Halfing or Orc Friend? Or anybody else for that matter.

[wilphe]

So Elves got the Ruathar, Dwarves and Gnomes got the Stoneblessed and you are spoilt for choice if want to be a fanboy of Dragons

What's out there if you want to be a friend to Halflings?

Or Orcs?

Or Goblinoiids?

[liquidformat]

So Elves got the Ruathar, Dwarves and Gnomes got the Stoneblessed and you are spoilt for choice if want to be a fanboy of Dragons

What's out there if you want to be a friend to Halflings?

Or Orcs?

Or Goblinoiids?

Nothing!

Heck at least Halfling and Orc got a few PRCs focused around them but as far as I can tell Goblinoids get nothing but hate.

[Thurbane]

Nothing official AFAIK, but Stoneblessed does say this:

Adaptation: This prestige class - or one like it that you make yourself - is a way to give racial abilities to creatures not of that race. The class offers racial abilities based on specialized training or cultural immersion first, saving spell-like abilities and more obviously magical or biological abilities for the 3rd (and highest) level of the prestige class. If you’re creating a prestige class tied to a particularly powerful race, you might need more than three levels to effectively balance powerful racial abilities.

Ruathar is less adaptation friendly:

Adaptation
The drow have ruathar of their own, whose mind-set and personality are as well attuned to the dark elves as normal elf-friends are to the surface elves; nonevil player characters would certainly not want to meet them. Drow-favored ruathar gain darkvision rather than low-light vision at 2nd level and a +1 profane bonus on attacks and saves when underground at 3rd level.
Beyond this, the ruathar prestige class is one that does not adapt well. You probably shouldn’t try to make it into something it isn’t. While you could easily envision a prestige class of “dwarf-friends” or “halfling-friends,” the ruathar class features reflect elven strengths and talents. You would have to create a new set of class features to theme the ruathar class for another race.

[Jay R]

What's out there if you want to be a friend to Halflings?

Well, you can have second breakfast.

[wilphe]

Well apart from Second Breakfast.

Halflings don't need Ruathar equivalents because there's lot of them and they don't sit in the words keeping themselves to themselves. So extra intermediaries are not a thing.

Therefore it would be reasonable to go down the Stoneblessed route and have a class for people who think Halfling culture is awesome and want to be a part of it.

So what the distinguishing characteristics of halfling culture?

I'd look at their Paragon abilities for guidance, as well as their PRCs and fluff.

Race Description:

•+2 Dexterity, -2 Strength.
•Small: As a Small creature, a halfling gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but she uses smaller weapons than humans use, and her lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.
•Halfling base land speed is 20 feet.
•+2 racial bonus on Climb, Jump, Listen, and Move Silently checks.
•+1 racial bonus on all saving throws.
•+2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear: This bonus stacks with the halfling’s +1 bonus on saving throws in general.
•+1 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown weapons and slings.
•Automatic Languages: Common and Halfling. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, and Orc.
•Favored Class: Rogue. A multiclass halfling’s rogue class does not count when determining whether she takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

Paragon Class:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Halfling paragons are proficient with all simple weapons and with light armor.

Athletic Prowess (Ex)

At 1st level, a halfling paragon's racial bonus on Climb, Jump, and Move Silently checks improves to +3.

Save Bonus (Ex)

A 1st-level halfling paragon's racial bonus on all saving throws increases by 1.

Thrown Weapon Mastery (Ex)

At 2nd level, a halfling paragon gains a +2 bonus on damage rolls when using a thrown weapon or a sling.

Ability Boost (Ex)

At 3rd level, a halfling paragon's Dexterity score increases by 2 points.

[wilphe]

So we have:

Stealthy

Good at climbing and jumping (which was not something I associated with Halflings)

Saving Throw Bonus

Bonus against fear (forgot about that)

Good with thrown weapons.

Focus on Dexterity, Favoured Class Rouge

They have Substitution Levels in Druid, Monk and Rogue

They have an LG Goddess with a CN aspect

Nomadic culture


What they are not:

Not arcanists - I don't think there is any Halfling PRC or tendency in that regard

Not warriors - Ditto

[wilphe]

So:

That would seem to point us at Medium Bab, d6 or d8 hit die

Saves: All Good Progression

Should not advance spellcasting, or should it? Halflings might welcome allies with those capabilities that they don't often have in their culture


Requirements:

Language: Halfling

Special: Must be accepted by a Halfling band, this may involve living and travelling amongst halflings for a period or the performance of a great service

[AnimeTheCat]

So we have:

Stealthy

Good at climbing and jumping (which was not something I associated with Halflings)

Saving Throw Bonus

Bonus against fear (forgot about that)

Good with thrown weapons.

Focus on Dexterity, Favoured Class Rouge

They have Substitution Levels in Druid, Monk and Rogue

They have an LG Goddess with a CN aspect

Nomadic culture

What they are not:

Not arcanists - I don't think there is any Halfling PRC or tendency in that regard

Not warriors - Ditto

There are Halfling Totemist substitution levels as well, which if you look at them also getting Druid substitution levels you can kind of add nature-loving to the list of things that they are.

Something to note though is that due to their innate resistance to fear, they do make quite the dauntless warrior, and I think this is exemplified in the Halfling Outrider Prestige class. That's a fairly direct tie-in to Paladin (special mount progression), but can also apply to druid as well, though it doesn't fit the flavor as much in my opinion. And I think this is further reinforced by the Wayward Warden Paladin Substitution Levels in Champions of Valor (sourced from this thread). So, I do think there is precidence for them being warriors, though I don't think there is any arcane magic aptitude precident.

[liquidformat]

What they are not:

Not arcanists - I don't think there is any Halfling PRC or tendency in that regard

Not warriors - Ditto

List of halfling specific PRCs: Halfling Outrider, Warsling Sniper, Whisperknife; all halfling PRCs are warrior full BAB and two out of three are d8, to be frank not sure why warsling sniper isn't d8.

There is also Wary Swordknight paladin substitution levels for halflings, they give some interesting benefits like being treated as larger for things like grapple, bullrush and trip as well as haste as a sla

[wilphe]

You could have a look at the Halfling Paragon class for some inspiration as well.

Thank you, but I explicitly said I would and quoted it

[wilphe]

List of halfling specific PRCs: Halfling Outrider, Warsling Sniper, Whisperknife; all halfling PRCs are warrior full BAB and two out of three are d8, to be frank not sure why warsling sniper isn't d8.

There is also Wary Swordknight paladin substitution levels for halflings, they give some interesting benefits like being treated as larger for things like grapple, bullrush and trip as well as haste as a sla

Fair enough, I'm probably thinking more of a "wears heavy armour and stands in melee" type martial

Whispherknife seems more Fighter/Rouge hybrid, it does have full BAB but also 6 skill points, heavy skill requirements and sneak attack progression


Forgot that there is at least one Spellcasting PRC - Luckstealer, which is 7/10

[ShurikVch]

as far as I can tell Goblinoids get nothing but hate.

Well, Stonedeath Assassin PrC required Goblinoid subtype
Also, you can qualify for Hexer and Dungeon Lord PrCs being Goblinoid
Grodd Adept ACF
And several feats required (goblinoid) too

Not arcanists - I don't think there is any Halfling PRC or tendency in that regard

Not warriors - Ditto

For arcanists - Halfling Whistler, Luckstealer, and Nosomatic Chirurgeon
For warriors (besides aforementioned) - Luiren Marchwarden and Flesheater (a.k.a "Jerren the PrC")

[wilphe]

Sadly I am not familiar with Eberron, but I have my FR stuff and I know nothing about Psionics or Incarnum except to say that neither is iconic to halflings

Better way of putting it re Martials:

Halfling Martials are more Ranger like than they are like any of the other full BAB base classes

- High Skill Points

- Focus on protecting or avenging their community


And both Eberron and FR have different halflings, but I understand Eberrons are dinosaur riding barbarians correct?

Whilst FR both have wandering halflings like Vanilla and static ones in Lurien - but the later fit better with the halfing archetype of needing ranger like protection than Ebberon's do

FR also has telepathic forest dwelling former genocidal halflings but that's also something that's not archetypal

[wilphe]

At this point I have:

That would seem to point us at Medium Bab, d6 or d8 hit die

Saves: All Good Progression

Skill Points: 6 per level

Requirements:

Language: Halfling

Special: Must be accepted by a Halfling band, this may involve living and travelling amongst halflings for a period or the performance of a great service

++++++++

That's a pretty good, if bland, chassis.

Possible abilities:

Halfling Type

Character may use halfling only magic items as if they were a halfling

That sounds like the sort of thing that should be a capstone, but it's also largely useless because there are not that many halfling only magic items.

Edit:

Character may also count as Halfling for the purpose of entering prestige and Paragon classes in addition to their original race.

It's a Small World

A non small character may use small weapons with one step less -2 penalty for them being the wrong size, so a Medium or Tiny character would suffer no penalty.

This ability may also apply to any use of mundane halfling size equipment where sizing is relevant but not to armour.

Would also consider giving a bonus to fighting/squeezing in small spaces, but that's a fairly obscure set of rules and a very niche ability.

From living amongst halflings you are better able to live at their size, this doesn't just mean weapons but also tools and even living space. From practice you can move around a halfling sized dwelling without difficulty and even get a good nights sleep in a halfling sized bed.

Thrown Weapon Familiarity

You may treat Exotic thrown weapons as martial ones

[Saint-Just]

For arcanists - Halfling Whistler, Luckstealer, and Nosomatic Chirurgeon
For warriors (besides aforementioned) - Luiren Marchwarden and Flesheater (a.k.a "Jerren the PrC")

Flesheater? The only one I can find is a PF archetype, not the PrC. Is that the one you referred to or there is a Flesheater PrC somewhere?

[Yogibear41]

Flesheater? The only one I can find is a PF archetype, not the PrC. Is that the one you referred to or there is a Flesheater PrC somewhere?

Its in a dragon magazine.

[Thurbane]

Flesheater? The only one I can find is a PF archetype, not the PrC. Is that the one you referred to or there is a Flesheater PrC somewhere?

Dragon magazine issue 300 (page 68): a 10 level "vile" PrC for Halflings.

It's full BAB with same sneak attack progression as a rogue, which is interesting. Has some hefty feat requirements, but you can get some of them for "free" by worshipping an Elder Evil...

[wilphe]

Comments on the mechanics?

Or maybe I should ask for this to be moved to homebrew?