Glimmerskin Halfling Seems Underrated

[Zombulian]

So I was perusing the races in Dragon Magic the other day, which lead me to make that recent thread about the Dragonblood subtype. We all know that Silverbrow Humans are awesome, and a lot of people favor Frostblood Half-Orcs/Orcs for Mystic Ranger builds, but it seems to me that the Glimmerskin Halfling doesn’t get brought up much.

For reference, the racial abilities are the same as a generic halfling with the following changes:
-Gains Dragonblood Subtype
-Gains ability to 1/day add a +2 luck bonus to any saving throw or give that bonus to an ally within 30ft as an immediate action
-Will always have Heal as a class skill
-Loses the usual +2 bonus to Move Silently checks

To quote the meme: This to me seems to be a complete win!
That is an excellent tradeoff for a piddly skill bonus, and on top of that, since Glimmerskin is a trait that a Halfling can simply be born with, it isn’t limited to PHB Halflings, which means that you can be a Strongheart Glimmerskin Halfling!

I’ll probably be playing one at my next opportunity.

[heavyfuel]

There's also the lost opportunity cost of playing a Strongheart Halfling. If your DM is OK with variant races, SH Halfling is pretty much always the superior choice.

Also, losing the +2 to Move Silently can be really annoying for halfling since they are usually focused on stealth. The lack of +2 will likely bite your ass sooner AND later if you're playing a rogue-ish character

[DrMotives]

That is an excellent tradeoff for a piddly skill bonus, and on top of that, since Glimmerskin is a trait that a Halfling can simply be born with, it isn’t limited to PHB Halflings, which means that you can be a Strongheart Glimmerskin Halfling!

It explicitly is limited to PHB halflings, that's stated right before the list of racial traits. All of the subraces in that book are handled as new subraces, not templates that can be applied to the range of other subraces already printed. Sure, you can houserule otherwise, but that's strictly your houserule / homebrew.

[Zaq]

I use glimmerskin halflings fairly frequently in various builds for Iron Chef and whatnot. It’s the simplest way to get Heal in-class without losing a class level, so it’s good at getting past certain weird prereqs.

[Troacctid]

I mean, it's good, but it's also only like the third or fourth best halfling, so...

[noce]

I mean, it's good, but it's also only like the third or fourth best halfling, so...

Yeah. The best three halflings are (in no particular order):
Strongheart Halflings
Water Halflings
Whisper Gnomes

[Sian]

Yeah. The best three halflings are (in no particular order):
Strongheart Halflings
Water Halflings
Whisper Gnomes

I’m pretty certain that whisper gnomes aren’t halfings :p

[Troacctid]

Shoal halfling is the other one. Unsheltered halfling is also in contention.

[Malphegor]

Hmm. the Glimmers look fab. There’s better halflings, but being able to give your allies a bonus to saving throws is fun for certain kinds of support builds I suppose.

Plus it’s kinda... Eerie. An expy of a hobbit with burning golden eyes, with a dragon back home guarding his hobbit hole. These are the hobbits that went to smaug and said ‘ere mate come on over and we’ll put something on the barbie for ya’ and it sort of worked out really well.

[tstewt1921]

Nice part about it is they qualify you for the wonderful Draconic feats due to the dragon blood subtype.

[Thurbane]

They most often get mentioned for entry into Fleshwarper, to meet the reqs for Graft Flesh (Heal is a hard skill for a lot of casters to get ranks in).

[Zombulian]

There's also the lost opportunity cost of playing a Strongheart Halfling. If your DM is OK with variant races, SH Halfling is pretty much always the superior choice.

Also, losing the +2 to Move Silently can be really annoying for halfling since they are usually focused on stealth. The lack of +2 will likely bite your ass sooner AND later if you're playing a rogue-ish character

Eh, I think the +2 is largely negligible in the grand scheme. Also this post was obviously assuming that you could stack Strongheart with Glimmerskin. Strongheart is definitely better, but if you're in a campaign where a regional race isn't allowed, I think it's a good contender.


It explicitly is limited to PHB halflings, that's stated right before the list of racial traits. All of the subraces in that book are handled as new subraces, not templates that can be applied to the range of other subraces already printed. Sure, you can houserule otherwise, but that's strictly your houserule / homebrew.

I don't think it's quite as explicit as you make it out to be. It says that their racial traits are otherwise identical to PHB halflings which very well could be for the purpose of saving space, since all of the other Core halfling races don't retain the move silently bonus anyway. Also, admittedly, I was AFB and I was thinking of the clause in the Fireblood Dwarf section saying that they could be born to any dwarven parents. I think at the very least it has a very good RAI case.


Hmm. the Glimmers look fab. There’s better halflings, but being able to give your allies a bonus to saving throws is fun for certain kinds of support builds I suppose.

Plus it’s kinda... Eerie. An expy of a hobbit with burning golden eyes, with a dragon back home guarding his hobbit hole. These are the hobbits that went to smaug and said ‘ere mate come on over and we’ll put something on the barbie for ya’ and it sort of worked out really well.

Yeah the in-race buff that can work for friends is definitely very neat.


They most often get mentioned for entry into Fleshwarper, to meet the reqs for Graft Flesh (Heal is a hard skill for a lot of casters to get ranks in).


I use glimmerskin halflings fairly frequently in various builds for Iron Chef and whatnot. It’s the simplest way to get Heal in-class without losing a class level, so it’s good at getting past certain weird prereqs.

Ah yeah I knew having a free expansion to a character's skill list would be used for something. Nice examples.

[DrMotives]

Right, the fireblood dwarves do say they can be born to any dwarven parents, but they won't be fireblood grey dwarf, or fireblood hill dwarf or whatever. Glimmerskins absolutely do not stack with other halflings, as stated in RotD. I'm really not sure where you're getting this idea from. If you could modify RotF halflings, UA halflings, or RoS halflings with glimmerskin it wouldn't say that this changes apply to PHB hlakfings only, as it does.

[Malphegor]

Right, the fireblood dwarves do say they can be born to any dwarven parents, but they won't be fireblood grey dwarf, or fireblood hill dwarf or whatever. Glimmerskins absolutely do not stack with other halflings, as stated in RotD. I'm really not sure where you're getting this idea from. If you could modify RotF halflings, UA halflings, or RoS halflings with glimmerskin it wouldn't say that this changes apply to PHB hlakfings only, as it does.

I do feel bad about fireblood dwarves born to aquatic dwarves though. "What do you mean my son can't breathe underwater, he's the son of a... oh. I met that dragon on land..."