Community

Jan 19, 2013 -- 1:31PM, Chakravant wrote:

I too have to declare my dislike for the current direction of Halflings. I'd much prefer a return to a more standard version of the race.

Define "standard"? 1-2e standard or 3-4 standard?

Jan 19, 2013 -- 2:09PM, trebor_rjf wrote:

i think microhumans are the way to go. the art team decided that halfings should look funny without consulting the community. this was a huge mistake. 

I never liked the micro-humans because it quickly made halflings invisible in the art except for group shots. Every halfling was just a human unless you looked closely. 
Plus shrinking down a human means their brain is a quarter to half the size of a full grown human, which doesn't say much for halflings in terms of brain power. 

Jan 19, 2013 -- 2:09PM, trebor_rjf wrote:

if you watch the lord of the rings movies, the hobbits only look small when you're reminded that they are. i think this is perfect. the fact that halfings are small should be central to their identity, but it shouldn't be this ever-present cloud that needs to be shoved in your face during every depiction. 

This was because actors refused to have their heads surgically enlarged so they could act in a movie. Prior art for hobbits always had them with distorted proportions. 

Halflings should look small and be distinct. When you look at a picture of a rogue you should instantly tell they're a halfling. 
Look at all the halfling art we have:
1  2  3  4  5
Not one of the pieces has a human-sized object to tell scale. The mushrooms maybe, but if those were 3e-4e halflings you wouldn't know if you were looking at art of halflings or people in a giant fungal forest. Each one of those pieces, of the halfling were just a micro human, would be glanced at and the viewer would go "oh, humans" and move on. 

Halflings should be identifiable as halflings. And the best way to do that is play with porportions.

I don't think they're perfect. The heads are a tad too large. But it's a step in the right direction.

Jan 19, 2013 -- 3:05PM, Chakravant wrote:

Jan 19, 2013 -- 3:01PM, The_Jester wrote:

Jan 19, 2013 -- 1:31PM, Chakravant wrote:

I too have to declare my dislike for the current direction of Halflings. I'd much prefer a return to a more standard version of the race.

Define "standard"? 1-2e standard or 3-4 standard?

Either one would be preferable to the DDN version. I'm not picky.

The problem with hobbit art is two-fold.
1) It reminds people that halflings are very much a Tolkien rip-off. D&D does want to be its own game and reminding people of its inspirations too much doesn't help. And with a certain movie in theaters, reminding the Tolkien estate or D&D's idea theft is also not a good idea (and makes D&D seem like it's trying to ride on the popularity of The Hobbit). 
2) The problem with "hobbit" halflings is that it was notoriously awkward to justify them adventuring. There were too many Frodo and Bilbo clones. Likewise, too many people wanted to play heroic badass characters and plump homebodies weren't "cool" enough. 

And the 3e/4e version also has its problems. Specifically the aforementioned identical look to humans when divorced from scale. Less an issue for us but a huge issue for the people who make their living working on art. You can imagine it building to a boil over the last decade. And since they're the one who pick the art, I can accept them wanting to make art they don't hate and doesn't bug the crap out of them.