Halflings ... Hobbits or Kender?

[Tanarii]

Your Halflings ... are they Hobbit-like or Kender-like?

As a player, I tended strongly to play them as Hobbits during BECMI / AD&D 1e. Then I shifted to playing them very Kender-like in 2e, especially the 'unnaturally agile' & 'instinctive thieves' aspect ... But sadly the 'really annoying' side too. In 3e, the racial description and pictures solidified this for me, (minus the annoying part - I like to think I'd matured :smallwink: ), and 4e even more so.

Now 5e has, to me, brought new life to both kinds of Halfling. I view the Stout (and Steongheart in FR) as very hobbit-like. Whereas I see Lightfoot Halflings as natural descendants of Kender, with all the annoying stripped out, and a touch of gypsy (wagon or boat) added instead.

I also tend towards this as a DM, but it's not explicit. Because players need to be free to put their own spin on characters and not feel pigeon-holed.

(As a side note, I absolutely love Kender in stories. I think they're a far superior literary invention to Hobbits. But under absolutely no circumstances do I think they should be allowed as a PC race as-is. A race that's primary trait is 'annoying until nearby creatures lose their temper' is best left in stories, not brought into games. :smallbiggrin: )

[mephnick]

I've never used Kender, but I basically play them as curious, social and unexpectedly resourceful. LotR hobbits were generally ignorant and inclusive to a fault, whereas D&D halflings are much more likely to be adventurers or able to blend into various communities.

[Kryx]

Neither. They are halflings. They have lore of their own which does not align with hobbits nor kender.

[JellyPooga]

3ed really solidified Halflings as a reasonable race in my mind. Before that they were a horrible characiture of a couple of comedic fictional characters; namely Tasselhoff and Bilbo. In 3ed, most specifically in Races of the Wild, they got their own personality as gregarious and adventurous (to take the kender) on the one hand yet also hearty and homey (to take the Hobbit). They even gave their primary (LG) deity Yondalla a CN alter-ego (Dallah Thaun) to help cement this "dual nature".

The weird thing is...is worked. It didn't come off cheesy or forced and it made sense...because of the gyspy-caravan thing. It was something new for the Race (to my knowledge) and as a cultural identity it worked; just as "all Dwarves are miners", "all Gnomes are tinkers" and "all Elves are bastards...uh, hippy tree huggers", Halflings now had a "all Halflings are gypsies" stereotype, where previously they...didn't really have one of their own. This allowed players to work with that stereotype, give their character preconceptions and prejudice as members of other races, as well as giving a basic framework for Halfling players to either conform to or subvert.

It also opened up possibilities, some of which Pathfinder also explored; such as Halflings being masters of curses and jinxes due to that gypsy connection, for example. That they're hardy travelers, always prepared, take what they need (but only when they need it)...it gives you this "practical but mischievous" sort of stereotype that can be exploited in many different directions, from Paladin (exemplar of home-defence on the move) to Rogue (which is pretty much all they were before) to Wizard (laying the smack-down with some curses and divining the future with some tarot cards).

I think reinventing the divide in 5ed, between Stout (as "hobbits") and Lightfoot (as "kender") was a bad move. 3ed was on to a good thing with the direction they took them and I think 5ed should have explored that "dual nature" instead of taking it away.

[Hrugner]

It depends really. Two of the DMs I play with have halflings be very business oriented, lots of bureaucrats, landlords, merchants and craftsmen are among their halflings. I run them as civilians, they make up most of the population and generally find themselves doing the boring day to day stuff that the ambitious, violent and free spirited big folk never bother with. They tend to be very resentful toward the other races seeing them as lazy and reckless. Then again, I also made gnomes a slave race who live in garbage heaps and build everything out of recycled cast offs.

[Regitnui]

Neither. They are halflings. They have lore of their own which does not align with hobbits nor kender.

They're nomadic dinosaur herders with a totemic link to their bonded denonychuses.

[M Placeholder]

In one campaign I ran, they were the first sentient creatures on the planet, which at that stage was a world covered by oceans, and were experts in the shaping of life. After an experiment to double the output of the oceans went wrong, they built a tower to harness the energy of the sun and kill off the brown tide, which had the effect of also lowering the level of the oceans, and mutating the halflings into many races.

Now, the halflings are either barbaric jungle dwellers that have a taste for human flesh, or they live on the huge cliffs that separate a huge Thri-Kreen empire from the lands where the reminants of human civilisation hold on. The ones that live on the cliffs still practice life shaping.

That world was called Athas.

[Plaguescarred]

My halflings are hobbit like, with hairy feet and everything...

[Tanarii]

Neither. They are halflings. They have lore of their own which does not align with hobbits nor kender.Where is this "lore of their own"? I know 3e reinvented halflings to a fairly huge degree, but I guess I didn't spend enough time in the guts of the 3e "lore" to really see it, other than the stuff in the PHBs. 5e we've only got the PHB and SCAG so far, and especially the latter does a pretty good job of cementing the hobbit vs kender feeling of halflings.

Admittedly, I'm a grognard. I have a tendency to see things through the lens of all the previous editions.


3ed really solidified Halflings as a reasonable race in my mind. Before that they were a horrible characiture of a couple of comedic fictional characters; namely Tasselhoff and Bilbo. In 3ed, most specifically in Races of the Wild, they got their own personality as gregarious and adventurous (to take the kender) on the one hand yet also hearty and homey (to take the Hobbit). They even gave their primary (LG) deity Yondalla a CN alter-ego (Dallah Thaun) to help cement this "dual nature".I totally agree with hobbit-halflings, at least as they came across in AD&D, as being comedic. However, I disagree with Tasslehoff being 'comedic'. He wasn't that at all. He was mary-sue level awesome. But a large part of that was Kender being such an amazing rejection of the comedic hobbit-halfling.

The downsides didn't start to come out until players tried to play Kender in games, as opposed to them just existing as stories. Then it became obvious to the entire community that there are some pretty major downsides to living with, or even just being around, such a pain in the ass creature. It doesn't help like Neutral Evil or the Assassin, it's a caricature that drew pain in the ass players. :smallwink: And of course, realizing that means going back and revisiting what was good about hobbit-halflings, which is a surprising amount.

Couldn't agree more on the 3e taking the best of both and coming out with something amazing. (Edit: Also I like the gypsy-like aspect a lot too. I always strongly recommend the Sailor background for consideration for Halfling players, albeit typically a river-based one. I consider that to be the best 'default' background for Halflings.)


I think reinventing the divide in 5ed, between Stout (as "hobbits") and Lightfoot (as "kender") was a bad move. 3ed was on to a good thing with the direction they took them and I think 5ed should have explored that "dual nature" instead of taking it away.Nah, I think it works quite well, because both are stereotypes that will arise in the minds of players of the race. So it's good to have something aligned with them. Just as players tend towards having hard-working, hard-nosed, militant Mountain Dwarves vs boisterous, hard-drinking, short-tempered Hill Dwarves. Or aloof & magical High Elves vs secretive & woodsy Wood Elves.

Edit2:

It depends really. Two of the DMs I play with have halflings be very business oriented, lots of bureaucrats, landlords, merchants and craftsmen are among their halflings. I run them as civilians, they make up most of the population and generally find themselves doing the boring day to day stuff that the ambitious, violent and free spirited big folk never bother with. They tend to be very resentful toward the other races seeing them as lazy and reckless.Interesting. That's how I view non-adventurer Gnomes. I can't stand the "squeaky-voiced inventor of failed & explosive devices" meme for Gnomes. I've always seen them as naturally business oriented professionals, who happen to have a natural knack for illusions and anything requiring fine tool work (lock-smithing, jewel carving, and in an appropriate setting engineering). Ie similar to dwarves, except not the focus on large-scale smithing/mining operations.

IMO the DragonLance re-imagining did Gnomes nothing but a disservice. Unlike Halflings. OTOH there's enough room in the 5e Gnomes racial description & traits for players to bring either stereotype to the table, and that's a good thing. Despite me wanting to throttle squeaky-voiced Gnome players. :smallamused:

[thorr-kan]

They're nomadic dinosaur herders with a totemic link to their bonded denonychuses.
Right. Gypsies, like the man said.

For myself, my halflings are more hobbit type, but I've consciously modeled them that way. And my lore is the Complete Book of Halflings and Gnomes.

[Tanarii]

As a side note, I do like the Dark Sun take on Halflings, even though they're nasty little bastards.

I'm not familiar with Eberron, but "nomadic dinosaur herders with a totemic link to their bonded denonychuses" sounds like fun.

[Millface]

Your Halflings ... are they Hobbit-like or Kender-like?

As a player, I tended strongly to play them as Hobbits during BECMI / AD&D 1e. Then I shifted to playing them very Kender-like in 2e, especially the 'unnaturally agile' & 'instinctive thieves' aspect ... But sadly the 'really annoying' side too. In 3e, the racial description and pictures solidified this for me, (minus the annoying part - I like to think I'd matured :smallwink: ), and 4e even more so.

Now 5e has, to me, brought new life to both kinds of Halfling. I view the Stout (and Steongheart in FR) as very hobbit-like. Whereas I see Lightfoot Halflings as natural descendants of Kender, with all the annoying stripped out, and a touch of gypsy (wagon or boat) added instead.

I also tend towards this as a DM, but it's not explicit. Because players need to be free to put their own spin on characters and not feel pigeon-holed.

(As a side note, I absolutely love Kender in stories. I think they're a far superior literary invention to Hobbits. But under absolutely no circumstances do I think they should be allowed as a PC race as-is. A race that's primary trait is 'annoying until nearby creatures lose their temper' is best left in stories, not brought into games. :smallbiggrin: )

Mine are a mixture of the two as far as their personality goes. Lighthearted and possibly child like, but not nearly so obnoxious as Kender tend to be. Hobbits are a little too meek, never really learning to take care of themselves. A hobbit would be a liability in a party full of Elves and Humans who are fighters and Mages.

More than anything though I just shy away from the plump, lazy kind of Halfling description you often find. Appearance wise mine are much more like Kender. Basically just really short elves, with more rounded facial features. I'm a huge advocate for the halfling badass!

[Regitnui]

Right. Gypsies, like the man said.

Trust me, if gypsies herded dinosaurs and rode raptors, they'd have ruled most of Europe for long periods.


I'm not familiar with Eberron, but "nomadic dinosaur herders with a totemic link to their bonded denonychuses" sounds like fun.

I know, right? It is actually, especially when they translate the "traditional halfling values" to the mafia. "Say hello to my little friend" takes on a whole new meaning when said little friend has teeth and claws...

[Hawkstar]

My Stout halflings are Miniature Spartan stereotypes, with a love for extra meals (Ready your second breakfast and make hearty, men, for tonight we dine in HELL!")

My Lightfoot halflings are based on Inner-City 70's and 80's African-Americans, always sticking it to the Big Man keeping the Little Man down.

[Gwendol]

Stout halflings: Meriadoc and Peregrine, probably Sam.
Lightfoot halfling: Bilbo, Frodo

[Falcon X]

I play halflings closer to Hobbits, with respect to their potentially being different people groups of them in a single world.

The thing, in my game, that ties all halflings together is that they all know where "home" is. They all have some grounding in thier life that they can look towards when they need that added boost of willpower.
Just my interpretation of halfling's will....

[Temperjoke]

Personally, I tend to see them more as Hobbits (albeit with shoes) than Kender, but that's because I've always seen them more down-to-earth than what you normally see Kender presented as, even Lightfoot halflings.

[Fishyninja]

Stout halflings: Meriadoc and Peregrine, probably Sam.
Lightfoot halfling: Bilbo, Frodo

I'd say definitely Sam from the books and the movies it is alluded that he is a bit of chunky monkey

[Gwendol]

That and he's not afraid of getting into a fight. She-lob, Minas-Morgul, etc.

[Tanarii]

Personally, I tend to see them more as Hobbits (albeit with shoes) than Kender, but that's because I've always seen them more down-to-earth than what you normally see Kender presented as, even Lightfoot halflings.
Hahaha yeah I don't think 'down-to-earth' is something any kender could ever possibly be considered.

[Little boy]

Kender is a fighting word in our group. We have been dragged through the mud by griefer after griefer over the years. I want to elbow drop someone at the mention of the word

[tsuyoshikentsu]

All of my halflings are Steve Irwin living on a continent filled with dinosaurs. Incredibly cheerful about hanging out with things that have teeth as large as they are. Riding around on horrifying murderbeasts. That kind of casual Australian fearlessness combined with an insufferably laid-back attitude. Thick accents.

It works surprisingly well.

[Tawmis]

Like Dwarves, I have different types of Halflings... though in my custom world they're called "Half-Men" rather than Halflings, Hobbits, Kender, etc.

[DragonSorcererX]

I do it like this:

Stout - Hobbits (because fake rolls need to happen, and pcs need to die).
Lightfoot - Dex + Cha + Small Size = The Cute Waifu Race (wait... wrong thread).
Kenders - KILL IT WITH FIRE!

[Tanarii]

Kender is a fighting word in our group. We have been dragged through the mud by griefer after griefer over the years. I want to elbow drop someone at the mention of the word



Kenders - KILL IT WITH FIRE!As much as I like Kender in stories, can't say I blame players who have this kind of reaction to them in D&D games. It's a deserved reputation. :smallamused:

[Naanomi]

Varies a lot, but closer to hobbits (well... semi-nomadic hobbits) than to kender in my home setting

[ruy343]

While my players may act like hobbits, I personally take my halfling inspiration from Dennis L. McKiernan's books (such as The Iron Tower). His halflings (which he calls waerlings), are a good example of how I think about Lightfoot halflings. The thornwalkers, a group of waerlings which patrol the borders of their lands (and which make up several of the main characters) can be easily described as rangers, though rogue isn't far off either.

[CaptainSarathai]

I tend to play them as Pippin and Merry hobbits, but who look like kids and have aspirations to do more than the usual tropey hobbit. This means that they can be corrupted by their greed and fill all the different alignments.

Not that I'm not incredibly interested in the notion that they should play like gypsies. I like that idea a lot, really.

[SaintRidley]

The ones in the game I'm running are racist pirates who occasionally enslave members of the tall races.

So none of the above. More like Athas halflings.

[Tanarii]

Lol some of the posts in this thread reminded me of the dungeonomics article on the Elven travel guide to the empire: Do not mess with Halfling Raiders! :smallbiggrin:

Also:
http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2015/09/08/cargo-cults-in-the-murder-hobo-dark-ages/

[JackPhoenix]

My setting's halflings (opposed to halflings in setting I most often run, Eberron) are neither. Instead, they are homunculi, artificial race created in the far past as servants for powerful mages, something like improved familiars, if you will. Think something between classical Igor and Harry Potter's house elves, except not ugly (because why would powerful mage surround himself with hideous abominations if there are other options?) or comic relief.

[Cyan Wisp]

I think of them more like the Oompa-loompas from the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I like to make them feral, barbaric. Playing in Eberron, they are desert dino-riders or jungle tribals.

[PhoenixPhyre]

My halflings are neither hobbits nor kender. They're...well...the most recent mutation from the goblinoid tribes. Some serious magical effects (like a reality-bending magical nuclear war covering half a continent) caused permanent changes. They don't know this...although one of the parties just discovered evidence. That'll go over well :smallfurious:

Personality wise, halflings are matriarchal pseudo-colony dwellers with the cultural mentality of a cross between a hive of bees and the zerg. "We have reserves" is their motto. They tend to be agricultural but not home-bound either. They have 3 genders (sort-of, more like males, females, and neuter females). Stout and light-foot are castes, not genetic.

Oh, about the goblins--they're the oldest descendants of the same ur-race that humans descended from. In fact, humans are an off-branch of goblin-kind (hobgoblins gone wrong). This is also not a widely popular view, but it's the truth.

[Naanomi]

My halflings are neither hobbits nor kender. They're...well...the most recent mutation from the goblinoid tribes. Some serious magical effects (like a reality-bending magical nuclear war covering half a continent) caused permanent changes. They don't know this...although one of the parties just discovered evidence. That'll go over well :smallfurious:

Personality wise, halflings are matriarchal pseudo-colony dwellers with the cultural mentality of a cross between a hive of bees and the zerg. "We have reserves" is their motto. They tend to be agricultural but not home-bound either. They have 3 genders (sort-of, more like males, females, and neuter females). Stout and light-foot are castes, not genetic.

Oh, about the goblins--they're the oldest descendants of the same ur-race that humans descended from. In fact, humans are an off-branch of goblin-kind (hobgoblins gone wrong). This is also not a widely popular view, but it's the truth.
Reminds me of Errant Story, where elves are 'refined' trolls and everyone freaks out about the theory (even though it is true)

[PhoenixPhyre]

Reminds me of Errant Story, where elves are 'refined' trolls and everyone freaks out about the theory (even though it is true)

That's a source I'm not familiar with. Author? Elves for me are descendants of the same ur-race as angels. High elves focused on magic (and were ageless until the last big cataclysm, a fate they hate); wood elves gave that up and went native (and somewhat feral). Trolls are debased giant-kin, as are dwarves (well, descended from the same ur-race).

[Naanomi]

That's a source I'm not familiar with. Author?
A long running fantasy web-comic with great world building spread throughout