My Life As A Gamer: The Halflings As They Are

(This is a series. First post is here, second is here, and yesterday is here.)

The Halfling of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is the only playable race that hews close to anything Middle-Earth, unlike all the other would-be holdovers like the Dwarf, Elf, and the half-breeds.

They remain the midget English rural gentryfolk from a pastoral yesteryear, hairy bare feet, and jack for class options.

They rely on Druids for a spiritual connection to the divine.

Were this any other race no one would take such a pile of contradictions seriously, yet here we are.

Consider, therefore, that the answer lies in looking a bit closer to those sources and the reality that informed them- and by that I mean English history and myth.

The Halfling

• Ability Score Modifiers: +1 Dexterity/-1 Strength
• Ability Score Limits:
  • Male: Strength (6/17), Intelligence (4/18), Wisdom (3/18), Dexterity (6/18), Constitution (6/18), Charisma (3/18)
  • Female: Strength (6/14), Intelligence (4/18), Wisdom (3/18), Dexterity (6/18), Constitution (6/18), Charisma (3/18)
• Class Limits:
  • Cleric: Not Allowed
  • Druid: 6th (NPC Only)
  • Fighter: 4th (Hairfeet and all others of STR 16-)/5th (STR 17 Tallfellows, STR 18 Stouts)/6th (STR 18 Tallfellows only; see below)
  • Paladin: Not Allowed
  • Ranger: Not Allowed
  • Magic-User: Not Allowed
  • Illusionist: Not Allowed
  • Thief: Unlimited
  • Assassin: Not Allowed
  • Monk: Not Allowed
  • Multi-Class Combinations: Fighter/Thief
• Racial Abilities:
  • +1 to Saving Throws vs. magic spells, wands, staves, rods, and poisons for every 3.5 points of Constitution.
  • Infravision: 30 feet
  • (Stout subtype Only) Detect grade/slope in passage on 1-3 on d4; Determine direction underground on 1-3 on d6 (Active effort required, as per Dwarf and Gnome)
  • If alone, in a party of halfings and/or elves, or 90+ feet ahead of an otherwise-disqualifying party and not in metal armor can inflict Surprise on 1-2 on d6 if they must open a door/portal to do so, and 1-4 on d6 if they do not.
• Aging: Young Adult (22-33), Mature (34-68), Middle Aged (69-101), Old (102-144), Venerable (145-199), Upper Limit (389)

Halfling Culture

This is a race with only two allowed playable classes, and an NPC Only third option. Two of the three have level limits well below Name Level.

Moreso than any of the demi-humans before this post, we have a race dominated by Thieves as leaders. Their Fighters, including their multi-classed ones, are barely more than a local sheriff, a couple of deputies and a posse he can call up now and again.

Their spiritual cohort, being Druids, are severe outliers due to being strictly Neutral in a Lawful Good community; if this was not a race devoted to pastoralism, this would not pass the whiff test.

However, in a pastoral setting this cohort of Druid initiates (all of whom serve a Half-Elf or Mannish master; see the Druid post) are tolerated for two reasons: they help keep things as they are and Halflings like it that way, and they are a better option for Halfings to rely upon than any other religious authority far away from their rural settlements.

So why the Thief dominance, especially as they do not have Assassins among them?

Sheer practicality, and one can argue that this is a result of that Druidic influence (which has, believe it or not, a strong pragmatic streak). Their size becomes an asset when sneaking about, and their capacity to inflict Surprise coupled with Thief Backstab capacity means that like the Elves and Dwarves they are friendly with they took good and hard to unconventional warfare as their form of warcraft.

Which means that, for those Halflings in more threatening regions, those smiling rural peasants and gentry you see during the day could easily become nighttime bandits that get their own back from would-be predators.

Sneaking into an enemy camp, stealing who or what was taken from them or planting things intended to defeat or drive off threats, and fleeing back into the night all to act like nothing happened the next day sounds a lot like some well-known practices of real world peoples- the English included.

They are dominated by Thieves because it's the Thieves that can get it done against the worst threats that Haflings face. The Fighters and the Druids are backstops and gap-fillers, but both military policy and the overall social order favors the mindset and skillset of the Thief over the rest. Were it not for some intrinsic substance to their racial character, it would be easy to (like Gnomes) paint them as a bunch of clannish criminal like Gypies and Travellers.

By instead leaning on the guerilla militia/part-time bandit gang model we see in real-world insurgencies worldwide, mythologized by some form of Robin Hood or William Tell figure as a folk hero with a loyal pet/totem animal (to account for the Druid influence), we can make this pastoral purloiner still be an upstanding community-minded race that strives for doing good in life.

Which, more or less, is how we see Tolkien's Hobbits.

As I said above, this is the only race in the game that hews close to its popular conception of its source material. The Dwarves don't. The Elves don't. The half-breeds don't either. You want to do Tolkien fanfic? Roll a Halfing (Fighter-)Thief and be done with it. It will be the only such element in the game, but it will be there (until your little man gets permanently killed off).

Speaking of half-breeds, they're coming next to end the week.