Halfling

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

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

Halflings, who are named for being about half the size of Humans, live in small villages. They live simple lives and have simple interests. Sometimes a particularly restless Halfling will leave his or her village in search of adventure. Halflings are very small but surprisingly hardy for their size, even having an innate resistance to mutagenic effects. They can use short blades and shields very well, are passable with long blades, and excel in ranged combat with slings. They are also very stealthy and dextrous, but are poor at magic (except for charms, translocations, and air magic). They advance in levels as rapidly as Humans. Halflings cannot wield large weapons.

Innate Abilities

• Mutation Resistance 1: Halflings resist 66.6% of all mutation effects (even beneficial mutation effects). This innate mutation resistance stacks with other sources of mutation resistance.
• 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, and javelins. One-handed weapons like magical staves, broad axes, tridents, demon tridents and double swords are two-handed weapons to them. They have more trouble with bucklers and kite shields, and can't use tower shields.
• Halflings, due to their small size, get bonuses to evasion and stealth (beyond just having good aptitudes in the relevant skills).

Halflings have a base Strength of 8, Intelligence of 7 and Dexterity of 9 (before Background modifiers) and have normal base magic points.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Fighter, Hunter
• Zealots: Berserker, Abyssal Knight
• Warrior-mages: Skald

Level Bonuses

• +1 dexterity every 5th level.
• 10% less hit points than average.
• +3 magic resistance per level.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Halflings start with all the equipment and skills listed for their background, with the following exception:

• Javelins are replaced with boomerangs.

Difficulty of Play

Halflings are a fairly easy species to play due to the fact that they have many benefits from their small size, with few drawbacks. As far as the small species go they are robust (only -10% HP) but still receive bonuses to EV and stealth, while also having fine aptitudes in dodging, stealth, and armour skills, among others. Halflings' innate mutation resistance occasionally comes in handy, as well, though it is far from the main draw of the species.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	-1	Armour	1	Spellcasting	-3
		Dodging	1
Maces & Flails	-1	Shields	1	Conjurations	-2
Axes	0	Stealth	2	Hexes	-2
Polearms	-1			Summonings	-2
Staves	-2	Invocations	1	Necromancy	-2
Unarmed Combat	-2	Evocations	0	Forgecraft	N/A
Throwing	0	Shapeshifting	N/A	Translocations	1
				Alchemy	N/A
Short Blades	2			Fire Magic	0
Long Blades	0			Ice Magic	0
Ranged Weapons	N/A			Air Magic	0
		Experience	1	Earth Magic	0

History

• Halfling aptitudes were rebalanced yet again in 0.19. Prior to this change, they had: Short Blades +3, Maces & Flails -2, Axes -1, Polearms -3, Throwing +3, Bows +2, Crossbows -1, Hexes -1, Summoning -1, Air Magic +1, Poison Magic -1, and Evocations +1. All other aptitudes were unchanged.
• Halfling stealth aptitude changed from 1 to 2 in 0.16.
• Halfling stats and aptitudes were rebalanced in 0.15. They also had Slow Metabolism prior to that version.
• Prior to 0.14, halflings could not use throwing nets.
• 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.