Halfling

  *Placeholder Flavortext*   Halflings are a short, resilient people who exhibit remarkable curiosity and humor.   Claiming no place as their own, halflings control few settlements larger than villages. Instead, they frequently live among humans within larger cities, carving out small communities alongside taller folk. Optimistic, cheerful, and driven by powerful wanderlust, halflings make up for their short stature with an abundance of bravado. At once excitable and easygoing, halflings are the best kind of opportunists, and their passions favor joy over violence. While their curiosity sometimes drives them toward adventure, halflings also carry strong ties to house and home.   If you want to play a character who must contend with these opposing drives toward adventure and comfort, you should play a halfling.  

You might...

• Get along well with a wide variety of people and enjoy meeting new friends.
• Find it difficult to resist indulging your curiosity, even when you know it's going to lead to trouble.

 

Others probably

• Appreciate your ability to always find a silver lining or something to laugh about, no matter how dire the situation.
• Think you bring good luck with you.

 

Physical Description

Halflings are short humanoids who look vaguely like smaller humans. They rarely grow to be more than 3 feet in height. Halfling proportions vary, with some looking like shorter adult humans with slightly larger heads and others having proportions closer to those of a human child. Most halflings prefer to walk barefoot rather than wear shoes, and those who do so develop roughly calloused soles on their feet over time. Tufts of thick, often-curly hair warm the tops of their broad, tanned feet. Halfling skin tones tend toward rich, tawny shades like amber or oak, and their hair color ranges from a light golden blond to raven black.  

Society

Despite their jovial and friendly nature, halflings don't usually tend to congregate. They have few cultural centers in the Inner Sea region, and they instead tend to weave themselves throughout the societies of the world. Halflings eke out whatever living they can manage, many performing menial labor or holding simple service jobs. Some halflings reject city life, instead turning to the open road and traveling from place to place in search of fortune and fame. These nomadic halflings often travel in small groups, sharing hardships and simple pleasures among close friends and family. Halfling names are usually two to three syllables, with a gentle sound that avoids hard consonants. Preferring their names to sound humble, halflings see overly long or complex names as a sign of arrogance for their people. However, they understand that elves and humans might have longer names to suit their own aesthetics.  

Beliefs

Halflings are loyal to their friends and their family, but they aren't afraid to do what needs to be done in order to survive. Wherever halflings go, they seamlessly blend into the society they find themselves in, adapting to the culture and beliefs of the predominant ancestry around them and adding their uniquely halfling twists, creating a blend of cultural diffusion that enriches both cultures. Halflings favor gods that either grant luck, like Desna, or encourage guile, like Norgorber, and many appreciate Cayden Cailean's role as a liberator, as well as any religions common among other ancestries around them.    

Ancestry Feats

1st Level

Distracting Shadows - Feat 1

You have learned to remain hidden by using larger folk as a distraction to avoid drawing attention to yourself. You can use creatures that are at least one size larger than you (usually Medium or larger) as cover for the Hide and Sneak actions, though you still can't use such creatures as cover for other uses, such as the Take Cover action.

Distracting Shadows leads to Ceaseless Shadows

 

Folksy Patter - Feat 1

You are adept at disguising coded messages as folksy idioms. Using slang, jokes, halfling loanwords, and the like, you convey a simple message consisting of three basic words (such as “Danger assassin flee” or “Meet me moonrise”). Your intended listener can attempt a DC 20 Perception check to discern the message. This DC is reduced by 5 if the listener is a halfling or has Folksy Patter, or by 10 if both apply. Eavesdroppers can also attempt a Perception check against your Deception DC to discern your meaning. Any bonuses or penalties to Perception checks to Sense Motive apply to checks to understand Folksy Patter.  

Halfling Lore - Feat 1

You've dutifully learned how to keep your balance and how to stick to the shadows where it's safe, important skills passed down through generations of halfling tradition. You gain the trained proficiency rank in Acrobatics and Stealth. If you would automatically become trained in one of those skills (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in a skill of your choice.  

Halfling Luck - Feat 1

Frequency once per day

Trigger You fail a skill check or saving throw

Your happy-go-lucky nature makes it seem like misfortune avoids you, and to an extent, that might even be true. You can reroll the triggering check, but you must use the new result, even if it's worse.

Halfling Luck leads to Guiding Luck

 

Halfling Weapon Familiarity - Feat 1

You favor traditional halfling weapons, so you've learned how to use them more effectively. You gain access to all uncommon weapons with the halfling trait. You have familiarity with weapons with the halfling trait plus the sling and shortsword— for the purposes of proficiency, you treat any of these that are martial weapons as simple weapons and any that are advanced weapons as martial weapons.  

Prairie Rider - Feat 1

You grew up riding your clan's shaggy ponies and riding dogs. You become trained in Nature. If you would automatically become trained in Nature (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in a skill of your choice. You also get a +1 circumstance bonus to Command an Animal if the target is a traditional halfling mount, such as a pony or riding dog.  

Sure Feet - Feat 1

Whether keeping your balance or climbing, your feet easily find purchase. If you roll a success on an Acrobatics check to Balance or an Athletics check to Climb, you get a critical success instead. You're not off-guard when you attempt to Balance or Climb.  

Titan Slinger - Feat 1

You have learned how to use your sling to fell enormous creatures. When you hit on an attack with a weapon of the sling group against a Large or larger creature, increase the size of the weapon damage die by one step.  

Unfettered Halfling - Feat 1

You were either pressed into indentured servitude or shackled in a prison, but you've since escaped and have trained to ensure you'll never be caught again. Whenever you roll a success on a check to Escape or a saving throw against an effect that would impose the grabbed, immobilized, or restrained condition on you, you get a critical success instead. Whenever a creature rolls a failure on a check to Grapple you, it gets a critical failure instead.  

Watchful Halfling - Feat 1

You pay close attention to the people around you, allowing you to more easily notice when they act out of character. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Perception checks when using the Sense Motive basic action to notice enchanted or possessed characters. If you aren't actively using Sense Motive on an enchanted or possessed character, the GM rolls a secret check, without your usual circumstance bonus, for you to potentially notice the enchantment or possession anyway.  

5th Level

Culteral Adaptability - Feat 5

During your adventures, you've honed your ability to adapt to the culture of the predominant ancestry around you. You gain the Adopted Ancestry general feat, and you also gain one 1st-level ancestry feat from the ancestry you chose for the Adopted Ancestry feat.  

Step Lively - Feat 5

A Large or larger enemy ends a move action adjacent to you

You are an expert at avoiding the lumbering footsteps of larger creatures. You Step to another space adjacent to the enemy.

Step Lively leads to Dance Underfoot

 

9th Level

Dance Underfoot - Feat 9

Prerequisites Step Lively

You dart under the legs of your enemies in combat. You can end a successful Tumble Through action in a Large or larger enemy's space. Also, when using the Step Lively feat, you can Step into the triggering enemy's space. The enemy must have limbs or otherwise leave you enough room for this maneuver, as determined by the GM. For instance, you could share space with a giant or dragon, but not an ooze.

Dance Underfoot leads to Toppling Dance

 

Guiding Luck - Feat 9

Prerequisites Halfling Luck

Your luck guides you to look the right way and aim your blows unerringly. You can use Halfling Luck twice per day: once in response to its normal trigger, and once when you fail a Perception check or attack roll instead of the normal trigger.  

Irrepressible - Feat 9

You are easily able to ward off attempts to play on your fears and emotions. When you roll a success on a saving throw against an emotion effect, you get a critical success instead. If your heritage is gutsy halfling, when you roll a critical failure on a saving throw against an emotion effect, you get a failure instead.  

Unhampered Passage - Feat 9

You won't allow others to restrain you. You can cast unfettered movement on yourself as a primal innate spell once per day.  

13th Level

Ceaseless Shadows - Feat 13

Prerequisites Distracting Shadows

You excel at going unnoticed, especially among a crowd. You no longer need to have cover or be concealed to Hide or Sneak. If you would have lesser cover from a creature, you gain standard cover instead and can Take Cover; if you would have standard cover from a creature, you gain greater cover instead.  

Toppling Dance - Feat 13

Prerequisites Dance Underfoot

While sharing a creature's space using Dance Underfoot, your melee weapons and unarmed attacks gain the trip trait, but only against the creature whose space you share. You can be in the same space as a Large or larger prone creature, even if it's not your ally.  

17th Level

Shadow Self - Feat 17

Frequency once per hour

Prerequisites Legendary in Stealth

Trigger You successfully use Stealth to Hide and become hidden from all your current foes, or use Stealth to Sneak and become undetected to all your current foes

You slip from your adversaries' notice and appear to be somewhere else. You become invisible for 1 minute or until you take a hostile action, whichever comes first. Choose a location within 10 feet of you. Until your invisibility ends, you appear to be hidden in that location to anyone trying to find you. If the searcher gets clear evidence that you're not there, they no longer think you're hidden there, but they don't discover your actual location.