Editing Halfling (section)

=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 Tolkien's [[Hobbits]]. In the First Edition AD&D ''Player Handbook'', their names are little more than literal translations of Tollers' 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. Only later did other designers look at the plagiarism and decide to do differently.

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 given 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 were reverted to no more than renamed Hairfoots in 5th edition.

The Tallfellows (taken from Tolkien'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. Per the name, they are distinctly taller than the other halfling subraces (the sole Tallfellow contribution to the 4E halfling was the boost in height noted above). They've effectively been erased from relevance as of 5e, which explicitly lumps them into the Hairfoot statblock, eliminating any mechanical distinction they had from Lightfoot/Hairfoots.

The Stouts (taken from Tolkien'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 they live longer than Hairfoots, but not as long as Tallfellows. One trait they have which isn't connectable to dwarves or Hairfoots, but instead shows their origins as Tolkien's Stoors, is that they have a highly unusual appreciation for water. In AD&D, Stout-holes (which tend to be unpleasantly dark and damp by Hairfoot standards) are usually built within or close to riverbanks, fish is an important part of their diets, and the race is famous for its skill at building and piloting small boats. 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". Second Edition floated a subrace in [[Taladas]] who take this to grimdark levels, the Marak; these suspect everybody and everything of trying to kill them.

The Blacklings appeared in the [[Fiend Factory]] for ''[[White Dwarf]]'' #44 in August 1983. They're [[Drow|black-skinned photonegatives who live underground and are evil]] and ... HEY COME BACK

Perhaps grimmest and darkest of all are the Rhulisiti of [[Dark Sun]]. Athasian Halflings have degenerated from the heights of glory. These dusky-skinned tribals jealously guard their home in the Ringing Mountains, hunting everything that isn't one of their own kind -- including fellow sapients: using druidic magic, stealth, [[psionics]] and poison. These owe much more to pygmies and to other xenophobic equatorial human tribes (in all fairness, ''their'' xenophobia was well justified) than to Tolkien. Amusingly, virtually all other sapient races in the setting are descended from them in some fashion.  [[Rajaat]], the villain who caused the events that turned Athas into a desert was a loony who wanted to wipe out all non-Rhulisiti even though he wasn't one himself because he thought it was wrong for them to diverge into different races.

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.

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. They first showed up in a [[Spelljammer]] adventure, part of the boxed set ''The Legend of Spelljammer'', and then were made a playable race in [[Complete Book Series|The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings]], which expanded upon their meager details by naming their homeworld... not that anyone actually remembers them.

[[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. They are very likely based on the diminutive Wolfrider elves of Wendy Pini's "[[ElfQuest]]" comics, who also live as isolated hunters and speak to each other telepathically. However, this has not yet been confirmed by any WOTC employees.

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 renowned for their brilliance and thoughtfulness.

The halflings of [[Mystara]] call themselves "Hin", a name which was subsequently co-opted for them in the [[Forgotten Realms]]. They have their own nation, the Five Shires, which was covered in the 8th of the [[Known World Gazetteers]]; unusually for halflings, they actively protect themselves, having not only a strong local army in the form of halfling militias, but even their own navy of halfling [[pirate]]s. Yes, you heard us right. Mystara was a really ''weird'' setting. When within the Five Shires, hin not only have a natural resistance to emotion-manipulating magics, but those who've reached 5th level can attempt to counterspell any kind of magical attack once per day, and hin clans pool their collective spirits to create a magical energy called "blackflame", which not only freezes instead of burning, but can be manipulated by halflings to achieve magical defenses and create magical items. They also have a somewhat Amish-like tradition of ''Yallara'', which is a culturally reinforced tendency for teenage halflings to get really strong wanderlust and go off to become [[adventurer]]s - they still do the "down to earth folksy thing", but that comes ''after'' they've been out, seen the world, and raided a few dungeons. Frankly, the fact that peace-loving [[human]] and [[elf]] [[wizard]]s tend to settle down in the Five Shires and will do violence to protect their peaceful lives almost seems like overkill.

The [[Jerren]] are a super evil offshoot of lightfoot halflings who are, like Athasians, known for poison. Pygmies again.

[[D'hin'ni]] are a [[planetouched]] branch of the halfling family native to the [[Forgotten Realms]]; they are the result of interbreeding between lightfoot halflings and [[djinn]], creating a race of diminutive air [[genasi]].