Attention Hobbit & Gnome Lovers!

[Tequila Sunrise]

I'm writing an rpg and can't decide how to handle small races. It annoys me how Small races in D&D have nearly identical mechanics than medium races, so here are my two options:

1. Hobbits, gnomes & company are small, but not Small sized. They're at the bottom end of the Medium size category and therefore have no special modifiers due to their size.

2. Hobbits, gnomes & company are Small sized, and have modifiers that make them decidedly weak in melee. These modifiers wouldn't be crippling, and each small race would have racial traits that make them good at other things, but playing a small melee character would be obviously sup-optimal even to new players.

So as small race lovers, which option would you prefer? If you choose the second, please give me ideas for what other knacks small races might have to make up for their poor melee ability. In other words, what would make you say "wow, hobbits/gnomes/whatever are cool in this game!"?

TS

[Lappy9000]

I'm writing an rpg and can't decide how to handle small races. It annoys me how Small races in D&D have nearly identical mechanics than medium races, so here are my two options:

1. Hobbits, gnomes & company are small, but not Small sized. They're at the bottom end of the Medium size category and therefore have no special modifiers due to their size.

2. Hobbits, gnomes & company are Small sized, and have modifiers that make them decidedly weak in melee. These modifiers wouldn't be crippling, and each small race would have racial traits that make them good at other things, but playing a small melee character would be obviously sup-optimal even to new players.

So as small race lovers, which option would you prefer? If you choose the second, please give me ideas for what other knacks small races might have to make up for their poor melee ability. In other words, what would make you say "wow, hobbits/gnomes/whatever are cool in this game!"?

TS

My opinions are highly biased, since I'm quite the fan or the little folk. Personally? The only thing I'd really like to change would be the fluff for the gnomes. Make them the wizards of the world, give the nature back to the elves (doesn't druid make more sense anyway?), and keep them from getting too silly.

D&D halflings are rugged and pretty cool. In Eberron they ride dinosaurs for crying out loud!

#2 is definitely the better choice in my opinion, otherwise what seperated a gnome from a dwarf? I'm not sure why you're trying to change things, though. Small and Medium using the same mechanics keeps things running smoothly. Tears of Blood had a veritable nightmare trying to write in a large-sized race with a +0 LA, which would have been so much eaiser if the mechanics were similar.

[DracoDei]

Give Gnomes +2 Int to make them better tinkerers and spell-casters and nobody will have room to complain about them not having a niche in an adventuring party (of course if you listen to some around here, that means they should be +1 LA, and I wouldn't know either way).

Another idea is to play up the tinkerer angle by making repeater crossbows martial weapons for them... for what that is worth...

Of course if you have "Clock and Steam" and just say that they are the only ones who can be Inventors (a class) that could also add flavor...

Hobbits... double the skill and save bonuses and maybe the bonus with thrown weapons? Tolkien's heroic halflings succeed for reasons that would be less than immediately apparent to someone meeting them...

[mikeejimbo]

My opinions are highly biased, since I'm quite the fan or the little folk. Personally? The only thing I'd really like to change would be the fluff for the gnomes. Make them the wizards of the world, give the nature back to the elves (doesn't druid make more sense anyway?), and keep them from getting too silly.

Hear hear! I'm writing up a campaign setting, and I do this to the gnomes. (Though, interestingly, I make them more like dwarves. The dwarves and gnomes are closely related in this world, in fact, they share the same genus. As an aside, humans, elves and orcs also share a genus, and their species are more like subspecies of the same species, given the interbreeding options available for humans.)

[Tequila Sunrise]

My opinions are highly biased, since I'm quite the fan or the little folk.
Great! I'm much more interested in the opinions of players who love little characters than those who rarely play them.

TS

[Glooble Glistencrist]

For the Hobbit, I don't think they have to suck in a melee. You can make them very weak, but quick and hard to hit, and there will still be a number of classes for which they will qualify.

[Baron Corm]

Races in general aren't handled very well in 3e. The only PHB race that will make much of a difference past the first few levels is human. However, the difference is enough to make it so that many rogues are halflings, and few fighters are. They get a smaller die size weapon, but bonuses to Dexterity, Hide, and Move Silently. I don't see how you could change it without either overpowering halflings or changing the whole race system.