farmers, no-one thinks that's strange. Why don't apply the same to the little people?
>>44203248
>How?Brushable Feet
>>44199465
Pretty fucking awesome, although not as good as a badger.
Playing in Scarred Lands, Halflings are considered lower than the dirt they farm in. They're ignored, enslaved, and abused. My human character was on the run from his family and former church and people get sketchy around sorcerers...one accidental death by wyvern and Reincarnation later, he's got the perfect disguise. Either no one believes it's him, or people figure he's paying the price badly enough now that he's a dirt grubber.
Plus, no one expects "your serving boy there" to be 16th level with enough Charisma to charm the pants off of Queen Galeeda...except he helped put that hag-assed bitch in the ground where she belongs.
I'd still rather have come back as a badger though. Might have made spellcasting (and doorknobs) a little difficult but it's magic, I ain't gotta explain shit.
>>44203135
>magical realm
Yes. Tolkien had a known fetish for small hairy men. This is a fact, and I will question your sexuality if you claim otherwise.
>that pic
I don't even see what's magical realm about that. It's literally just a woman interacting with her younger cousin (though in the books they consider each other uncle and nephew). I'm assuming the kid is Frodo, and that their familial relationship is largely unaffected aside from the gender-swap.
I like them.
>>44203281
Because then halflings just become tiny people, and that's hardly an entertaining gimmick.
>>44203385
There's also the fact his "example" is a piece of fanart made by someone of today and is no way connected to any of the interpretations or intentions held by Tolkien himself.
Besides, I think Tolkien was more into Elves. Wasn't Luthiel or Luthien or whoever he wrote his IRL wife as an Elf?
>>44199465
I think they're hard to get "right". It's hard to make them both interesting and anything other than hobbits.
>obligatory short races
I don't have a picture that properly expresses how fucking vast and expansive my yawn is.
>>44203454
Because of your post, I'm going to model my attitude towards life after halflings. That halfling in particular.
>>44199465
When you're not restricting dwarves to being tunnel-dwelling, axeswinging, bearded, bear swillers, Halflings kind of loose their purpose.
I so I tend to make halflings more like just an ethnicity of dwarves. (basically dwarves that got all Welsh/British in contrast to most Dwarves being nordic)
>>44203454
>Dwarf accuses halfling of giving the Elf more tea
>Elf denies this (though he did in fact help himself to more tea)
>They begin arguing and eventually draw their weapons
>The man is a schizophrenic who can't handle loud voices/violence
>Man flips out and kills both the elf and the dwarf
>>44203894
>the halfling gets both breakfast theatre AND to watch the sun rise!
>This is why halflings always win
Anyone who doesn't like halflings is insecure in real life. Bravest race is best race.
>>44199465
I like Dark Sun, Eberron, and 3E/4E's Gypsy nomad Halflings or anything that draws inspiration from them. I especially like Eberron Halflings.
I don't care much for Hobbit-style Halflings or ones that seem to be helpless victims.
>>44203858
When you take the cliches from dwarves is there even anything left?
In my experience, I have never seen someone play them seriously. It's always a "oh he's a barbarian but super short haha so funny" or "look at how silly I am because I'm really short and shouldn't be taken seriously". The people who probably could play them seriously and with actual charm are usually more interested in the "cooler" races.
I'd love to play a halfling sometime, but my group always makes parties with Drow, Snakemen, sentient penguins, half-demons, and other shit. I always feel like someone's gotta play a normal ass human or we're just gonna get treated as some kinda circus show.
>>44204055
They can still be those things just that that's not all there is to them.
Beyond that, there's also adding REASONS they're following certainly cliches if nothing else. Like my own dwarves have a strong affinity/favoritism towards Alchemy (very FMA style transmutation stuff), thus, they're great architects, smiths, and chemists (and by extension, brew masters) because they don't need to bother with half the shit actual smiths, architects, and chemists need to worry about.
>>44203894
>>44203950
>Halfling becomes an entrepreneur, making his fortune selling tea and comfort foods to both sides of the Elf-Dwarf conflicts.
I like them, but I feel like you gotta make a choice between your goofy, short, sentient races. A setting with halflings and gnomes both has them each filling the other's niche. It's more fun and less cluttered to have one of them stand as their own rather than having the midgets fight for dominance.
>>44204380
>midgets fighting for dominance
It's a sad thing to behold, and entirely preventable.
>>44204022
Gotta say I love the savage halflings of Eberron. Dinosaur riding barabarians are pretty cool. One reason why I really liked the orlan in PoE.
>>44203858
I feel this is more applicable to gnomes than anything. Gnomes overlap with dwarves, elves, and halflings and generally kind of fill in the wacky inventor/fey like/kender-esque race to make them feel different enough from the others to stand out.
Halflings despite setting typically are tied together by their strong familial bonds and culture imo-gypsy families, extensive family histories of Tooks, dislike of changing ways. Even the Talenta dinosaur riders and Dark Sun cannibals have strong blood and cultural ties. Dwarves might have clans and strong family bonds and seem dogmatic, but the race itself is known to war and invent new things because of the two things that seem to hold true across most settings, their productiveness and their greed.
>>44204380
Kobolds have wiped out the gnomes or the gnomes have SCIENCED! themselves to oblivion to avoid this problem in most d&d games I run.
>>44204554
>>44204380
In mine halflings were genocided and now more closely resemble peaceful, cave-dwelling goblins (think dorgesh-kaan) than anything else and gnomes went full James Cameron's Avatar
>>44199465
I'm a fairly tall guy, but I love playing the little characters.
>>44204380
>having the midgets fight for dominance.
>less fun
>>44200139
Just stop with the dickgirls and stick with the fantasy
I mean I love dickgirls but
>>44199465
They're alright.
>>44204707
>mfw watching that
They're alright but I wouldn't eat a whole one.
>>44204707
It's the red one going for the killing blow by stabbing his downed opponent in the neck that always gets me.
Fuck this 'born pure' nonsense, kids are vicious little monsters.
>>44204972
>Fuck this 'born pure' nonsense, kids are vicious little monsters.
You suddenly realize while child soldiers are a thing
>>44204972
You pretty much have to get past the armor to actually kill someone. Literature sometimes refers to knights pulling off each others' helmets in order to get the kill, though simply stabbing gaps can work too.
Kids learn from us, and they learn faster than we give them credit for.
>>44205035
>Child soldiers
Funny you should mention that, since knights often started training from around the age of seven. Their extensive training, frequent practice, and previous exposure to the battlefield (albeit as squires and pages), were some of the things that made knights so badass.
>>44205250
>exposure to the battlefield
Ah, yes, for the nightmares.
I'm jobbing you, but still, it's nice to see a good explanation for my character's father's LE 'you will train as soon as you can hold a sword for as long as you can hold a sword, no excuses' shit.
>>44204535
>Gotta say I love the savage halflings of Eberron. Dinosaur riding barabarians are pretty cool. One reason why I really liked the orlan in PoE.
I also like the "Urbanized" Halflings. And the fact that some still have ties to their nomadic kin, and some move back and forth between communities.
>>44205373
Was your father Emperor Valkorion?
>>44204972
>>44204707
I like the blue one retreating for a moment only to take the opportunity for a hefty counter-attack with his shield
>>44204707
> tiny little drunk people
>>44200366
Lel
>>44205373
>LE 'you will train as soon as you can hold a sword for as long as you can hold a sword, no excuses' shit.
If it makes him feel better, that was pretty much how all the best warriors were trained IRL(most prominently knights, spartans, and janissaries). Knighthood was a whole class of nobility based around exchanging military service for land-ownership. Kind of like having crazy asian parents, only they're making you learn how to kill people instead of playing piano, and you never move out to lead a normal life because killing people is your job and you have no other skills.
Come to think of it, a knight's training is a pretty good explanation for how a PC only has skills relating to combat.
>>44199465
Not my favorate race, but they make excelent rouges
>>44199465
Meh. They don't add anything important to a setting that already has goblins and gnomes.
Half the time I can't even tell they're a distinct race without a background for scale.
>>44199465
Half the Fantasy race they used to be
>>44201669
underrated
Fat and homely little bastards: love em
Miniature elves: hate
With almighty moustaches.
>>44204713
This. Oh so much this.
>>44199465
They feel forced, out of place and uninspired in pretty much every setting they show up in. Even more than elves and dwarves, it feels they're just included because "there has to be halflings", but the authors never have any idea what to do with them.
>>44204972
interestingly enough most studies of sierra leone and other places that have had child soldiers and then gone a bit more peaceful and had to reintegrate child soldiers in civilian society has found they reintegrate better than adult soldiers do.
>>44205667
Depending on the region and time period they also learned banking and general governance. Janissaries especially were well educated in a broad fashion.
>>44199538
Seems like anyone who's not writing a role playing game comes up with a great seating for them.
>>44204707
This should be a national sport.
>>44204067
I was in a party with a halfling anarchist. He was played fairly straight and did bard spells like no one's business.
>>44199465
I don't really see the point of them outside of Tolkien's writing.
>>44203194
Tolkien also put in a lot traits from the Icelandic Sagas in them. Their love for fancy clothes, and their almost compulsory need to be hospitable both show up several times among the old Icelanders. Granted those are also traits that help the Hobbits come across as so naive and almost too nice for the world they have been born into.
>>44199707
>>44203539
>>44203776
>>44208306
>>44209880
This. Honestly if you replaced them with a humans nobody would notice they were two different things in the beggining.
>>44209952
Their inherent goodness works perfectly with the story, too. I know modern criticism of the novels cite the black and white morality to be a flaw, but those people are missing the fact that LotR is supposed to model old folklore in that respect. The hobbit's naivety and good nature brings an end to the ultimate evil despite their diminutive stature and humble beginnings.
>>44199465
I like the GW halflings; fat, inbred, retarded and mildly psychotic in battle.
>>44199465
best race/thread
My favorite RPG character I ever made was a Halfling Paladin in 5E
Alvin Ferenshire was an old veteran of many years, protecting homesteads and getting hired to guard caravans through the dangerous forests and mountains that surrounded the NotShire of the setting.
Unlike most Halflings, he was tough and grizzled, with a missing eye and multiple burn marks all over his body from past battles with Goblin fire-throwers.
By the time the campaign started, he was looking to retire. Buy a house, grow old and fat and count his cattle. But every time he tried, there would always be someone else in danger, someone needing the help of him and Yondalla (and his warhammer), so that's why he started adventuring.
When the campaign ended, the DM even made him an enemy in his next campaign, a curse of undying having been placed upon him by the previous BBEG that he slew, a Vampire Lord, making him slowly lose his mind over the centuries.
>>44210331
One of the more interesting conversations he had with a fellow PC:
>So how'd you lose your eye?
>A pike
>The fish or the weapon?
>Both, in a way. It's a funny story, I'll tell you later.
>>44209880
>I don't really see the point of them outside of Tolkien's writing.
People who design medieval fantasy settings are creatively dead inside and are incapable of doing anything other than rehashing Tolkien. That includes putting in individual races out of a sense of obligation.
>>44208191
Lalafel best short folk.
>>44210392
Or maybe we actually like the standard races
>>44199465
we hates dem forever
>>44199465
I don't like them but that's just me. It's hard for D&D to swear up and down it's not a LOTR rip off when it has hobbits literally right there.
How would Halfling society be organized? I don't think they'd care much for government besides on a town level, so anything resembling a nation would be a confederacy of large hobbit towns. They don't value much more than a simple lifestyle and any evil character would be that one asshole in local politics who wants x and y for their own family's benefit. How would they interact with the outside world? I would imagine them to be fairly isolationist, but there inevitably has to be some interaction and immigration.
While using Tolkien's source material as a basis, how can we develop an entertaining departure for the race that keeps them relevant?
>>44200780
the problem is that D&D just has too many races and classes, what you just described could be either Gnome the race, or Druid the class.
>>44199465
I FUCKING HATE THEM.
>>44210848
Who's pretending that it's not heavily based on LOTR?
>>44205667
You what? A knight with the expected education also knows how to dance, sing or compose poetry, do administration and dispense justice. They also know how to look after clothing, armour and animals and how to serve at a table. Often bi or trilingual.
Just like some of them were basically thugs with fancy gear others were basically managers who were too fat to fight. But they are supposed to be able to do both.
>>44211037
People who've tried to sell me on the system in the past. I play D&D but I'm not a huge fan mechanically or fluffwise.
Elves being willowy beautiful treekissing mages I can accept as a homage, the same with Dwarves being tiny Scottish people, it's fairly traditional now.
But that my friend is quite clearly just a hobbit. That's not a homage or being based on it, that is mantic level transplanting. It makes it obvious that what we're doing now is a stereotypical and myopic 'adventure' story.
That and, honestly, D&D has too many sentient races for one world anyway. it'd be like Magic having goblins, humans, elves, kithkin, orcs, dwarves, merfolk, faeries, vedalken and ratfolk on the same plane. It kind of works for Ravnica but anywhere else it'd raise questions.
>>44210848
Gygax only put them in because of LOTR fans wanting them, Lord of the Rings was not even considered a primary influence of the original game.
>>44211196
>LOTR fans wanting them
Oh my god why? I mean I like Doctor Who and Star Trek, but I don't want fucking Klingons and Daleks in everything I do.
>>44211236
Go back in time to the late 70's/early 80's and ask them. Personally I just don't have them in my setting, hell I cut back on races in general.
>>44211321
I just don't play D&D.
But then, I don't play at all.
>>44210077
So, irish people
>>44199465
They make good slaves.
"Get this, they're humans- but short!"
"So Dwarves?"
"No they don't mine or do anything physical really."
"So Gnomes?"
"Uh... no? I mean I think they aren't gnomes."
"What do they do?"
"Well they're really good theives!"
"Anything else?"
"Nope."
"So they're just humans with elf ears that steal stuff? Is this reflected in their backstory? Are they outcasts of society because they are only good at being rogues and infamous theives? What seperates them from just short humans?"
"uh... they have hairy feet!"
The most fucking pointless and retarded race. Nothing more unoriginal from Tolkien. In fact, I hate Tolkiens races because of how similar they are. Hobbits are short people, Dwarves are short people with beards, Elves are stuck up humans. Orcs are humans but retarded. Goblins are short orcs. They shouldn't even exist, their only defining characteristics are being short. I fucking hate Halflings. What are they half of anyways? Humans and Dwarves, Humans and gnomes? Because they should just be called half dwarves or half gnomes then. Halflings just cramp up a setting. GMs, DMs, and overall tabletop manufacturing companies need to stop ham fisting in these pointless, bland as hell races that players have to make interesting sot they can fit into a setting.
At least gnomes are tiny fey/tree people that are in touch with nature and animals, farm mushrooms and guard the forest of malicious spirits. Halflings are literally short humans.
Nothing angers me more than a halfling. If halflings were real I'd be a murderer. Tolkien envisioned the shire as a representation of his land growing up, so Halflings for Tolkien were literally just pleasant people to fill up his representation of his childhood/magical realm. In any other setting besides that, they are fucking pointless degenerate scum that should be purged from this earth.
>>44211538
>3 feet tall
>weak
>strong-willed
They have a lot of traits that are undesirable in most workmen, but their skills could make them good domestic servants.
>>44211580
>Goblins are short orcs.
In middle-earth, goblin is just another name for orcs. It was a partial retcon Tolkien made to connect LotR to the Hobbit.
>>44211727
Yeah, "goblin" is what peasants use while fancy southern folk use the Sindarin(?) loan "orc".
>>44211580
You know that in Tolkien's lore, Halflings are literally short humans? They're considered a sub-race of man.
>>44211236
>>44211321
>>44211196
>>44211580
To be fair, remember that Elves have a -2 con racial penalty and not size bonus to AC, while Dwarves don't have a racial Dex bonus to add to their size bonus (which meant that their Dex capped out at 18, while halflings and elves could go all the way to 20 without magical shit being needed), so halflings fit into that niche for a touch-spell tank/utility rogue.
Half-elves were always the really confusing one because they were really just humans with low-light vision - I honestly suspect that, like Monks, someone just wanted to play an elf without the negative -4 con limit for whatever reason in one of Gainax's games and so it got throw in for the hell of it.
>>44211810
with hairy magical realm feet!
>>44211826
>Half-elves were always the really confusing one because they were really just humans with low-light vision
Oh yes, one of the great joys of playing a human in D&D is that you're basically the only party member who can't see in darkness.
>>44211664
It seems like elves would be a better choice as both slaves and servants. The only things I see halflings possibly doing better at would be as farmhands and landscapers.
I personally dislike most of the core/standard races aside from Orcs and Dwarves on occasion(Dwarf Fortress made me not hate dwarves 100%).
The only time I don't mind reading about elves and halfings is when I'm consuming pornographic materials. The moment you expect to start taking them seriously as a part of a setting is when I start tuning out.
>>44199465
They tend to be extremely unmemorable in my opinion, they're not different enough from humans in most settings to warrant them being a separate race.
>>44199465
Tolkeinian halflings are fucking cancer. Something like prums from DanMachi is acceptable.
>>44211912
I really just want to remove darkvision from my normal playable races
Maybe bump dark vision down to low light vision, and those who had low light vision lose it
Darkness is such a useful story and game element
>>44213814
In my experience it's the opposite, it just encourages metagaming and people constantly measuring where they can fucking see. It takes away more than it adds in my experience.
>>44204067
I was a halfling rogue, ended up as party face because I was one of maybe two people at the table with the ability to role play properyly, and the charisma to string more than two sentences together in character. While I did lots of stuff for laughs I was usually the one trying to clean up the random antics of the wizard rather than making messes for everyone else.
Personally I prefer to remove gnomes/halflings, return elves to being terrifying forest beings and limit PC's to dwarves and humans.
Then split dwarves into mountain and hill ones. The mountain versions being the standard kind with the hill versions being their lower status vassals who live above/around holds and who are the only ones humans really see.
>>44212142
>calls hobbits cancer
>prefers some weebshitthat was some pretty okay bait, actually got me to google "danmachi prum"
>>44213849
>measuring
I usually don't use grids and minis but I've definitely experienced what you're describing before in other groups
>>44211664
>Halflings
>strong-willed
Where are you getting this from? All I've read about them suggests they are easy to break in. They're usually from agrarian cultures, so they're perfectly suited for labour on the land. Them being small also means they need less food, and less space. And, of course, they are perfectly suited to softer tasks as house slaves.
>>44211948
Elves are tricky as slaves. They are often very proud, making them hard to break, and they are more likely to possess unpredictable skills. Their longevity makes it a little weird, because an Elf might accept slavery more readily seeing how the time they will be a slave in a human society before being freed by their master isn't very long to them, in perspective. This might grant an Elf an inroad to acceptance in society as a foreigner they wouldn't otherwise have. But Elves are also rare, and many people feel uncomfortable having a slave who might be ten times older than they are. These traits also make them unsuited to menial tasks, making the Elf slave market exclusively a specialist one.
Though, I heard Elven love slaves are popular. Something about the ears.
>>44199465
I like'm.
Not so big on full-on hobbits, but I'm game for whatever if it's done smart.
>>44204972
>It's the red one going for the killing blow by stabbing his downed opponent in the neck that always gets me.
>Fuck this 'born pure' nonsense, kids are vicious little monsters.
I doubt they intended to hurt each other, and just assumed armor made them invincible.
>>44214988
Elves don't get human diseases -no acne, no cholera, no various poxes, etc so they tend to survive plagues and keep a clear complexion. This also gives possibilities like having one operate while a plague has a city locked down. Great time to assassinate a few dozen rivals.
They also manage their weight much more efficiently and are low-budget as food costs go, so they're a potentially excellent long-term value.
Real problem is how often they trigger sympathy in non-Elves. Your pointy-ear gets even a sentence into the head of someone not already loyal to you and you'll have problems.
>>44211321
>hell I cut back on races in general.
So do I.I cut out Humans.
>>44214988
>Where are you getting this from?
This one dude dragged this mind-sucking ring into a volcano.
When will they learn?
I've noticed that, much like gnomes and chaotic alignment, the people who play them tend towards human garbage. I haven't played with all that many people though, to be fair.
>>44204713
Don't worry, we all love dickgirls' butt.
>>44211948
>It seems like elves would be a better choice as slaves
Yes yes, but what would you even do if you HAD an enslaved elf?
>>44217743
Source? Google only redirects me back to /tg/.
>>44202102
I don't know why, but that just really works for some reason. Probably the sandals being sort of like bare feet, and Alexander already had great sideburns. Greek city-states probably aren't too different from how a halfling community might be in most cases. I might steal your idea.
>>44217094
>This one dude dragged this mind-sucking ring into a volcano.
That dude's gardener (also a hobbit) soloed a giant spider and a whole tower full of orcs while wearing no armor and carrying hiking equipment and cooking supplies on his back. He then proceeded to carry that dude up a goddamn mountain.
That dude's uncle (technically his cousin) broke a dozen dwarves out of an elven prison, was in the Battle of Five Armies, fast-talked his way past a dragon, and stole the crown jewel of the Dwarven kingdom. That's just a few highlights of his adventure. All of this while wearing the same mind-sucking ring, largely without ill effect.
One of that dude's ancestors literally invented golf by, while leading hobbits into battle, decapitating a goblin-chief with a club, so hard that the goblin's head sailed 100 yards through the air and landed in a rabbit-hole.
Some of that dude's friends (hobbits) can one-shot orcs with thrown pebbles. One of them participated in the Battle of Pelennor Field, where he rode between a Mumakil's legs and shanked a Witch King.
Maybe an interesting departure would be to replace the clear Celtic/Icelandic influence in halfling society with that of another? Would that seem too gimmicky? They would function the same, but their preferences, aesthetic, architecture, ect. would be different.muh glorious nippon halflings
>>44202049
Underrated post.
>>44203454
Adorable.
>>44211580
This guy does not like halflings, and he has made that very clear.
>>44215313
Tell us more.
Yall niggers dont know shit about gnomes. Luckily, i am well versed in their habits and lifestyles.
If anyone can find a pdf of anything from this series that would be great
I am intrigued by the idea of replacing Halflings / Gnomes with Kobolds.
In 5e, what would a Kobold PC's base stats be?
The halflings in my home brew were basically a lower class race in a elvish empires that worked as laborers, craftsmen, and farmers. They were originally altered and bred to look like human children during the darker ages of that empire as a gift to the elves' human tribes they were courting into an alliance.
>>44199465
Hobbits were always moronic and pointless. In my setting they are mostly dead or enslaved because that's what happens to hippy faggots in the dark ages.
PCs always have a good time when they meet a band of dope smoking river gypsies though. They don't even have a fetch quests.
>>44219939
>In 5e, what would a Kobold PC's base stats be?
One starting point is their NPC stats in DMG 282
>-4 str
>+2 dex
>pack tactics
>sunlight sensitivity
>Small size
>Darkvision 60ft
>Speak common and draconic
>>44219361
I own one of those books. Its good.
>>44210392
But that's wrong though. The fantasy genre today have more in common with the stories from American pulp magazines than Tolkien.
>>44217094
To be fair that was because the Ring worked on corrupting the wearers ambition, something Hobbits lacked.
>>44199465
I feel that all the short races have a tendency to bleed into each other. Most of the time it's really hard to tell a Gnome and a Halfling apart from each other. Most fantasy settings could probably do with just one of them, or none, as they almost always feel like an afterthought. Almost as if the writer went
>"Oh crap, I have no short-person races in the setting! Quick! Write in some Halflings or something!"
I also feel like when people change their characteristics from those that Tolkien gave them, they are also taking away what made them work in the first place. This is actually also true for most of the races that were popularized by John. People want to be able to say that they aren't just copying him because look at all these things that are different, even though Tolkien's writings are actually very separate from the fantasy genre at large, and probably should be considered a genre of their own -- Neo-Mythology, or something along those lines.
However, because the rest of the genre borrows more from Robert E. Howard than J.R.R. Tolkien, Halflings would probably still feel out of place, maybe even more so, if they were exactly as they were in Middle-Earth. Again, the same is true for Elves and Dwarves and Orcs as well.
>>44199465
Worked in tolkien
Not so much everywhere else.
>>44199465
Sexy, I want to fuck all their busty midget women
Fifth edition halflings are OP as fuck.
It makes no sense to play anything else.
>>44223093
It's probably best to just rename them to gnomes and be done with it, and remove humans while you're at it and maybe just class all the main humanoid PC races as "humans" and be done with it - else you end up with weird things like planescape's Githzerai and Githyanki, who despite having pointy ears are supposed to be "human".
>>44223093
>>44212142
>>44209880
>all these people acting like (modern) Halflings and Hobbits are even remotely alike
Other than being short, they're almost polar opposites - no other race from Tolkien has been changed so much over time, so any of you saying they're 'just stolen from LOTR' and 'pointless' need to pull your heads out of the sand and look at the other races.
Elves are still nigh-immortal and haughty, orcs are still stereotyped as brutes and invaders, dwarves are still bearded dubiously-Scottish miners, etc etc. While some settings put spins on them, particularly the infinity+1 subtypes of elves, these still tend to be the exception more than the rule, you know?
Now look at modern halflings. Adventurous, filled with wanderlust, duplicitous, a little greedy, very human-like in proportions... These are pretty much all in direct opposition to Tolkien's hobbits, who were weirdly-proportioned little homebuddies who by and large didn't approve of the adventuring lifestyle or thieving or making much of a fuss about anything - it's even joked about in some of the books that Bilbo and his family are considered very eccentric for their outings into the wider world.
Really, the only similarities that come to mind are lack of stature and the community-focused mindset among those who are older or settled.
It's true Halflings are shit, you should all be playing a much superior race like this.
I set them up like the general slave race and the free ones are separate but equal.
Pretty much let the halfling PC rp the civil rights movement. Its mostly because halflings typically draw munchkins that want the AC and to hit bump and refuse to do anything they dont have a massive plus to.
I could just kill them with a giants foot but that provides no RP
>>44226411
>any of you saying they're 'just stolen from LOTR'
Thta's not what people said though.
>>44226411
They're not described as weirdly proportioned though, the big feet were just attributed to one family and then cemented as a general hobbit attribute by movies.
>>44226550
>>44199465
Never had any
I suppose that it is marbled, fatty meat but not very red.
>>44226892
>no-one said that
>>44211196
>>44210848
More or less said it.
>>44199465
They are gluttons for what i know.
>>44231136
>no second breakfast
why live?
>>44233372
>no second breakfast
>dinner and supper are synonyms
>not even elevensies
Tallfolk barbarians don't know how to enjoy life. No wonder they're always fighting and going to war. I know I'd be pretty cross too if I had to scrape by on just three meals a day.
>>44227857
Halflings have a subtle aura of luck, and I like that
Gnomes are just "short people that like to tinker," a niche that is easily filled by Goblins, Kobolds, or even Dwarves
>>44226550
bunch of little sticky fingered faggots? get fucked!
>>44203577
Ha ha! Time for feels!
>"I never called Edith Luthien – but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of the Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire (where I was for a brief time in command of an outpost of the Humber Garrison in 1917, and she was able to live with me for a while). In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing – and dance. But the story has gone crooked, & I am left, and I cannot plead before the inexorable Mandos."
>>44204707
Are those dwarves or children?
I really hope they're children
>>44211171
>kithkin
Bitches best not be talking shit.
Seriously though, Kithkins were I think a far more interesting way of transplanting halflings from Tolkien to something new. They were super cool.
>>44211580
>cites "elves" as one race
This is only the beginning of your mistakes
You clearly have no fucking idea what you're talking about, or you're baiting
>>44226411
>Adventurous, filled with wanderlust, duplicitous, a little greedy, very human-like in proportions... These are pretty much all in direct opposition to Tolkien's hobbits, who were weirdly-proportioned little homebuddies who by and large didn't approve of the adventuring lifestyle or thieving or making much of a fuss about anything.
This is 100% true. Except, the thing is, if you look back at the MOST PROMINENT hobbits of Tolkien's works, you get precisely those traits. Bilbo was certainly adventurous and filled with wanderlust after he'd had a bit of it. Later, he hid his discovery of the Ring and then the Arkenstone from the party.
D&D halflings aren't the result of ripping off of Tolkien's hobbits, they're the result of ripping off the hobbits who got the most screen time and ignoring the rest of them. That's not the result of "change over time," either, they were like this from the start because the whole reason they're in D&D in the first place was because back in the day somebody wanted to play as a Frodo expy. So, the capacity to make Frodo expies got written into the system, and as far as I can tell nothing much has been done to them since, outside of the core settings.
>>44200780
Good job describing Hobbits, m8. May as well just be playing a Halfling.
>>44240148
Kithkin sound OP, a bunch of Halflings with mind internet that can all dual wield
>>44229118
None of those were quoted in >>44226411. Is this something you do often? Go on the internet and claim that people said things they never did and then when someone calls you out on it you direct their attention to something completely different people said?
It bears repeating that they are best waifus.
>>44242211
What is this, a waifu for hobbits?
>>44226079
>Anything+Sprite
I assume that's a relationship that can only go one way without killing the mother pretty quickly.
Much like Dwarves, they need desperately to be broken out of their Tolkeinesque comfort zones.
Personally I feel like they'd work excellently as fantasy analogue to early Republic Rome. You get to hold onto the whole traditional halfling bravery and bombast, but move them from more of a rural focus to an urban one. Also you get to incorporate the newer stereotypes of 'psycotic halfling rouge' into senatorial dickery and backstabbing.
>>44242211
I think Tolkien would kill himself if he were alive to see the impact of his work now.
>>44242211
Always worth repeating.
Alfie is updating again!
>>44244630
I wonder; since halflings in Alfie celebrate Kupala night, are they supposed to be Slavs?
>>44244647
I think its just a general fertility festival Incase liked. Don't think Kupala is ever said in the comic.
>>44244675
It is. It's even mispronounced by the elf.
Don't hobbits celebrate Yule and play golf?
>>44244706
Looks like it is. Well they could very well be then.
>>44244675
>>44244706
Also those shirts are very Slavic.
It's neat to see something from the ancient and mostly forgotten folklore of my people in a comic, just saying. Too bad it's just New Age weirdos that really care about this stuff here nowadays. Pre-Christian history is hardly acknowledged here, like the country sprung into existence out of nowhere in 966.
>>44244234
>sprite dick
>elf/orc vagina
...aaaand spelunking ere we go!
