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Illithid

2018-06-18T02:07:39Z

2605:E000:7ECF:7F00:F530:4CE5:F10F:BE53: /* Illithid Mating Practices */

'''Illithids''' are cool, and by cool, I mean totally sweet. They look like tiny little, skinnier, wingless Cthulhus, wear purple robes with high collars and eat brains. Plus they all have psionic powers and are so super-smart even their breakfast is [[JUST AS PLANNED]]! They would be totally [[Mary Sue]], except for the fact that they are so brain-damagingly evil it makes them awesome instead of lame. (There was one good one in The Book of Exalted Deeds, but nobody gives a crap about her, so let's move on.) Their psionic version is much better than their Monster Manual version by virtue of increased versatility. They are also believed to come from THE FUTURE.

The Illithid is considered "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its [[Open Gaming License]]. However, "half-Cthulhu creeps" and "squidface brainsuckers" are totally okay, so go nuts.

==Illithid Physiology==
Illithids consist of... purple, mostly. Just brains and purple.

Their alien physiology has stumped our crack (addict) biology team even after years of scientific scrutiny. It is thought that if we could crack the mystery of why these skinny creatures subsist on a diet of nothing but fat and calcium, we would be closer to... something.

Look, just look up "aberrant" in the dictionary. We can't offer you much for the time being.

In actuality, Illithid physiology is a moderately altered version of their host organism's body (see mating practices). The brain of the host is replaced by a tadpole thing, and the digestive tract is altered to aid in the consumption of brains and their psychic essence. And of course, they grow tentacles and Sarlaac mouths and lose all of their hair.

For the morbidly curious about what'd happen if you ate an illithid's brain, according to 5e's Volo's Guide to Monsters, nothing good. Apparently, each bite into an illithid's brain releases an intense flood of memories that the illithid developed/consumed in its life, so strong it'll probably drive the typical consumer insane. As to how [[Elminster]] knows this, he refuses to explain.

==Illithid Mating Practices==
This morbid fascination of yours is going to get you killed one of these days, you know that?

Anyway, if you've ever seen that Bruce Campbell movie ''Mindwarp,'' with those burrowing leech things, you've got a pretty good grasp on what to expect. I'm saying nothing more on the subject.

Unlike the above neckbeard, ''I'' will speak of Illithid reproduction. You see, twice in an illithid's life, it will go to the pool containing the Mind Flayer community's Elder Brain (though any briny pool will do), and literally vomit a huge amount of tadpoles out of their mouth (they're asexual like that.) These tadpoles will be nurtured (though the elder brain will eat some of the tadpoles, who themselves engage in cannibalism) over the course of ten years (20 for ulitharids) and once they are ready, they are taken from their pool to undergo Ceremorphosis.

An unlucky creature will be restrained as the Tadpole is brought to it, the Mind flayer carrying the tadpole will place it within the most direct route to the brain (typically the ear or nose) and the tadpole will quickly burrow its way through the skull and into the brain where it will devour the host organism's brain over the course of a week as it alters the host with mind flayer traits. Very, very rarely this process partially fails and no external changes are brought about (though it will still internally be a mind flayer and need to eat brains) in these cases the new mind flayer is used as an infiltrator for obvious reasons. Even rarer, to the point where it's practically considered an urban legend is the opposite, where the host undergoes the full transformation, but their original mind remains intact and in control of their newfound powers. Mind flayers are scared shitless of these creatures, referred to collectively as The Adversary. Not only are they perfectly capable of blending in flawlessly with mind flayer society, they are almost certainly in the vengeance seeking mind set, and in the perfect position to bring it all crashing down on their tormentor's heads.

When the process is complete, no form of magic or psionics, excluding wish and reincarnate and true ressurection, they can bring back the victim, but the mind flayer will still be alive. Aside from that, nothing can reverse the effects; there is no way to bring back the original host, so he/she/it is for all intents and purposes, dead forever. Though the newborn mind flayer will be physically mature, it will take some time to mentally mature (though its community will be more than willing to assist it in this manner).

If the host is any species besides a human, the result is a half-mindflayer, whose template can be found in the Fiend Folio. Special cases are present though; placing a mind flayer tadpole into a beholder results in a mind witness (essentially replace the eyestalks with large thick tentacles and the rays of doom with psionics) placing it within a true dragon results in the unspeakably powerful gribbly horror that is the Brainstealer Dragon whose psychic might is only surpassed by the Elder Brain. Put it in a Roper and you get the Urophion, a creature with a genius level intellect whose talents are wasted on sentry duty (but with their slow, slow, slow move speed they can't do much of anything else.)

If a tadpole is not placed into a host and is placed in the wild, it will eventually eat and grow into a gigantic fucking psychic worm of doom called the Neothelid (think the dune sand worm, only quite a bit smaller and with tentacles and head asploding psychic powers) with only minimal sentience. Regular Mind Flayers consider it highly taboo to speak about Neothelids (probably because Neothelids remind the Illithids too much of their "natural" state which their progeny would devolve into, were it not for the availability of suitable hosts their tadpoles could Ceremorphose), and to actually create one is outright forbidden. Oddly, Neothelids are ''not'' considered Product Identity by Wizards of the Coast, possibly because "giant slimy worm that spits acid and shoots mind bullets" would not have been copyrightable.

One out of a hundred or so tadpoles will take twice as long to become ready for Ceremorphosis, these tadpoles will create Ulitharids when implanted into a host. Ulitharids are large sized and have two extra long tentacles and much more powerful psionic abilities, they also live for a lot longer than normal mind flayers. Sadly, the only statistics for Ulitharids are for Ulitharid Tadpole-Human combinations, which is a disappointment since an Ulitharid Brainstealer Dragon would have been fuck-awesome.

Elder brains are created when a bunch of deceased mind flayer brains are dumped into a single pool filled with a briny solution; these brains will merge and eventually become alive and turn into a CR 25 [[TPK]]ing horror. There is also an idea that elder brains were created by the Illithid god Ilsensine, who performed ceremorphosis on some lesser gods or demigods. One of them, called the "Illithid God-Brain," is even trapped on [[Ravenloft]] and rules over an Illithid colony named Bluetspur, with the official backstory left open as to why one of these alien monstrousities would ever earn the place of a [[Darklord]] on that benighted plane, save that it must have done something atrocious even by Illithid standards.

A rare few Illithids who end up mastering actual arcane magic instead of psionics opt to become [[Lich|Liches]], named Alhoons or Illithiliches, since Elder Brains can't absorb magical abilities from the brain of an Illithid mage and magical talent (unless it's that of a Cleric to Ilsenine, see below) is looked down on in Illithid society. These squid-faced liches are extremely dangerous examples of psionic undead and can still rip your brain from your skull despite having no need to consume brains after the transition to undeath, with no explanation being given for how they still continue to secrete the biocorrosive slime needed to soften the flesh and bone of the skull to allow for easy extraction of living brains while undead (and thus having no metabolism to speak of).

==Illithid Society==
Illithids function as a hive mind, serving the Elder Brain. Other than maintaining the Elder Brain, the day-to-day duties of the average illithid consist of evil science and making cheeky wood burnings. The purpose of these wood burnings is an inextricable mystery, as they seem to disappear shortly after their completion. They can make Brain Golems out of buds from said queen-like Elder Brain, which are exactly what they sound like and exactly as retarded as you would think. Even the Illithids and the Elder Brain itself know how impractical this can be, and would prefer to use any other type of golem instead. The Illithids live for the fact that after they die, their brains, and thus their minds, will be merged with the Elder Brain after death. This is, of course, complete and utter bullshit, as the Elder Brain just eats their knowledge and discards everything else. Elder Brains discourage studying magic too much because Elder Brains can't eat a mind flayer's magical abilities, though they can eat a mind flayer's knowledge of psionics (if it ever took levels in Psion, Erudite, Wilder, or what have you.) Below the Elder Brain on the mind flayer hierarchy are the Brainstealer Dragons (very rare because it's notoriously difficult to restrain a true dragon) and the Ulitharids.

The mind flayers have one deity they pay respects to in Illsensine, who did not create them. Perhaps to make up for the fact that Illsensine is the only Mind Flayer God, Illsensine is a very powerful rank 20 greater deity who omnoms the knowledge of everyone the instant they die. The Mind Flayers don't exactly worship Illsensine per se, they just respect it for its great knowledge, and Illsensine returns the favor by considering Mind Flayers to be the only worthy species in the multiverse. This is not to say that there are no Mind Flayer clerics to Illsensine, because said clerics of Illsensine do indeed exist, but their numbers are rather small relative to say the number of Dwarven clerics of Moradin, however; Mind Flayer communities have an exception to their rule of "don't study magic too much" for the Clerics of Illsensine, and in fact greatly respect these clerics and leave them to their business.

The mind flayers used to have another god called Maanzecorian, but Tenebrous (actually Orcus, it's a long story) used the last word on him, so his head asploded.

Some illithids spend their time finding ways to put out the sun, because they hate that bright light shit. Unfortunately for them, putting out a 1,392,000+ kilometer ball of ungodly hot hydrogen and helium is nigh on impossible (unless your name is Father Llymic.) Most other Illithids think that these illithids are wasting their time when it's common knowledge that all they have to do is wait many, many billions of years for the sun to eventually puff up and die. And it goes without saying putting out the sun would indirectly eliminate their food source as well.

Some mind flayers went to the [[Far Realm]] and apparently encountered something called Thoon. However, the exact nature of Thoon is unknown even to the mind flayers themselves, so whether Thoon is a god, an aberration, a philosophy, or something else entirely is open to interpretation. In any case, the mind flayers' encounter with Thoon changed them completely, so they're a lot more irrational and unpredictable (NE instead of LE), they make use of a lot of really weird constructs and altered humanoids (and a variant of the mind flayer that trades the ability to control minds for ninja powers), and for some fucking insane reason a CR 25 Elder brain came back as a CR 15 entity that's totally batshit insane. Oh, and they also seek to gather [[Psion|quintessence]] for some reason.

==Monstergirls?==
{{Monstergirls}}

Now, you'd see the face on these things and the how of their reproduction and figure that this has to be one species that can't get the [[monstergirls]] treatment? Well... you're not exactly right. "Feminized" illithids, which are basically mind-flayers with boobs and often skimpily clad, occasionally pop up in monstergirl-related threads on /tg/, usually under the same joking context as the [[thri-kreen]]/[[xixchil]].

More importantly than that, Mindflayers are one of the "Aberrant" monstergirls that show up in the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]]. Formally considered a relative of the [[scylla]], they take the form of tall, curvy, slime-dripping women with tentacles for hair and a Mortica Addams-like dress implied to actually be tentacle-legs. They are ultra-perverted hedonists, using their [[psionics]] to brainwash victims into playmates of their obscene lusts, and are reputated to eventually transform men they take as their lovers mentally and physically into grotesque, squid-like tentacle-beasts, which spend the rest of their lives fastened to the mindflayer's hips and shoving her genitals full of tentacle-penises.

==See Also==
* [[Aberration]]
* [[Githzerai]]
* [[Githyanki]]
* [[Far Realm]]
* [[Unified_Setting/Illithid]]

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Monsters]]

Halfling

2018-06-18T01:57:49Z

2605:E000:7ECF:7F00:F530:4CE5:F10F:BE53: /* Halfling Physique */

[[File:Halfling_Rogue.jpg|300px|right|thumb|A halfling rogue. Just look at that smug bastard!]]

'''Halflings''' are a race of short, docile, inoffensive [[demihuman]]s native to the various realms of [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. Whilst they tend to have a particular adeptness at thievery, if only due to their small stature makling it easy to sneak around or go underestimated, they are traditionally considered as a race to be more interested in simple pleasures than becoming [[Adventurer]]s.

==Origin of Halflings==
Unlike the other [[demihuman]] races of D&D, halflings have no particular mythological origins. Instead, they are intimately tied with the origins of D&D as a game. Quick recap: Dungeons & Dragons began as [[Chainmail]], a medieval wargame that slowly evolved into a role-playing game, making its fateful trip towards D&D when [[Gary Gygax]] and his buddies decided that they wanted to try and use their game to play in a fantasy world based on the various fantasy novels they were fans of - most particularly, the [[The Lord of the Rings]].

Thus, the [[Hobbit]] was carried over from its roots on [[Middle Earth]] to serve as a PC race for the earliest editions of D&D. That was, until the infamously litigious [[Tolkien]] estate heard about it and slapped Gygax with a warning. Rather than remove the race from his game - he may not have been too fond of the fantasy elements himself, but bugger the idea of being forced to drop them - Gygax simply renamed them "Halflings", taken from a nickname/insult used against hobbits in the LotR trilogy. Long story short, it worked; the Tolkien estate could no longer sue them for their use, and so halflings have continued into the game ever since, constantly tweaking and tinkering, but rarely completely unrecognizable from their ancient roots.

==Halfling Physique==
Halflings are defined, first and foremost, by their short stature. Unlike [[dwarves]], who are stout and compact blocks of muscle, or gnomes, who look like severely stunted (and often visibly aged) [[elves]], halflings look pretty much entirely human, save for the height. To be more precise, they have near-perfect 1:1 bodily proportions in comparison with humans, so they still look just like humans with scaled down sizes, not midgets. It's generally accepted that halflings age like humans and have adult proportions - [[shortstack|or overly generous proportions]], but some sources have described them as looking more "youthful" than humans, or even looking just like unaging children.

One of the more contentious aspects of the halfling physique is the halfling foot. Specifically, just how accurately do halflings mimic their hobbit ancestors in terms of having large, tough and hairy feet? This is something that has shifted back and forth across the editions.

==Halfling Culture==
Traditional halfling culture has changed a lot over the editions.

Back in [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]], they shared the same attitudes as their hobbit ancestors; they lived simple, bucolic lives in fertile farm country, where they fished, farmed, hunted, snared and generally lived the lives of content rural peasantry. They have no great ambitions outside of living a comfortable life, full of the simple pleasures - predominantly food, celebrating with their friends, strong drink and sharing various little trinkets and baubles. Gift-giving is especially important to them. Family is hugely important, and fittingly enough, halflings often have huge families.

Problem was, that kind of lifestyle isn't conductive to going out and be a hero, so when 3rd edition came along, the developers decided it was time to add some reason for the halflings to come in contact with the rest of the world and occasionally adopt a lifestyle of murderfucking monsters for fun and profit like proper adventurers. Whilst they still had a lot in common with their old selves, now they tended to be nomads who lived in travelling caravans, wandering where the winds take them.

4th edition continued in 3rd edition's steps, portraying its halflings as river-dwellers who lived on houseboats and traveled the lakes, creeks, streams, swamps and deltas of the world, surviving through trade.

5th edition went back to 3rd edition, with a heavy dash of AD&D.

===Setting Variants===
Some settings, such as [[Golarion]] and the [[Scarred Lands]], present a more [[grimdark]] take on the AD&D version of halfling culture; because of their small stature and lack of aggression, they depict other races as enslaving halflings and putting their skills at arts, crafts and agriculture to use as slaves.

On [[Dark Sun|Athas]], halflings are savage, tribal hunters, using druidic magic, stealth, [[psionics]] and poison to take down any living creature - including other sapient races - and have it for dinner.

Whilst [[Eberron]] has some of the "traditional" 3e halflings on it as well, it's more famous for its culture of [[dinosaur]]-taming [[barbarian]] halflings, because, seriously, that shit is [[awesome]].

In ''Wicked Fantasy'', the "haffuns" are quintessential household servants. In fact, it's considered uncommon for a human family of standing ''not'' to have haffun servants. They're so efficient at maintaining a house and family that it's almost suspicious. The haffun sense of hospitality is such that being invited into a household means they're part of the haffun's family and thus deserve the respect and care that entails. It also means keeping the family's secrets and disposing of thieves, slanderers, and others who insult the family's honor. Think Alfred Pennyworth, but three feet tall and both willing and able to kill, bribe, or blackmail any threats to the Wayne family without them ever suspecting a thing.

===Halfling Religion===
The halfling religion is fairly simple. Most halflings adopt, or at least respect, the faiths of their closest neighbors but they do have their own dedicated pantheon. Small and unassuming, the two most important figures in it are [[Yondalla]], their creator-goddess, and Littleman, the iconic halfling folk hero who thrills and delights the little 'uns with stories of his winning over the bigger and scarier races of the world through charm and cunning.

==4e's Boat-Rocking==
Despite the bad reputation D&D 4e has, it actually turned halflings into a surprisingly badass race. Born of a [[/d/|passionate lesbian tryst]] between [[Sehanine]] and [[Melora]], then abandoned before being adopted by [[Avandra]], halflings of the [[Nentir Vale]] are a race of quick-witted resourceful, courageous, inquisitive and surprisingly tough humanoids who claim the rivers, marshes and swamps of the world as their territory. Lacking great territorial ambitions may mean that they have no empires, but neither do they have disastrous falls in their history; halflings are the one race who ''haven't'' suffered great disasters or declines, and their oral traditions preserve lore and information that even the [[dwarf]] and [[elf]] races have forgotten. As the best boaters in the world, their river caravans are a vital source of trade and information and they are essential in preserving their local communities by keeping the chain of goods and news flowing.

For more information, check out this link: https://pastebin.com/AwRtBkqw

==Halfling Subraces==
Although not as mutable as even the [[dwarf]] and [[gnome]] races, never mind the [[elf]] race, there are still quite a few different species of halflings scattered throughout the D&D multiverse.

To begin with, remember, halflings began as rip-offs of Tolkein's [[Hobbits]], and even their names are little more than literal translations of Tolkein's names for them. This is most evident in the Hairfoot (from "Harfoot"), or the AD&D Common Halfling. This was nothing more than your vanilla hobbit; short, prone to fat, quiet natured, good humored, and fond of living in comfort, with particularly large and hairy feet.

The Hairfoots, for obvious reasons, couldn't last and so in 3rd edition their place was taken by the Lightfoots. These halflings are essentially the bastard lovechild of a Hairfoot and a [[Kender]], combining most of the Hairfoot's common sense, love of creature comforts, and big hairy feet with the Kender's slender build and some of its adventurous nature. The result was a peace-loving race of small nomads who werent' all adventurers, but were more likely to do so than Hairfoots. Lightfoots got far more love give to them in 4th edition, losing all vestiges of their Hairfoot ancestry in terms of appearance and growing to a height slightly taller than a typical ten-year-old, but underwent a harsh devolution/were replaced by Hairfoots in 5th edition.

The Tallfellows (taken from Tolkein's Fallohides) are... well, they're basically elven halflings. No joke; they speak elvish, they live in treetown villages in deep woods, preferably where elves live, they can detect secret doors like elves, they're stealthier in the woods, they get super-high (19) Dexterity and Wisdom, they live the longest of any of the three main halfling subraces... they're elven halflings.

The Stouts (taken from Tolkein's Stoors) are the dwarven halflings to the Tallfellows being the elven halflings. They're strong, muscular, stocky halflings with a predilection for dwelling underground, infravision, they have facial hair (something other halflings lack), they have a natural talent for mining/jewel-making/stonemasonry/building/smithing/carving and boat-building, and they live longer than Hairfoots. In 5th edition, they gained the dwarven traits of poison resistance and increased constitution.

The notorious [[Kender]] are, although certainly similar to halflings in resembling slightly fey human children that never grow up, generally not accepted as proper halflings. The halflings who've actually met kender insist on this, saying instead that they are some other race that has simply evolved to fit the "halfling niche" on Krynn. Given their seemingly incurable genetic predisposition to thievery and stupidity, many players suggest that they may be a strain of [[goblin]] that has tried to escape the usual fate of its species by evolving to look more human-appearing "cutesy".

The Rhulisiti, as they call themselves, are better known as the [[Dark Sun|Athasian Halflings]] elsewhere. Degenerated from the heights of glory, these dusky-skinned and feral halflings jealously guard their home in the Ringing Mountains, hunting everything that isn't one of their own kind -- including fellow sapients. Amusingly, virtually all other sapient races in the setting are descended from them in some fashion.

The Furchin are a race of halflings from the frozen world of Falakyr, reached through the use of [[Spelljammer|spelljamming]]; though they live as Stone Age nomadic hunter-gatherers on their own world, an unknown wizard attempted to take many of them as slaves, leading to individuals or even whole clans being scattered throughout the spheres. Per TSR traditions, their name stems from the fact that they have the ability to grow proportionately massive beards, longer even than those of the Stouts, whom they otherwise resemble.

[[Birthright|Cerillian Halflings]] resemble the Hairfoots, but are actually refugees from the Shadowworld, giving them the ability to look into that otherworldly plane and, if necessary, travel back and forth. They rarely bother, however, because their kinsfolk still live in abject slavery there.

Ghostwise Halflings are native to the Chondalwood region of [[Forgotten Realms|Faerun]], an isolationist species of near-feral halflings who have mutated to better survive as stealthy hunters. Most notably, they use telepathy to communicate rather than talking.

Golden or Amberhair Halflings are native to the [[Kingdoms of Kalamar|land of Tellene]] and claim to be the original species of halfling on their world, which they share with Lightfeet. Distinguished by rich golden-brown hair, they're also renowed for their brilliance and thoughtfulness.

==Halfling Stats==
===AD&D===
The Hairfoot Halfling originally appeared in the Player's Guide for [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]]. The other subraces would get their turn to shine in "The Complete Book of [[Gnome]]s and [[Halfling]]s", which provided stats for not only the Stouts and Tallfellows, but also the Furchins, Rhulisti and even [[Kender]].

According to "The Complete Book", all halflings, regardless of subrace, share the following traits - it's unclear if this actually means the Rhulisti, Kender and Furchins as well, or just the "normal" Hairfeet, Stouts and Tallfellows.
::+1 to saving throws vs. spells, rods, staves, wands and poisons per 3.5 points of [[Constitution]].
::+1 to attack rolls with missile weapons.
::When not in metal armor, a halfling that is either alone, accompanied only by other halflings/[[elves]], or 90 feet away from the rest of its party inflicts a -4 penalty on its opponents' Surprise rolls. This decreases to -2 if doors or other screens must be opened.
::A halfling with mixed Stout bloodline has a 25% chance of having Infravision 30 feet, according to the PHB.
:: Class & Level Limits: [[Cleric]] (8), [[Fighter]] (9), [[Thief]] (15), [[Multiclassing|Fighter/Thief]] (8/15)
:::Halflings with an Ability Score of at least 15 in their class's Prime Requisite can increase their level limit by +4 (Cleric 12, Fighter 13 and Thief 19).

Why the Stout, Tallfellow and especially the Furchin have the same clas & level limits as the Hairfoot is just one example of how AD&D pigeonholed its races.

;Hairfoot Halfling
::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 3/17, Dexterity 8/19, Constitution 10/18, Intelligence 6/18, Wisdom 3/18, Charisma 7/18
::Ability Score Adjustments: -1 Strength, +1 Dexterity
::+2 to Reaction Rolls against [[human]] NPCs.
::Bonus Language: 1 Human dialect

;Stout Halfling
::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 5/17, Dexterity 8/19, Constitution 10/19, Intelligence 6/18, Wisdom 3/18, Charisma 5/18
::Ability Score Adjustments: -1 Strength, +1 Dexterity or +1 Constitution
::Infravision 60 feet
::Bonus Language: 1 Dwarven dialect
::75% chance to detect sloping passageways.
::50% chance to determine direction when underground.

;Tallfellow Halfling
::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 3/17, Dexterity 8/19, Constitution 10/18, Intelligence 6/18, Wisdom 7/19, Charisma 5/18
::Ability Score Adjustments: -1 Strength, +1 Dexterity or +1 Wisdom
::Bonus Language: 1 Elven dialect
::Can recognize a secret door by rolling a 1 on a D6, just like an elf.
::+2 to Surprise rolls when in forest or wooded terrain.

;Furchin Halfling
::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 3/17, Dexterity 8/19, Constitution 10/19, Intelligence 6/18, Wisdom 3/17, Charisma 7/18
::Ability Score Adjustments: +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, -1 Strength, -1 Wisdom
::Free Proficiency point in Cold-Weather Survival.
::+4 bonus to all saving throws versus magical and mundane cold-based attacks.
::-4 bonus to Armor Class against [[Giant]]-type creatures.
::-2 bonus to Armor Class against [[human]]-sized creatures.

;Rhulisiti (Athasian Halfling)
::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 3/18, Dexterity 12/20, Constitution 5/20, Intelligence 5/20, Wisdom 7/20, Charisma 5/20
::Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, -2 Strength, -1 Constitution, -1 Charisma
::Class & Level Limits: [[Cleric]] (12), [[Druid]] (12), [[Fighter]] (12), [[Gladiator]] (12), [[Illusionist]] (16), [[Psion]]icist (Unlimited), [[Ranger]] (16), [[Thief]] (16)
:::There are some differences between versions of the [[Dark Sun]] corebook, which you have to refer to for the rhulisiti's class information. Above information refers to the '''Original''' version of the setting; in the '''Revised''' version, the Illusionist was removed and the Druid was bumped to maxing out at level 16.

===3rd Edition===
Naturally, halflings were right there in the player's handbook in 3rd edition, a place they have occupied in every edition since.

::+2 Dexterity, -2 Strength
::Small
::Base Speed 20 feet
::+2 racial bonus on Climb, Jump, Listen and Move Silently.
::+1 racial bonus on all saving throws.
::+2 morale bonus on saves against fear, which stacks with the +1 racial bonus above.
::+1 racial bonus an attack rolls with thrown weapons and slings.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Rogue]]

[[Kingdoms of Kalamar]] had an alternative halfling, the '''Golden or Amberhair Halfling'''. Creative and adaptive, they are named for their iconic rich golden-colored hair. They're considered to be more intellectual and scholarly than normal halflings.

::+2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -2 Strength
::Small
::Base Speed 20 feet
::Low-light Vision
::+1 racial bonus to all saving throws
::+2 morale bonus on saves vs. fear (stacks with above).
::Shared Heritage: +2 racial bonus on Innuendo checks made against other halflings.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Psion]]

===4th Edition===
In 4th edition, halflings benefited a lot from the defanging of Small, as well as from a surprising increase in mobility that bumped them up to the same speed as most Medium races.

::Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma OR +2 Constitution
::Size: Small
::Speed: 6 squares (30 feet)
::Vision: Normal
: Skill Bonus: +2 Acrobatics, +2 Thievery
::Bold: +5 racial bonus to saving throws against Fear.
::Nimble Reaction: +2 racial bonus to AC against Opportunity Attacks.
::Racial Power - Second Chance: Once per encounter, as an Immediate Interrupt to being hit by an attack, force the attacker to reroll their attack and use the second result, even if this forces them to miss.

===5th Edition===
Whilst 5th edition slowed them down compared to 4th, it didn't entirely hit them with the nerf bat.

::Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dexterity
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Vision: Normal
::Lucky: When you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check or saving throw, reroll the die and use the second result.
::Brave: You have Advantage on saves vs. Frightened.
::Halfling Nimbleness: You can move through the space of any creatrue that is a size category larger than you.
::Subrace: Lightfoot or Stout.

''Lightfoot:''
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Charisma
::Naturally Stealthy: You can attempt to hide even when only obscured by a creature at least one size category larger than you.

''Stout:''
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Stout Resilience: Resistance to Poison Damage, Advantage on saves vs. Poison.

==Sexy Shortfolk==
{{Monstergirls}}

You might be thinking that there's no way that halflings can be seen in a sexual light. After all, they're just miniature humans; nothing about that says [[monstergirls]], right? Wrong. That stature alone qualifies halflings for sexiness in the eyes of MG fans, whether they take the "legal [[loli]]" perspective or the [[shortstack]] perspective.

And, for once, it's not entirely unjustified. Halflings have been bonking [[dwarves]] (and, it's implied, [[gnome]]s) since the days of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], and the Tallfellow halfling race has always been described as "suspiciously" elven, to the point that many fans assume they're the halfling equivalent of [[Half-Elf|half-elves]]. And then there's a certain story in "Races of Destiny" which goes something like this:

"There once was a very beautiful halfling maiden, who attracted the love of both a dwarf and an elf. However, she was vain, greedy and a big slut, so she demanded that if they would have her, they'd have to share her. Her beaus reluctantly agreed, and for this crime of having two husbands, the gods cursed her. When she became pregnant, she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl who were clearly a mix of all three races. Ashamed and horrified, her husbands divorced her and went back to their own lands. Outcast and alone, the halfling abandoned her children, who grew up and, not knowing any better, married each other. And that's where [[human]]s came from."

Furthermore, halflings have a very strong association with large families; whilst of course D&D is never explicit about these things, halflings have always been obliquely noted as possessing large, sprawling families, which fits in with their [[hobbit]] origins. And, since halflings don't find their babies under cabbages, that implies that they're getting up to a ''lot'' of shagging in private; back in [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]], it was noted that a single halfling home might house up to 25 halflings in it, although that is partially due to their longevity (averaging between 150 to 250 years, depending on the subspecies) and their propensity for multiple generations to share the same household.

So, we have a race where the females look, depending on your interpretation, like either [[loli|adorable little girls despite being ready and willing to shag]] or [[shortstack|curvy women scaled down to easily handled size]], and which is canonically known both for getting it on with other species and for liking sex as much as you can in an officially G-rated game. So, saying that humans and halflings have the occasional hook-up really does make a lot of sense - especially given just how human they are in terms of nature, abilities and desires.

Really, what's not to love about a cute, pint-sized housewife who considers it a matter of pride to make sure every meal is delicious and the kids are brought up well?

==Notable Halflings==
* Bilbo Baggins, of Tolkien's Middle Earth. The original [[Hobbits|Hobbit]], the one that started it all.
** Frodo Baggins, Bilbo's cousin and adopted heir. Was involved in the theft of and willful destruction of property (specifically jewellery) and murder; as the owner, Sauron, died of mental anguish. No legal action taken. Fled the country to avoid prosecution. Final fate unknown.
** Samwise Gamgee, accomplice to Baggins in aforementioned theft, and hunting of endangered mammoth spider wildlife. After a generous donation of the Baggins estates by Frodo to his election campaign, he became mayor of the Shire. This was quickly followed by a name change to "Samwise Gardner" and coincidental loss of any records of any of his potential misdemeanors.
** Bullroarer Took, Great-Great-Great-Great Uncle of Bilbo Baggins. Most notable for his ability to ride a real horse and for inventing [[golf]] with a rabbit hole, a (non-golf) club, and the head of a goblin general while whacking it off his shoulders mid-battle.
* Belkar Bitterleaf, from Rich Burlew's Order of the Stick. Arguable, as Belkar is so fucking, eye-bleedingly awesome that he may, in fact, be a dorf. ("I am a sexy shoeless god of war!")
* Olive Ruskettle, a borderline [[Chaotic Stupid]] female halfling thief whose biggest claims to fame are stealing the name/reputation of a bard despite being "too chaotic to become a bard(!)" and helping to free the [[Saurial]]s from [[Moander]], in that order.
* Mazzy Fentan of [[Baldur's Gate]] fame, halfling quasi-paladin of justice who can and will break both your legs if you call her "cute."
* <s>Tasslehoff Burrfoot, beloved happy-go-lucky companion to</s>{{BLAM}} fuck [[kender]]s. Fuck them in the ear.
* That's more or less it. I mean, they're hardly the go-getters of heroic fantasy. Though admittedly sometimes they get involved in major events. If only because they wander into the planning tent in search of more food.
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_floresiensis#Discovery Flo] is not a fantasy character, but the nickname for the first fossil ''Homo floresiensis'' that was discovered, or to use there more widely known name the "Hobbit" (a possible name for them was ''Homo hobbitus''). Incredibly short Flo was determined to be 30 and yet only barely higher then three feet thus as the first member of the hobbit race we have discovered earns a spot on this list.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:2e_Halfling.jpg|The iconic Monstrous Manual halfling, showing its obvious hobbit roots.
Image:Lidda,_3e_Iconic_Halfling.jpg|Lidda, the iconic halfling character of 3e.
Image:Lidda tattoo.jpg|Lidda's got some strange tattoos.
Image:Elmore_Halfling_Rogue.jpg|3e started a definite trend to try and portray halflings as sexy-cute.
Image:Ravenloft 3e Halflings.png
Image:4ehalflings.jpg|[[4e]] halflings and their notable lack of hairy feet.
Image:Primal_Halfling.jpg|4e was determined to prove halflings could be badass too.
Image:5e_PHB_Halfling.jpg|5e decided to beat halflings with the ugly stick in order to move them away from 4e.
Image:5e Halfling Ranger, Brynn Lightfingers.png|Though that might just be due to a really poor choice of main artists.
Image:Pathfinder Halfling Ranger.jpg|Being small does not mean halflings can't be creepy.
Image:Halfling Cavalier.jpg|A halfling wardog-riding [[cavalier]].
Image:PF Halfling Slave.jpg|Halfling slaves are a not-uncommon feature of darker/edgier D&D settings.
Image:PF Halfling Scout.jpg|Halflings make surprisingly good [[scout]]s.
Image:Halfling_Barwench_2.jpg|The context in which your party will likely encounter halfings.
Image:Hobbit_knight.jpg|Being short means you're just right height to [[Angry Marines|stab those fucks in the balls]].
</gallery>

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