Gypsy like nomadic halflings have been arround since the Birthright campaign setting. The Kender like curiosity and luck is a part of 3e core. Check it out. So there is nothing really new here except there new found affinity for water. Which if I were to guess could be found in some obscure source book 3e or otherwise.
Uh...no. Brandobaris is an FR god.
Didn't Roger Moore create Brandobaris and the various non-human deities back in the 1980s Dragon issues that detailed each of the player races (i.e. The Halfling Point of View)?
Just wondering...
Brandobaris appears in Dragon #59, and thus predates FR by quite a bit.
EDIT: Oops! I didn't see that Faraer already answered this question.
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Halflings, being much weaker as a race, would have a hard time with many of the physical aspects of a ship unless it was completely scaled down for them - bordering on impossible. And how much would it suck for a couple humans and a dragonborn to have an extended voyage on a halfling sized ship. Still for some reason, all I can think of is Huck Finn on the raft. And if Mark Twain is the new inspiration for J.R.R.'s creation, I'll {remainder deleted so the softies on here don't get all worked up.}
Also, re-creating a race and making them sailors has been done many times, most recently with Weis/Hickman/Elmore's Sovereign Stone setting...and it was was the lowest point of a cool campaign setting.
I thought long and hard about it, and you make sense. I don't know what I was thinking; I guess halflings clambering in the riggings was a romantic thought.
I think, for me, the height change is fine, not for reasons of strength, but for reach and distance. Distance, and the crossing of distance, is a defining moment in combat, and quite simply, a 3-foot humanoid with a sword rushing a 5'8" humanoid with a sword is going to get hit far earlier and more often. One of my players used to joke about Valenar elves in Eberron going on "The Great Halfling Hunt!"
As far as the Tolkien connection, I have never been convinced of D&D's reliance or even the "influence" of Tolkien's work on the game. I think the aesthetic of Tolkien has been used, but none of his ideas and concept have been a common thread--even with a noted scholar like John D. Rateliff working for TSR. There is a similar disconnect with the supposed influence Tolkien has had on the "epic fantasy" model, I see little Tolkien in his supposed predecessors (although I do in a few, Guy Gavriel Kay, for example), just an mimicking of surface, or aesthetic conventions. Tolkien belongs to a tradition that precedes him, rather than one that realistically follows him.
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Ok, so they're taller and like boats. yawn...
Seems ridiculous to take something so obviously created from Tolkein and change everything to call it the same thing...oooh wait, take something familiar - change most of it but call it the same thing? Seems like 4E's m.o.
Actually they seem like vintage Tolkein River Folk.
A) Brandobaris has been a girl the whole time, and/or never existed?
Restructuring sometimes comes at a price....like using the deity gender transmogrification trick.
B) That Tymora was actually Brandobaris in the Forgotten Realms, and/or was !@#$ing herself/himself/itself?
Too funny!
C) That the halflings have, in fact, no deity of their own?
They said that? If that's what they said, tis easy enough to ignore.
D) Halflings live in swamps? Would someone please tell me how this even functions? The moment that a halfling falls off his boat, he DROWNS, and/or is eaten by nasty creatures who can swallow him. Why would anyone want to live in an environment where the water suddenly goes up to their neck and they can't fight anymore. This is the DUMBEST thing wizards has ever done.
No argument here if this is the case. They should give them gills.
G) Halflings must be the poorest culture in the universe. Humans have cities with rich mercantile cultures. Dwarves have Ore. Elves have lumber. Halflings have...MULCH? That's right. Mulch. You have made halflings the peat purveyors of the world.
ROFL! That peat purveyors comment is sig worthy! LOL.
I never thought they needed to be taller just abit heavier.
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Uh...no. Brandobaris is an FR god. <snip>
I'll quit now; it's as much a waste of my time to respond to you as it is WotC's. It's difficult to respond rationally to such irrational ill-informed prattle.
Given that Brandobaris is a generic halfling god that got vacuumed up into the Realms setting later, the last sentence there is hilarious.
While I loved pretty much all of Roger Moore's racial write ups back in the day (and still do), I don't really care for the idea of racial dieties overall, so them going away doesn't bug me.
OTOH, I'm not sure if the 4E premise, that 30th level adventurers can fight, kill and replace gods, really is the best place for this sort of non-racial pantheon. If a certain population of the 'gods' are former adventurers, why would they *stop* being Dwarves, Halflings, Elves, etc. (or at least identifying with their birth-races) just because they hit 30th level and pushed Thor off a cliff? The 4E premise, to me, seems like it would have *more* racially specific dieties, as the gods *are* (or at least, were) members of the various races.
The non-racial Dragonlance-style pantheon seems like a better fit for a setting where the gods predate the mortal races, and where Dwarves might see the earth-goddess as a bearded lady and the Elves see her as a graceful dryad child, but she was around before either of them and doesn't favor one over the other.
In a 4E style world where the goddess of the earth might be a former Elven Ranger or something, she might maintain a preference for her former kin. Her kids might even be part of her clergy!
I never thought they needed to be taller just abit heavier.
Presuming a general human build, 3rd edition halflings have a grossly low BMI based upon their height/weight. Halflings should all look pretty emaciated and be little more than skin and bones.
2nd edition Halflings meanwhile had bulked up, and on average they were 3'4" and weighed 62 lbs. This meant that on average they were actually overweight/obese.
Height for both was the same however. If Halflings remain around the same weight but increase in height (to say, 4'6") then their BMI would be hideous. Not that this will in anyway inform design decisions, I just wanted to throw it out there.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Uh...no. Brandobaris is an FR god. <snip>
I'll quit now; it's as much a waste of my time to respond to you as it is WotC's. It's difficult to respond rationally to such irrational ill-informed prattle.Given that Brandobaris is a generic halfling god that got vacuumed up into the Realms setting later, the last sentence there is hilarious.
Neh. It's not as if I popped into a debate about obscure D&D gods, spit out a load of vile about how Brandobaris was originally the god of toads and has nothing to do with halflings, and then took off. There's enough about 4e to dislike if you want to dislike it without making up s@*# about how it's going to force you to change all the gods in the various campaign settings, much less forcing you to do it in the least intelligent most disruptive way possible.
Uh...no. Brandobaris is an FR god.Didn't Roger Moore create Brandobaris and the various non-human deities back in the 1980s Dragon issues that detailed each of the player races (i.e. The Halfling Point of View)?
Just wondering...
you are correct Chris, Brandobaris actualy predates The Forgotten Realms as a published setting. However Sebastion can be forgiven I think, as all of his 3e mentions have come in Forgotten Realms material.
damn, already been adresses, teaches me to answer over zealously before continuing on to page 2.
Come on it's a bit funny. Call someone an ill-informed prattler and get the facts wrong. A bit funny?
Though maybe Sebastian has something here.... maybe if they do live in swamps Brandobaris did used to be a Toad god! (Bachtobaris?) Is it just me who sees the conspiracy- halflings will be turned into bullywugs! Damn you 4E!
But seriously-I think non racial specific deities can work and am taking the 'If it dont work for my game i have always got a whole slew of racial deities from 3 other editions to fall back on approach' good luck with your creative juices 4E designers.
I'm glad to be somewhat of an expert on the subject, since I was dated a halfling once.
Basically, online dating sucks.
;-p
For my homebrew world, no one likes being called a halfling. It's fighting words. They preferred to be called Folke.
And they are considered by humans to be a little redneck.
Their patron saint is Saint Murphy (as in Murphy's law), so the luck factor would work really well in my campaign...
I guess my point (besides making a questionable pun) is to reinforce the earlier statement that we can always adapt!
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Well, Amazon messed up one of my orders and gave me a gift card, so I got the two 4E preview books.
If the Halfling pictures weren't labeled, I would not know they were Halflings!
Mark my words, these pictures will be reused at some point as Humans because there is nothing that says "Halfling" about them.
No hairy feet, nothing to show perspective of how tall they are, just braided hair,.....yeah when I think of braids, Halflings are not the first thing to come to my mind.
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Well, Amazon messed up one of my orders and gave me a gift card, so I got the two 4E preview books.
If the Halfling pictures weren't labeled, I would not know they were Halflings!
Mark my words, these pictures will be reused at some point as Humans because there is nothing that says "Halfling" about them.No hairy feet, nothing to show perspective of how tall they are, just braided hair,.....yeah when I think of braids, Halflings are not the first thing to come to my mind.
They look just like 3E halflings. The hairy feet have been gone for years btw.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I think what happened is that Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy (Golden Compass) became very popular, so WotC wanted to put Gyptians into their D&D. And they probably had no idea what to do with halflings, so they squished them into that role.
So the Rhennee weren't good enough for them?
I don't know about you guys, but I like the new incarnation of halflings. Outside of tolkien, short races are meant to be tricky, lucky, care-free etc.
Anyway, its a new edition, a fresh new start for the game (and your campaign worlds), so why all these gripes over minor cosmetic details like halfling heights, and cultures.
I'd never make a campaign setting that didn't have some change or another to the flavour of a race or class and I've never left the rules untouched when I didn't like them.
If you like your halflings short, fat and pampered then by all means, set up your halfling day spas throughout the land. Force your halflings to live in little holes, and defenseless villages. I'm sure they'll be fine. I'm sure nothing big and nasty is going to look at halflings like fun-size cattle.
I'm going to leave my halflings as carefree tricksters, the eldest are wise and funny like Yoda. The young ones are brash and cocky like Han Solo. A medium sized personality in a small sized body just has to escape somehow.
...But we're adding the dragonborn with breasts wielding 6-foot swords because they're totally awesome and this game is about fun!"
Uh-huh.
LOL! I'm glad I'm not the only one that looked at the art for a busty, reptilitan, egg laying race and thought, "What the ....?!"
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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I think what happened is that Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy (Golden Compass) became very popular, so WotC wanted to put Gyptians into their D&D. And they probably had no idea what to do with halflings, so they squished them into that role.So the Rhennee weren't good enough for them?
Makes me think of the Halfling Vistani, with their night hag leader *shudder*
What they mean is people from 3e, not before then.
Yes, Gods forbid WotC has to Acknowledge any of veteran players that started off with a red box.
This was the letter I sent to Wizards this morning.
I sent them a letter when the changed from 2E to 3.0. I was told in an almost polite mannor to #&*% myself, and that they didn't care about my opinion. 4E is looking even more arogant, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
Two random sentences from this discussion:
*Halflings live in swamps?
*For my homebrew world, [halflings] are considered by humans to be a little redneck.
Anyone else read that and think "Nick Logue module"?
buh-nuh-NIEW-nu-NIEW-nu-niew-nu-niew...
Mike