22 thoughts on “So i’ve hit a snag in my Advanced Race Guide/Monster Manual.”

  2. Dan Byrne Yeah thats what im getting at. There hasn’t really been much variation of the standard hobbit. I guess I will have to invent my own.

    I actually just had an idea. 3 variations, The Rich Halfing, The Poor Halfinf, And the Outsider.

  3. You can take a page from Changeling: the Dreaming.

    Boggans were Hobbit types. Their unseelie cousins were Boggarts. Cruel, criminally inclined, and a lot grubbier.

    They shared the same skill at creating a network of association.

    This would obviously be a more monstrous use.

  5. The trouble with halflings is really, what are they? They’re hobbits, right? And what are hobbits? They’re reluctant adventurers from Middle Earth and metaphorically represent young English men going off to fight in a war far larger than anything they’ve previously known.

    So, halflings can be…

    …simple people in a complex world.

    …soldiers fighting for home, not glory.

    …capable of great bravery and cunning.

    …wise enough not to succumb to evil.

    …able to see threats others ignore.

    …willing to take on burdens others cannot.

    …optimistic in the face of hardship.

    …loyal to their friends until the bitter end.

    Did I just make halflings badass?

  11. I can only imagine so Shadi. How about automaton or automata? Awakened golem, blessed statue or clockwork homunculus? I’d suck it up and go for robot myself.

  13. You could go with Tolkein’s subraces but I can’t remember the names. I would do a city trickster/conman, a shire treasure finder/thief/adventurer and a barbarian jungle cannibal/shaman.

  14. Starting with an apology for bringing it up, but D&D 4th edition added a twist to halflings I really enjoyed: spiritual river travellers, like gypsies on the waves. Tricksters, but not really mean spirited, just playful, but deadly if roused, living almost exclusively on riverboats and barges, their small size guaranteeing that there are more on one raft than you can easily count. From the time they can swim and pole a vessel to the time when they’re too frail to help they stay on the water, rarely setting foot on shore.

  17. Yeah, I was going to say that Mark Tygart!

    What about taking them back to their extreme origins as house spirits? I assume Tolkein got the idea for hobbits at least somewhat from the folklore of northern English hobs. You could have a society of halflings that live and work in the homes of humans.

    They could be secretive and magical, slaves, or equals with a complex view of family; as in, they have their halfling family, and they share a stake in the human family too.

  20. Tony Ferron Still letting it percolate but I think I will have the varieties based on their position in society. The upper Class, land and business owners, the humble everyman. and those outside of the conventional hierarchy slaves, thieves, etc.

  22. Ran a game where halflings were wolf-riding barbarians, whose saliva and blood was poisonous to others and so they used blowguns. Outsiders refused to share meals with them cuz poison. Monsters refused to eat them, cuz poison.  No one trusted them cuz they were barbarians.

    Played in a different game where halflings were delicious.  Every monster wanted to eat them.

    3e/4e definitely had the halflings as nomads angle.

Comments are closed.