Halfling Constitution

[Ergorion]

I posted this in the Discrete Suggestions forum a while ago because I was afraid about getting flamed by Clifton or Pip, but now I've decided to open this up to the public ('cause the post didn't get validated).

I've just finished The Lord of the Rings trilogy and I’ve just finished playing a Halfling ranger. I had watched the movies before reading the books and remember thinking that hobbits, Frodo in particular, were wimps. Reading the books, however, showed me that hobbits are, in fact, quite the opposite of wimps. Therefore, I suggest that the constitution of halflings be raised to 22. I don't know if this has been tried before, but if it hasn't, I have several reasons why I think it should be tried now.

1) A quote from the book, "They are a remarkable race," said the Warden, nodding his head. "Very tough in the fibre, I deem.” (The Return of the King, pg. 150). This was in reference to Merry’s recovery from his blow to the most powerful Wringwraith of which he merely suffered the shadow and a very cold arm whereas the Lady Eowyn suffered the shadow and a broken arm.

2) One of the main perks to playing a Halfling has been the innate mastery of steal. Raising the constitution of Halflings, thereby increasing the ability of their shield block, would increase the amount of players who would play mostly Halfling warriors and a bit less Halfling rangers, for the increased constitution would not aid Halfling thieves with respect to shield blocking.

3) By raising the Halflings constitution to 22, the overall Halfling stat score would stand even at 100, which seems to be, with werebeasts and close enough for humans, a common overall stat score.

[kento]

I'm pretty certain halfling con used to be higher... Wis was higher too, but they changed it as well.

[E-ant]

Everyone goes through that phase sooner or later. "Please make the race/class that I'm playing better cause it really sucks ass." After playing a while you'll realise that you should've just gone human like everyone else.

[Davairus]

There is another scene where he gets knocked senseless by a troll, and is only saved by some extremely tough mithril armor. So its not reasonable to go buffing their con to near dwarf levels. They just aren't that kind of tough.

Frodo's toughness against shadow (and the effects of the One ring) is represented in AR's halflings by the granted maledictive resistance.

[_Clifton_]

[Esivole]

I wonder if anyone ever seriously took the nice approach to explaining things.

though dav's explanation was rather affective.

[Faelon]

[Xerties]

Clif, you're using far too many full words. I'd like to see you using more acronyms, you simply don't have enough of them.

[_Clifton_]

[_Clifton_]

[Kedaleam]

[pip]

[Grayden]

Dear Clifton,
It has come to my attention that DnD books being found in the reference section has confused you. I am glad to see you have a library card, but you might as well use any D20 system book if you think DnD is a standard for all fiction.

xoxo,
Grayden

[Vanisse]

[Faelon]

Clifton, good point. I agree with you. I simply thought your telling him to refer to a fictional novel and saying to steer clear of a fictional novel, was funny.

[Viggs]

I like pie

[Davairus]

I dont' think there is any mystery here - Ergorion is rather new to the realms and just forgot (or didn't notice) that halflings already have a pretty solid resistance to negative to represent what he was requesting. He put forward a suggestion that has a point, but the scope is too broad. It really does lie best in the resists/vulns of races, which are a hp bonus against some specific agent in mind.

Well, think about it. The hobbits resist the effects of the one ring, which makes them good at ringbearers. Humans just succumb to its urges, which is why they use otherwise-crappy hobbits for the task. You wouldnt think about backing Frodo in a fight against Aragorn. There are many times in the novel when the author showed this quite clearly, which includes Boromir (described deliberately as physically intimidating to Frodo) lusting for the ring, and also includes Frodo taking a stab from a shadow blade and resisting its magical effects. You will also notice that despite their resistance, hobbits will still suffer long-term affects from being ring bearers (Gollum and Bilbo). And you will also notice that when Bilbo/Frodo does some of the cooler stuff, people are generally amazed, and he gets respect from humans and weird looks from his townfolk. They dont just say "oh its because he is a hobbit". Their limits are well defined.

You might also see in the Lord of the Rings, the dwarves dont like swimming, and so in AR they have a vulnerability to water-based damage. The game is definitely inspired by the novel and takes many of its considerations into account.

On the other hand, you are not going to find a scene in the novel where hobbits just go into blind rage and beat the crap out of somebody. And we are not going to have halflings on AR with 1000 hp doing that. Giants are more suited for that and they have mental vulns. You can definitely pick a race that suits the playing style you had in mind.... duergar thief for combat finesse for instance, and like e-ant said humans are always a nice choice. Halflings are more like escape artists.

[E-ant]

Some odd censorship going on here...

[Ergorion]

[E-ant]

my bad then