Possible issues with Homebrew Campaign Set up
The Campaign
A vast fleet of ships have left their home ports on an epic voyage of exploration and discover. Hundreds of ships carrying tens of thousands are heading west into uncharted oceans.
The largest ships are Junks up to 900 feet long with dozens of sails, crewed by hundreds of Halfling sailors and marines.
The Player Characters are all part of that Halfling crew, specialists in the field of combat, magic and diplomacy.
Problems
The two main problems I can foresee are movement and damage.
Restricted to small weapons they are going to be behind the power curve at every level.
And even on the relatively confined quarters of a ships’ deck the lack of full speed by the PC will cause them a problem, on the open terrain of an island it gets much worse. Other than simply reducing CRs what other ways round could there be?
Possible issues with Homebrew Campaign Set up
Besides being awesome, damage would be the main issue.
Remember that halfling rogues rock, with the +4 stealth, and +2 dex, and a sneak attack that relies not on size.
Assuming that there will be a cleric, his/her buffs will really help, bull's strength for the fighter, etc. The travel domain would be enjoyed by a little guy (my dwarf-cleric loves it)it gives you +10' speed, and the first level bonus spell is longstrider, plus a bunch of movement abilities and movement focused bonus spells.
Someone should try to optimize for damage, a two-hand fighting barbarian would do well for this, with enhanced movement and str increase during rage. (Especially enlarged via the spell).
Halflings make good casters due to size, and won't rely on puny weapons for damage.
I like this concept party, I think their strongpoints will be sneakieness, agility, and little-guy coolness. I wouldn't worry about damage too much, sure you won't be able to max-out DPS, or whatever, but you will have a lot of fun roleplaying!
What I would watch out for as GM, is throwing a bunch of big grappling/swallowing/choking monsters at them, other than that I would not adjust CRs or anything.
Remember that they can fit into small places big monsters cannot, and add terrain accordingly to difficult encounters if need be. There are a lot of benefits to being small, sneakieness, high AC, etc. Large monsters or tough NPCs may not even recognize them as a threat right away, never underestimate a halfling's courage!
The small die weapons are not as big of a problem as it seems, it's the -2 strength that hurts the most. If the PCs play into the strengths of being small, they should be able to handle just about anything you throw at them.
Haven't explored naval combat too much yet, but halflings get +2climb and acrobatics, which should help...
cheers for the comments. I had overlooked the "so small the BBEG just doesnt see them coming" aspect of halflings.
I dont think there will be too much navl combat, mainly because the Fleet is so damn huge its like a floating fortress as long as it sticks together. If the PCs go off exploring on their own, however...
It sounds like an awesome campaign.
I agree with the others that the fact that they are Halflings is not an issue. Just don't throw too many monsters that Swallow at them.
The only issues I can imagine is that dealing with Naval stuff might be a headache. The larger issue in my mind, though, is that if they are headed out for uncharted adventures, there will be no place to gear up. Perhaps you'll throw a city in here and there, but I've always found that players seem to really enjoy being able to buy stuff whenever.
It sounds like an awesome campaign.
I agree with the others that the fact that they are Halflings is not an issue. Just don't throw too many monsters that Swallow at them.
The only issues I can imagine is that dealing with Naval stuff might be a headache. The larger issue in my mind, though, is that if they are headed out for uncharted adventures, there will be no place to gear up. Perhaps you'll throw a city in here and there, but I've always found that players seem to really enjoy being able to buy stuff whenever.
The original inspiration for this campaign was reading 1421. The ships the chinese might have sailed on that expadition would have been loaded with trade goods and treasue of all kinds. So I am going to allow a small economy to develop on the fleet and allow the players to buy and sell pretty much as normal barring anything too silly.