Halfling Subraces

The Quintessential Halfling

The Quintessential Halfling

Author	Gareth Hanrahan
Series	Quintessential Series
Publisher	Mongoose Publishing
Publish date	2003
Pages	128
ISBN	1-906577-42-3
OGL Section 15	qhalf
Content Puller	{$content}

The material below is designated as Open Game Content

The vast majority of halflings belong to the main branch of the race, referred to sensibly as common halflings. However, common halflings can be divided into settled and travelling clans and the social differences between the two are notable enough for them to be considered different subraces even though there are no major physical differences between the two. Waterborn and Stoneborn halflings are also physically similar to their common kin, but have diverged significantly over the centuries in culture and outlook.

Finally, a small number of halflings are the scions of unusual or magical subraces, such as the Shadelings and Twistborn. These subraces are fully presented here for the first time. This chapter provides general guidelines on portraying the subraces and their society, outlook and members, as well as the necessary information for using them as Player Characters.

Settled Halflings

Settled halflings are a branch of the common Halfling subrace. Standing half the height of a man, they have brownish or reddish skin and dark hair. They are naturally agile and dextrous. Settled halfling tend to carry more body fat than their travelling kin and weigh 35 pounds or more on average.

Society

Settled halflings dwell either side by side with humans or some other race or else nearby in their own districts. Halflings never bother with establishing their own kingdoms and are quite happy to be ruled over by a non-halfling as long as they are not bothered too much. They are a trusting and open folk, quick to make friends and kind to strangers. They adopt much of the culture and outlook of their neighbours, but hold to their own traditions too. Halflings soon come to a comfortable balance of habits and beliefs no matter where they settle.

Comfort is very important to settled halflings. They appreciate good food (and plenty of it), drink (likewise), pipeweed, fine clothing and safety. That is not to say they are greedy, however, halflings firmly believe that a feast is best shared and are very egalitarian. The Halfling clan takes care of its members and no halfling will let their kin go hungry if they can avoid it. News travels quickly in halfling areas, as they are inveterate gossips and tattletales.

Halfling society is organised by clan. A clan normally consists of five to ten families, although the largest and most influential clans have hundreds or even thousands of members. Each clan has a single head, usually a matriarch. The head’s family are the ruling family of the clan while the clan head lives. New clan heads are chosen at a clan moot, although the position has become hereditary, or nearly so, in many clans. The clan head have many responsibilities, the most important of which is acting as official spokeperson for the Halfling community in dealings with whatever ruler the Halflings have settled under. Clan moots are famed for their politics and debate, as the halflings delight in gossip and trivia. Minor points of inheritance or discussion of an ancient clan oath can hold up the moot for days, giving more time for feasting and talking with long-lost relatives.

For the most part, settled halflings lead quiet, simple lives. They build either small, low buildings in the architectural style of the area or else dig comfortable and surprisingly airy burrows in the earth. Halflings have a knack for identifying demands and needs that no-one has filled, so they are often employed as specialist craft workers, makers of luxuries, cooks, artists or especially quick and nimble servants. In times of danger, they form into loose militia lead by the chosen champion of the clan head, but halflings are almost never warlike.

Settled halflings are almost always on good terms with their neighbours no matter what their race. The rare exceptions are usually due to culture clash. While halflings are quick to adopt many of the traits of whatever culture they settle in, there is an unyielding core of down-to-earth common sense and kindness inherent in the race. When it comes down to it, the most important question in life is; where’s the next meal coming from, followed closely by; who’s coming for dinner.

Player Character Information

Settled halflings are the standard halfling race described in SRD. They are more sedentary and peaceful than their travelling kin, but not so much that it warrants expression in game rules.

Travelling Halflings

The other branch of the common halfling group, travelling halflings are wanderers and itinerant labourers. They usually travel in brightly painted wagons, although some poorer families just tramp along the roads on foot. Their restless spirits keep them moving on, year after year. Sometimes, a travelling halfling family will cease their wanderings and become settled, but wanderlust can also overcome the most sedate settled halfling; these rare changes of mood ensure that the proportion of travelling to settled halflings is fairly constant.

A travelling halfling family know that they will be gone from a town within a few weeks. This results in many travelling halflings having a more relaxed attitude towards property and civility. They have a reputation as thieves and tricksters, a reputation that is often justified. Their thefts are rarely malicious, as they tend to target those who have too many worldly goods anyway and concentrate on the wealthy and powerful. Of course, stealing from the rich tends to quickly draw the wrath of the authorities and travelling halflings often find themselves driven out by town guards. Settled Halflings often find themselves pressed into fencing goods or hiding thieves on the run from the law; bonds of clan loyalty override the law of the land, so even the most honest settled halfling may find himself embroiled in crime.

Travelling halflings tend to be more self-reliant and better able to cope with danger than their settled cousins. The open road is often hostile and is plagued by bandits and monsters. Every travelling family has at least one member who is capable of handling a short sword or bow to fend off attackers. When the roads are especially dangerous, the families band together in war parties and wagon trains for safety. As a result of this somewhat bloodier lifestyle, travelling clan moots tend to concentrate less on gossip and more on practical issues. Some moots are even decided by knife-fights or contests of magic.

While many clans are either entirely settled or entirely travelling, some have members in both communities. By and large, both types of halfling get on fairly well. Usually, the travellers’ path is a huge circuit that visits each of their settled cousins’ homes in turn over the course of three or more years. Travellers often carry messages and news between stops, keeping clan members in touch and acting as an ad hoc postal system. Increasingly, however, there is tension between the two groups and many clans are in danger of fracturing along the settled versus traveller divide.

Travelling halflings tend to be more superstitious and aware of the supernatural. They specialise in petty magic and fortune telling, and have a much higher proportion of adepts, clerics and sorcerers among their ranks. In fact, as travelling halflings also have more rogues, they produce far more adventurers than settled halflings do. Adventuring is an honoured and respected profession among travellers.

Player Character Information

Travelling halflings are again the standard halfling race described in SRD.

Fey Halflings

The effulgent magic of the land of summer’s twilight slips into the prime material through cracked shadows and gates in the deep forests. It settles like dew on the landscape, infusing its chaotic nature into everything it touches. Sometimes, the wild faerie magic creates wonderful gardens of incomparable beauty or twists the land into a living nightmare. Sometimes, little outcrops of faerie push their way into the material world, folding space and time so that the fey folk may dance freely.

Sometimes, of course, ordinary people breathe in this wild magic and are changed by it. In the lingering starlight, they may seem almost fey themselves. Halflings touched in this manner are sometimes referred to as fey halflings, but are more often called tallfellows or elflings for their stature and delicate elven features.

Society

While there are whole families and clans of fey Halflings who have dwelt for generations in regions touched by faerie, most fey halflings are born to parents of other sub-races. The newborn child may be changed by fey magic or even be swapped with a changeling while still in the crib. Fey halflings behave much like their wholly mortal kin, although they are prone to drifting off into daydreams and have a much greater talent for magic. Fey halflings are not as concerned with ties of blood and kinship as other halflings are and their clan structure is much weaker and looser.

Fey clans often know of portals that lead to the faerie planes. Caravans pass between the worlds when the seasons change and the barriers are thin, bringing back odd treasures and faerie goods to trade. Fey Halflings find cities and most aspects of civilisations unpleasant, so they usually trade with other halfling clans who then bring the faerie treasures to other races. Fey clans never settle; they stay on the road and travel the twisting routes through the land that seem to trace patterns just on the far edge of meaning.

One of the most distinctive aspect of fey halfling society is their reliance on divination. Almost every decision is determined by a spread of cards or roll of the dice. The fey halflings insist, however, that they do not blindly follow the whims of fate. Instead, they claim that their true selves exist outside or ahead of what can be perceived and the divinations are a method of reconciling fey soul and mortal body. Whether this is true or just a quirky superstition is another mystery of the elusive fey.

Player Character Information

Fey halflings have the following characteristics:

• Personality: Fey halflings are wilder, most flighty and more chaotic than others. They have an impish sense of humour and enjoy trickery. While most are good-natured, they have a capacity for ruthlessness and cruelty that stems from being fundamentally different to other mortals. Fey halflings tend to be outgoing and inspiring, although they lead their followers and friends into trouble more often than not.

• Physical Description: Fey halflings are slightly taller and thinner than other halflings, looking much more like small elves. Their hair is naturally wild and spiky. Their features are either elven and quite delicate, or else alarmingly animalistic. Their eyes are always unnaturally bright and flecked with silver like tiny twinkling stars.

• Relations: Fey halflings can charm the most irritable half-orc if they want to. They tend to push the boundaries of friendship as far as they can, playing with travelling companions like a cat plays with a mouse and seeing exactly what it will take to infuriate each one. They get on best with other fey creatures. Some elves and gnomes share the fey nature, but others find the fey halflings annoying or even dangerous.

• Alignment: The vast majority of fey halflings are chaotic. Depending on their upbringing, they may be good, neutral or evil.

• Lands: The fey halfling clans claim no dominion in the mortal world. Their strangely decorated caravans wind their way through the land, wandering like silver clouds. If they have settled lands in the fairylands, no outsiders have ever been there.

• Religion: The fey chiefly venerate Maia and her daughter Amali. They fear the major halfling deity, Grandmother and see her as a cold goddess of age, winter and death.

• Language: Fey halflings learn Common, Halfling and the tongue of the Fey. They have a disconcerting tendency to be able to speak the latter language from an unnaturally early age. This is especially alarming when the fey child is born to common halfling parents. What seem like a baby’s melodious nonsense might actually be an ancient faerie rhyme that the child could not possible know or comprehend.

• Adventurers: Fey halflings born to common parents often go out into the world, seeking insight into their fey nature or simply looking for excitement. There are far more magic-users among the fey than among common halflings, as magic flows through faerie like water and sunlight.

Racial Traits

Fey halflings have the same traits as common halflings, with the following differences:
† +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution, -2 Strength: Fey halflings burn brighter than mortals do, but they are physically fragile.
† Spell-like abilities: Once per day, a fey Halfling may cast one of the following spells as if he was 1st level sorcerer. These are arcane spells and as such the halfling suffers spell failure penalties for wearing armour. The spells available are: dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation, true strike, charm person, change self, and silent image.
† +2 racial bonus to Use Magical Device checks.
† -2 to Clan Loyalty.
† Fey halflings do not have the usual Halfling morale bonus to saves against fear.
† Favoured class: Sorcerer or Rogue.

Pygmy

In some remote regions, the halflings are feral and deadly. They slip through the jungle with an animal’s stealth, striking from the green shroud of the forest with lethal poisonous darts. They sharpen their teeth, the better to feast on the living flesh of their victims. Even the most cosmopolitan common halfling would have trouble recognising one of these jungle warriors as being of halfling stock.

Society

Pygmy halflings are organised by clans just like their civilised kin. They build vast burrow-mounds modelled on ant-hills in the midst of the verdant jungle. In the depths of these earthen fortresses dwell the clan elders, such as the venerable and terrible clan matriarch and the clan witch-doctors and tribal sorcerers. The rest of the clan lives in the outer tunnels of the mound. Between the outer tunnels and the inner chambers are the pens, where captured outsiders are held before being eaten. The pygmy halflings feast on the flesh of other intelligent beings.

From these huge mounds, the pygmies swarm forth like fire-ants. Up to a third of the entire clan can go forth on a single hunting expedition, sweeping through the jungle and killing everything in their path. The pygmies are almost impossible to catch in their verdant home, so they can terrorise the surrounding lands without fear of retribution. They are skilled in group tactics and fighting more powerful beings. A mighty warrior might be able to defeat any pygmy halfling with ease in single combat, but the pygmies will never allow themselves to be trapped in such a situation. Instead, the mighty warrior will be peppered with poison darts until he succumbs to the venom. It is only when every enemy has been brought down or paralysed that the pygmies emerge from the forest, their sharp teeth gleaming in the green light.

The pygmy halflings use a complex system of tribal tattoos to denote status and clan membership. The combination of elaborate tattoos, shining sharp teeth and darting small shapes in the shadows of the trees makes a pygmy attack especially terrifying. They favour the blowpipe, but are also adept with small knives and hand axes.

Some jungle monsters such as spider eaters or wyverns have been tamed by pygmy tribes for use as mounts and war-beasts. Such flying beasts scout ahead of the war parties, looking for signs of civilisation or danger. They communicate with their ground-based kin either by magic or by dropping strong-smelling fungi wrapped with knotted vines. The stench allows pygmy scouts to find the dropped message contained in the symbolic language of knots. Some pygmy tribes have even managed to tame gargantuan tendrilocus plants and use them as mobile clan mounds.

Player Character Information

Pygmy halflings have the following characteristics; Personality: Feral and nasty, pygmy halflings see everyone outside the clan as nothing but a mobile meal. They have a great capacity for practical cruelty. Pygmy halflings have been known to herd travellers towards the clan mound just to save them the bother of dragging their carcasses through the jungle. To most civilised folk, pygmy halflings are nightmare jungle monsters without any redeeming qualities. However, the pygmies are little different to common Halflings when they acknowledge an outsider as anything more than a meal; they can be friendly, kind and loyal. They simply restrict their friendship and loyalty to their own kind and eat everyone else.

• Physical Description: Pygmy halflings are smaller and quicker than common halflings. They are often as small as two and half feet and weigh only twenty-five pounds. They file their teeth and nails to sharp points and cover

their bodies with tattoos. Higher-ranking pygmies shave their heads to add more tattoos. When out in the jungle, they camouflage themselves with streaks of green moss and mud, blending in invisibly with the greenery.

• Relations: Meat should be watched carefully, to find out its weaknesses. Common big meat is easy to catch and stupid enough to blunder into the jungle. Little big meat is often wrapped in iron and tough to shoot and even if struck by a dart, more often than not it is unaffected by the poison. Even if the poison brings little big meat down, it’s too hairy to eat. Just leave little big meat alone. Thin big meat is very tasty indeed, but often has dangerous magic. It should be attacked from ambush and with many warriors. Other meats should be watched and judged to see how strong they are and how many warriors it will take to bring them down. There is no meat so strong it cannot be brought down and eaten, but it is not always worth it.

Those brought into the clan, who have won honour and respect are not-meat and are treated like any other clan member.

• Alignment: Despite their rather antisocial attitudes and barbarism, pygmy halflings are no more evil than any other halflings. An evil pygmy can be a truly terrifying opponent, ruling over a fanatic army of lethal jungle fighters. Pygmy halflings tend to be extremely diligent and respectful of the clan laws, making them lawful.

• Lands: Unlike the other halfling sub-races, pygmy halflings never dwell in or near the lands of another race. Instead, they claim vast sections of the deep jungles and forests, marking their territory by carving versions of their tribal tattoos into trees. Anything that enters the jungle is fair game. In larger jungles with multiple clans, the land within a day’s travel of the clan mound is considered the exclusive territory of that clan. The rest of the land may be claimed by whichever clan is strong enough to hold it.

• Religion: The pygmy clans merge the common deities of the halflings with a form of ancestor worship. Thus, the Holy Grandmother may be identified with the founding matriarch of the clan, while Amar the Avenger is referred to by the same name as a legendary hero of the tribe. Other ancestors are also venerated, as are the spirits of particularly strong opponents. Cannibalism and head gathering are both important elements of pygmy religion. (See the Headhunter prestige class).

• Language: Most pygmies know a few words of Common, which they pick up by stalking and eavesdropping on travellers in the jungle. In their day to day lives, they speak a strange variant of the Halfling tongue. They commonly learn the languages of the other beings in the jungle.

• Adventurers: While the outside world is nothing but meat, the tribe elders know that meat sometimes has power. Once in every generation, each tribe sends out a handful of warriors to explore the world. These emissaries, or maathee, disguise themselves as little meat people, pretending to be common halflings. They live their entire life outside the jungle, returning only when they are about to die. Their spirits are then interrogated to learn about the outside world.

To ensure these emissaries do not forget their tasks and can return safely, they each carry a sacred amulet recognised by all pygmy halflings. Sometimes, a maathee fails to return. In such a case, a halfling is sent out to track down the emissary’s amulet and head. If a meat saves the life of a halfling, an exceedingly rare event, as most meat-folk are terrified of the pygmy halflings, the meat becomes a person. The Halfling saved owes his life to the new person and often travels as a companion for a time.

Racial Traits

† Pygmy halflings have the same traits as common halflings, with the following differences:
† -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma, -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution: Pygmy halflings are less educated than their civilised counterparts and being members of a group famed for eating people does not help their popularity. They are, however, hardier than civilised halflings.
† +1 racial bonus to blowpipe attacks. Pygmy halflings automatically gain weapon proficiency in blowpipes.
† +2 racial bonus to Hide checks made in the jungle or forest, but suffer a –2 penalty to Hide checks in other terrains.
† +2 racial bonus to Spot, Tumble and Survival checks.
† +2 morale bonus to all attacks and saves made while in the jungle.
† Pygmy halflings do not have the usual Halfling bonus to saving throws against fear.
† Pygmy halflings have two favoured classes: barbarian and rogue.

Shadeling

Hiding comes easily to them. Being found again is the tricky part.

The shadelings arise in the dark times, in war and famine, plague and oppression. When halflings are hunted or endangered and can only survive by desperately hiding in the shadows, they sometimes carry something out of the shadow with them when they return to the light. They are tainted by the stuff of shadow and cannot be fully perceived even when they are not trying to hide. The thoughts and memories of others slip off the shadelings they are quickly forgotten when they cannot be seen. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is not a proverb to the shadelings, it is the definition of their curse.

Society

Shadelings are resistant to their own memory-erasing ability, so they tend to cluster in tight clans and groups. It makes little difference to them to be settled or travelling, for the shadelings are always strangers, even to their neighbours. A shadeling family might dwell next door to a human for years and still every day would be a new meeting for the human. Some shadelings try to compensate by covering their homes in notices reminding passers-by of the shadeling’s existence. However, as shadelings are often accused of being demonspawn or in league with evil due to their shadowy natures, drawing attention to themselves often puts the shadelings in danger, forcing them to hide once again and driving them deeper into shadow.

The shadeling’s ability to hide, not to mention the fact that the guards can rarely remember them and so cannot chase them makes them excellent thieves. Theft is the only way many shadelings can survive, as finding employment is impossible when one’s employer forgets you exist every evening. They rarely join thieves’ guilds, preferring to act as independent agents. Shadeling assassins are especially sought after, although they must either establish a widespread and infamous reputation or else work with an agent who can remember them and broker deals.

Player Character Information

Shadelings have the following characteristics:

• Personality: Shadelings fall into two broad categories. Many are quiet and reclusive individuals, sharing no hint of their thoughts or emotions. Few people remember what they say anyway, so why bother speaking? Melancholy and loneliness tend to creep up on these unfortunates.

Other shadelings reason that if no-one remembers what they say, they may as well speak their mind. Brash and often rude, these shadelings will do or say whatever they please, knowing they need merely hide for a few minutes to avoid all the consequences.

• Physical Description: Shadelings are unmemorable. At the best of times, they blend in to the crowds, to the terrain, or to the shadows. Eyes pass over them without seeing. If an observer concentrates, they will see that the shadelings are thin, both physically lean and somehow also ephemeral, as if much of their form was made up of shadow. Their skin is mottled with bands of light and dark. They dress in simple, ill-fitting clothes often stolen from other halflings.

The Shadeling Curse
Simply put, people forget about shadelings very quickly. If a character has not seen a particular shadeling within the last minute (10 rounds), the character must make a DC 15 Wisdom check to recall anything about the shadeling. If the check is failed, the character is unable to remember any details about the shadeling (including the fact that the other character is a shadeling). Often, people forget that the shadeling even exists.

If the character meets the shadeling again, the memory of the shadeling will also return, dredged up from the deep recesses of the mind. It has been compared to the reverse of a charm person spell; instead of the character suddenly remembering the shadeling is a close and valued friend, he will suddenly vaguely remember meeting the shadeling somewhere, once.

The curse has some benefits. Shadelings can quickly avoid pursuit, as most guards will forget to chase them if the shadeling can stay out of sight for a few moments. They also make excellent spies. For the most part, however, the curse prevents shadelings from joining normal society.

The Shadeling curse is a Supernatural ability, although it has yet to be determined if it is due to magic, some power of the mind, an infusion of elemental Shadow, or some other effect. Shadelings get a +6 racial bonus to the Wisdom check for recalling the existence of other Shadelings. Characters can also take ranks in Knowledge (a particular shadeling character) and make a check using this skill instead of using their Wisdom modifier.

Constructs, outsiders and undead are immune to the Shadeling curse.

Shadelings are pained by bright light and try to avoid sunlight when they can.

• Relations: Almost every race and culture is largely neutral towards shadelings – after all, they barely remember them. Any group troubled by things of shadow

often distrust the shadow-tainted shadelings.

• Alignment: Shadelings are mostly neutral. Some give in to the lack of consequence that stems from having no history in the minds of others and are chaotic. A small proportion of shadelings try to be good; the rest are neutral or use their curse to serve evil ends.

• Lands: Shadelings have no lands to call their own. They settle where they can, or else travel in wagons covered with black shrouds to block out the harsh light of the sun.

• Religion: In shadeling tradition, Grandmother has turned her face from them. The black sheep Shaem and the eerie Road god are their chief deities, although many shadelings adopt human gods of shadow to worship. A sect of shadeling monks dedicated to winning Grandmother’s forgiveness exists, but has had no success in all their centuries of prayer.

• Language: Shadelings speak Common and Halfling with dry, whispering voices.

• Adventurers: Shadeling adventurers are common. Their curse can be useful when scouting or exploring dangerous locations and many adventurers have the strength of mind to actually remember the existence of the shadelings. Some shadelings search for a cure for the curse, others are in it solely for the money.

Racial Traits

Shadelings have the same traits as common halflings, with the following differences:
† -2 Strength, -2 Charisma, +2 Dexterity: Shadelings are obviously poor at social situations. They retain the small frame and agility of the halfling stock.
† +2 racial bonus to Hide checks: Shadelings are wrapped in shadow and very hard to see. This bonus stacks with the +4 size bonus to Hide checks.
† +2 racial bonus to Move Silently: Shadelings are even more stealthy than others of their kin.
† Low-light Vision: Shadelings can see twice as far as a human can in starlight, moonlight, torchlight and similar conditions of poor illumination.
† Light Sensitivity: Shadelings suffer a –1 circumstance penalty to all attacks and skill checks made while in sunlight or other painfully bright light.
† Shadeling Curse: All Shadelings suffer the Shadeling curse.
† Clan Loyalty +2.

Stoneborn

According to their tales, the stoneborn carry dwarven blood in their veins. Certainly, these mountain-dwelling folk resemble dwarves, although the truth of the legend has yet to be determined. Stoneborn halflings live either in sheltered mountain valleys or else in elaborate carved burrows in the living rock of the peaks.

Society

Stoneborn clans often settle in or near dwarven communities. Over time, the friendliness and irrepressible nature of the halflings win the trust of the normally iconoclastic dwarves and the two races live in comparative harmony. The stoneborn serve as traders and middlemen for the dwarves, selling fine stonework and metalwork to other races. The other Halflings claim that the stoneborn have picked up the trademark dwarven stony silence and standoffish behaviour and it is certainly true that stoneborn are slightly more quiet and sullen than their lowland kin. However, this trait is due to whatever ancient tragedy drove the stoneborn into the mountains in the first place.

The stoneborn sometimes send caravans down into the gnawed caverns that gape and twist deep below the world. These caravans, if they survive, establish trade routes and safe paths between the stoneborn communities and the folk of the world below.

Only stoneborn halflings are members of the stoneborn clans by birth; there are no stoneborn communities outside the mountains. Stoneborn clans tend to be sworn vassals of particular dwarven kings and the stoneborn are notorious for taking personal honour much more seriously that the average halfling.

Player Character Information

Stoneborn halflings have the following characteristics:

• Personality: While the other halflings deem the stoneborn the dourest of the race, it is usually only detectable by their kin. For the most part, stoneborn behave identically to the common halflings. The chief differences are that the stoneborn are noticeable more cautious, checking everything twice to before committing to anything. Also, while all halflings have surprising strength of will, the stoneborn are famously strong-willed and unyielding. Personal honour is deeply important to them.

• Physical Description: Stoneborn are paler than common halflings. They often grow beards, although these beards are of course never so flowing and lush as those of the dwarves. Perhaps in compensation, stoneborn halflings braid their beards, tie ribbons in them or dye them to look more impressive. Of all the halfling folk, stoneborn are the most likely to wear heavy armour.

• Relations: If they can endure the teasing of their kin, stoneborn get on well with other halflings. They obviously tend to have good relations with the dwarves. The gnomes usually view stoneborn as something of a disappointment, a perfectly good race marred by the pessimism of the dwarves. Stoneborn usually pick up the attitudes of their dwarven neighbours towards humans and elves; if the dwarves dislike the elves, the stoneborn try to do so too.

However, halflings are poor at holding personal grudges, so this dislike is often half-hearted. Wise dwarven kings often employ stoneborn as ambassadors and negotiators, although some think the stoneborn are nothing but halflings trying to emulate the dwarves.

• Alignment: Stoneborn are stoic and careful, so most are some variety of lawful, neutral or most commonly both. Very few are chaotic and those that are tend to become black sheep, or worse, exiled. The stoneborn’s devotion to honour means those banished from the clan are never even spoken of or acknowledged again.

• Lands: Stoneborn communities exist on the fringes of dwarven ones, although in a few cases the dwarves have gone or died out, but the halflings have remained. Stoneborn usually live in burrows or caves and keep farms on the high pastures in the mountains. Most stoneborn burrows are of dwarven manufacture, containing excellent masonry and the occasional nasty trap.

• Religion: Many stoneborn adopt dwarven religions, although they are rarely allowed knowledge of the inner mysteries of the dwarven faith and cannot become clerics. Ghem (the halfling forge god) has a very strong following among the stoneborn.

• Language: The stoneborn speak Common with a great number of dwarven loan-words and technical phrases. Dwarven runes are used when writing.

• Adventurers: Most stoneborn adventurers are black sheep, as the stoneborn folk are even more loath to travel than their settled kin. They can often be found in the company of dwarves; many dwarven paladins, for example, have a stoneborn squire.

Racial Traits

Stoneborn have the same traits as common halflings, with the following differences:
† -2 Charisma, -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity: Stoneborn are somewhat less outgoing than other halflings.
† +1 morale bonus to will saving throws: Stoneborn are more strong-willed in general. Instead of having a bonus to will saving throws against fear, they have a general +1 bonus to will saves.
† +2 to Clan Loyalty: Stoneborn are notoriously clan oriented, even by halfling standards.
† +2 dodge bonus against giants: The stoneborn learned some of the techniques of the dwarves for fighting giants. Note that any time a character loses his positive Dexterity bonus to Armour Class, he loses his dodge bonus too.

Twistborn

The twistborn are the most alarming offshoot of the halfling race. Sometimes, an otherwise normal Halfling clan or family can become twistborn within a generation.

Every child born to the bloodline anywhere in the world is different: psychically twisted and strange. As these eerie children grow, they replace their parents in positions of power within the clan. The twistborn breed true, so future generations are also twistborn. Some clan matriarchs are trapped and utterly powerless within their own families, as all their descendants and kin are utterly different and alien to her.

Twistborn are cold and cruel beings. Every twistborn member of a clan shares a constant telepathic bond. While this bond carries thoughts and images with perfect clarity, it also leeches emotion. If one twistborn feels joy, the bond instantly drains away the joy and divides it evenly among all of them, reducing and muting it to nothing more than a niggling sensation. The only way the twistborn can feel anything at all is either by doing something as a group, or else by doing things that provoke such incredibly intense emotions that the fraction experienced by each individual is still worth feeling.

Society

Twistborn have a remarkably stable clan structure for a race of inbred, sadistic telepaths. Their mental bond means that conflict or even disagreement between twistborn is rare. They are capable of working with terrifying co-ordination and efficiency towards a common goal. Such goals are usually the infiltration and domination of other communities. As the child of a twistborn is also twistborn, they can take over other halfling clans through marriage. The twistborn are patient but ambitious. Many twistborn clans can wait whole generations for a scheme to come to fruition.

Twistborn matriarchs can transfer their minds through the telepathic bonds, leaping from an old decaying body to the fresh host of a daughter’s form. They oversee the clan’s progress from generation to generation, growing jaded and therefore hungrier for fresh experiences and fresh emotions. These matriarchs carry their knowledge of magic with them, so they are often extremely powerful spellcasters.

Some twistborn are sent as scouts or agents to infiltrate a targeted city, community or organisation. Far from the clan the intensity of the telepathic bond diminishes, so the twistborn can for the first time feel the full intensity of an emotion. Such twistborn usually degenerate into monsters, delighting in inflicting pain that they can appreciate fully for the first time. To avoid such losses, most twistborn scouts are sent out in pairs or trios, so the group’s emotions are divided and muted by the proximity of other twistborn.

The child of a twistborn is also a twistborn, but some manage to avoid the taint of evil of their parents. Such rogue twistborn leave the clan at an early age; if they fail to do so, they are captured and imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Such unfortunates are then subjected to horrible tortures for the rest of the clan to experience vicariously.

Player Character Information

Twistborn halflings have the following characteristics:

• Personality: The twistborn seem dull and emotionless, which is true on the surface. Their lack of emotion is not because of any self-control; the telepathic bond shares all feelings equally among the clan, leaving the individual with only fleeting wisps of feeling. The twistborn hunger, in a cold, abstract, remembered fashion, for new emotion. They lack sympathy for anything that is not twistborn. Those few twistborn who do not wholly inherit the subrace’s innate darkness must carefully nurture any positive emotions they can muster to avoid falling back into evil.

• Physical Description: Twistborn are physically almost identical to common halflings. They tend to wear their hair long, covering their faces to hide their one distinctive feature, their unnaturally bright eyes.

• Relations: The twistborn have rather poor relations with other halflings and with most other races. The twistborn have become adept at acting like common halflings, but they must fake most emotions so their deceit cannot be detected by the wary. The twistborn ally with other evil races where they can, especially the drow.

• Alignment: Twistborn are usually neutral evil, devolving into chaotic evil when they can muster the emotion and lust for life. The race are cold and calculating by nature, not by choice.

• Lands: Like cuckoos, the twistborn breed into other halfling clans and take their lands. As the telepathic bond has a limited range, the clan must travel en masse or not at all. They prefer to take over small settlements that are fairly isolated, but still close enough to civilisation.

• Religion: The twistborn are rarely religious. They sometimes bargain with a deity in exchange for power, but have no respect for anything outside their clan.

• Language: The twistborn speak Halfling and Common, although both are only for show. They live in utter silence most of the time, communicating telepathically.

• Adventurers: Twistborn adventurers are usually either scouts or runaways. The twistborn most commonly become rogues or wizards, with rangers and fighters making up a significant proportion of the remainder.

Racial Traits

Twistborn have the same traits as common halflings, with the following differences:
† -2 Strength, -2 Charisma, +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence: Although small and rather off-putting, the twistborn are just as agile as other halflings. Their telepathic bond allows them to access the combined intellect of the clan.
† Mindscan: Twistborn can detect thoughts, as the spell, at will. The DC for the Will save to resist the spell is 12 + the Twistborn’s Intelligence modifier. If a character resists the spell, the Twistborn cannot attempt to detect that character’s thoughts again for 24 hours.
† Telepathic Bond: Twistborn can communicate telepathically with other twistborn within a range of one mile per point of Intelligence modifier. As described earlier, emotions are shared evenly by this bond.
† Twistborn lack the common halfling bonus to saving throws and skills.
† Favoured classes: Rogue and Psion.

Waterborn

Most halflings regard the water as something rather treacherous and suspicious. Swimming takes strength, a trait the halflings are hardly famed for. There are few hiding places on a boat and nowhere to escape to except overboard, into the water. Rivers and lakes are not places for common halflings, nor is the sea a place they feel comfortable in.

The waterborn halflings, however, have taken to the water like a duck. They adore messing around in boats and swimming. Most other halflings regard the waterborn with alarm and some even consider them an especially numerous and well-organised variety of Touched. The waterborn pay little heed to the murmurings of their land-bound kin and think of them as nothing but fearful stick-in-the-muds.

Society

Waterborn society mirrors that of common halflings, like the reflection of a green land in still blue water. Settled waterborn live either in holes on the riverbank or else alongside humans at river crossings or ports. Travelling waterborn live in gaudy houseboats and ply their trades up and down the rivers. Both groups commonly engage in nautical trades such as sailmaking or scrimshaw.

The waterborn clans are branches of the common clans, so a particular waterborn halfling might have close kin who are settled or travelling halflings. The waterborn pay great attention to clan symbols and heraldry. Waterborn ships always fly the flag of their clan. The waterborn are especially well known for their bards; in many halfling lands, the best songs are heard along the riverbank.

Halflings make excellent crew. Their nimbleness and climbing skills give them an obvious home amid the rigging of a sailing ship and their small size means that two or three halflings can live in the space required for a single human or elf. Every ship out of a port with a waterborn community carries at least one waterborn crew member; sometimes, just a cabin boy, but usually a navigator or lookout. The larger waterborn clans even build and maintain their own ships.

Halfling explorers can go further than humans can, as halflings are smaller, a boat built to their proportions carries more crew and has more space on board than a human vessel of equal dimensions. The waterborn also build tiny currachs, small woven boats, big enough for a single halfling. These agile craft can slip into the shallowest streams with ease. As the waterborn are able to travel across seas that are too wide and up rivers that are too narrow for human vessels, they often have rare good and wonders for trade.

Waterborn pirates are common. They usually attack using currachs, sailing up to other ships in the dead of night and climbing up to storm the target vessel. The waterborn have less of a sense of self-preservation than other halflings and willingly take risks that would freeze the blood of their more sheltered cousins. Perhaps as a result of this lack of foresight, the waterborn are also more prone to oath-breaking and take clan loyalty less serious than other halflings.

Player Character Information

Waterborn halflings have the following characteristics;

• Personality: The waterborn are more frivolous and quick to act than other halflings. They grow bored easily and love to test themselves against danger. Nothing excites them so much as rapids or storms. Despite this, they are well aware that discipline is often a necessity at sea and are quick to obey orders in a crisis. One odd quirk of the waterborn is their tradition of moving on from a dispute by bathing. They believe that anger, bad feelings and even guilt can be washed away by a quick swim. A waterborn halfling who has a bitter, rancorous argument with a companion might jump into the water for a moment, then come out and start chatting away as if the fight never happened. They can almost instantly recover their good spirits by swimming.

• Physical Description: Waterborn are physically very similar to travelling halflings. They tend to keep their hair tied back in a ponytail or topknot or even shave their heads altogether. They wear tight, waterproof clothing beneath loose shirts or robes.

• Relations: Waterborn get on fairly well with gnomes and humans who can take a joke. Settled halflings see them as too unpredictable, but travelling halflings and waterborn work very well together. Waterborn and dwarves and by extension, stoneborn halflings, very rarely see eye to eye, leading to disputes. The dwarven capacity for grudges matched with the waterborn’s habit of washing away an argument can lead to terrible misunderstandings. Elves may enjoy the company of waterborn, depending on how stuffy the elves in question are.

• Alignment: If true chaotic were a valid alignment choice, the waterborn would be first in line. They can focus themselves when they have to, but they are mostly very free spirited.

• Lands: Waterborn burrows resemble those of animals in the river-bank. Moored currachs often look like nests, so a thriving waterborn community can be completely missed by an unwary traveller. When living with humans, the waterborn usually keep close to the water. In the larger port towns, the waterborn often live underneath the piers and docks.

• Religion: There is no god of the sea in the traditional halfling pantheon, so the waterborn quickly adopt whatever local weather divinities they can find. Other than the occasional offering to the sea god, however, they pay little attention to religion.

• Language: Waterborn halflings speak fluent Common, liberally salted with nautical curses and words from foreign tongues.

• Adventurers: Waterborn halflings may become adventurers because of the freedom from responsibility and duty. A wandering sword-for-hire is beholden to no-one, not clan nor king. Such adventurers may learn that the adventuring life carries responsibilities of its own, but it is the initial lure for freedom that attracts the mercurial waterborn.

Racial Traits

Waterborn halflings have the same traits as common halflings, with the following differences:
† -2 Wisdom, -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity: The waterborn lack discipline and focus.
† +4 racial bonus on Swim checks: The waterborn are at home in the water. They also gain a +4 racial bonus to Constitution checks to avoid drowning.
† +2 racial bonus to Spot checks. The waterborn are very alert and watchful.
† +2 racial bonus to Perform checks.
† -1 to Clan Loyalty.