Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.

Halflings have existed since the beginning of D&D. Though they don’t appear among the original classes, IIRC they were introduced in a very early supplement. Their original inspiration is of course Tolkien’s hobbits. Early halflings were exactly like hobbits, though this changed as editions went on.

In 4e they appear as a playable race in the PHB, and have entries both in the Monster Manual and Monster Vault.

The Lore

Like the halflings of most other editions, those in the implied setting of Fourth have no nation to call their own. The big difference here is that they’re not alone in this, as it’s also true of a lot of others.

Halflings most often live in other people’s cities. Their own settlements are always built on the margins of rivers, and make extensive use of them for both food and transportation.

Barges full of nomadic halfling traders are a common sight in any city near a river, which tend to treat them like a mixed blessing because those caravans are also the source of the halfling’s reputation for petty larceny in addition to the usual goods and news from afar.

Halfling culture places great value in facing the world with a smile. A halfling will present a friendly demeanor when faced even with the most intimidating behavior, and will try to talk their way out of trouble if at all possible. When things get more serious than that, though, so do they. Despite their small size, they’re clever and fearless fighters.

Judging from the art in the books, halfling fashion tends to diagonal patterns in their clothes and armor. They wear their hair long and often braided, and may sport tatoos with water or fish motifs.

The Numbers

Halflings are Small Natural Humanoids with Speed 6. Their signature traits as “monsters” are the same ones for the PC version: a +5 bonus to saves against fear, and a trait called Nimble Reaction which gives them +2 to AC against opportunity attacks. They also get the PC version’s +2 bonus to Acrobatics and Thievery.

The MM halflings also get the same Second Chance encounter power as PCs, a reaction which forces an attacker that just hit them to reroll their attack and go with the second result. MV halflings lack this.

The stat blocks we get here all seem to represent rogue-types, with mobile combat styles focused on precision strikes with light blades. As usual for playable races, the ones in the MM have an alignment of Any, and the ones in the MV are Unaligned.

Halfling Slinger (MM)

Slingers are Level 1 Artillery with 22 HP and all common MM halfling traits. They’re trained in a bevy of skills: Perception, Stealth and Thievery.

They fight in melee with a dagger but prefer ranged combat with their slings. Every once in a while they can fire off a Stone Rain (recharge 5-6) which allows them to make three sling attacks at a -2 penalty.

They deal “sneak attack” damage on ranged attacks if they have combat advantage, and have a Sniper trait that allows them to remain hidden if they miss a ranged attack from hiding.

A unit of slingers will try even harder to hide itself than a unit of elven archers, and they’ll all open up with Stone Rain from hiding. Combat advantage will mean they attack without penalty and do extra damage if they hit, and Sniper will mean they stay hidden if all attacks miss.

Halfling Stout (MM)

This isn’t a type of ale, but rather a Level 2 Minion Skirmisher armed with a short sword and a sling. It has all halfling signature traits, and likely represents an average halfling citizen taking up arms to defend their home.

Halfling Thief (Both)

The source of that reputation for petty larceny, or just a veteran combatant from the Stout ranks. Halfling Thieves are Level 2 Skirmishers with 34 HP and all signature traits. It’s trained in Acrobatics, Stealth and Thievery.

They fight with daggers both in melee and at range, and can execute a Mobile Melee attack that allows them to move without drawing opportunity attacks and attack at any point along the movement. The MM version moves 3 squares in this way, and the MV one moves 4.

The MM version can perform sneak attacks in melee, and the MV version can perform them both in melee and at range.

Halfling Trickster (MV)

This Level 3 Lurker has 35 HP and all MV signature traits. It’s trained in Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, and Thievery.

Tricksters fight with a shortsword, which does roughly two and a half times more damage if the halfling is hidden from the target when it attacks. If the trickster ends a turn in which it didn’t attack with partial cover of concealment from a creature, it automatically hides from that creature for a turn. That sets up its lurker routine.

If no cover or concealment is readily available, the trickster can make its own with an at-will Smoke Pellet (Area Burst 1 Within 10; minor action) that lightly obscures the targeted area for a turn.

Halfling Prowler (MM)

A seriously elite thief, this is a Level 6 Lurker with 52 HP who should really be a skirmisher. It has all MM signature traits and training in pretty much all thiefy skills.

The prowler fights with a short sword and a hand crossbow, both of which have secondary attacks against Fortitude that deal ongoing poison damage and slow (save ends both).

It also has two additional passive traits: Catfall to reduce the height of any fall by an effective 20 feet, and Crowd Shield to give it AC and Reflex bonuses when adjacent to one or more creatures: +2 if only one, +4 if two or more.

I think the intent here is that the prowler doesn’t get the bonus if the only creature adjacent to it is the attacker, but play it however you want.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

We have no less than three sample encounters:

  • Level 2: 4 halfling stouts, halfling thief, 2 guard drakes, 1 needlefang drake swarm. A patrol protecting the village… or the hideout.

  • Level 2: 2 slingers, 2 thieves, 2 guard drakes. Another one.

  • Level 6: 4 prowlers, 2 human berserkers.

I like these halflings. They have enough kender in them to be different from your usual Tolkien hobbits, but not enough to become annoying. Most notably they are not compelled to steal from the party and have enough sense to recognize dangerous situations and avoid drawing themselves or the party into them. It won’t prevent a bad player from doing those things anyway, but they can’t hide behind the “I’m just playing my character!” excuse.