I starting a second edition game (first time as GM) with 3 friends new to RPGs and 1 with D&D 5e experience.
One of them wanted to play a Half halfling - Half goblin and I misunderstood the rules under human that discuss "other halves" so told him sure there are guidelines for that. So I have now looked at the Half-Elf and Half-Orc feats and stats and altered them slightly to make a special Halfling-Goblin heritage for him to use.
I couldn't see anywhere that this has been discussed but if there is a thread or better place for this please let me know.
I went with low light vision to be sort of in between the keen eyes of Halfling and the darkvision of goblin and put in 6 Half feats which is a lot but 2 of them are to get the halfling keen eyes or get the goblin darkvision and with "*Special You can take this feat only at 1st level, and you can’t retrain out of this feat or into this feat." on 3 of the 6 feats I didn't feel like 6 was too many.
Really just looking for feedback and advise on this idea. Thanks.
Stats:
Hit Points: 6
Size: Small
Speed: 25 feet
Ability Boosts: Dexterity, Charisma, Free
Ability Flaw(s): Strength
Languages: Common, Halfling, Goblin, Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnoll, Gnomish, Orcish, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Low-Light Vision: You can see in dim light as though it were bright light, and you ignore the concealed condition due to dim light.
Feats:
Name: Goblin Atavism
Level: 1
Traits: Half-Goblin
Prerequisites: -
Benefits: Your goblin blood runs particularly strong, granting you features far more goblin than those of a typical half-goblin.
You may also have been raised among goblins, steeped in your goblin ancestors’ heritage. You gain the benefits of the goblin heritage of your goblin parent or ancestors. You typically can’t select a heritage that depends on or improves a goblin feature you don’t have. For example, you couldn’t gain the unbreakable goblin’s gain of 10 hit points instead of 6 if you didn't already have 6 hit points. In these cases, at the GM’s discretion, you might gain a different benefit.
*Special You can take this feat only at 1st level, and you can’t retrain out of this feat or into this feat.
Name: Goblin Sight
Level: 1
Traits: Half-Goblin
Prerequisites: low-light vision
Benefits: Your goblin blood is strong enough to grant you the keen vision of your goblin forebears.
You gain darkvision, allowing you to see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can in bright light. However, in darkness, you see in black and white only.
*Special You can take this feat only at 1st level, and you can’t retrain out of this feat or into this feat.
Name: Halfling Atavism
Level: 1
Traits: Half-Halfling
Prerequisites: -
Benefits: Your halfling blood runs particularly strong, granting you features far more halfling than those of a typical half-halfling.
You may also have been raised among halflings, steeped in your halfling ancestors’ heritage. You gain the benefits of the halfling heritage of your halfling parent or ancestors. You typically can’t select a heritage that depends on or improves a halfling feature you don’t have. For example, you couldn’t gain the twilight halfling’s improvement to keen eyes if you didn't have keen eyes already. In these cases, at the GM’s discretion, you might gain a different benefit.
*Special You can take this feat only at 1st level, and you can’t retrain out of this feat or into this feat.
Name: Halfling Eyes
Level: 1
Traits: Half-Halfling
Prerequisites: -
Benefits: Your halfling blood is strong enough to grant you the keen vision of your halfling forebears.
Your eyes are sharp, allowing you to make out small details about concealed or even invisible creatures that others might miss. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus when using the Seek action to find hidden or undetected creatures within 30 feet of you. When you target an opponent that is concealed from you or hidden from you, reduce the DC of the flat check to 3 for a concealed target or 9 for a hidden one.
Name: Monstrous Peacemaker
Level: 1
Traits: Half-goblin
Prerequisites: -
Benefits: Your dual goblin and other ancestry nature has given you a unique perspective allowing you to bridge the gap between humans and the many intelligent creatures in the world that humans consider monsters.
You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Diplomacy checks against non-humanoid intelligent creatures and against humanoids that are marginalized in human society (at the GM’s discretion, but typically at least including giants, goblins, kobolds, and orcs). You also gain this bonus on Perception checks to Sense the Motives of such creatures.
Name: Inspire Imitation
Level: 5
Traits: Half-Halfling
Prerequisites: -
Benefits: Your own actions inspire your allies to great achievements.
Whenever you critically succeed at a skill check, you automatically qualify to use the Aid reaction when attempting to help an ally using the same skill, even without spending an action to prepare to do so.
Three only-at-1st-level feats is a recipe for player angst during chargen, at least if they're anything like me. ;) Looks good otherwise, seeing as how they can also take any normal Halfling or Goblin ancestry feat.
Well, keeping in how the Half-ancestries initially work, they would generally replace your Heritage choice, and they actually list the Half-Elf and Half-Orc benefits as examples for other ancestries, in that you gain Low-Light Vision as well as access to that ancestry's ancestry feats regardless of which ancestry you apply them to (because yes, Half-elf and Half-orc heritages are available to any ancestry assuming GM approval, which the book states and says it's generally not an issue if you do; I'd just require that a character's story is good enough to warrant it). In neither case are you gaining or sacrificing ancestry feats to get their benefits.
Stemming from that, the thing I don't like about it is that this can be combined in one of two ways, one of which is actually overall weaker compared to the other. If you took Goblin with the Half-Halfling heritage, you would get Darkvision, Low-Light, as well as access to the Goblin language (which, given their popularity, will be much more beneficial to have) and any of the good Halfling feats (which there are a few). Compared to a Halfling taking Half-Goblin, which will only have low-light with a 1st level Darkvision ancestry feat option at best, with access to the Halfling language which is very niche in its use. You're missing out on Darkvision (or an Ancestry feat, depending on how you select things) as well as having an inferior language choice to get the same amount of power as the other combination. (Ironic I say this, but it's objectively true here.)
That being said, the Half-Orc ancestry option from the Human side of things is probably the most appropriate way to go, since it mirrors the second option to a T, and is consistent across the book. Creating your own Half-Goblin/Half-Halfling feats is okay, but just compare them to some of the other feats that are there (such as the Half-Elf and Half-Orc choices) in terms of power and overall usefulness, and you'll probably be in the right.
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Thanks for the responses... Yeah my idea was to have the heritage being the half-goblin for base of halfling or the half-halfling (quarterling?) for the base of goblin, but either way they would have low-light vision instead of the normal goblin darkvision or the halfling keen eyes. The 6 feats instead of 3 is sort of a lot but wanted to have the option to sacrifice a feat to select an actual heritage from either side and allow for either of the 2 vision abilities. Then I took the special half-elf feat and special half-orc feat.
I suppose I could have made the vision ability be either halfling or goblin and make the player decide which is the base, but that seemed like a no brainer to take goblin for darkvision and just get tons more feats to pick from, so put in that compromise.