Possibly Ten
Knight Champion
Hopefull CEP new weapon type!
Posts: 805
|
Post by Possibly Ten on Aug 8, 2009 17:41:10 GMT -5
DESCRIPTION
Halflings are short and wiry, standing about 3 feet tall and weighing between 30 and 35 pounds. Females are slightly shorter than males, but no less strong. Their bodies are well proportioned, though their heads are somewhat elongated compared with those of humans. They are longer-lived than humans are, reaching maturity at 20 years of age and often living well past the age of 100.
Most halflings have ruddy skin, dark eyes, and straight black hair, though lighter shades of hair are known in many societies. Males often wear sideburns, though they almost never grow beards or mustaches. All halfl ings prefer to wear their hair long, often braided or styled in some distinctive way. Their features are more delicate than those of humans, and their ears are elongated and slightly pointed.
From Races of the Wild source, page 39
|
|
Teneas
Archer
Players DM
Following you when you don't know.
Posts: 61
|
Post by Teneas on Aug 8, 2009 17:49:19 GMT -5
CLOTHING
Halflings prefer simple, comfortable clothing that can stand up to mud, blood, rain, snow, and the wear and tear that comes with the traveling life. The fabrics come from natural sources, most commonly wool, linen, and cotton. Halfl ings often use leather in their garments to lend strength and weather resistance. This leather is usually made out of cow, horse, or goat hide, and it may be either thin and supple or thick, inflexible, and sturdy, depending on its desired use. Fur is rarely used, and then only for trim or for warmth, usually in the form of entire animal skins used as blankets.
Halflings make many of their own textiles, but they often obtain additional supplies of finished cloth from other races through either trade or outright theft. Most halflings express their individuality by wearing brightly colored clothes in flamboyant styles. Multihued garments are common, and patterns range from the geometric to the abstract. When halflings color their own fabric, they use dyes made from plants they have gathered along the trail.
When they trade for finished cloth, they seek out jewel tones and patterned fabrics of every shade. Many halflings also keep a plain black or brown outfit to be used for clandestine activities at night. Most adult halflings also own a plain, dark-colored, voluminous cloak that they can wrap around themselves when hiding.
Halflings see their clothing as an extension of personal style. A halfl ing of either gender may wear a loose-fitting tunic with billowing, slashed sleeves belted over somewhat tighter trousers, plus a leather or fabric vest. Fastenings may be made of metal, polished wood, or carved bone or ivory; leather laces are also common. Halfl ing women often wear peasant-style blouses belted with bright fabric strips over one or more long, swirling skirts in jewel-bright colors. Clothing is typically decorated with embroidery, often in a geometric pattern representative of a particular clan; leather vests and boot tops are often embossed.
Halflings of both genders wear their hair in numerous braids or bound into ponytails and other styles with strips of dyed leather. Many cover their heads with brightly colored scarves or large hats to keep the sun from their eyes. Jewelry, the brighter the better, is popular with both males and females, and any halfling may wear earrings, one or more necklaces, bracelets, or rings, and hair ornaments at the same time, with little regard for how the accessories look together.
Most halfling jewelry is made of carved wood, brightly colored glass, wooden beadwork, or hammered gold or silver set with gems. The style is usually handsome and heavy, though not as squarish as the jewelry of dwarves. Halflings often supplement their own adornments with pieces of jewelry appropriated from other races.
Many halflings wear sandals when the weather is fair, but most also own sturdy leather boots for use in inclement weather and on difficult terrain. All halfling clothing is styled for ease of movement and appropriate to the season. When quiet movement is called for, halflings sometimes wear oiled leather or soft fabrics to avoid making noise. Halflings living in large cities where another race predominates may adopt some aspects of the other race’s style, but they still prefer brighter colors than most other humanoids.
Races of the Wild source, pages 39-40
|
|
Teneas
Archer
Players DM
Following you when you don't know.
Posts: 61
|
Post by Teneas on Aug 8, 2009 17:54:18 GMT -5
A HARD-WORKING PEOPLE
The majority of halflings live in caravans that travel about the countryside, camping here and there for varying amounts of time before moving on. When a halfling caravan camps in or near a community of other humanoids, the halflings take care to make their stay as beneficial as possible to the settled people. Able-bodied adult halflings hire themselves out as temporary laborers, working for pay at any job from building to farming. They also offer a variety of services to any town near their encampment, working as cobblers, tinkers, peddlers, brewers, weavers, or whatever kind of crafters the town may lack at the time. Such an arrangement can continue for a few weeks, or even a few years, before the halfl ings pack up their camp and move on.
Halflings also tend to distribute favors liberally within a nearby community, knowing that should any trouble arise, they will have plenty of staunch supporters to defend them from unfounded (or even founded) accusations. Such favors can take the form of aid to people in need, discounts on services for those who have little to spend, and small gifts to people who have treated them especially kindly—or unkindly. In this way, halflings make themselves welcome wherever they choose to camp.
Halflings who work for pay treat the income they receive carefully, feeding their families first and squirreling away the rest of their spoils in their wagons until they can cache it in a secure place—preferably with a trustworthy settled halfling.
Races of the Wild source, page 40
|
|
Teneas
Archer
Players DM
Following you when you don't know.
Posts: 61
|
Post by Teneas on Aug 8, 2009 18:02:10 GMT -5
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LAW
Owning only a minimal amount of property themselves leads halflings to look at others’ possessions differently from the way that most races do. To many halflings, the property of others is but another resource that they can exploit. They can earn it with honest labor, trade for it, or mine it for themselves—by stealing. Of course, each halfling is an individual; some find it easiest to be scrupulously honest, while a few are thoroughly dishonest. Most, however, have just a trace of larceny in their souls. When they need food or money and have no easy way of obtaining it, they feel free to help themselves to the goods of those who, in their opinion, have more than they need. They are also happy to cheat others out of their wealth by various means. Every classic confidence scam—from the old shell game to hawking fake love potions to selling land they don’t own—is perpetrated by most halfling clans on outsiders at some time. To the halflings’ way of thinking, someone foolish enough to think that anyone can get something for nothing deserves to get nothing for something. Nevertheless, halflings always ensure that some of their transactions are real and honest, and that some “customers” actually profit from dealings with them. Then, should those they have cheated actually discover the duplicity, plenty of other people will be available to defend the halflings and obscure the issue until they can escape.
Halflings who appropriate the property of others or cheat customers realize that they are breaking local laws and that such practices do not endear them to their neighbors. But as long as they don’t get caught and no one comes to harm from such an incident, they do not consider it wrong. After all, from the halflings’ viewpoint, the world really does owe them a living.
This free and easy attitude regarding others’ belongings, combined with halflings’ innate charm and willingness to help, causes other races to regard them with a mixture of doubt, exasperation, and bemusement. A town heavily damaged by floods or storms may welcome the aid of a halfling caravan while rebuilding, then become cold toward the halflings when the crisis is over. The halflings understand such shifts in attitude and move along when it is clear they are no longer wanted, taking care never to burn their bridges or give a town actual cause to hate their kind. It is always to the benefit of any group of halflings to ensure that future caravans to visit a town will be welcomed, because one of those caravans might be their own.
Races of the Wild source, pages 40-41
|
|
Teneas
Archer
Players DM
Following you when you don't know.
Posts: 61
|
Post by Teneas on Aug 8, 2009 18:05:54 GMT -5
PERSONAL EXPRESSION
Though they are less fiercely individualistic than elves, half lings do feel a strong need for personal expression. Their choice of clothing refl ects this attitude, as does their enjoyment of various arts and crafts. Halflings usually speak their minds openly. A half ling who disagrees with someone else’s statement nearly always says so—usually politely, though a heated argument can lead some to forget their manners. Half lings freely express their emotions within their own communities, though their experience with duplicity prompts them to temper their reactions when dealing with other races.
Personal privacy is almost nonexistent in a caravan. A whole family usually dwells in each wagon, and neighbors can change from day to day, depending on how the camp is arranged. Conversations in one wagon can rarely be overheard in another while on the road, but such is not always the case at a campsite. Thus, everyone tends to know everyone else’s business, and anyone feels free to offer advice to anyone else. Personal space is likewise almost nonexistent. Halfl ings constantly wander in and out of one another’s dwellings to chat or examine each other’s belongings. Sometimes the stories of how certain objects came into the possession of a halfling can take hours to tell and provide entertainment for a whole clan.
Races of the Wild source, pages 41-42
|
|
Teneas
Archer
Players DM
Following you when you don't know.
Posts: 61
|
Post by Teneas on Aug 8, 2009 18:14:29 GMT -5
Lightfoot Halflings
The folk of Faerûn are more familiar with the lightfoot hin than with either of the other two subraces, primarily because the lightfoots are the most numerous and widely traveled of all the halflings. Nearly every human community of any size larger than a village has at least a few halfling residents. When most Faerûnians think of halflings, the lightfoots are the people that most often leap to mind.
Outlook
Lightfoot halflings may be the most common of all the subraces, but their behavior is also the most varied. It’s impossible to describe the “typical” lightfoot halfling because, much like humans, the race embodies individuals that are the absolute antithesis of one another. This diversity of behavior is mirrored in a diversity of outlooks: Some halflings adopt views and beliefs about the world that are very close or even identical to whatever human community they happen to dwell in, while others retain distinctive points of view that separate them from other races and groups (including other halflings). It’s not uncommon to meet halflings who, because they spend the greater part of their lives roaming from place to place, have outlooks that are amalgams of those from multiple cultures and environments.
The aspect of the lightfoot outlook that most nonhalflings notice, however, is that they are the hin subrace that is most likely to wander out of an innate desire. It is not unknown for individual lightfoot halflings or even entire families to decide that, after living in the same place for decades, they want to move on to someplace else. Some learned folk speculate that the lightfoot hin experience a habitual need to see many different places and enjoy a variety of experiences. Other sages and loremasters wonder if the lightfoot penchant for the semi-nomadic lifestyle is socialized behavior, learned from centuries of practice. These scholars theorize that the lightfoot hin who left Luiren because of the Ghostwar massacres were unable to find a new homeland that suited them as well, so they wandered. After so many hundreds of years of wanderings, the behavior is now natural to the lightfoot hin, or so this school of thought holds. Whatever the case, there’s no denying that many lightfoot halflings seem determined to see a great deal of Faerûn and have many interesting experiences during their lifetimes.
Lightfoot Halfling Society
Lightfoot halfling society is hard to quantify, because lightfoots can be divided into three groups: those who live among humans, those who live among other lightfoots, and those who wander from place to place. Some lightfoot halfling families live their entire lives in one place, sometimes as part of a human community, and sometimes in a settlement populated almost entirely by halflings. Others live their entire lives on the roads and byways of Faerûn, never remaining in one place very long.
Language and Literacy
Lightfoots speak Halfling, Common, and the language of their home region—which, given lightfoot wanderlust, could be almost anywhere. Wandering lightfoot halflings pick up the languages of the places they live, and often learn other widely spread tongues. All lightfoot nonbarbarians (the vast majority of the race, in other words) are literate.
Magic and Lore
Lightfoot halflings tend to be generalists when it comes to magic, using a broad array of spells and magic items to make their travels—or their hearths—more pleasant. They are skillful clerics and sorcerers, but sometimes lack the discipline to become accomplished as wizards.
SPELLS AND SPELLCASTING
Because they’re almost always fighting foes who are larger than they are, lightfoot halflings favor spells that help them move around the battlefield and negate the physical strength of their foes. Expeditious retreat, fly, haste, various polymorph spells, and especially Evard’s black tentacles are common spells in a halfling spellcaster’s arsenal. Some lightfoot halflings become so enamored of travel spells that they take the Hin Wandermage feat.
Races of Faerun source, pages 77-78
|
|
Teneas
Archer
Players DM
Following you when you don't know.
Posts: 61
|
Post by Teneas on Aug 8, 2009 18:25:30 GMT -5
Strongheart Halflings
The strongheart halflings are, like the ghostwise and lightfoot hin, native to Luiren. They trace their ancestry back to the same long-lost days as the other subraces, but unlike their cousins, the stronghearts elected to remain in their homeland following the events of the Hin Ghostwar. The legacy of Chand, the strongheart war chieftain who galvanized his tribe against the threat of the feral ghostwise, lives on today in a nation that both reinforces and defies many of the expectations nonhalflings have of this race.
Outlook
Prior to the Hin Ghostwar, the stronghearts were, like their brethren, mostly a nomadic hunter-gatherer people. During the centuries that followed that terrible conflict, however, the stronghearts gravitated toward a more agrarian-based lifestyle centered around permanent communities. But if the communities were stationery, the stronghearts were not, moving from established community to established community.
This strange duality of nature, consisting of a desire to move about freely with a liking for permanent structures and settlements, has produced some unusual outlooks among the stronghearts of Luiren. Their viewpoint stresses cooperation above all other traits, and the ability to work as a team is the most valued behavior in their land. Cooperation transcends many boundaries in Luiren, and even strangers of whom the locals are suspicious can earn themselves considerable credit and tolerance by demonstrating a willingness to cooperate.
Races of Faerun source, page 78-79
|
|