One more halfling (plus a halfling class)

Halflings are a small race of humanoids, not known for being adventuresome. Frankly, most are not suited either physically or psychologically for the rigors of the adventuring life. Those few that are suitable, however, are among the hardest of any race to kill.

Halfling 0 (100 XP): While tougher than their non-adventuring kin, this halfling is not nearly as tough as others. While they are hardy people and difficult to spot, they are also under-sized and child-like.

 

Halfling 1 (600 XP): Physically tougher than the halfling 0, this selection adds HD 1 to any selection of traits.

 

Halfling 2 (700 XP): Both sneakier and tougher than previous selections, the more advanced halfling is naturally stealthy and hard to kill.

 

Halfling 3 (1200 XP): Becoming frustratingly hard to kill, the halfling now adds HD 2 to any selection of traits.

 

Halfling 4 (1300 XP): Bigger and bulkier than other halflings, very nearly reaching the size of gnomes, these giants among halflings have become known (seriously among the halflings, jokingly among all other races) as halfling titans.

 

Under-sized: Characters with under-sized cannot use two-handed weapons or armor heavier than chain. They also cannot trade these options away. If a level of Fighting with Unrestricted armor or weapons is selected, they replace the Unrestricted category with Broad armor or Broad weapons (defaulting to all one-handed melee weapons and all missile weapons). They do not gain bonus proficiencies for these reductions or pay XP costs for them, but may trade down further. Under-sized is a custom drawback. If selected, a character may select 1 additional custom power.

 

Child-like: A child-like character suffers -2 to loyalty and morale from any non-halfling henchman, but gains +2 to loyalty and morale from any halfling henchman. This does not affect their reaction rolls (this is a modified Inhumanity).

 

Hard to kill: This is a re-named Savage Resilience.

 

Halfling titan: Remove the Undersized malus from the race/class.

 

 

Halfling Bounder:

Prime Requisite: STR

Requirements: DEX 9, CON 9

Hit Dice: 1d10

Maximum Level: 11

The Halfling Bounder is a combination of law enforcement and border patrol for halfling settlements. They also serve as a sort of ad-hoc militia on the rare cases when halflings choose to fight rather than flee from danger. Unlike most warriors, they prefer to fight in rough terrain, where their ability to hide serves them well against the larger and stronger humanoid races.

Bounders hit an unarmored foe with an attack throw of 10+ at 1st level, and advance in attack throws and saving throws as a fighter, by two points every three levels of experience. They increase their base damage roll from successful missile attacks by +1 at 1st level and by an additional +1 at 3rd, 6th, and 9th level. They do not gain a damage bonus to melee attacks.

Bounders learned methods long ago of striking their desired target at range, even if it is engaged with another target, and all of them are precise shots. They're also quite adept at ending up behind opponents with their acrobatic fighting style. They're renowned among halflings for both their attunement to nature and their heroic spirits. In the wilderness they patrol, they are both difficult to spot and naturally stealthy, and are famed for being both hardy people and hard to kill. However, being under-sized puts them at a disadvantage against a foe who does get close to them, and their child-like appearance and nature makes larger beings less willing to follow them.

At 9th level, a Bounder becomes known as a Shire-reeve, and can establish a Bounder Post to protect a borderlands or wilderness region. 2d6 1st-level Bounders will join the Shire-reeve to patrol the territory.

Proficiencies: Alertness, Ambushing, Bargaining, Beast Friendship, Blind Fighting, Cat Burglary, Climbing, Combat Reflexes, Combat Trickery (disarm, incapacitate), Command, Contortionism, Eavesdropping, Fighting Style, Passing Without Trace, Precise Shooting, Running, Skirmishing, Skulking, Sniping, Survival, Swashbuckling, Vermin-Slaying, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus

 

 

Class breakdown: Halfling 3 (1200 XP), HD 1 (500 XP), Fighting 2 (1000 XP), Thievery 1 (200 XP), 1 tradeoff (melee damage) (150 XP) = 3050 XP to 2nd level. 4 custom powers: Acrobatics, Attunement to Nature, Heroic Spirit, Precise Shot. Since this only uses 3.5 custom powers, suggest reducing XP to 2nd level to 3000 to make math easier. Saves are identical to Vaultguard. Stronghold uses Thievery 1 for its basis, since the followers made more sense to me than the castle from Fighting 2.

I really like child-like. It's subtle - the split between day-to-day reaction rolls and morale-in-battle. "He's alright, but I wouldn't take a bullet for him." 

You've really captured the halfling as 'annoyingly tough sniper' though. Get a group of them with Trapping and all of a sudden the gentle forest is a murder machine.

 

*grudgingly admits to the excellence of the material above*

 

Yes, I was looking at Inhumanity and going "but halflings are supposed to be likeable."

 

In fact, here were my thoughts as I went into the design:

Halfling race - they need to be tough, so HD modifiers. "Under-sized" was originally going to be "runty," but that sounded too disparaging, so that'll be saved for a future small race. It was also going to eliminate the melee damage bonus, but that started to feel too punitive (even though the Bounder drops it for a fourth special power). Halfling 4 was inspired by Bullroarer Took and the post-ent-draught Merry and Pippin. Since The Professor commented that his halflings are still around, but humans don't notice them, the stealth proficiencies were put in. I wanted to alternate proficiencies and HD ranks, and have one "tough" and one "stealth" proficiency at the even levels. The halfling titan name was inspired by Hackmaster's gnome titans.

 

Bounder - I'm a LOTRO player, and the bounders in the Shire are common sights. The militia comment is a reference both to the Scouring of the Shire and the legend that a company of archers was sent to a battle long in the past. It also makes sense that, as one of the few commonly armed groups of halflings, they'd serve that purpose when needed. Shire-reeve is the origin of the term sheriff. The Strength prime is because this is a fighter-type. The requirements are the halfling racial requirements; since they're not suited for adventuring, they need two instead of most humanoids one, to make them more uncommon. The Bounder can end up as a wilderness warrior with Beast Friendship, Running, Skirmishing, Survival, and Weapon Focus, or as an assassin type with Ambushing, Climbing, Combat Reflexes, Skulking, and Sniping. I would expect most players to take a proficiency or two from each "branch" of their skillset; with Acrobatics, Ambushing is too good not to take, particularly since it's the only way for Bounders to boost melee damage. Likewise, once you have Ambushing, Sniping seems like a gimme. Particularly useful General proficiencies would include Animal Training and Animal Husbandry (to synergize with Beast Friendship or just to train dogs to attack in melee while the Bounder stays back and shoots), Navigation (to not get lost on border patrols), Tracking, and Trapping.

[quote="The Dark"]

Bounder - I'm a LOTRO player, and the bounders in the Shire are common sights. [/quote]

Me too! Well, not so much anymore, it's been a while - most of my college gaming group has been bouncing around various MMOs for years, and we were on that one last. My wife still putters around.

Which server? I've got a ~70th Minstrel on...whatever server is in the US now. Used to be Gilrain (one of the college group is in Germany, so we inhabited the EU server)

Our guild is/was the Rivendell Community College.

[quote="The Dark"] Animal Training and Animal Husbandry (to synergize with Beast Friendship or just to train dogs to attack in melee while the Bounder stays back and shoots) [/quote]

In L&E terms I could see halflings having an affinity with varmints and giant varmints. A group of bounders with some Giant Weasels (or mounted on the same) would be fun.

[quote="koewn"]

 

 

Bounder - I'm a LOTRO player, and the bounders in the Shire are common sights.


-The Dark

 

Me too! Well, not so much anymore, it's been a while - most of my college gaming group has been bouncing around various MMOs for years, and we were on that one last. My wife still putters around.

Which server? I've got a ~70th Minstrel on...whatever server is in the US now. Used to be Gilrain (one of the college group is in Germany, so we inhabited the EU server)

Our guild is/was the Rivendell Community College. [/quote] I think it's Landroval. I was on Imladris, and moved to the RP-EN US server when the consolidation was announced. I had stopped for almost a year, but decided to get back into it. None of my characters are capped out, but I have one of each class to play around with.

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Animal Training and Animal Husbandry (to synergize with Beast Friendship or just to train dogs to attack in melee while the Bounder stays back and shoots) >


> -The Dark

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In L&E terms I could see halflings having an affinity with varmints and giant varmints. A group of bounders with some Giant Weasels (or mounted on the same) would be fun.

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That could work. I was thinking dogs because of Farmer Maggot's trio of hounds (plus hunting dogs give Tracking), but any of the giant varmints (except possibly rat) would be good choices as well.

Alex said something almost nice about halflings. My work here is done.

Thinking on Merry and Pippin also got me to consider a new magic item:

 

Ent-draught

Mysterious and potent drinks crafted by treants, the ent-draught does not exactly change the drinker, but it makes them more of what they were already.

Effects: if a character with a racial value (including value 0) drinks an ent-draught, they add 1 point to their racial value. This cannot change their current level, but does affect experience required for future levels and reduces their level cap. A character that does not have a racial value may add 1 point to any non-spellcasting class value that has at least 1 point allocated to it. A character that is at racial value 4 or that has no non-spellcasting class values above 0 and below 4 must add 1 point to their HD value. If a character adds a point to their HD value, they gain 1 hit point per existing level of experience. Use the table on p. 83 of the Player's Companion to calculate their level limit based on their new total build points. Ent-draught can only affect a character once per year.

 

Examples:

 

A fighter takes a drink of ent-draught. With HD 2 and Fighting 2, the fighter may choose to add 1 point to either stat. The fighter adds a point to Fighting. They now have Fighting 3, calculate their experience table as though it required 2,500 XP to gain level 2, and have a maximum level of 12.

 

A mage takes a drink of ent-draught. With a build of Arcane 4, they have no class values higher than 0 and less than 4, so the point must go to HD. They now have a six-sided hit die, and recalculate their experience table as though it required 3,000 XP to gain level 2, and have a maximum level of 12. They gain 1 hit point per existing level of experience.

 

A vaultguard takes a drink of ent-draught. With HD 2, Fighting 2, Dwarf 0, they must add a point to Dwarf. They become more Dwarfish, gaining a bonus general proficiency and +1 to all proficiency throws. Their experience table now requires 2,400 XP to gain level 2, and their maximum level declines to 12.

 

An elven ranger takes a drink of ent-draught. With HD 1, Fighting 2, Thievery 1, and Elf 0, the ranger becomes more Elvish. They gain spellcasting as a mage of 1/3 their level. Their experience table greatly increases, requiring 2,900 XP to gain level 2, and their maximum level declines to 12.

 

A Thrassian Gladiator takes a drink of ent-draught. Their HD 2, Fighting 2, Thrassian 2 means they have to take a point in Thrassian. Their claws and fangs become longer and sharper, their scales heavier, they become less human-like, and they see heat more easily. XP requirement increase to 3,250 for level 2, and maximum level drops to 10.

I will change it to one use per character, once per year is really powerfull if drinked by a high level character. 

I was debating making it once only, because I didn't want characters to get a dozen ent-draughts and suddenly become like gods among halflings. I went with once a year because they should be scarce, and even if a person comes back each year, an ent-like being is going to still consider them quite hasty to want more of the drink.