Halfling classes?
Son_of_Imoen
Member Posts: 1,806
This topic: a race question: Your CHARNAMEs throughout the ages got me thinking I never played a halfling charname, even though they're a lovely race. The main reason is, they have such a poor selection of classes to choose from, I just opened the character selection screen to check, they can be:
- Fighter (plain or kitted)
- Cleric (plain or kitted)
- Thief (plain or kitted)
- Barbarian (wtf?)
- Fighter/Thief (and that's the only multi-class option available to them).
I very much like my charname to be able to cast arcane spells, my most favourite character classes are Fighter/Mage, vanilla Mage, Cleric/Mage and Bard (Blade). But arcane classes are not an option for halflings.
If you want a halfling, you're stuck with playing single class cleric if you want to wield magic. Fighter and Thief classes are boring for a Charname, as they require little more than clicking an enemy or in the case of a Thief, clicking Find Traps, clicking Traps and Chests (I rarely make use of backstabs and mostly never of Traps, I use my Thieves to scout ahead, spot and disarm traps and open chests, more of an 'Adventurer' http://gibberlings3.net/readmes/readme-song_and_silence.html).
Two questions:
1. are there any mods that create more interesting choices for halflings (and not by lifting all race restrictions, cause that's a. plain silly, b. big time cheese)?
2. if you play a halfling Charname, how do you keep things interesting, skill-wise?
BTW, Dwarves suffer almost the same problem, their choice of classes is the same as those open to halflings, but with two extra interesting options added in: Dwarven Defender and Fighter/Cleric.
- Fighter (plain or kitted)
- Cleric (plain or kitted)
- Thief (plain or kitted)
- Barbarian (wtf?)
- Fighter/Thief (and that's the only multi-class option available to them).
I very much like my charname to be able to cast arcane spells, my most favourite character classes are Fighter/Mage, vanilla Mage, Cleric/Mage and Bard (Blade). But arcane classes are not an option for halflings.
If you want a halfling, you're stuck with playing single class cleric if you want to wield magic. Fighter and Thief classes are boring for a Charname, as they require little more than clicking an enemy or in the case of a Thief, clicking Find Traps, clicking Traps and Chests (I rarely make use of backstabs and mostly never of Traps, I use my Thieves to scout ahead, spot and disarm traps and open chests, more of an 'Adventurer' http://gibberlings3.net/readmes/readme-song_and_silence.html).
Two questions:
1. are there any mods that create more interesting choices for halflings (and not by lifting all race restrictions, cause that's a. plain silly, b. big time cheese)?
2. if you play a halfling Charname, how do you keep things interesting, skill-wise?
BTW, Dwarves suffer almost the same problem, their choice of classes is the same as those open to halflings, but with two extra interesting options added in: Dwarven Defender and Fighter/Cleric.
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Comments
As for some mods you could look to see if any Cleric mods add halfling specific deities/kits.
Now that I think about it Mazzy would be pretty boring if not for her pseudo-paladin powers.
A Frosty Journey has a couple of halfling specific kits for IWD:EE. And if I remember correctly Faith and Powers will feature some halfling deity choices for divine spellcasters too.
Halflings are wonderful thieves, with their additional thieving bonuses and 19 DEX. Thanks to that, they can have high scores in many thieving abilities in BG1, that let's you have a nice thief.
I like thieves, and find a lot more in them, than just all the clicking you've mentioned. There're threads on this forum that can help to change your view on using thieves - https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/34607/theft-robbery-and-occasional-murder-or-a-short-guide-to-thieves-solo-or-in-group/p1, for example.
I'm sure there're people who would say that a cleric charname is not a boring choice as well. So, it's just a matter of tastes.
As for the Barbarian, a halfling is actually one of the good choices in terms of races here - the Barbarian's rage improves STR, so the only downside a halfling has, here doesn't make any difference. Instead, you get all CON and racial saving throws bonuses.
Plus, you should "feel" yourself playing as a halfling. If you can't imagine it from the RP perspective (or don't like what you imagine), then it's just not for you.
Personally, I like halflings. I don't like min-maxed characters, I don't like OP things, so maybe these factors do matter. I can perfectly play a fighter without 18/xx STR.
And this is why I find halfling thieves, halfling barbarians to be the very good choices.
Moreover min-maxing them is almost natural because, despite the double class, they primarily rely on the three physical stats. A high constitution score will grant you the shorty saving throw bonus. 18 points in constitution means you start BG1 game with 10 in saving throws: spell !!
You should not spend most of you time in melee fights. Therefore the slightly limited strength is unlikely to be a problem.
Also, roleplay: "you should "feel" yourself playing as a halfling" - in this, though cliché, I think it might help me to think about Bilbo and his role in the Barrow Downs and the Lonely Mountain for instance: he's very interesting in his role as a 'thief' (he wouldn't call himself so, but Thorin's party certainly did name him so), he didn't need spells to be an interesting character.
Maybe I should rummage on it a bit and try my hands on a halfling thief or fighter-thief anyway.
I can very well imagine bending the rules and use EE Keeper to create a fighter-cleric or cleric-thief as well for a halfing, maybe I'll try that - as in my view of halflings, they're 'loose' enough in their choice of professions, not to have their priests stick to a purely clerical role.
As for my normal preference for arcane casters, only now I remember there are halfling mages in the game: there's one in the Planar Sphere - not the first time Bioware bended the rules in the game.
A Halfing F/T, Swashbuckler and Shadowdancer enjoys one of the highest suvival chances if you want to play a no-reload/minimum re-load run. Thief's HLA- use any items helps a lot when you try solo no re-load runs and trying to finish as many quests as possible in the run. Backstabbing with Staff of the Magi with dispel capabilities O_O and protection from evil from the staff. Use Holy/Unholy Avenger (who needs a paladin?) Make potions scribe scrolls + Fighter's HLA if you play the multi-class.
In ToB try using Firetooth crossbow + Pulse ammo X_X (+10 Thanco for the ammo + Firetooth's own self-replendishing ammo + Fighter's Greater Whirlwind).
Lower levels Halfing Thieves I usually like to do a lot of pickpocketing from fence to recharge the wands and get potions. The Enclave has a lot of very nice stuff to pickpocket with 19 dex+gloves of PickPockets).
+1 Thaco for Slings (many players overlooked this weapon. Slings add Strength damage. Use it with that +5 sling from Coppercoronet + Potions of various Giant strength or Girdles + Fighter specialisation in slings, it can deal hefty damages from a safe distance while you can equip with shield of harmony in case mages dominate or use various mind spells on you.
Because of Halfing's various saving throw bonuses, your charname can survive so much better. There are heaps of things you can do with a Halfing.
If you like spell-casting, there are so many NPC spell casters to busy yourself with the micromanagement why make charname a spell-caster?.
Maybe it is just me, but I hate the idea of re-load because as a Bhaalspawn, you die your taint will fuel the re-birth of Bhaal. Bhaal did not allow his spawns to be resurrected or raised from dead.
Thus in all the recent gameplays, I always try to gather all the major defensive stuffs that prevents instant death and wear it on my charname. Bhaal is not forgiving when it comes to failure ^^.
Lots of useful input already. Personally I love Halflings as freewheeling, fun loving Swashbucklers. They might also fit your playstyle as you say you're not much of a backstabber. On the other hand, they might be a bit too straightforward to your taste, at least up till UAI scroll-casting.
An arguably less obvious pick, from a traditional RP perspective, would be the Bounty Hunter. The lone hunter of men trope isn't commonly associated with Halflings, I think, but your Halfling could be different (maybe a cheerful, sociable Bounty Hunter, or a dour, solitary Halfling).
I mentioned the Bounty Hunter because they're quite a unique class. Their special snares surely open up lots of tactical options. First of all these traps can be thrown (although in BGEE you need a fix for that I believe: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/651621/#Comment_651621). And secondly, they impose special effects on your foes, depending on the Bounty Hunter's level. Your adventurer/scout Thief can take a much more active hand in things than just spotting enemies and reporting back to the party. Enter the Slaver Stockade hidden in shadows, toss a Hold trap, see several foes being held, and call your companions to finish them off. Or: watch the Gurded Compound go hostile, retreat, toss a Maze trap (no save, bypasses Magic Resistance), and see most if not all enemies disappear for differing amounts of time, so that you can deal with your enemies one or two at a time. The Bounty Hunter is a truly glorious kit, even though their special traps are less useful during levels 16-20.
I very, very rarely play halfling since I have trouble RP'ing them. I'm not a fan of their minitature size since I think it's to unrealistic to play something so small and still be able to hit someone in the head etc. I love dwarfs though, but tend to RP them being slightly taller than the average height according to lore. I do enjoy having both halflings and gnomes in the party though, and I really wished that Mazzy would have been romancable for all shortie CHARNAMEs.
I did a Halfling bounty hunter run last year and it was fun, especially given the plethora of skill points allowing full thieving quite early. I did miss the 18+ strength, but once you reach BG2 belts and/or going evil solves this issue.
My Dwarven bounty hunter run was even better though...
I've modified a beautiful portrait found on this forum that I traced back, using Google image search, to http://www.deviantart.com/art/The-Scout-165202796 It's an Elven scout, but by manipulating the image to make her look more plump and shorten the ears, she's become a comely could-be-halfling.
She will be called Cecilia Swiftfoot and is employed by a halfling community somewhere among the Swordcoast to hunt down thieves, vagabonds and goblins that are a threat to the wellbeing of peaceful living halflings. She'll be Lawful Neutral, but abiding to halfling law only. A background that doesn't fit at all with growing up in Candlekeep, but I gotta have a mental image of what kind of bountyhunter she is and I'll try to make it fit somehow with the canon story - but I don't know how yet.
I opted for a party, that's not very melee heavy and not really fitted to waltz into combat gung-ho style to force myself to really adopt to the careful scouting, planning ahead and trap-laying that befits a bounty-hunter:
frontliner Ajantis, low-STR high on spells cleric Tenya, thief in an archery role Coran, my bountyhunter Cecilia Swiftfoot, Cowled Wizard sorceror Valerie, and disabler mage Xan.
Wish me good hunting for the ultimate villain
Is there anyone who has an idea how to properly integrate the idea of a Bountyhunter protecting her halfling community with the story of Gorion's Ward being raised in Candlekeep since she was a kid?
The intro said 'most of the twenty years of your life were spend in Candlekeep' - so not all of it - Cecilia could have spend some time as a warden of Gullykin. It makes the investigation of the Firewine Ruins a top priority of course.
One exception to the original party setup is that I didn't take Coran after all in the Cloakwood, but Yeslick, so Cecilia the bountyhunter was my only thief. While the campaign progressed items found did made Yeslick and Ajantis formidable frontliners (I'm sorry Yeslick for dropping your INT with a cursed belt, the STR gain was worth it) and I didn't always find it very handy to lay traps before enemies. Especially in those harder fights where you meet the enemy face-on (like on top of the Iron Throne building) the trap-laying ability is quite useless. I used it most in the outdoor areas earlier in the campaign. But still Cecilia was fun, mostly because of her justice-meting character.
Next in line to finish the campaign is Deirdre, whom some of you might remember from a campaign from a story-telling perspective, roleplaying that she doesn't know anything beforehand, but that turned out to be an unwinnable stance in a Swordcoast Stratagems setup, so I continued her as a normal campaign. I'm a chronic multitasker, my total number of ongoing campaigns is 9 across the whole BG-SoD-SoA trilogy, so that's why this concluding post is a year later than the discussion started.
You think you could squeeze in a Paladin kit of some type in there, so poor Mazzy can be a Paladin of Yondalla officially rather than in name only?