Thinking About Strength Halfling Fighters

[TGMohle]

This is something that has made me curious for a while now, but how would you view a halfling fighter that uses Strength instead of Dexterity? I'm not talking about mechanics here because technically any race in D&D can achieve a high stat regardless of perceived limitations. How did this halfling attain such a high strength despite his small stature?How does he go about fighting using Strength despite his size? How do you visualize a halfling with a high strength, say 16 or above?

Sorry if this post is all over the place but hopefully y'all know what I'm getting at.

[JellyPooga]

I suppose there's two schools of thought;

1) Rippped McStudly. Half the size but twice the muscles. This Halfling didn't skip leg day, or any day down the gym foe that matter. He's as wide as he is tall and his diet consists of meat and two meat. He simply works out more than your average halfling.

2) "It's all in the leverage". This dude isn't actually that much stronger, but he knows how to use what he's got to the best advantage. He's the thinking mans strong man and he uses other people expectations against them.

[MeeposFire]

I think the how is a good story hook for a character. If it was a gift from the gods (or possibly inhereited from the gods) that is a hook but if it was training and working hard it can be a personality concept you can use. In that case how does he feel about his weaker allies or enemies? Does he pity them? Does he mock them for their "laziness"? Perhaps he will constantly try to push other people into his workout routine and maybe that is his downtime activity to make money between adventures. Can be fun.

[Jexis]

2) "It's all in the leverage". This dude isn't actually that much stronger, but he knows how to use what he's got to the best advantage. He's the thinking mans strong man and he uses other people expectations against them.

Generally, that's what DEX is described as. Not the strongest but clever enough to make more out of the attack than pure velocity.

I like to flavor these things like the "Power Levels" from Dragon Ball. If you don't watch, tl;dr, internal energy expansion and control fuels speed/strength. The characters get exponentially stronger but look almost the same physically. I kinda compare it to character level and an explanation as to how PCs are so strong and can do such cool things and progress quickly (compared to the world).

Another thing is the idea of condensed muscles. Again, I take from DB for inspiration.
https://youtu.be/A3Q4SbnybOk?t=48
If you watch until about 1:10, you notice his muscles expand, then condense (he retains his increased strength).

You can also flavor that as a biological trait of halflings, that their muscle size increases at a rate proportional to their height.

[qube]

How did this halfling attain such a high strength despite his small stature?
How? By lots of training :smallwink:

Why? Because - supposing like any RL combat school - a lot of halflings learn how to fight other halflings. And it's the one who's got the most uncommon fighting style that has the biggest chance to win (consider every halfling in his class (inclusing) learns to fight against other (dex based) halflings). So when he fights against another (dex-based) halfling, he's fighting against what he learned; his opponent doesn't.

[Tanarii]

A normal halfling or gnome is Str 10. Those races are 3' & 40 lbs, 3' 4" & 40 lbs respectively. They're all only 1 pt of Str weaker than the average 5' 7" & 165 lb human.

Clearly there's something other than physics going on here. Given we already know that inherent background magic exists just to allow races to exist at all (c.f. Dragons), I'm inclined to go with that rather than some physics-oriented rationale.

In short, because magic.

My personal favorite I've imagined up is Str-based Rock Gnome EK, either Guild Artisan (Alchemist's Tools) or Sage. But I also like Str-based Stout Halfing Berkserker Barbarian Sailor, inspired by Dungeonomics. Because Halfling Viking raiders are awesome.

[Unoriginal]

This is something that has made me curious for a while now, but how would you view a halfling fighter that uses Strength instead of Dexterity? I'm not talking about mechanics here because technically any race in D&D can achieve a high stat regardless of perceived limitations. How did this halfling attain such a high strength despite his small stature?How does he go about fighting using Strength despite his size? How do you visualize a halfling with a high strength, say 16 or above?

Sorry if this post is all over the place but hopefully y'all know what I'm getting at.

An halfling has no "perceived limitation". Your average halfling is nearly as strong as your average human, and they have no problem doing the same strength-related tasks.


If you want a "biological" explanation: due to the square/cube law, an humanoid half as tall as an human wouldn't lose in muscle significantly, same reason why making an human twice as tall as a regular one wouldn't double their strength.

[JellyPooga]

Generally, that's what DEX is described as. Not the strongest but clever enough to make more out of the attack than pure velocity.

Bear in mind that Strength is used for more than just attack rolls. Training and knowledge has a lot more effect than people often think when it comes to even just lifting heavy objects, let alone other athletic pursuits governed by Strength like climbing, jumping and so forth, as well as "pure" strength tasks like bending bars and breaking stuff (e.g. knowing/recognising weak points).

[Matheau]

I don't really think two characters having the same Strength stat inherently needs to be viewed as them benching the same amount of weight. It is more an indication of total strength training. Stabilizer muscles and muscle endurance are, for many of the things Strength is used to check, arguably more important than raw muscle power. It doesn't really matter how much force you are applying if you can't do it effectively or can't sustain it for any meaningful amount of time.

[Tanarii]

The raw strength score includes relevant training. Per the PHB, all ability scores include both natural ability and training.