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#1 TomCosta Jan 18, 2015 20:08:35

So I was never a fan of the stout halflings, which were basically half dwarves and while I found the FR strongheart halfling name evocative, the mechanics had nothing to do with the name and were ultimatley meh. With that, I present the....   Stoutheart Halfling Alternately known simply as stout halflings, strongheart halflings, or, because they often live among dwarven cities bordering or in the Underdark, deep halflings. Stouthearts are physically more stout and hardier than their lightfoot cousins. Some say stouthearts have dwarven blood in their past. Moreover, perhaps it’s due to their less itinerant nature and exposure to Underdark aberrations and other threats, but these halflings have a decidedly resolute character.   In the Forgotten Realms, these Halflings are most common in the south, where they often live near or among gold (hill) dwarf communities. Here they have been forced to fight aberrations above and below ground, as well as, at one time, their telepathic kin, the ghostwise halflings. The Ghostwars as the latter conflicts were known, were horrorific and the stouthearts were unwavering in dong what had to be done. Following the destruction of much of Lurien, many more stouthearts moved below ground. Ability Score Increase : Your Constitution score increases by 1. Low-Light Vision : Accustomed to keeping a watchful eye out for nighttime attackers or life underground, dim light doesn’t impose disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks relying on sight. Strongheart : You have advantage on saving throws against despair, fear, hopelessness, horror, insanity, madness, and psychic damage, and you have resistance against psychic damage. Thought Shield:  You automatically detect attempts to sense your emotions, read your thoughts, or contact you telepathically. You cannot determine who is trying to do so (aside from any obvious clues), and these attempts only work if you allow them to do so.   And here's some more on my thinking.....   In the original artwork for D&D Next, the stout’s were going to be called stouthearts, which is a nicer contrast to lightfoot than just stout. I like this idea, in part because I never liked the stout halflings being more or less half dwarves, seeing them as somewhat unimaginative. I was excited when FR introduced stronghearts, but disappointed in their mechanics as not having anything to do with their evocative name.   The Con increase goes to them being "stout," hardy, and perhaps having some dwarven blood.   The low-light vision  plays into past incarnations sometimes having darkvision or low-light vision such as the deep halflings, but also plays into the FR stronghearts having to protect themselves from night raids by drow/Crintri, ogres, and others, as well as their long war against the Ghostwise hafllings in the dim light of the forests. It als plays well with their connection with the dwarves. It also helps explains why they are not afraid of the dark and plays into their strongheart ability.   I did consider full darkvision, but just couldn't justify it except for the half-dwarf angle which I don't love. Similarly, I thought about giving them a bonus to hearing checks, but then thought there was no reason the lightfeet wouldn't have that too.   Strongheart to me is simply more interesting than poison protection and being a half-dwarf. Instead, this plays into their more evocative name and in FR their having to live through the atrocities of the Ghostwar and seeing their home destroyed by the spell plague. Similarly, it plays into stronghearts (or deep hafllings for that matter) having to deal with many aberrations as friends of the gold (hill) dwarves who in 3E were particularly plagued by aberrations in the Underdark.   Game wise, its of limited utility. They already have advantage against fear and the other effects are far less common, optional, or encountered at higher levels (mind flayers, symbol spell)   The thought shield ability plays into the FR stronghearts having to fight their telepathic Ghostwise kin, but also plays into battling aberrations (making them more useful to their dwarven allies as canaries in the coal mine of a sort), and could explain why the yuan-ti may have felt threatened by them in FR.   Game wise, again, its of limited utility. That said the three abilities combined is much more flavorful to my mind and probably about equal to the poison protection.   Thoughts?