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View Full Version : The little guys. Which are better?



Barbin
2011-02-06, 09:15 PM
So, right after posting in Gamerlord's " Which are cooler: Dwarves or Elves?" and finding much more threads about the Dwarf vs. Elf wars on other forums.
After a quick search... No Gnome vs. Halflings threads?! Vat ish dish blashfemmy?!

Onto the main point of this thread: Gnomes or Halfling?

I'm more of a Gnome guy. Gnomes can pull anything of be it a humble Bard or a megalomaniac Wizard.

AsteriskAmp
2011-02-06, 09:21 PM
Gnomes because they do it for SCIENCE!

How did you knew anti-osmium exists!?
I'm a gnome

How did you know the composition of gunpowder, we are still in the start of the Dark Ages!?
I'm a gnome, I had a pretty normal childhood.

Why is there a magically powered Napalm throwing Tank in my Rennaisance campaign?!
His name is Da Vinci, Gnomeardo Da Vinci.

rayne_dragon
2011-02-06, 09:22 PM
Well, I'd have to say I prefer gnomes. I've never understood the appeal of halflings other than as a generic peasant race to brutilized by evil people. Plus The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were far more interesting because of the things that weren't hobbits (which are the same as halflings).

Gnomes are often a bit odd because they started out occupying the same niche as dwarves, but I feel they're grown into their own race quite well. Plus gnomes are classically a kind of elemental rather than a race, so they're automatically better.

The Vorpal Tribble
2011-02-06, 09:25 PM
Neither. In my campaign they don't exist and I don't really have any use to my mind.


How did you know the composition of gunpowder, we are still in the start of the Dark Ages!?
We had rocket warfare more than a thousand years ago.

We had tremendous advantages in the sciences long before anyone was willing to accept them because they were 'magic' or of the 'devil's power'.

AsteriskAmp
2011-02-06, 09:30 PM
We had rocket warfare more than a thousand years ago.

We had tremendous advantages in the sciences long before anyone was willing to accept them because they were 'magic' or of the 'devil's power'.

Don't forget Greek Fire.
Yes, I know about that, but we kinda forgot about them, for a LONG time, and IIRC they already were forgotten in the Dark Age of Europe.

Dallas-Dakota
2011-02-06, 09:46 PM
Hobbits > Gnomes > Halflings.

wxdruid
2011-02-06, 10:04 PM
:smalltongue: I love playing Kender! The DragonLance version of halflings. They're the best and always hilarious.

Remmirath
2011-02-06, 11:31 PM
I'm not particularly fond of either, but I much prefer halflings to gnomes (although hobbits are clearly better than halflings :smalltongue:).

Gnomes... well, I've never seen a gnome played in a way that didn't make my teeth grate. They tend to wind up as the comic relief types, talk in truly annoying ways, and generally disrupt things.

They are, however, a good excuse to put strange-but-useful machines into dungeons, as you can always claim a mad gnome did it. That's they're only redeeming value, in my opinion. :smallbiggrin:

I usually don't put either into my campaign settings, though. I just don't like them much.

Jallorn
2011-02-06, 11:36 PM
I'd have to go with Halflings.

However, this thread has given me a wonderful idea for a campaign that involves a shire-like community of halflings being attacked and undergoing a Break the Cutie kind of event that leads them to becoming a totally bad*ss force to be reckoned with.

Trog
2011-02-06, 11:45 PM
Svirfneblin.
http://redvan.wikidot.com/local--files/dragon-army/Svirfneblin.jpg

grimbold
2011-02-07, 01:13 PM
gnomes are very cool and have their bonuses
but halflings make better rogues
and
they have FRODO

SMEE
2011-02-07, 01:21 PM
This thread is better suited at the Roleplaying games forum.
Thread moved.

IcarusWings
2011-02-07, 01:36 PM
I'm gonna' say Halflings, but when they're refluffed as travelling gypsies and merchants. I basically only like either when they're refluffed into more trickery focused, but not nice prank trickery, dark trickery where they're not actually malevelont, they just don't understand/care if it winds up in someone getting hurt.

Comet
2011-02-07, 02:09 PM
Going to say halflings, because gnomes, as they are today, tend to encourage a sort of insanity I can only describe as "hey let's ride on a velociraptor while shooting science death rays at an incoming train that is made out of magitechy and dungeonpunky parts and driven by a half-celestial ninja" or, as the Internet would tell you, "AWSUM".

Now, don't get me wrong, I like AWSUM as much as the next guy. I just don't want it everywhere. Halflings tend to be more down to earth, classic little folk. They're cool without having to try too hard to be all edgy and silly.

All that varies hugely from setting to setting, though. Sometimes gnomes are the cool ones. More importantly, I don't think any setting really needs dwarves and gnomes and halflings. What's with the obsession for short people?

Warlawk
2011-02-07, 02:11 PM
Onto the main point of this thread: Gnomes or Halfling?


Neither. They're both a joke.
Everything I've seen makes me think that the little races in general (goblins, gnomes, halflings, kobolds, kender etc) were kept in the game purely to get a very vocal minority of the player base to stop complaining. In most settings and novels these races are almost entirely irrelevant and generally add nothing to the story except comic relief. In 15+ years of gaming both as a player and part time DM I've never been in a game with a "little person" PC and I've never seen or used an important NPC of one of those races. The exception being goblins/kobolds, strictly as bad guy NPCs though, not cutsey loveable 'misunderstood' NPCs the PC's are supposed to rescue from the evil racists.

Sadly the writers keep wasting pages on these things instead of giving us good usable content. Eberron did a good job removing the crappy stereotypes and giving them interesting places in the world. I've still never seen a PC of those races, but at least they make good usable plot NPCs in that setting.

I don't begrudge anyone their enjoyment of those races, but I really feel like they're an afterthought that was thrown in due to public demand and not true creative desire on the part of designers.

Lurkmoar
2011-02-07, 02:16 PM
Dark Sun halflings.

In other settings, I usually don't see enough justification for including gnomes and halflings. What do they contribute? What makes them standout from dwarves, elves, humans, orcs and kobolds?

Greenish
2011-02-07, 02:26 PM
Going to say halflings, because gnomes, as they are today, tend to encourage a sort of insanity I can only describe as "hey let's ride on a velociraptorThose are actually halflings. Just sayin'.

Personally, I prefer kobolds.

Comet
2011-02-07, 02:29 PM
Those are actually halflings. Just sayin'.


Ouch, you're right. Got my little folk confused, it seems. More evidence that there are just too many of them out there.

But hey, at least the mad science part fits. That's something.

gbprime
2011-02-07, 02:31 PM
Gnomes. Sensible folk wear shoes when crossing deserts or snow fields. Seriously.

Dimers
2011-02-07, 02:51 PM
Gnomes. Sensible folk wear shoes when crossing deserts or snow fields. Seriously.

Yes, sensible folk do. Gnomes, on the other hand, wear spring-loaded boots with a built-in PEZ dispenser, skeleton key, and vial of herbicide (that they made themselves, 'cuz they know alchemy, yes they do). And then they forget which side the PEZ dispenser is on and end up swallowing the poison, whoops, ha ha.

Halflings are boring and gnomes are untenably disruptive of verisimilitude. Pleh.

Ravens_cry
2011-02-07, 02:51 PM
Gnomes. Sensible folk wear shoes when crossing deserts or snow fields. Seriously.I have a friend I role play with who gets quite irritated whenever the halflings I play wear shoes, either because a) blond foot hair and/or pale skin show up too easily in the dark or b) they are pretending to be/convinced they are a human child, or c) it really does make more sense in extreme in environments.
Gnomes are awesome because of their scientific gadgeteering shtick, Kender, Kender I suppose burn well, but I do think I like Halflings best, both as content Shire folk and as Stealthy Little Badasses of the Night.

gbprime
2011-02-07, 02:55 PM
Yes, sensible folk do. Gnomes, on the other hand, wear spring-loaded boots with a built-in PEZ dispenser, skeleton key, and vial of herbicide

"I suppose in hindsight, at least until our bruises heal, I can see where you might think that was unwise. But it all seemed quite sensible in the moment, I assure you."

- Fergus NeBightre, Wizard at Large

Toliudar
2011-02-07, 04:52 PM
Aside from the fact that both races make great spellcasters and decent skillmonkeys...

I'd like to contest the idea that neither halflings nor gnomes contributes something dramatically different from larger races. The perspective of a smaller, often embattled race is significantly different. And as shown by the various settings, the ways in which gnomes and halflings get reflavoured suggests that there is not one but many niches which they can fill in a campaign. Gnomes adapt easily to be mad scientists, quasi-fey, grim tunnel-dwellers clinging tenuously to an ecological niche or overblown braggarts. Halflings are cannibalistic savages, sedate farmers and craftsmen, gypsies desperate for a homeland of their own. What's not to love?

Physically small characters good for nothing but comic relief? Tolkien aside, Jonathan Swift, Fritz Lieber, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Ursula Leguin, Philip Pullman, Norse Mythology and J.K. Rowling suggest otherwise. A physically small protagonist is forced to rely on something other than brute force to get the job done. Usually, that's more interesting to read about, and often more interesting to play.

I play both races all the time, but give a slight edge to gnomes.

Comet
2011-02-07, 04:59 PM
I'd personally enjoy a single race of physically small people, with the 'nomad', the 'miner', the 'trickster' and such being distinctions of either individuals or communities. I don't like the general fantasy method of having humans as a diverse lot and every other race as wearing the same hats the world over.

Psyborg
2011-02-07, 05:10 PM
Hobbit > halfling > gnome >>>>>> kender

Anxe
2011-02-07, 05:22 PM
There's less of a fight between gnomes and halflings essentially because they're the same mythical creature. Pre-Tolkein gnomes were small creatures that lived in the wild. Hobbits are small creatures that live in the hills. Tolkein used the name hobbits to refer to gnomes. Then TSR used the name halflings to refer to hobbits to avoid a copyright issue.

At least that's my viewpoint. There's no war between gnomes and halflings because they're the same thing.


Hobbit > halfling > gnome >>>>>> kender

And totally yes.

some guy
2011-02-07, 05:52 PM
I use gnomes more when I'm DM'ing and I favor halflings when I'm playing.
My gnomes are never the crazy scientists, they are secretive illusionists though. They are the ones that can live almost everywhere and not be noticed.
My halflings are a bit the standard travelling/gypsy race without an homeland.

MeeposFire
2011-02-07, 05:55 PM
My vote always go to the mighty Kobold but if it is just between halflings and gnomes...

Halflings all the way in any edition of the game.

Draz74
2011-02-07, 06:07 PM
I can't vote on this issue because it's far too setting-specific. Both gnomes and halflings are awesome in some settings, and annoying as heck in others.

AslanCross
2011-02-07, 06:19 PM
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/roe_gallery/88231.jpg
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/eb_gallery/82141.jpg

Halflings. (Granted, gnomes in Eberron are also awesome, but halflings tend to be more iconic.)

AtomicKitKat
2011-02-07, 09:30 PM
Neither. Their only purpose in the ecology of the world is as food for Dragons.:smallcool:

Chilingsworth
2011-02-07, 09:40 PM
I like strongheart halflings, myself.

Dead_Jester
2011-02-07, 09:51 PM
Kenders all the way, just for the effect it has an everyone when you even mention you might want to play one:smallbiggrin:

If that's not ok, than gnomes are better. Mad scientists beat shoeless hobos.

tordirycgoyust
2011-02-08, 05:01 PM
Gnomes. Their mindset is awesome (in several senses) and IMO something to strive for culturally.

Dusk Eclipse
2011-02-08, 05:12 PM
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ex_whisper_gnome.jpg

The only gnome that I would ever play.

Tvtyrant
2011-02-08, 05:39 PM
I always throw Halflings into serfdom and have the Gnomes be a group that other groups are trying to eliminate. Don't know why, but it could just be a natural "break the cutie" thing.

flabort
2011-02-08, 05:50 PM
Halflings are better in a way, because they are just that much better at taming 'ordinary' animals, better at rock throwing, better at everything that most races do than those races.

Gnomes are better in a way, too, because they DON'T EVEN DO those things that haflings are generally better at. Instead, they invent bizarre contraptions, tame exotic creatures, and have everything blow up in their faces for comic relief. True, when something doesn't blow up, you want to RUN THE $#@& AWAY, especially if you laughed at that gnome, but that just makes them even better. And they have better magicians.

Overall, I like Gnomes better.

Barbin
2011-02-08, 07:58 PM
I just found more proof Gnomes are teh pwnz:

http://www.toddlockwood.com/galleries/detail_1.php?g=concept&p=03&a=gnome_fighter&d=01&o=tall&b=0&t=Gnome+Fighter
http://www.toddlockwood.com/galleries/detail_1.php?g=concept&p=03&a=gnome_archer&d=01&o=wide&b=0&t=Gnome+Archer

Also, AslanCross, we're did you get that shady blackalley artwork?

BiblioRook
2011-02-09, 12:36 AM
I'm kinda overly fond of both actually, I'm not sure which I would pick over the other. But as far as races go in general, both would currently be near (if not at) the top of my list.

Sadly I probably would never play as ether though, I never think I would be able to do ether race justice. But as far as books and fiction though the appearance of a halfling or a gnome always does a great deal to lift my spirits. :smallsmile:

As for why I like both races so much; I've always been very inclined towards intellectual curiosity, utility spellcasting (or rather, more non-lethal), and stealth in characters. Of the three, gnomes and halflings seem to cover more then almost anyone else (humans don't count).

BobVosh
2011-02-09, 01:12 AM
In core I go with Gnomes.

In dragonlance everything below dwarf height must die.

Mostly halflings beyond that. Ghost wise are so cool fluff wise. Strong hearted mechanically one of the best races in the game.

And my favorite will always be the original race for dark sun, the cannibalistic scary spear chuckin' halflings.

monkey3
2011-02-09, 10:50 AM
I hate the damn little people. They always want special treatment.

Where's my magical small dagger?
Where's my new mount?

Shut up!

Don't get me starter on Whisper Gnomes. They are a walking case of favoritism gone mad.

Leon
2011-02-09, 11:05 AM
Nac Mac Feegal

Crossblade
2011-02-09, 12:33 PM
Gnomes.

Why? Because Halflings are always played as Chaotic Stupid Rogues, to a worse degree Kenders are played as Evil Stupid Rogues. All the time.

Granted, Whisper Gnomes are also played as only Chaotic Stupid Rogues too, but they're played so much into their own specific niche, they might as well be their own race instead of a sub-race.

Gnomes have personality and don't fade into the background. They're thinkers, planners, celebrators, vive la vie (it's French, it means Live Life), sociable, and generally trustworthy.
Compare Races of Stone's Gnome's entry vs Races of the Wild's Halfling entry... I took a brief look at WotW (never read it due to lack of interest) and I can't find a single page that doesn't mention Halfling's (lack of) trustworthiness. RoS goes on and on about Gnomes' personalities and celebrations.