Halfling

This page is about the player species. For the monster, see Halfling (monster).

Halflings, so-named for being about half the size of humans, live simple lives and have simple pleasures. They keep to their small villages, preferring a pastoral existence over bustling cities, lofty towers, or deep dungeons. Sometimes, however, a particularly restless halfling will leave its village in search of adventure. Contrary to some stereotypes, they have a slow metabolism and can survive on less food than most species.

As adventurers, halflings have to work around their small size. They are unable to wield large weapons and have more difficulty with armour than larger races. On the other hand, they can use Short Blades well and are good at all forms of missile combat. They are also more robust than other species of the same size, and are adept at using shields. They are very stealthy and good at Dodging and Stabbing. The path of religious devotion is also open to them, but they arent very good with many magic schools, except Charms, all the elemental schools and Translocations. This makes them very good at learning support spells to complement their abilities. They advance in levels as rapidly as Humans.

Innate Abilities

• Slow Metabolism 1: Halflings burn through satiation levels more slowly than most species.
• Mutation Resistance 1: Halflings resist 66.6% of all mutation effects.
• Halflings are small creatures. The following weapons are too large for them: bardiches, battleaxes, dire flails, executioner's axes, glaives, great maces, great swords, halberds, longbows, scythes, triple swords, giant clubs, giant spiked clubs, javelins, and throwing nets. One handed weapons like magical staves, broad axes, tridents, demon tridents and double swords are two-handed weapons to them.

Preferred Backgrounds

Halflings are among the less versatile species in the game, and work best as Hunters, Assassins, Berserkers, Skalds, Warpers, Arcane Marksmen, Enchanters, Air Elementalists, and Artificers.

Level Bonuses

• Halflings gain 3 magic resistance per level
• Halflings have 10% less HP than average
• Halflings have average MP
• Halflings gain +1 dexterity every 5 levels

Starting Skills and Equipment

Halflings start with the equipment and skills listed for their background, with these exceptions:

• Throwing nets are replaced by stones.

Difficulty of Play

Halflings are a fairly easy species to play because of their excellent aptitudes in all ranged combat skills as well as the "nimble assassin" skills (Short Blades, Dodging, Stealth, and Stabbing). Halflings also have a slow metabolism, which makes hunger less of a problem.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	-1	Armour	-2	Spellcasting	-3
Short Blades	3	Dodging	2	Conjurations	-2
Long Blades	0	Stealth	4	Hexes	-1
Axes	-1	Stabbing	0	Charms	1
Maces & Flails	-2	Shields	1	Summonings	-1
Polearms	-3	Traps	0	Necromancy	-2
Staves	-2			Translocations	1
Unarmed Combat	-2			Transmutation	-4
		Fire Magic	0
Throwing	3	Ice Magic	0	Invocations	1
Slings	4	Air Magic	1	Evocations	2
Bows	2	Earth Magic	0
Crossbows	-1	Poison Magic	-1	Experience	1

History

Halflings were much improved in 0.6. This update improved their Shields proficiency and HP/level, and also made slings more useful through the addition of branded bullets.