I've always sort of thought those passing for human would look like six or seven year olds but on a whim decided to check statistical average heights for children. Taking male halflings as having an average height of 3'1 as is given by Table 7-3 of the CRB, and comparing it to the table at www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/data/set1clinical/cj41l021.pdf (making the assumption the CDC has reasonable reliable data about such things), matches that to the average height of a not quite 3 year old boy.
Halflings are tiny.
The 3'4 maximum height the table gives halflings matches the height of a 5 year old in the shortest 5th percentile.
This does change the way I'm going to have to think about Childish feat Halfling NPCs I set about my players - for one thing, it ups the cute and helpless factor.
I'm mostly just curious as to if how tiny a 3ft person actual is was only a surprise to me or if other people had assumed it wasn't quite so little.
Hobbits. Halflings will always look like Hobbits. They don't ride dinosaurs, they aren't gypsies, they are Hobbits.
But really, similiar to this. Picture is kind of small, so looking for a bigger one.
I do agree that they are Hobbits. I just picture Tolkien's Hobbits as being slightly larger and generally much, much rounder.
I do agree that they are Hobbits. I just picture Tolkien's Hobbits as being slightly larger and generally much, much rounder.
Only slightly taller on average.
In the prologue to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien writes that Hobbits are between two and four feet (0.61–1.22 m) tall, the average height being three feet six inches (1.07 m).
Hobbits for the fmost part. i liked a lot of the 3e hobbit art . . . a little grittier but I always figured that had to do with context.
Lem (aka = hobbits).
Hobbits.
But, if you track their description through the editions you'll see they have gone through many narrative transformations.
In my opinion Pathfinder went to some trouble to decouple their halflings from Tolkiens hobbits. They are typically drawn very much like miniature elves, thin, angular and with more than a hint of malice in their facial expressions.
I personally picture halflings as sort of like miniature half-elfs. I see some as sort of jolly, but others more like the PF image. The ones I end up playing as characters typically are more on the thin, angular, vaguely malevolent side.
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Food.
As someone who works with children, I find it impossible to imagine the average halfling as the same height as a four-year-old human and about as heavy. Like, my brain just refuses to put that picture together in a way that makes any sense. Pictures that show 3-ft halflings side-by-side with humans make them look a little too much like dolls to me. I like the general look that PF has given halflings, but I imagine them about a foot taller than described - like a human nine-year-old. That's still really dang tiny, but feels a bit more natural to me.
I usually picture them as a cross between the Elves from any of Tim Allen's Santa Clause movies crossed with the Leprechaun from any of the Leprechaun horror movies. But with furry feet and better hygiene. Usually...
I think of halflings as looking like humans only on a smaller scale with slightly pointed ears... so hobbits for the most part. I also change the base height and weight a little. I add 6" to the base height and 5lbs to the base weight. This creates halflings that are still quite small but not so childishly small. I have two halflings in my current party, both females, one of them is 3'9" and the other is 4'2" (maximum height but she is a Hitchhiker fan) and that feels about right to me. There is also a gnome tank fighter...
I imagine halflings similar to dwarfes in height. At the lower end of medium range, but always counted for small, since they are lightweight and lightboned. I don´t want them to be too much like human children, because that brings some other areas of the game into a rather weird strangeness i don´t like. I.e. halflings being slaves in Cheliax. Or anywhere else. Female very cute and seductive halflings resemble then something i despise in a more grown up game, so better avoid the child thing. Taking a feat to disguise as a child is ok though.
Also they should not be like the small things in Harry Potter.
I think 1,3-1,5m are a good height.
I think they look like Hobbits.
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"I picture a fairly human figure ... fattish in the stomach, shortish in the leg. A round, jovial face; ears only slightly pointed and 'elvish'; hair short and curling (brown). The feet from the ankles down, covered with brown hairy fur. Clothing: green velvet breeches; red or yellow waistcoat; brown or green jacket; gold (or brass) buttons; a dark green hood and cloak (belonging to a dwarf)."
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (#27)
I my world, halflings are shrunk down humans with hairy feet. They are culturally almost exactly the same. I picture them being very closely related, and people don't really think of them as a different species, but as a subspecies of humans. No pointy ears, not chubby (at least no more than humans), not paritcularly childlike at all.
I've pictured them as various things through my gaming career, starting with hobbits to the NuDND approach of tiny humans but with pointy ears, and in between.
Currently for my world as appearing to look maybe like a creature that might have evolved from something like homo floresiensis (comparative to the way we look compared to an evolution from homo erectus). Which is basically largely to look like a proportionally tiny human, but with relatively speaking a larger head, hands, and feet. They do not have pointy ears, but round human-like ears that stick out a little. I do keep the traditional preference for bare feet.
I don't see them as childlike, but a clever, young halfling who is good at disguising themselves might be able to pass for a human child if they are clever and do not put themselves up to close scrutiny.
Culturally there's one ethnic halfling group that is nomadic and one ethnic group that are isolated homebodies, so players who like one or the other have the choice of either.
For my next game, I've got rid of them. I'm keeping brownies and nixies, but the smallfolk aren't necessary, and the world can be filled with other things.