Hello,

So far I had banned Halflings from my games, but now I player insisted on plyaing with one. Since in my opinion the personification of a Halfling throught the mechanics in the 3rd edition is rather lazily done i.e. a Halfling with St6 and wielding a greatsword? or a Halfling firing a longbow?….these things are allowed by the rules, I created a first attempt to shape Halflings a bit further

"Halflings:

Maximum Strength value 5

Their melee weaponry is restricted to Daggers, Knives. They can wield hand weapons and spears as two handed weapons for DR5 and CR3. As missile weapons they can use Crossbow pistols, Net, pistols, repeater pistols, short bows, slings, staff slings, whips and throwing daggers /stars.

Regarding armours, Halflings can wear technically any armour, although they rarely wear anything heavier than a leather armour. Reduce by 1 the base encumbrance of any armour wore by a Halfling to account for its smaller size."

I was wondering if any of you have some similar or other house rules regarding Hlaflings to help give them some more flavour.

or do you have any comment or suggestions in mines?

Cheers,

Yepes

Only thing I can think of is the size of a two handed for a halfling is likely (not exactly sure of sizes) a longsword for a human, so an Ogre 2 handed weapon be so big a human would have a hard time wielding it.

I need to be at home to see the rulebook, before remember the weapons stats. Not even sure if there are ogre sized great weapons.

I know in D&D they removed the ability for the smaller races to use the larger weapons, but I am still of the mind that they should have the option. So weapons are scaled to the user. For example Sting in Hobbit is actually an elven dagger not a sword. But for a hobbit its a sword.

I seen was a discussion on halflings in the past http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=166&efcid=46&efidt=458284

Dont see why its just not easier to just create halfling only weapons. Like you did for the two handed and spear.

Two handed weapons, one handed weapons, dagger/knife, Shortbow, sling, Where size does matter. a halfling firing a shortbow isnt going to hit as hard as a human firing a shortbow, a human shortbow would/could be a halfling longbow in any case. All I do when thinking of halflings is think of a 9 year old child and what they could do with that weapon. So for a human sized Crossbow, I can see them firing it if it was loaded but getting thrown backwards, and there be no way to reload it unless it had a windup loader mechanism and even then take 2 turns.

All you need work out DR and CR of each weapon. Just reduce the DR by 1, should be enough.

Gunpowder weapons, are different. The knockback etc. I think maybe only the pistol would be possible, who would make a specialised handgun just for a halfling?

Are goblins meant to be the same size of halflings? Do they use the same weapons?

Sorry just thinking out loud. Think I would just go with the make halfling only weapons.

Dont think its needed to stunt their stats over what they already have, I have met small people with absurd strength, may not be as strong as an absurbly strong human, but could be equal to a normal human.

You right in that I cannot see how it be possible for a halfling to walk around in full plate, that be very heavy for their frameset. Cause the thickness would have to be the same, just in a smaller size, but it would be heavier to their frame than a human wearing their plate due to the weight reduction not being proportional. ( Hope that makes sense)

Edit:

So had a look at the weapons. Not sure on how to do ranged though. Went for reduce DR by 2 keep cr and other effects the same.

Halfings only

weapon (DR/CR/Qualities)

dagger 2 /3/ fast

hand weapon 3 /3

great weapon 5 /2 /2-handed

spear 3/ 2 /fast (+1 dmg 2 - handed)

Easiest solution would be to add black dice when using a wapon that is too large for them. That way, you can just treat it as a "environmental" modifier. For example, a human great wapon might add 2-3 black dice (or maybe even a purple) to all rolls. Same goes for longbows. As the game designers of WFPR wrote in a book somewhere "say yes" (but then add black/purple dice to dissuade the use of unfitting weapons). Hand out negative dice as you feel approprita to situation, what weapon specifically the halfling tries to use, and the players discription.

As an example, in an epic fight a fallen chaos warrior has dropped a great sword and the halfling who are out of crossbow bolts wants to pick it up and use it to try to help his friends who are in dire need, why not? It might be epic, cool and totally appropriate, so add some blacks and say yes, but if you have already decided on "no they cannot use such large weapons" it's harder to allow this.

Also remember that hand weapon does technically includes short swords which a halfling should probably be able to use without a problem (for a DR of 5).

Furthermore, do you even anticipate it happening? I mean, there's no point in making up a lot of rules and changes if the player wants doesn't even consider using large weapons/armour and in my mind housruling that halflings will have a hard time using (human sized) great weapons doesn't add any flavour, it's just common sense. So my advice is talk to the player(s). If, for example, the player wants to play a sneaky, agility focued, halfling with a dagger and a sling, why even bother to make changes that won't ever be used?

I for one I would certainly not want to play an armoured, great weapond wielding soldier halfling. I'd pick halfling race to play something "halflingy" like a (pie) chef, rogue or similar.

Lastly, doesn't the career restrictions for the halfling quite efficiently minimize the risk of a STR6 halfling? I haven't looked at all the career cards, but my gut feeling is that most careers (human+menial/rogue) that the halflings can pick doesn't contain str as a primary characteristic. Their starting str of 1 also makes it expensive purchase a high str to start with at career creation.

Good points K7e9.

The house rules nonetheless, help to make thing clears from the very begining. You want a halfling? fine, that is what you get.

About the weapons and black dice, I think I will stole the idea but in the opposite direction They cannot use them, but in an epic moment, I can allow a halfling to use one (with black or purple dice as you say) for the sake of the epic moment.

Finally, I think short words, lets say 40cm long blade, fall into the category of daggers with DR4 CR3, fast. But this is a matter of interpretation.

Cheers,

Yepes

I just added "Fieldwarden" over at rpggeek.com. It's in the images section.

jh

While I think a ST 6 halfling is ridiculous, I'd probably lower the starting characteristic by 1 so that making a ST6 halfling, while doable, is prohibitively expensive (creation points and/or AP).

I would simplify the weapon restriction statement:

"Halflings cannot use 2h weapons" and "all melee weapons add 1 misfortune unless it is sized for a halfling, in which case its DR is reduced by 1"

Adjust numbers as you see fit.

Then I would make encumbrance limit 4xST (versus 5x ST), this lowers their ability to carry the heavier weapons and use the heavier armor…with a heavy investment in ST they could, but that is one weird looking halfling!

I wouldn't bother with lowering the enc of armor or halfling sized weapons.

Both the encumbrance change and the "penalty" to weapons should push halflings to more appropriate weapons.

as always,

my 2cp and ymmv

Roland the Red said:

Their starting STR is already 1.

Doc, the Weasel said:

Indeed is one. I was considering on doing like with the Ogres. Ogres can rise St and To at 1 xp cheaper than other races, which efectively means that they can rise St and To to 7.

What about if halflings have to pay 1 xp extra to rise St? This will naturally cap the maximum St to 5.

k7e9 said:

Definitively no!

Halfling Thug St, To, 1 fortune advance

Halfling Pit Fighter!!!! St, To 2 fortune advances (This one I really like, is hilarious to have a Halfling pit fighter)

Mercenary St, WP 2 fortune advances.

So you see, plenty of oportunities to have a Halfling-Ogre with St 6 and plenty fortune dice in St

Did you work out how your house ruling your halflings? If so hows it working out, they arent too weak as a character?

DurakBlackaxe said:

We have not tested yet for a long run.

So far they are not too weak as a character, as long as you don't want to be a Halfling melee warrior.

A halfling starts in creation with a low starting Strength. It is prohibitively expensive for a halfling to raise their Strength to a point where they can reach ST6.

Consider, they start with a base ST of 1.

A simple 'solution' that I agree with is just to add a house rule that is the reverse of what Ogres have. For a halfling to raise ST costs 1 extra XP. This means that 5 is the Maximum ST for a halfling (whereas Ogres, with the -1 XP bonus, have a max of 7), and makes it much more expensive for a halfling to increase their ST.