he's not a badly designed character, he's deliberately grotesque, the movie tried avoiding that because movie star or whatever. The live service game did him much better, amusingly
Possibly the worst piece of art in 5e. Especially as it's in the PHB and going to be seen by everyone.
I keep telling myself it's perspective from a human looking down on it, but it's so bad.
Tip-toe is actually horrible to sneak on. The reason people do is because Hollywood theatrics always paints someone being sneaky as walking tip-toed to convey the point visually, and monkey see - monkey do.
Doing so greatly increases the likelihood of whatever you're walking on to creak/groan/break from pressure being applied to a small area.
Slow, controlled steps while rolling from the ball of your foot is the most effective way to walk quietly. Just don't slap your foot and maintain control of your ankle.
Also, as long as you have arches, there's less slapping even with big feet.
Of course I married a man whose feet have ZERO arch.... Literally. No arch. At all. Both our kids inherited that. So when I tell you the foot slappy sounds of young children running barefoot on vinyl wood flooring is absolutely fucking hilarious, believe it. XD
You know how people say "shot X/Y/Z through my nose" and it's usually just hyperbole? Yeah, I'm having a relaxing bath with a cocktail and lime vodka fucking BURNS the sinuses. Oh my God.
I have never seen this before and when I stopped laughing and wincing, I sent it to my husband with the caption "It You!!"
I greatly appreciate it. I haven't laughed so hard in a WHILE and that's the exact fuckin sound. I'm going to be thinking back to this and laughing for fucking DAYS if not weeks. Plap plap plap I am fucking SENT.
Last night the kids were running around after bath time and my husband whispered "plap plap plap" and I fucking lost it again, so you know, this is the gift that keeps on giving.
5e halflings have strong [Wind Waker](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9Tea4QvzjaYghIq7uBON5aJeYiM=/378x0:1121x495/1400x1400/filters:focal(378x0:1121x495\):format(png\)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/19789261/character_wide.0.png) energy.
5E Halflings: Oh no! My vegetable pie has been ruined by the big folk! Woe is me for I am a simple homely creature, not used to the cruelty of the big world!
3E/4E Halflings: My clan has wandered this desert since before the time your kind had a name. You call it a wasteland because you are blind to its treasure, clumsy in your steps, and weak before the elements. I have killed a dozen fools who thought size would work to their advantage, and I may have to do so again today if you do not change that attitude of yours.
3e and 4e were peak. You can tell that they are very, very close to being human...but the proportions and head shape tell you that they're something else other than just short humans without looking uncanny or unnatural.
I did a double take in 5e because who the FUCK thought bobble-heads were a good idea?
The more I learn about 4e, the more it sounds like it WOTC choose really poor names for mechanics & abilities. And, it makes me wish WOTC would maintain multiple editions.
- Do you want crunch? 3.5e
- Do you want balance? 4e
- Does your DM want extra work? 5e
One of the biggest problems with 5e is it's constant reliance upon the DM to actually write the system for WOTC. Basically any supporting system is just "lol idk, ask the dm" to the players and "lol idk, make something up" to the DM.
As a result you end up with a system that requires a lot more work for a DM to make a cohesive world. Older editions like 3.5e or other systems like PF2E do a much better job of supporting the DM.
As a long time DM I would **not** recommend 5e as the system for a new DM to run in a vacuum.
To the point that magic items have no prices, something that feels really lazy and ignores how the game is played. Sooner or later the players will have magic items they don't need or want anymore, and will want to buy things beyond healing potions and armor. At that point, 5e just points to the DM and says 'make them deal with all that'.
Well they also designed the game to be run just fine without the party ever having feats or magic items. They’re supplementary. You know, two of the **coolest and most exciting customization features of past editions** are optional and poorly supported.
>Well they also designed the game to be run just fine without the party ever having feats or magic items.
No, they didn't. The math doesn't function at all at higher levels without magic items, and barely functions with them.
I've been playing and DMing 5e for five years and the only thing I've had to really work on in terms of rules were some revised extreme cold rules for my Icewind Dale campaign. Even then I only had to make some slight adjustments to the existing rules. I strongly disagree that 5e requires heavy involvement from the DM, especially compared to most other TTRPG systems I have seen, which often are literally broken without the use of house rules. It is absolutely possible to run a fun game of D&D just with the rules as written.
Where did I say that it wasn't possible to run a fun game of D&D with RAW? I didn't even imply that. That is a strawman you've constructed entirely on your own.
I've been playing and DMing 5e since it released. I've ran games raw, sure, but for many tables the game relies on DM rulings and expansion. As an experienced DM that isn't a big problem I can cook things up on the fly and them work for house rules most of the time. The [lack of] economy, the CR system's inaccuracy. Heck you yourself just said that something as important environmentally as cold weather rulings wasn't adequately addressed for an adventure that is set in an arctic tundra. That's *kind* of a big deal.
Almost every campaign I've ran in 5e the past (almost)10 years has required substantially more interventions like that than any of the pf2e ones I've ran the past few years. I'm not saying it's wholly and totally up to the DM or that the system is awful, I'm not saying there aren't other systems that do it worse. I've had a lot of fun running 5e the past decade and I'm not saying that you shouldn't have or that others can't too.
I'm saying that there are systems which offer more DM support which is a boon to a fledgling dm.
>Where did I say that it wasn't possible to run a fun game of D&D with RAW? I didn't even imply that. That is a strawman you've constructed entirely on your own.
In your previous post you wrote:
>As a result you end up with a system that requires a lot more work for a DM to make a cohesive world.
Now, maybe you want to argue that DnD does not require a cohesive world to be fun, but I'd say it's pretty important to me and I'd wager most people would agree. If work from the DM is - as you say - required, then that would mean it is not possible without that kind of work, just using the game as written. No straw man here. I'll grant you that maybe you were being hyperbolic and I may have taken you too literally, though.
>Heck you yourself just said that something as important environmentally as cold weather rulings wasn't adequately addressed for an adventure that is set in an arctic tundra. That's *kind* of a big deal.
nah, the existing rules were adequate, they just clashed with my personal preference for how to run a game in that setting. That's a matter of taste, though, not a failing of the system. The campaign would run just fine with the rules as presented in the book.
It has potential. Combat is bogged down by the tactics forced movement and all the floating variables from specific buffs. It's great if you play on a VTT to handle most of the numbers. Not so great in person, which was the only real way to play 4e when it released back in 2008. Much like PF1e was a spiritual successor to 3e I find PF2e a spiritual successor to 4e. A lot of the 4e DNA is there but with enough of the 3e DNA that it doesn't feel like too much of a departure from past editions. 4e would've been a great tactical TTRPG if it didn't have thr D&D branding attached to it.
5E > 4E > PF2 > 2E > Basic > 1E > OD&D > A swift kick to the junk > PF1 > a taser to the junk > 3.5 > having a car battery hooked up to one's junk > 3.0
Since we already have this very cultured discussion, I also love halfling art from [Player's Guide to Ravenloft](https://imgur.com/tSmuDuS) (and other races [as well](https://imgur.com/a/PoFzIHx))
5e art just has weird and stupid proportions and looks anyways
The 2014 PHB Dragonborn looks more like Davy Jones from pirates of the Caribbean then an actual bipedal dragon person
And don't get me started on the Monster Manual Goblin. Why do they look... like _that_? Monsters of the Multiverse gets a lot of well-deserved criticism, but at least they nailed the Goblin art.
Let me Google it….
Okay those are pretty good too. Kinda hitting that same design feel as Dark Sun halflings, being tribal wanderers. I guess it depends if you like your halflings riding dinosaurs or cannibals.
I largely source from the Forgotten Realms wiki since whoever runs that does a decent job of including art for all editions. 2e is from The Shining South, 3e is credited to Player’s Guide to Faerûn, 4e is credited to the Monster Manual
The 3.5 depictions of halflings throughout the artwork swings pretty wildly. They can vary between being very Hobbit like to just small scale humans.
One of my favorites is a blond Viking woman standing next to a big skull. There is no indication that the Viking woman is a halfling except for the skull next to her for scale.
1e: Artist rendering of Luis and Clark learning how to shoot a bow
2e: hobbit
3e & 4e: historians depiction of other human like species
5e: BURN IT WITH FIRE 🔥 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
The 5e version looks like the artist started with the head, realized they were running out of space on the page, and started shrinking everything as they went to make it fit. I half-believed that was the case, until I saw other halfling art in newer books.
How do they even keep themselves balanced and upright? Imagine the struggle of maintaining that giant bobblehead on those teensy little feet.
Yeah, when people were like "how did WOTC let that AI art slide?" I just pointed out that halfling 5e art. Sometime WOTC is fine with stuff that isn't good.
Basically:
* Small humans
* What in the everloving fuck?
* Ape people
* Both ape people and also small humans (maybe the artists at the time were just really bad at drawing male faces?)
* Small human drawn by someone who doesn't understand human proportions in the slightest
Halflings rule, Gnomes drool! I blame 3.5 and 4e for why I love them so much. 3.5 should they are more then just hobbits, and 4e gave them a very cool river culture. Also Lidda=waifu.
There was an image of Lidda tatted up and wearing an undershirt with her pants inexplicably low admiring an artifact that, I think, was from Dragon Magazine. I almost included it but figured that would be a stretch for “official” artwork
Oh wow, you’re right! That’s also why she’s pulling her pants down from her hips, that tattoo is on the front of the artifact (at the statue’s crotch level, which I’m sure is pure coincidence). I absolutely did not pick that up
Short story time: the first real campaign I played in, that lasted for a couple of years and we played multiple times a week (teenage years were the best), I made a half-orc barbarian with 20 strength that I was real proud of.
I quickly died like an idiot and someone proposed the cheap option - reincarnate (this was 3.0/3.5 days, I'm old, shut up). And I was talking about how any option outside of halfling would actually be great. And lo and behold, I rolled halfling.
I was a pissy bitch about it and quickly died again and the reincarnate roll came up halfling a second time. I was given the chance to play a new character but at that point I realized I was the problem, not the character.
Things I went on to accomplish with that character:
Jump off the dwarven defender's shield to throw a net to a height of 50ft to stop a wyvern from stealing the party wizard away (both the jump attempt and the throw attempt would have failed if I had not had the +2 bonus to jump and +1 bonus with thrown weapons granted by halflings)
I got the drop on a manticore and managed to ride it for long enough for me to drive my (small) heartsword through the back of its neck (given, I put a lot into riding, animal handling and nature and survival)
I beat a giant in an arm wrestling competition (no matter what you do, that high level bonus to strength will always have a say)
I almost single handedly destroyed a religion because of a hunch with absolutely 0 basis (remember, I was originally half orc so -2 int and Cha) and turned out to be completely right! Needless to say we had an amazing dungeon master (here's to you, Monk!)
Halflings are amazing... But especially when you're forced to play them.
2e might be my favorite. 1e, 3e, and 4e are great, but 2e just screams "CREATURES LEGALLY DISTINCT FROM HOBBITS" which is how I tend to portray Halflings.
Huh. I literally think that EVERY edition EXCEPT 5e has great halfling art, based on these images.
1e is perfectly fine, and doesn't have anything really "wrong" with it, even if it's a bit un-notable.
2e is great. VERY Tolkien, which I like.
3e is badass! Boars are often associated with dwarves, but I also love the idea of a family of hobbit- er, halflings, tending a farm and occasionally giving a pig to the militia to raise as a battle boar.
4e is fine, too. I don't love the hair, but... I think they could've done to make them look a bit less toned and muscular, to differentiate the from humans a bit more. 1e had the hobbit feet and 3e's had different shaped ears to set them apart, but 4e's look pretty human.
5e's hair, expression, proportions... Aren't very nice to look at.
3e walk-off winner once again; they're the only ones that look like they know how to fight. It's funny until you lose your ankles to a boar charge and suddenly don't have the height advantage.
I don't know if there's any visual difference between gnomes and halflings since 5e. I don't mind a slightly bigger head in proportion, makes them more than just miniature humans. But like, what features actually allow you to identify one from the other by looking at them?
Didn't gary hate Hobbits and the idea of them in general but got bullied into putting them into dnd iirc? And had to rename them to halfling to avoid copyright
Or something like that, feel free to correct me
Say what you want about 5E, but at least that depiction is original. 3E and 4E are boring as fuck. Just short people with the proportions of people. Yawn. Even though the 5E one isn’t attractive (why should it be, it ain’t human) and the feet aren’t the traditional halfling size at least it looks distinct from being human.
I’m honestly not super passionate about this though. I don’t like halflings and never have. Already have dwarves and gnomes for short races. Drop the Tolkien ripoff. Honestly I feel the same about dwarves.
Other than 2E and 5E, they just look like short humans or short elves and the attempt at badassery is out of place.
2E looks useless for anything other than general degeneracy. 5E at least looks like she could be arsed to leave the tavern for a quest.
Could be the lawsuit from the tolking estate, they changed the name, sure, but maybe wanted to make a bigger difference to avoid future problems and secure their own IP.
I think no one these days would ever pick a half long because they inspire them to imagine a badass warrior, they’re picking them because they think it’d be funny to play someone that’s just a little guy
I think the 5e matches that energy best
I think its kind of hilarious how small the 5e ones feet are
Feet as small as feet as small as fairy feet, head as big as a beholder, body in between.
MODOK lookin ass
Oh god don't remind me of that dogshit movie...
What do people want? It's a badly designed character, no amount of cgi is going to make him look good.
he's not a badly designed character, he's deliberately grotesque, the movie tried avoiding that because movie star or whatever. The live service game did him much better, amusingly
I agree, but I'm talking about the whole movie. It's really really poor.
Reminds me of my one year old. Big head with a little baby body.
judging from the image, 5e halfling have to be classified as aberrations.
It is one of many, many things I loathe about the 5e art.
Possibly the worst piece of art in 5e. Especially as it's in the PHB and going to be seen by everyone. I keep telling myself it's perspective from a human looking down on it, but it's so bad.
I mean, this is how I picture differences between Lightfoot and Stout halflings. It would make sense for the stealthy ancestry to have small feet.
Stealth is not the first thing that springs to mind when I see that thing
Oversized eyes proportional to the body and a tactical ponytail?
I'm guessing its the GIGANTIC head?
Larger feat means greater weight distribution, less likely to snap any twigs you do step on.
Larger feet also mean more surface area to slap the ground with. That’s why people tend to sneak on their tippy toes
Tip-toe is actually horrible to sneak on. The reason people do is because Hollywood theatrics always paints someone being sneaky as walking tip-toed to convey the point visually, and monkey see - monkey do. Doing so greatly increases the likelihood of whatever you're walking on to creak/groan/break from pressure being applied to a small area. Slow, controlled steps while rolling from the ball of your foot is the most effective way to walk quietly. Just don't slap your foot and maintain control of your ankle.
Also, as long as you have arches, there's less slapping even with big feet. Of course I married a man whose feet have ZERO arch.... Literally. No arch. At all. Both our kids inherited that. So when I tell you the foot slappy sounds of young children running barefoot on vinyl wood flooring is absolutely fucking hilarious, believe it. XD
All I can think of is [this meme of the running frog](https://i.imgur.com/BrZwqUS.jpeg)
You know how people say "shot X/Y/Z through my nose" and it's usually just hyperbole? Yeah, I'm having a relaxing bath with a cocktail and lime vodka fucking BURNS the sinuses. Oh my God. I have never seen this before and when I stopped laughing and wincing, I sent it to my husband with the caption "It You!!"
This made my day at work knowing I made someone laugh hard enough to spit through they nose. I'm glad I could give you that experience.
I greatly appreciate it. I haven't laughed so hard in a WHILE and that's the exact fuckin sound. I'm going to be thinking back to this and laughing for fucking DAYS if not weeks. Plap plap plap I am fucking SENT.
Last night the kids were running around after bath time and my husband whispered "plap plap plap" and I fucking lost it again, so you know, this is the gift that keeps on giving.
You sneak by landing on your heel and then rolling along the outside arch. Makes very little sound. Tiptoes is just asking to fall over.
You have weak toes brother
I can't believe I never noticed it until seeing this meme
5e halflings have strong [Wind Waker](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9Tea4QvzjaYghIq7uBON5aJeYiM=/378x0:1121x495/1400x1400/filters:focal(378x0:1121x495\):format(png\)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/19789261/character_wide.0.png) energy.
It's like they hired a caricature artist. The massive head and tiny disproportionate body are very jarring in a semi photorealistic style.
5E Halflings: Oh no! My vegetable pie has been ruined by the big folk! Woe is me for I am a simple homely creature, not used to the cruelty of the big world! 3E/4E Halflings: My clan has wandered this desert since before the time your kind had a name. You call it a wasteland because you are blind to its treasure, clumsy in your steps, and weak before the elements. I have killed a dozen fools who thought size would work to their advantage, and I may have to do so again today if you do not change that attitude of yours.
You're definitely describing Ebberon halflings.
Not to be confused with Dark Sun halflings
Raptor riders vs cannibals.
Is it cannibalism if they're eating *other* races?
To be fair, they eat each other too
Arent they all just derived from halflings on Athas?
3e and 4e were peak. You can tell that they are very, very close to being human...but the proportions and head shape tell you that they're something else other than just short humans without looking uncanny or unnatural. I did a double take in 5e because who the FUCK thought bobble-heads were a good idea?
The more I learn about 4e, the more it sounds like it WOTC choose really poor names for mechanics & abilities. And, it makes me wish WOTC would maintain multiple editions. - Do you want crunch? 3.5e - Do you want balance? 4e - Does your DM want extra work? 5e
>Do you want balance? 4e Have you heard of our lord and savior, Pathfinder 2e?
I moved over to GMing a pf2e game a couple months before the WOTC licensing fiasco. :) Still here because it's a bigger community & still fun.
TBF, they took a few of the best ideas from 4e.
I now play both and PF2e is definitely more balanced. I think I maybe still preter 5e tho, not sure. Like 'm both for different reasons
what do you mean 5e is extra work for DMs? I'm a beginner
One of the biggest problems with 5e is it's constant reliance upon the DM to actually write the system for WOTC. Basically any supporting system is just "lol idk, ask the dm" to the players and "lol idk, make something up" to the DM. As a result you end up with a system that requires a lot more work for a DM to make a cohesive world. Older editions like 3.5e or other systems like PF2E do a much better job of supporting the DM. As a long time DM I would **not** recommend 5e as the system for a new DM to run in a vacuum.
To the point that magic items have no prices, something that feels really lazy and ignores how the game is played. Sooner or later the players will have magic items they don't need or want anymore, and will want to buy things beyond healing potions and armor. At that point, 5e just points to the DM and says 'make them deal with all that'.
Well they also designed the game to be run just fine without the party ever having feats or magic items. They’re supplementary. You know, two of the **coolest and most exciting customization features of past editions** are optional and poorly supported.
>Well they also designed the game to be run just fine without the party ever having feats or magic items. No, they didn't. The math doesn't function at all at higher levels without magic items, and barely functions with them.
Well, if “designed” is a strong word then maybe “intended” would suffice
5e was written by some 23 year old named Josh at 2am on a taco bell receipt in his honda civic.
They laid him off this year when they realized they could just keep making new emails for unlimited free trials to Chat GPT for 6e.
99 Civic with an aftermarket spoiler
I've been playing and DMing 5e for five years and the only thing I've had to really work on in terms of rules were some revised extreme cold rules for my Icewind Dale campaign. Even then I only had to make some slight adjustments to the existing rules. I strongly disagree that 5e requires heavy involvement from the DM, especially compared to most other TTRPG systems I have seen, which often are literally broken without the use of house rules. It is absolutely possible to run a fun game of D&D just with the rules as written.
Where did I say that it wasn't possible to run a fun game of D&D with RAW? I didn't even imply that. That is a strawman you've constructed entirely on your own. I've been playing and DMing 5e since it released. I've ran games raw, sure, but for many tables the game relies on DM rulings and expansion. As an experienced DM that isn't a big problem I can cook things up on the fly and them work for house rules most of the time. The [lack of] economy, the CR system's inaccuracy. Heck you yourself just said that something as important environmentally as cold weather rulings wasn't adequately addressed for an adventure that is set in an arctic tundra. That's *kind* of a big deal. Almost every campaign I've ran in 5e the past (almost)10 years has required substantially more interventions like that than any of the pf2e ones I've ran the past few years. I'm not saying it's wholly and totally up to the DM or that the system is awful, I'm not saying there aren't other systems that do it worse. I've had a lot of fun running 5e the past decade and I'm not saying that you shouldn't have or that others can't too. I'm saying that there are systems which offer more DM support which is a boon to a fledgling dm.
>Where did I say that it wasn't possible to run a fun game of D&D with RAW? I didn't even imply that. That is a strawman you've constructed entirely on your own. In your previous post you wrote: >As a result you end up with a system that requires a lot more work for a DM to make a cohesive world. Now, maybe you want to argue that DnD does not require a cohesive world to be fun, but I'd say it's pretty important to me and I'd wager most people would agree. If work from the DM is - as you say - required, then that would mean it is not possible without that kind of work, just using the game as written. No straw man here. I'll grant you that maybe you were being hyperbolic and I may have taken you too literally, though. >Heck you yourself just said that something as important environmentally as cold weather rulings wasn't adequately addressed for an adventure that is set in an arctic tundra. That's *kind* of a big deal. nah, the existing rules were adequate, they just clashed with my personal preference for how to run a game in that setting. That's a matter of taste, though, not a failing of the system. The campaign would run just fine with the rules as presented in the book.
4e best e
It has potential. Combat is bogged down by the tactics forced movement and all the floating variables from specific buffs. It's great if you play on a VTT to handle most of the numbers. Not so great in person, which was the only real way to play 4e when it released back in 2008. Much like PF1e was a spiritual successor to 3e I find PF2e a spiritual successor to 4e. A lot of the 4e DNA is there but with enough of the 3e DNA that it doesn't feel like too much of a departure from past editions. 4e would've been a great tactical TTRPG if it didn't have thr D&D branding attached to it.
Whoa whoa whoa, let's not get too crazy.
5E > 4E > PF2 > 2E > Basic > 1E > OD&D > A swift kick to the junk > PF1 > a taser to the junk > 3.5 > having a car battery hooked up to one's junk > 3.0
This is the worst take I’ve ever seen. Delete it. 😠😡😤
They hated Jesus because he told them the truth.
Yeah but you ain't Jesus or telling the truth, my man
That’s right.
Based
Based on bullshit*
Balanced classes and interesting martial goes brrrr
5e shouldn't be anywhere near the top, then, either
Yh, 4e should be first, I don't care about any others
Nah, 2e reigns supreme
It’s no often on these memes that the 5e artwork has the worst looking proportions
[удалено]
Yes. It is.
[удалено]
That’s not apparent in the slightest, as 60 people have shown
But it is still the truth.
Apparently so.
When it comes to 3e player races, [this classic](https://forums.beamdog.com/uploads/editor/zj/8yov7srhwci2.png) always comes to mind.
Wow halflings are tiny in this.
If they were bigger, they'd be 3/4lings.
About half the size.
Todd Lockwood was a huge influence on my drawing style growing up. Great shit.
I have a framed print of one of his silver dragon pieces.
Halfling lady from this drawing was def a crush of mine
Lidda is definitely the best girl of any edition, and I will cross blades with anyone who dares to disagree.
It never even crossed my mind that this sketch was lidda. Mind blown
[Lidda?](https://srd.dndtools.org/srd/resource/images/classes/PHB35_PG50_WEB.jpg) Yeah, I can see it.
Orc Victoria Secret is just the other entrance of Hub Cap Inc.
There is absolutely nothing "half" about those orcs
Since we already have this very cultured discussion, I also love halfling art from [Player's Guide to Ravenloft](https://imgur.com/tSmuDuS) (and other races [as well](https://imgur.com/a/PoFzIHx))
These are great, were they 3e?
Indeed! Definitely my favourite edition. The art was so good...!
5e art just has weird and stupid proportions and looks anyways The 2014 PHB Dragonborn looks more like Davy Jones from pirates of the Caribbean then an actual bipedal dragon person
And don't get me started on the Monster Manual Goblin. Why do they look... like _that_? Monsters of the Multiverse gets a lot of well-deserved criticism, but at least they nailed the Goblin art.
The goblin art in MotM is straight fire
Thank god they fixed them in that one.
They made the halflings look too much like gnomes
Yep, and for some reason it has sent gnomes into an identity crisis ever since.
Dark Sun halflings best halflings.
Eberron would like a word.
Let me Google it…. Okay those are pretty good too. Kinda hitting that same design feel as Dark Sun halflings, being tribal wanderers. I guess it depends if you like your halflings riding dinosaurs or cannibals.
Let's split the difference, halflings riding cannibals?
You’ve just described Borderlands
1e and 5e aside, where did you get these illustrations? I've been hip to DnD for too damn long and I've never seen 2, 3 or 4.
I largely source from the Forgotten Realms wiki since whoever runs that does a decent job of including art for all editions. 2e is from The Shining South, 3e is credited to Player’s Guide to Faerûn, 4e is credited to the Monster Manual
>3e is credited to Player’s Guide to Faerûn That'll do it! That's why I don't recognize that. Thanks for posting the source.
It's deeply unfortunate that the old art galleries have been obliterated from the WotC website.
Did you play those editions? Because I remember seeing 3 and 4 in the books for those editions.
Never touched 4. Played 3 pretty extensively. Not saying it didn't exist, just hadn't seen it before.
The 3.5 depictions of halflings throughout the artwork swings pretty wildly. They can vary between being very Hobbit like to just small scale humans. One of my favorites is a blond Viking woman standing next to a big skull. There is no indication that the Viking woman is a halfling except for the skull next to her for scale.
1e: Artist rendering of Luis and Clark learning how to shoot a bow 2e: hobbit 3e & 4e: historians depiction of other human like species 5e: BURN IT WITH FIRE 🔥 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
The 5e version looks like the artist started with the head, realized they were running out of space on the page, and started shrinking everything as they went to make it fit. I half-believed that was the case, until I saw other halfling art in newer books. How do they even keep themselves balanced and upright? Imagine the struggle of maintaining that giant bobblehead on those teensy little feet.
1-2e hobits 3-4e small people 5e Fallout Bobble heads.
All Halflings should have comically huge and hairy feet. I'll die on this hill
Why did the give them freaky giant heads?
And people complain that *AI* has trouble with hands, feet, and so forth.
Yeah, when people were like "how did WOTC let that AI art slide?" I just pointed out that halfling 5e art. Sometime WOTC is fine with stuff that isn't good.
Basically: * Small humans * What in the everloving fuck? * Ape people * Both ape people and also small humans (maybe the artists at the time were just really bad at drawing male faces?) * Small human drawn by someone who doesn't understand human proportions in the slightest
Halflings rule, Gnomes drool! I blame 3.5 and 4e for why I love them so much. 3.5 should they are more then just hobbits, and 4e gave them a very cool river culture. Also Lidda=waifu.
There was an image of Lidda tatted up and wearing an undershirt with her pants inexplicably low admiring an artifact that, I think, was from Dragon Magazine. I almost included it but figured that would be a stretch for “official” artwork
She's comparing her ink to the runes on a piller. I had always assumed it was some sort of "lost legacy" plot that was hinting at.
Oh wow, you’re right! That’s also why she’s pulling her pants down from her hips, that tattoo is on the front of the artifact (at the statue’s crotch level, which I’m sure is pure coincidence). I absolutely did not pick that up
Yep pure coincidence!
Footbound bobblehead subrace of halflings.
I love how the two dudes in 1e are just Sam and Frodo with short hair. Did not even try lol
And we have Eberron, we have Halfling hoteliers and Halfling nomad dinosaur riders.
While the 5e halflings feel small I could never take them seriously.
I like how 2E looks like an actual halfling and the other editions are just hairless dwarfs and I don't know how else to explain it.
Halflings with shoes? Blasphemy.
Short story time: the first real campaign I played in, that lasted for a couple of years and we played multiple times a week (teenage years were the best), I made a half-orc barbarian with 20 strength that I was real proud of. I quickly died like an idiot and someone proposed the cheap option - reincarnate (this was 3.0/3.5 days, I'm old, shut up). And I was talking about how any option outside of halfling would actually be great. And lo and behold, I rolled halfling. I was a pissy bitch about it and quickly died again and the reincarnate roll came up halfling a second time. I was given the chance to play a new character but at that point I realized I was the problem, not the character. Things I went on to accomplish with that character: Jump off the dwarven defender's shield to throw a net to a height of 50ft to stop a wyvern from stealing the party wizard away (both the jump attempt and the throw attempt would have failed if I had not had the +2 bonus to jump and +1 bonus with thrown weapons granted by halflings) I got the drop on a manticore and managed to ride it for long enough for me to drive my (small) heartsword through the back of its neck (given, I put a lot into riding, animal handling and nature and survival) I beat a giant in an arm wrestling competition (no matter what you do, that high level bonus to strength will always have a say) I almost single handedly destroyed a religion because of a hunch with absolutely 0 basis (remember, I was originally half orc so -2 int and Cha) and turned out to be completely right! Needless to say we had an amazing dungeon master (here's to you, Monk!) Halflings are amazing... But especially when you're forced to play them.
2e might be my favorite. 1e, 3e, and 4e are great, but 2e just screams "CREATURES LEGALLY DISTINCT FROM HOBBITS" which is how I tend to portray Halflings.
Huh. I literally think that EVERY edition EXCEPT 5e has great halfling art, based on these images. 1e is perfectly fine, and doesn't have anything really "wrong" with it, even if it's a bit un-notable. 2e is great. VERY Tolkien, which I like. 3e is badass! Boars are often associated with dwarves, but I also love the idea of a family of hobbit- er, halflings, tending a farm and occasionally giving a pig to the militia to raise as a battle boar. 4e is fine, too. I don't love the hair, but... I think they could've done to make them look a bit less toned and muscular, to differentiate the from humans a bit more. 1e had the hobbit feet and 3e's had different shaped ears to set them apart, but 4e's look pretty human. 5e's hair, expression, proportions... Aren't very nice to look at.
1E halfling: "I swear, you guys are so lucky I don't have a string for my bow right now, or you'd be so dead"
3e walk-off winner once again; they're the only ones that look like they know how to fight. It's funny until you lose your ankles to a boar charge and suddenly don't have the height advantage.
Surprised you didn't go with the 4E PHB art, which is also quite good.
I wounder how they look in 6e/OneDnD/2024. Probably with 6 or 7 fingers with arthritis cause all of the AI art.
i like the 5e art tbh, proportions are a little wacky but 2e has the same issue of proportions
Yet another reason I prefer Eberron as a setting. The halflings are nomadic dinosaur riders.
I honestly think the 5E Halfling art put me off making a halfling for the longest time.
1e +3 to hit with missile weapons bitches!
The 4e ones look like they are the same characters from 3e but in a prequel setting.
The 5e is sooooooobsoooo damn bad
Now what about gnomes and Dwarves?
I’ve got plans to do both of those at some point
1e halflings are just gen z'ers in tunics.
I quite like the 5e version personally.
I don't know if there's any visual difference between gnomes and halflings since 5e. I don't mind a slightly bigger head in proportion, makes them more than just miniature humans. But like, what features actually allow you to identify one from the other by looking at them?
Why did they put botts on them after 2E? Its like having dwarves without beards.
Didn't gary hate Hobbits and the idea of them in general but got bullied into putting them into dnd iirc? And had to rename them to halfling to avoid copyright Or something like that, feel free to correct me
Speak for yourself.
5e be like: "anyway here's wonderwall"
I like the 5e art
The 5e art is specifically why I never played a halfing for the longest time lol
Say what you want about 5E, but at least that depiction is original. 3E and 4E are boring as fuck. Just short people with the proportions of people. Yawn. Even though the 5E one isn’t attractive (why should it be, it ain’t human) and the feet aren’t the traditional halfling size at least it looks distinct from being human. I’m honestly not super passionate about this though. I don’t like halflings and never have. Already have dwarves and gnomes for short races. Drop the Tolkien ripoff. Honestly I feel the same about dwarves.
2e: foot fetish (hairy edition)
Elden ring made the most interesting halflings in my opinion
5e works in the weird way actually
You are entitled to your opinion and I will defend your right to say and think that. But you are SO very wrong.
Other than 2E and 5E, they just look like short humans or short elves and the attempt at badassery is out of place. 2E looks useless for anything other than general degeneracy. 5E at least looks like she could be arsed to leave the tavern for a quest.
Could be the lawsuit from the tolking estate, they changed the name, sure, but maybe wanted to make a bigger difference to avoid future problems and secure their own IP.
I think no one these days would ever pick a half long because they inspire them to imagine a badass warrior, they’re picking them because they think it’d be funny to play someone that’s just a little guy I think the 5e matches that energy best