>The name halfling does not mean half of a man's height, but refers to halfling's belief that their spirits are half animal
>Halfling clans wear clothes inspired by their specific spirit animal, live near them, and sometimes train them
Would this be a good take on halflings?
Wouldn't be a bad one.
>>47578414
>and sometimes train them
Instead you should maybe go for something like a spirit quest. Every single animal type has a king/god and the halflings are human-like versions of the animal. Like every species is a different version of the same creature and halflings are variations too. Their heavens are the same ones members of their species go to. So here you could have the halflings pray to the god on a specific day, each year, which brings them closer to the god. Or you could just have them spirit bond to the animal that they find a la Robin Hobb's books. Or you could have them be like Skyrim's dragon-born. Human-like creatures with animal souls.
>>47578414
I've always liked Lagombi's armor, I just wish it wasn't useless for the most part.
>>47578476
>>47578414
This didn't come out well. Sorry. Let me re-phrase:
> Every single animal type has a king/god and the halflings are human-like versions of the animal.
For example, birds have a heaven. There is a original bird-like creature that manifests in different forms which make up species. They all, however, are from the same god. So when they die, they join back to the god. Halflings with bird souls are just one variant of the birdgod.
>Or you could just have them spirit bond to the animal that they find a la Robin Hobb's books.
In Robin Hobb's books there are people that can communicate telepathically with animals and can bond their souls together with one animal. You could have the same for halflings, animals wouldn't be servants or slaves; more like 1/2 the soul. No one would stand for what they consider basically themselves being enslaved or abused, and this would change their relationship to animals and nature as a whole.
Furryshit at its finest.
>>47578414
>literally furfags
>a good take
gee, I wonder
>IN MY SETTING, halflings aren't halflings
Epic my dude
>>47578538
It's okay if you use it in a mixed set, for heavy bow gunning (for evade extender). Otherwise, yeah its not great.
>>47578569
Now that you put it that way I might consider it. although HBG without sheating is ugh.
>This thread is now about Monster Hunter shit
>>47578560
>inferring
>>47578558
>implying barbarians with spirit animals are furries
>>47579400
Or druids with wild shape.
>>47578560
Here, here my fellow grognard. Only faggots put any sort of creative take on the cliches. That would be stupid. No, the best thing to do is to just play incredibly derivative settings and stock character tropes
>>47578414
Yes, if only because I find that picture and animal themed clothing in general really cute with the rare ability to actually look kinda cool. Although I'd cut out the animal training and having a more sizable population of them nearby. They should do that with all creatures regardless of whatever animal they take a name after. Otherwise the bear or wolf clan or whatever is going to rule the roost pretty quickly.
I'd just do animist halfling clans who took their names because they think that specific animal helped their ancestors out a long time ago.
>>47579863
The bear clan would probably have a harder time training animals than, say, the dog clan.
>>47579748
>Make halflings humans
>Creative take on X
Are you pretending to be retarded or is this genuine HERPDERP-honest-to-god braindamage on display?
>>47579933
I think he was being sarcastic.
>>47578414
I like this. It's cute!
And, halflings can ride a lot of animals, like big dogs!
>>47578414
Dinosaur riding halflings are one of my favorite things from Eberron, so extending it to other animals seems like a neat idea.
>>47579925
>dog clan
Perfect slaves.
>>47579925
>>47580710
So taking this idea and running with it...
Every Halfling has a particular bond to an animal and begins to dress or have characteristic in keeping with their spirit animal. However the Clans are particular for their numbers and ability to amass power so while they arn't the only clans they are the most numerous and otherwise more active then say the lizard clan.
Or rather then being a clan to speicific animals you can take a step back and have groups so you don't round yourself into a corner. For instance, the Cloud Walker Clans are made up of Halflings who's animals spirits are birds and flying creatures. The Long Fangs are dogs, wolves, and cats. etc etc.
>>47578414
It's furry.
It's kawaii uguu desu desu.
It's got everything it needs to be cancer.
...
...why do I think this could be a really good idea anyway? Do I just have way too much faith in players/GMs? Maybe I just wanna have faith...
Make me proud, guys. If you go through with this, please do it well.
>>47579925
>>47579980
Sort of reminds me of the Eberron take on halflings, where their whole culture has a very wide beastmaster streak to it.
Only with fucking dinosaurs.
Riding raptors is cooler than riding dogs.
I like OP's "personal/family totem" idea though.
>>47581121
Dogs don't break from being ridden by a child. Raptors have bird bones.
>>47581167
So does an ostritch, but people ride them
>>47579400
>>47579678
I kind of agree with him. It's not INHERENTLY furshit, but it's extremely enabling to furfaggotry.
If we lived in a magical utopia where furfags didn't exist, I'd like OP's idea.
>>47578414
>>47578541
Soo....Otherkin the player race?
>>47578414
Halflings are what humans call the crossbreeds between their own race and the elusive Lings, who have, like, huge heads. I mean massive, you have no idea.
Aren't halflings based on the underhill fairy that had lavish palaces underground?
And that's sort of why hobbits were semi-wealthy upper crust British gents with nice homes in hills?
>>47578414
Would be great for a Halfling race's culture/religion beliefs, not so sure if for the actual truth. That idea is a really good example of what a group of individuals could come up with after forming a post-stone age community.
Of course, you could have halflings in general have a druidic-like affinity to animals and use this as an explanation the halflings themselves came up with. If you're using a system/world with D&D-like magic explanations, as in, "magic is a physical manifestation of existance force/power of will and the different takes on magic and spirituality are just conduits for that force to manifest", these guys might not be far from the truth.
>>47581251
Has anyone, anywhere, ever met a furfag? I'm absolutely convinced they're an internet urban legend.
>>47582131
They have conventions. Videos and pics of full-body suits are everywhere. Most of the "quirky catgirl" stories you read here are false though.
>>47582131
Try visiting /trash/ or e621.
I triple-dog dare you!
>>47578619
I used Lagombi S armor for all of high rank in 3U, due to evade extender making the SwitchAxe great.
>>47582131
Guess you never saw Zootopia in theaters
>>47578619
with evade extender you don't even need to sheathe
source: G crown HBG
>>47578414
I like the concept, but why are you even calling them halflings? Seems pointlessly confusing and makes it seem like you're just trying to pull a pointless subversion.
>>47578414
>It's something completely different to what most people would call a Halfling
>Let's just call them Halflings anyway
No OP, just take your Furfag race and call them something else.
>>47587324
How is it a subversion at all?
>>47579925
>Halfling Bear Riders
That is awesome
>>47587324
>>47587332
I never said they wouldn't be small or use halfling stats.
>>47582131
There is a navy base in South Carolina that had to literally ban sailors from wearing furshit on base
>>47589764
wut
>>47587332
This is exactly what every "creative" asshole does.
>They make up some kind of animal people, call them orcs.
>invents a species of plant people that live on sunlight, call them elves
>invent (absolutely fucking anything here whatsoever, there is no limit) and call them vampires
>invent blind mole people, call them dwarves
>invent golems, call them dwarves
this is not new in the slightest
>>47585244
If I had realized then what I know now I would have made narga's armor gunner instead of blademaster.
>>47578414
A good take on halflings would be to not include them in your setting.
>>47589882
And I guess those who don't use elfs, orcs, etc. but invent new creatures with new names are all a bunch of special snowflakes?
>>47589882
Any strong, slightly unintelligent, somewhat violent race can be rightly called orcs.
Any long-lived, arrogant, race with an affinity for magic or nature can be rightly called elves.
Any undead predator that feeds on the life of people can be rightly called a vampire.
Any short, tough, race that lives underground and has a connection to the earth or stone can be rightly called dwarves.
These are not strictly defined terms that only exist in whatever form you are most familiar with, they are broad categories with a variety of traits associated with them by repetition across different interpretations. Some of these traits are contradictory, the tall and muscular Tolkien elves are different from D&D's lithe and shorter than human elves, and both are far from the miniscule spirits of many myths. Christmas elves and Keebler elves are unrecognizable compared to their RPG cousins, but since they don't live in a vacuum everyone can recognize them as elves and wouldn't hesitate to call something based on them as elves.
Halflings' defining trait is "shorter than humans and not dwarves." There is nothing in OP's post to contradict that.
>>47589764
Worked with a guy from out of there, hardcore brony. Took four days leave from work to go to some clop-convention. So, I believe it.
>>47578414
Just replace them with rabbit people already.
I've thought about making Halflings/Gnomes an artificial race created by some decadent race solely for the purpose of violently tormenting and abusing, like a high fantasy version of the Yukkuri/Fluffy fandom.
>>47591196
No.
>>47591196
Best decision I ever made regarding worldbuilding.
>>47591561
I will name him George and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze himthose are fucking adorable
>>47578414
>usagi idols
Lagombi motherfucker. Get that sweet Evade+3 and forget how to play the game
>>47591639
It's just a really big usagi.
>>47582131
No, they're real. Both the "Cool Dude" ones who try to break the stigma by not shoving it into everything, AND the fuckers who won't shut up about it. This one kid in highschool latched onto my friend group and no one had the heart to tell him to fuck off.
>>47582131
>Eating a sandwich outside an anime convention
>Standing on the sidewalk next to a small tree, on the other side are several furfags holding heads and wearing tails, probably because it's like 90 degrees out
>Some middle aged balding guy in a sweaty shirt walks up with a disposable camera and proclaims "HEY MY FELLOW FURRIES, CAN I GET A PICTURE?"
>Choke on my sandwich
>>47591909
I do recall being on the tram and seeing a black guy with the ears and the tail hanging off of his jeans.
It was strangely surreal. I wanted to take a picture and ask him about it almost.
>>47578541
>original bird-like creature that manifests in different forms which make up species.
So a kind of Platonic ideal form of a bird?
>>47592011
>Platonic ideal form
Pretty much.
>>47581429
Yes, hobbits are meant to be a contrast to the rest of the setting. Tolkien went out of his way to make them a cutesy, stuffy version of the british countryside. It's mostly absent from the movies but in the books a lot of people are absolutely amazed to see halflings since from their perspective they're pretty much fairy tale characters.
They also served to give a more "human" POV in a setting where actual humans, or at least the important ones, are based on mythological heroes and heavily idealized regardless of which side they're on
>>47592956
Also, there's a bit of self-awareness in Tolkien's tendency to make his characters royalty. Pretty much nobody in Gondor knows what went down in Mordor or about the ring, so the rumor starts that the hobbits are powerful "princes of the halflings" and that Frodo literally challenged Sauron and destroyed Barad-dur out of his own power.
It started earlier because to Gondorian ears it sounded like Pippin was adressing everyone with familiarity due to his dialect, and was worsened due to everyone seeing him in a fancy suit of armor and with a Numenorean sword
>>47582131
Had to take a technical writing class in college. One of the assignments was to give an oral presentation on how to do something. Turns out one of the other students made fursuits out of foam and decided to bring that in. The head they brought in was literally Lilo and Stitch OC. I could barely stop myself from laughing.
>>47578414
I find it good. It makes them unique instead of just being another version of Short Humans or some shit. They also get their own unique powers.
>>47578414
>"Hobbits" are a specific group of halflings that live in burrows in green hilly lands, like rabbits.
I'm curious how wood elves and avian halflings would interact. Do their communities tolerate one another? Have a kind of symbiotic relationship? Are they strict enemies?
