The Best Weapon for Fantasy Halflings (No, Not Spears)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 พ.ค. 2024
- This is for those of you who enjoy some (modest) measure of realism in your fantasy scenarios, be it fictional writing, tabletop RPGs or video games. Which historical arms and armor would make the most practical sense for a short, agile character who is not as stout and tanky as a dwarven warrior?
Here is my perspective on that, informed by experience with HEMA (historical European martial arts). Applies to halflings, hobbits, gnomes, and similar species. Hope you enjoy the atmospheric background... that took unreasonably long to render. :)
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Qama / kindjal by Devil's Edge
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Munich Town Guard sword by LK Chen
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Tizona - 17th century Spanish cup-hilt rapier by LK Chen
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This is why I like the idea that gnomes are the first to invent explosives and guns.
I like to think that even in a setting where the DM has banned black powder, at some point the shorter races are going to invent workarounds.
Blowguns could give way to airguns or steam powered cannons like Archimedes is thought to have invented
If rubber is discovered they might start using actual slingshots instead of bows for compactness reasons
Catapults might become a major form of battlefield artillery since a machine bypasses strength requirements
Weird weapons like nets and traps might become an easy way to capture armored opponents, and man catchers may be a major battle field pole arm for taking down enemies by using leverage and unbalancing instead of sheer force
War animals like war dogs can do a lot in melee combat that they can't, and mounted calvary might still be an option for them, albeit in a different form
And when in doubt, there are always incendiaries because gasoline and petroleum are surprisingly old discoveries.
And instead of armor, gnomes and halflings are more likely to opt for camouflage over heraldry. You can't hit someone you can't see.
Basically, if gnomes and halflings ever thought they were going to fight a war, they would likely take inspiration from the Kobold playbook and add whatever advantages they have of their own. A small race should always opt for irregular warfare if they don't have the build of a dwarf.
I ran a campaign where dwarves were given black powder as a gift from their god. (It is made of minerals, after all.) Gnomes were getting rich as middle men between humans and the dwarves, who hated humans and would not trade with them. And small folk could put a howda on the back of a draft horse and use it as a fighting platform.
I personally hate gunpowder in my fantasy.
@@robo5013depends on how it’s implemented. Pillars of Eternity did it well by having a more Renaissance style setting and wheellock firearms. Pathfinder’s setting justified it by having them be invented in an area where magic doesn’t work reliably and is still limited to flintlock mechanisms.
Also once the next PF2e book comes out I’ll be throwing together an Awakened Squirrel Gunslinger just for fun. :P
@@procrastinatinggamer If you like it have fun, but for me leave it out of my fantasy. If you like gunpowder in your fantasy then do it, if you want AK47 wielding Dwarves and Orcs with RPGs then go for it! I personally don't want gunpowder in my fantasy but if you and your friends are having fun with it you do you.
Caltrops.
Because when you are a halfling fighting an orc or a human, your best option is to flee. And they run faster than you. Thus, caltrops. Or even marbles if the floor is adequate. Or lego pieces if they don't have shoes.
Caltrops aren't used for running away though, they're made to be set up beforehand so you can restrict where your enemy is able to go. The marbles will work though.
Faster than you isn't certain - likely perhaps, but not certain. And you have to then ask over what distance, as a very tall and broad person you can probably build up to a good speed, and with a single lunge style step can cover a lot of ground, but to accelerate all your mass up to any sustained speed and change direction will generally take much longer than the short folk, and your traction on the ground may be a further limiting factor. So as long as they are out of the initial lunge range they may well be able to get up to their top speed and scatter caltrops faster than you can get in range, and at that point even if the tall folk are faster in ideal conditions and would quickly catch you on open ground they can't make use of that.
Using Legos should be a war crime
Legos 😂
A bag of d4s....
"You need to be able to do a quick in and out. Some of you dudes are already used to it anyway."
That one cut me deeper than any short sword.
Some of us aren't used to getting even that far. For once it pays off.
Tolkien's hobbits are known to have a pretty strong arm for throwing, and are really accurate. They're also fairly good at fighting enemies their size, like goblins. Hell, one of Bilbo's ascendants killed a goblin chieftain with a club, sending his head flying, AND he could ride a horse. Yeah, pretty out there example.
But yes, halflings need to fight smart, preferably avoid fighting altogether. So the best a halfling can do, considering their ability to easily hide, is laying traps, and surprise attacks. Enter combat, do some damage, lay some caltrops, run out of combat. There's a reason they're popular rogues, bards, artificers and alchemists: either they avoid fights, end the fight before it begins, fight dirty, or fight with technical superiority. And that's awesome.
Ah yes, that's how _Golf_ was invented in Middle Earth.
@@StarshadowMelody Did you read the hobbit by any chance?
I always liked how Kender in Dragonlance favor sling staffs as their cultural weapon of choice. You have a powerful ranged weapon on one end with respectable range, a spear head on the other in case the enemy gets too close, and it can all be passed off as a humble walking stick to anyone who doesn't already know better than to trust a Kender travelling alone.
@@robbierobdergrutzkopfderwa2566 No, I tried to read the original LotR books but couldn't really get into it. I have instead acquired this knowledge via its natural spread.
Avoid fight is always a good idea, no matter the size.
Did you know... that for the halfling scene, skallagrim used a special set to create a forced perspective and made himself look smaller instead of using cgi? In reality, skallagrim is not much tinier than skallagrim, it only seems that way because of this neat practical effect.
I heard he really broke his toe when he tried kicking a prop on set. The deleted scream is actually real but he stayed in character.
A true professional.
Also there was supposed to be a scene where the emperor ordered him to fire and you could see the humanity of the bad guys as the commander hesitated, but Skal didn't want that scene in the movie. Luckily it's still part of the legends canon.
I heard the director told Skallagrim to scream when he got shot, but Skall was like, "That's not the sound a man makes when he gets shot."
Fun Fact: the average Skallagrim is only 50% larger than another Skallagrim two-thirds his size.
When Skallagrim cuts onions, it's the onions that cry
As a man who is 5'4, I appreciate this advice on how I should arm myself!
now its your choice whether you want to tank damage or avoid it
Same for me a woman of 5,0ft
Conversion for civilised people: 1.64m
@@darandala *civilized
The z is for Murican spelling, so I was correct already.
As a shorter fencer who almost always spars taller opponents, I'll be the first to admit that fighting taller opponents is tough. I do think I can provide some insight here at least as far as 1 on 1 sword duels. Some things that work well for me include: stepping offline with your parries to make them more secure, use of the offhand to control an opponent's weapon and close in, attacking from beneath a high guard, use of body voids and staying constantly in motion so your opponent can less easily exploit their greater reach.
Its always good to hear from those of shorter stature in conversations of melee combat, or who happen to otherwise be shorter than a group thats mostly made up of tall people anyway. Your perspectives are not only reassuring for some of us, but also great for understanding the broader scope of how disadvantaged fighters face advantaged ones and come out on top sometimes.
@@ramenbomberdeluxe4958 I'm also a short, light person. I did rapier combat for a while. I picked a shorter, lighter blade because the regular sized ones were hard for me to use in terms of strength to keep the blade from dropping out of position due to getting tired, and poor tip control due to lack of arm strength. I also got good at sniping hands and feet of my opponents since they were easiest to reach.
ur profile name matches with ur experience & comment
I would concur. You have to fence knowing full well what the opponent is likely to target. Mostly the head region and considering I thrust low anyway, defence on the head is generally a good idea. You have to be quick and close the distance to try to get around their guard, trying not to forget where their counters are coming from
Also for meele without weapons @Honeybadger_525 that was the same for me as a kickboxer, also getting close to a point were the reach of the oponent actually became hindering in propapaly hitting and kicking me while I even could kick under ther close cover and get my foot between their hands and upper body.
THE SICKLE!!!! You're totally right. Low attacks are the short warriors secret. Ham strings, Achilles tendon, pelvic bowl......dropping the biggest man.
The sling/sickle combo is a strong one.
I wonder what kind of unarmed combat style small-folk would find useful (my friends have agreed Dwarf Judo is terrifying).
Everyone tough until their hamstrings are cut and they fall on their face lol
@@Vespuchianarmed dwarfs would've been a nightmare in an infantryclash because of grappling.
Yep. Can't stand, can't fight. Also, groin shots are a lot easier when you're three feet tall.
Everyone's a bad ass until the halfling headbutt them in the balls.
Melee as a small-folk seems like a death sentence.
Nah, not necessarily, you just gotta fight and think like a smallfolk, not an averagefolk. Like it or not, when it comes to our most primal fighting method, its melee, and I think all folk need to know their method somehow.
The Baka historically used melee weapons against their taller neighbours. As said above, shorter height isn't necessarily a handicap in melee. It depends on whether you make it an advantage or not. Plus, the kind of weapons you use can help. Spears and polearms, for instance, can clear the gap height creates.
Consider: If a human and a halfling are teaming up against an ogre, is the halfling adventurer really worse off? At that point the human probably needs to use the small-folk strategy anyway, and the halfling is better at it!
That reminds me of the giants in skyrim😂
well Samwise killed the daughter of a eldritch spider demonthing from before time itself with short sword....sooooo....
come to think of it, halflings are well known for their immaculate and complicated cooking, not to mention fermentation. They would have extensive experience with multiple different kinds of herbs and plant and animals. They probably deal with snakes fairly often, too, if they live in areas shown in the LOTR series. Halflings would more than likely have some crazy potent kinds of poisons at their disposal.
They'd just stuff their adversaries full of cake ☺️
Exactly what I was thinking. In a past video skal mad about fairies, I thought that poison would make the most sense for something that has a definitive disadvantage like extreme lack of height/weight considering its such a major disadvantage. Along with guerilla warfare.
Weaponized pipeweed
Now I want to make a halfling alchemist who combines balloons filled with flour with thunderstones to create bombs.
hallucinogenic powders, smokes and vapors
That konami cheat code dance to get a gun is my new favourite intro skit now
My new favorite, of all time! ⬆️⬆️⬇️⬇️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️🅱️🅰️ 🔫😈 "Parry this you filthy casual!" ⚔🛡🤺☠
Definitely go for the legs.
But suddenly he too stumbled forward with a cry of bitter pain, and his stroke went wide, driving into the ground. Merry's sword had stabbed him from behind, shearing through the black mantle, and passing up beneath the hauberk had pierced the sinew behind his mighty knee.
What about their legs? They don’t need those!
Epic background? Check!
Fancy suit? Check!
Fantasy theme? Check!
Mentioning slings? Check!
Konami code? Double check!!!
Officially, this is one of the greatest videos of all time!
Your analysis is appreciated and on-point. Good content creators pay attention to details most would miss.
It could always be better, but thanks. :)
@@Skallagrim OK, some B&B would improve quality of this video, but I don't want to sound like a pervert :)
@@LuxisAlukard Bed & Breakfast?
@@Sableagle Boobs & Buttocks
In Pathfinder, the Halflings sort of iconic cultural weapon is the Slingstaff, which is a sling mounted on essentially a quarterstaff. Easy to carry, easy to disguise as non threatening, more leverage to launch heavy projectiles. Let's you do ranged and melee with one weapon too!
Origin of that is Dragonlance and Kender.
Like kender Dragonlance
That’s a weapon traditional Scottish highlanders would employ. Makes a lot of sense.
May be worth mentioning that Hobbits are noted to be very good with projectiles at a few points in Tolkien's works. The Hobbit mentions Bilbo's particular skill at throwing rocks (while he's pelting the Mirkwood spiders with them, if memory serves), and the Scouring of the Shire at the tale end of Lord of the Rings extends that to Hobbit-kind as a whole with the inclusion of archers.
I loved the subtle nod that got in the Peter Jackson films. When Merry, Pippen, and Boromir get ambushed by Uruk-Hai, and Boromir starts trying to cover the hobbits' retreat...they run maybe twenty yards, grab some rocks, and just start bonking f**kers upside the head.
They wind up throwing around a dozen rocks each and, going by the camera and the orcs' reactions, _they never miss a shot_ .
I think there was a mention somewhere (probably the appendices of LOTR, but I can't find my copy to check) of the hobbits sending a detachment of archers to aid in the defense of Fornost when Arnor fell, the only time when hobbits have marched off to war outside the Shire. It was only a brief mention though, just that they were archers and none of them came back.
I think it would have made more sense for them to use slings. It's a simple weapon, one associated with shepherds and farmers, and is much more dangerous than a thrown rock.
@@Zagskrag I think that was in the Prologue: Concerning Hobbits. Partly because it sounds so familiar, partly because that's where Bored Of The Rings put the parody counterpart.
("It's said that during the final battle against the Slumlord of Borax, they sent some snipers, though who they sided with is unclear.")
@@NeutralDrowAh, someone else who has read the adventures of Frito and Dildo in lower Middle Earth!
Dammit, Skall. Like I haven't had another of a struggle with the gnomes in my neighbourhood this year. Now you're giving them weapons advice...? If we don't get a "how to deal with a gnome invasion" video to follow this up, you'll be hearing from my lawyer.
Damned gnomes, stay out of my gardens!
Don't. Touch. Their hats.
Armored protection below the belt...their general attacks tend to end up in that general place due to equivalent fighting on similarly short statured folk.
Sit on them
@@supersaiyandiclonius3056What does this mean...
The short folk being short just means they are closer to knifing you in the boys
The Boys: -_-
Also, everything is an uppercut.
Shorter reach to the sweet meats with the ole sharp and pointy.
But also easily punted WAY down field.
Old Dwarvish saying: All trees are felled at the same height.
Kobolds in particular are interesting since they're the smallest of the smallfolk. Which means that when they carve out tunnels in their home they are the only ones that can comfortably access them. So they'll have all manner of murder holes and slots for them to jab spears through from the safety of a tiny tunnel. They also use a lot of traps in general, since there's no bigger force multiplier than prep-time.
When fighting outside of their turf though, they tend to just get squashed. Which is often why they send their sorcerers out whenever something needs to be done away from home, they have their magic to lean on to defend themselves and/or escape easily.
Fun fact, the word Goblin of actually derived from the low German Kobold
Ugh, don't remind me! Our low-level D&D party decide to investigate a small, narrow tunnel with lots of little mouse-holes. It did not go well. The next one we saw, the wizard flamed the hell out of it and we moved on.
It's very interesting that this is kind of like an inversion of a giant vs human matchup, where humans are in the shoes of the giant.
It's also interesting how Tolkien writes Hobbits using weapons from other races where he often describes how their weapons would look like from a Hobbit's perspective. Sting is in fact an Elvish dagger, however a Hobbit would use it like a one-handed sword. So when talking about this topic, it is also important to consider how the halflings will see the weapons. So things like spears, small swords, and bucklers would be used as pikes, rapiers, and shields. So when fighting a Hobbit using an arming sword, you would be fighting someone using two handed techniques with a one handed length weapon.
Pick or sickle make sooo much sense now that you point it out.
Crew served field artillery
Yesterday I was watching a video about how tight tanks are for tall people and I immediately thought or halflings, gnomes, dwarves, etc.
and munition
This is the Warhammer solution (google Hafling Hot Pot)
Or give them your strongest potions
Belt fed and crew served
It's back! Videos on Fantasy Arms for certain Species!
Best series!
We need to create more fantasy species so he can make more of these videos!
The original Chinese repeating crossbows emulated in many games are a good example of what you were saying (weak, multiplier). The magazine held a box of loose bolts that were really nothing more than light weight sharpened pencils and the bow was so weak that it hardly could lob them more than a few feet but did so rapidly. The pencils were infected with [toxins] and even grandma or the kids could fire it if invaders broke into the tulou. If nicked the invaders wouldnt die there but without medicine that didnt exist at the time the bandits would die anyway. In a fantasy world even a weak pencil lobber is a very powerful weapon as the quarrels themselves could carry instant kill poisons or magical payloads.
Seems more of the classic tinkering gnome thing...probably mounted on battle carts that just make lives difficult for anyone nearby
In a game where I played I halfling roque I got a magic blowgun that enhanced the damage of each shot. I immediately thought if I could improve it by hooking it up with a magazine and maybe some bagpipes bag. Sadly I was no artificer, but that would have been awesome.
I like these as the Drow iconic cultural weapon. All those spiders could make stretchy spider silk that can replace the 'bow' part of a crossbow, and poison is easy to get with a pet spider.
In addition to gear and weapons, I think the best strategy for halflings would just be working as a group, unconcerned with issues of personal pride when swarming upon an enemy. The fact that they're usually depicted as sociable would be a great help in this regard. It is much easier to jump into the fray when surrounded by people you care about, and who you know care about you in turn.
Slings. The answer is always slings.
You can even dual wield slings if you have the feat and the DM is cool.
There's also the sling-staff, which gives you a longer arm and the possibility of parrying in a pinch.
@@lordcirth
Or a kick sling, which is just a slingshot on a shoe. After all, we all know the longest arm is the whole body.
I hate to be annoying but slings have the ammunition property which means you can use two slings *once,* because then you need a free arm to load it.
@@arthurl4300 Ammo juggling, quickdraw stow/reload/stow/draw/reload/draw/loose/loose. Not perfect, but technically viable. Plus there is the double sling which lets you load 2 ammo for a one handed weapon.
@@arthurl4300 Do slings really take up your arm though? I imagine one could hold a sling and the ammo for it in the same hand quite easily. (at least while not attacking).
1. Slings and bolas
2. Rope dart/meteor hammer
3. Dual Picks for climbing/punch through
4. Magically assisted throwing weapons
5. Sling staff is sick and id love to learn more/play around with a metal lacrosse stick that seconds as a shillelagh
Or do what Kender in Dragonlance do with the sling staff and put a nasty spike on the other end of the stick.
Bolas are a good shout
@@formlessone8246 my first thought. A warpick with a scoop that can fling stones and bones at incredible velocity?
Also great to craft a culture that uses the weapons for sport, ritual and war. So many interesting ways to grow the tradition organically.
@@colinpower6562 hunting, non lethal capture, force multiplication.
Atlatls and darts
That Homm2 Halfling was the bonus of this video ! If I was playing as an Halfling my three choice would be any one handed blunt (even something like a cane for city adventure and disguise), any curved blade (any type the campaign lets the character) when dancing around and aiming veins and gaps aiming with the angles and keep moving.
A small shield or buckler. For ranged , throwing weapons.
If the character is sly at fighting weapons tipped in various potions and poisons would make sense. Carrying pouches of tricky powders such as cause blindness and nausea would also makes sense. I imagine the tiny guy fighting sly and dirty, even if he is strong enough.
The idea of a horde of halflings armed with kama and hook shields is somehow terrifying by itself.
Firearms, slings, throwing spears
-Firearms are a given and an equalizer, assuming they exist in the context.
-Slings would be a mixed bag depending on the context. Slings work great for hunting and deterring smaller animals, but halflings wouldn't be throwing too hard given the small stature. In combat, slingers were quite martially effective in small skirmishes, but in a warfare context its very hard to mass fire and very easy to protect against slingers (large shields).
-Javelins work okay at short range, but with halflings the range would be even shorter.
Yeah I think most halflings with an AK-47 will win against an big human in plate armour and a big sword. /jk
Amongst the American 2A community?
There's a reason it's said that "Colonel Colt made ALL men equal".
@@swissarmyknight4306 sling are artillery in Roman amries and for sling you dont need too much power just training and skill. I use sling for 20 years.
Atl-atl launched darts/javelins?
In my setting they use muskets in a firing line. They practice drills so they can rapidly adapt to whatever the enemy throws at em. In melee, they fix bayonets and hold their ground.
Civilian or adventurer hobbits carry pistols, sometimes up to 8 pistols. A smallsword is most common for a backup weapon, but they'll use just about anything from daggers to canes to broadswords.
A funny thing to keep in mind. A musket for them, would be closer to a large pistol or small carbine when compared to a human, and a pistol would be incredibly small comparatively.
Im working on a fantasy novel with a lot of variance in sizes (some species too out at 4 foot and others reach 9-10) and im working on a theory that smaller more nimble fighters would favor bolas, slings and throwing darts/knives against more imposing foes.
Obviously if your going brute force against brute force then the smaller fighter is always going to need an advantage somewhere else; more skill or faster or better equipment.
Magic also changes the whole equation depending on the system but binding the legs and getting a reckless sprint to full force kick aimed at a vital point to knock them over/out.
Accurate pings with metal projectiles can kill and has for longer than humans had bows and arrows. Ancient war had battalions of sling wielders, even well past the adoption of bows. Often the conscripts would already have a lifetime of practice from hunting small game growing up.
Tolkien's Hobbits were skilled with projectile weapons, from bows to slings or simply throwing them. Beasts learned to run whenever they saw one bend down to pick up a rock
Tasselhoff Burrfoot enters the discussion with a Hoopak
Don't forgot rabbitslayer.
Dude stabbed chaos and drew blood if I recall it properly.
My head canon is tas never died, chaos defied him as the new avatar of Kaos.
Rabbitslayer plus 1, plus 6 vs rabbits and chaos aligned save vs paralysis must roll a 20 or stunned 1 round.
In my dnd games players learn early on that that really thin halfing with a bad hairdo is someone you listen to, never cross and if he offers an item of total uselessness you take it and never sell or trade it.
The sling of almond slinging sounds useless until you face the ancient dragon with a nut allergy.
It's best to set up your duex machina early on, so when the players need it to avoid a total party kill it seems planned.
Another favourite 8s to give the rogue Tas' Pouch of kelptomania. Forces player to steal or pickpocket every town player has no clue what they stole, if they get caught you have another adventure hook and when they need a peice of wire, a rare coin, or whatever to get out of a tricky situation you can make up something that works on the fly.
So the big thing I think people miss about half lings or at least Hobbits in tlor is that they are supernaturally stealthy in natural environments, basically invisible, you would not see nor hear a halfling who wants to kill you and if you wanted to kill one you'd have a very hard time finding one
Yes, but I’m sure they’re only taking into account the realistic parts of the species here. I think if any race was practically invisible while sneaking around, they’d all gain a massive advantage regardless of the weapon. It wouldn’t be anything specific to Halflings. Better stealth would help out with guerrilla tactics, but it would favor stealth strategies rather than the application of any particular weapon. Maybe daggers and sickles would have a greater advantage, but i’m sure if somebody snuck up to you and hit you over the head with a great sword, greater stealth would be just as useful
I really like the sickle aproach since it can damage the back part of the knee pretty easily. Also a lot of times armor pieces are either tied there or simply not that much protected, it could damage directly their body or untie it for hindrance. It's really perfect for a race of short and agile people.
For ranged i'm really fond of blowdarts and slingshots. Easy to carry, easy to master, easy to find munition. The only disadvantage i see is that halflings may have smaller lungs for the blowdarts and maybe the shorter arm and slingshot could lower the momentum for slingshots.
Really nice video
A Halfling with a bow wouldn't be as effective as others and climbing on a monster's back? What great timing with Delicious in Dungeon.
I was thinking the exact same
add poison ;)
A halfling with a bow wouldn't be as deadly as a large man with a large bow, but the halfling could hide in a bush and snipe people with a smaller bow so much easier than a man could.
@@matthewgagnon9426 Also the halfling can shoot indoors. You ever try using a full-size 7' longbow in a corridor with a standard 8' ceiling? It doesn't go well.
@@matthewgagnon9426 even without hiding the smaller you are the smaller a target you are for return fire.
Something to note with slings, although I am not 100% sure about this, is that one of the issues with how slings got phased out of armies might be mitigated with smaller folk is because you require a lot more area per person using it, so a unit of archers (for example) has a lot more people who can loose over the same frontage.
the outfit and dagger combo of todays video is great! commenting for (or against?) the algorithm.
The sickle idea is particularly interesting in my opinion because hobbits are agricultural people and definitely would have some gardening tools in their sheds
Really enjoying this "phantasy themed" videos.
First thing I thought of when thinking about halfling weapons was poison, potions, mollotovs, bombs, traps ... Fighting a Vietnam war style of hide and ambushed attack.
Not only is a sickle mechanilly a good weapon for a hobbit/half-ling, it is also a farming tool! Perfectly thematical for a halfling to keep his old farming gear just to end up using it to defeat the big bad guy in the end!
in fact i think the hobbit slings tolkin mentiones would be a pretty good idear also spears along with daggers and short blades
Most of the fantasy that I've seen have been post Tolkien, and all of the 'smaller' races that aren't dwarves have them as naturally gifted throwers/slingers.
@@leadpaintchips9461 tolkin is pretty much one of the earlyiest fantasy writers (exept mythology itself and some more low fantasy guys that dont even have other races in most cases) and he made them that most mytholgy consideres those small races to be highly magical or even fae of some kind
@@leadpaintchips9461 You mean like Tolkien? Almost all fantasy goes back to Tolkien.
I'm not paying you any money.. so I don't expect a response. But I do want to propose and add that halfling people would actually benefit from using sickles and kama. Hooked and arched weapons get around and cling to weapons and shields. This provides vertically challenged people with angles taller people would not have.
*edit
Holy shit... you just mentioned this...
Great video! I love these hypothetical video of, "What fantasy race would use what weapons." or "What weapon would be good for fighting X." I would love to see more of this. You could do other races like Elves, Giants, Aquatic, Underground, Beastfolk, Plantfolk, etc. You could even do a funny one from medieval beastiary. What weapons and armor would a Blemmy have? How do you fight an ox that farts fire? Best tactics and weapons against snails!
I would watch every one of these videos, if they existed. I add my vote to these ideas!
need
@@eliabeck689 Same.
Until just now I had never seen or even heard of a hook shield! And I had never considered a kama for a hobbit but your reasoning makes sense. And I'm glad you mentioned poison darts as it takes very little strength to drive something as sharp as a needle into unprotected flesh, and if a hobbit has to engage in direct melee combat they've already lost most of their (already small) advantages.
Boots with spikes... For shin kicking.
Aye! Just make 'em subtle spikes, so everybody underestimates you. Then you start kicking and they find out how dangerous a little fella can really be! ;)
Just Love those kind of videos of you the most :)
Man I love you skall. The honesty and wholesomeness and dedication with even your ads is so heartwarming. Always a nice break from the world to watch your videos. I hate TH-cam and what it’s doing to small and even experienced content creators, and I really hope things go great for you. Love the video as always. ❤
Genius! Perfect! Most hobbits/halflings are farmers anyway, so weapons based on farming equipment is very themed.
I really love the ideas in this video! Some are more unexpected than others but that's the point of it! and the Konami code bit at the beginning was brilliant, I laughed way too hard at it, very well done as always!
For melee combat I could see smallfolk adventurers mobbing larger creatures like how wolves take down large elk etc, weighing down the limbs, tiring them out and bleeding them, they'd have to practice in these kinds of team tactics a lot (also, surrounding a creature, ambushing them from the side with curved blades, they're basically velociraptors).
Depending on how things like grip strength to body mass ratios work out, they might be much better climbers than us larger humanoids, able to scale larger creatures and use small blades to take them apart at the joints.
Or they could just use brute force and courage, it seems to work for honeybadgers, but maybe that's more of a goblin fighting style.
Played a cannibal halfling barbarian in a Dark Sun game once. Used a sickle/dagger combo and would climb enemies until she could start slicing at tender spots... and biting.
Glad you mentioned the smallsword over the rapier - not only do I think it works better proportionately to a hobbit, it also has the benefit (in a lot of cases) of having a triangular blade, making a quick strike far harder to fix, so it counts for more
I love this and the dwarf one as well :)
For future consideration:
- Best wapons for someone with four arms (Tri kren for example)
- Best weapon for someone who with tentacle limbs/ no bones (arms work like snakes - or are snakes!)
- Best weapon for a flying humanoid (winged or not)
- Best weapon for a knuclewalker (or just someone with really long arms like monkeys/ apes)
Very happy for another fantasy vid. Was just thinking the other day that you needed to make another, I love them.
That intro was great! These kind of videos are really interesting and I would love to see them more often on the channel.
Hi Skall, I know you usually don´t do many vidios like this (and the dwarven one) but I love fantasy so I have to support those! Hopefully it will help to show there are people ho like it and hopefully you will have a reason to do more!
I admire the way you're thorough both in historical videos and the ones like this about battle midgets
i want to see some stories where gnomes are the main power just because they were the only ones to really have an incentive to invent guns or the magical equivalent of it, everyone else is either too peaceful or capable of adequately defending themselves with melee weapons or they consider bows holy or whatever, so gnomes were constantly on the back foot until one of them figured out that they can cast fireball inside a tube with a bullet in it.
Whole series, please!!
I love the topic! Saw those videos your good fellow Shad, from Shadiversity, made about medieval weapons for fantasy races. And to fight each specific fantasy race. They are still my favourite videos in his channel. Of course, I am particularly curious about your approach. One thing that already caught my attention (I am in 3:18 right now) is the "no armour" advice.
If I remember well that is the first time in a video about a topic like that when I hear someone saying armour may not be the absolute best idea. Until now my impression was that everybody who knows something about medieval weapons just happens to be partial in favour of armour. Armour is good, and the only thing better than armour is heavier armour.
Possibly another friend of yours, British gentleman, would say that "context is important" about that too. For the sake of principle if nothing else. But generally speaking I was under the impression that only reason why people didn't used heavy armour more often back in the so called Dark"Ages was because full plates where expensive and not everybody could afford one.
I suppose that make some sense. The human body being fragile as it is, and not exactly replaceable by the people using it.
Nevertheless, is nice to find a different perspective.
Love the explanations and from now on picks and sickles shall be the signature weapons of halflings, hobbits next to the sling of course. Thank you for having covered this.
Seeing as Dwarfs (or Dwarves, depending on which type your talking about) have all the advantages of being short but lack one of the most defining weaknesses of a smaller stature that almost all other 'small' races have, that being a comparative physical weakness to taller people, I think Halflings, Gnomes, Hobbits, etc would be better served in a confined space where their physically larger and stronger opponents cannot make use of their superior height easily.
This applies to Dwarves too, but less so because Dwarves are usually depicted as being stronger or just as strong as human beings, but humans trying to make use of infrastructure that wasn't built to accomodate their height in a combat scenario that they can't just burn down (something made out of stone or dug into the ground, like a hovel of some sort) could be a decisive advantage.
Also, as many will point out, there are advantages of being on the shorter side. They're just not as readily apparant or decisive as being tall. If you're a particularly stout short person, you could probably beat a tall person that weighs less than you in a physical altercation. It's just that taller, in most cases, weighs more.
Halflings are known for their sleight of hand, and maybe that could apply to finding kinks in armour? Sliding a sword into a gap in armour was done quite a lot historically, and I'd like to think they'd be good at that. It'd be kinda dangerous though, but it's dangerous even when your opponent is an exact physical mirror of you.
--Just had an idea. If guns are an option, OBVIOUSLY, but a good-option would be a magically-assisted sling or a magically-actuated crossbow capable of rapid-reload.
I absolutely love this type of content!
Saving this video for reference, thanks for making it!
My take on how the Small Folk defend thenselves:
Halfling friendliness and stereotypical luck, and Gnomish ingenuity and innate knack for Illusions... You won't know you've encountered an enemy, perhaps, until you're already so whittled down and flat-footed that you don't stand a chance. They serve you brandywine, but it's spiked. That narrow forest trail was little more than a trick of the eyes. The gift perfume has you seeing double, triple, and you just thought it was strong - and it is, but not how you thought. Fearing their intentions, you try to run away, but the paths between the trees are where the trees actually are, and you're bloodying yourself on their trunks. The canopy is spinning, you lose your feet, and the vines are tying you up for them: dozens of hard eyes, glaring at you with mockery and contempt from beneath their hoods, spears and spades in hand...
You should not have come. You thought that you would be welcome, that they wouldn't mind. You were gravely mistaken.
...My players are going to hate my take on Hobbiton.
Worlds least insane druid player.
Galadriel knew. She let Sam knew she knew, when she told him she got the impression he was from a place where Gardeners were very much respected.
You ever seen _Lonicera japonica_ pull down a fence? Imagine that, but going twenty times as fast because Hobbits are Gardeners with the capital "G."
Lost it at 'How about a Peace Dance'. Lol! Great stuff!😄😄
I heard "peach dance." Youre makes more sense, but I like hte absurdity of "peach dance."
These are my favorite videos on the channel
Your humor is on point, always puts a smile on my face!
Honestly, even though I personally have no intention of buying gamer sups, it makes me happy seeing skall get a sponsor! Man deserves it!
Woo Skall! I'll be sure to use your code the next time I need to refresh my caffeine stockpile.
Before watching, I was thinking crossbow and spear? Spear if only because I feel like the very low mass of a halfling would make melee in general very unappealing. But I like the idea of the leg-focused style. And glad we were on the same page with the crossbow.
The analysis is "on point". =D
I'm playing a halfling in a D&D campaign, and this is basically me.
Dexterity based light-footed warrior with a rapier that I describe as more of a shortsword. Also, no armor, as I multiclassed in a Warlock, and got myself an invocation that let's me basically have Mage armor always on. AC 18 on level 3, I'm basically a tank of the group.
I take it you rolled real well on your stats if you have 20 dex at level 3.
I love this kind of video! I'd love to see more!
Sickles also fit from the point of view of halflings being peaceful pastoral folks, so having weapons of war that are drawn from farm tools helps to push that identity.
Slings also fit with that, being thematically connected to shepherds.
Speaking of slings, I'd argue that slings are perfect weapons for elves, as elves are usually presented as having particularly good coordination, which helps here more than in most cases. Additionally, the long lives of elves help offset the biggest drawbacks of slings; they are hard to master, and the training takes years.
I remember halflings in HoMaM2 were rock slingers, and I carried that with me to Icewind Dale whenever I made a halfling character. Gnomes tend to be tech orientated; firearms, explosives etc. There was fun homebrew D&D game my friends did in 2023 and I had an NPC gnome artificer, who was a mixologist. All his drinks doubled as weapons, and his bar transformed to a mammoth mech!
Edit: seems we're on the same wavelength! Oddjob from James Bond also had a hidden chakram. Don't underestimate the underfoot folk!
lol Little Skall pulling the Konami code out to get past Big Skall
I did HEMA for a few years as a halfling size and strength person and this matches my personal experiance. Never handled a warpick sadly, but you're right on rapiers and smallswords. I struggled in rapier class and had to order a custom sword, but smallswords worked well for me because at my height I was better able to hide behind the guard. Regarding leg hits, only one clubmate ever hit my leg but I got very good at lunging for shins.
Nice!
Would love to see more of these videos, and maybe go into weapons for weirder creatures like Centaurs, Worgs, or tentacled monsters.
Good to see more of you skal, been watching for years
This my favorite category of your videos. I don't know how well these do in general, but thanks for catering to my tastes!
I think a staffsling would be a great weapon for them. Not only do you get extra power for the stones, but the staff can serve as a weapon in a pinch to be swept low against an opponent's ankles.
The Scottish highlanders would afix a sling to their own walking sticks and use them thusly
Love these videos glad these types are back
Loved the breakdown! Very insightful! Thank you!
I always kind of envisioned successful halflings using pike and shot tactics (but with slings and magic users instead of gunpowder weapons). I could also see a pike block being a good place to hide a handful of agile fighters who rush out and cut legs once the pikes are in range of the target distracting people. The slingers could even be the agile fighters given the ease of putting those away.
Also, I'm pretty sure halflings using slings started as a David vs. Goliath reference.
edit: Another thing to consider with halflings (assuming they are humans with 50% proportions in most ways) is that any given formation will be 50% smaller. This means they have to either do better defending their flanks or try to only ever fight in skirmishes out of formation. On the plus side for halflings, it would be easier to concentrate multiple halflings per normal size person. The halfling pike block might be able to have 4 times the number of pikes compared to a human formation occupying the same space.
This was great, keep up the great work.
Been a while since I have seen you do one of these. I missed it, love the bits to try and add realism to lore. The sickle advice took me by surprise, but makes a lot of sense.
Love these videos Skall!!
Great video Skall, from now on I'm making sickles/warpicks/hooks the go to halfling weapons in my fantasy/ttrpg creations
these are probably my favorite kinds of videos this guy does
I feel like there's one thing to note about firearms as a suggestion: Unless we are going to give Halflings a license to be anachronistic, we are looking at medieval firearms, so something between basic hand cannons and an arquebuse.
Which in turn means, we have to decide between keeping them at their original size, in which case they're not gonna be any less cumbersome than a crossbow, or we are going to scale them down to Halfling size, at which point the actual power behind the shot might become a little dubious.
As a 4'11" (149.86cm) guy, this was very informative.
Thanks for the new video !!! 😊
I think people often forget the benefits of convenience and ease of carrying when thinking of weapons for hobbits in LotR. They were going on a continent-spanning journey across treacherous lands, and were not expected to be frontline combatants. Something easy to access, easy to use, and light to carry for them was genuinely the ideal. Of course, no one expected Hobbits to be such masterful rock throwers, but that's besides the point.
I really do appreciate the extra thought that went into this one, as compared to all of Shad's similar thought experiments. They all just ended up at "bows because orcs strong" or "bows because elves have good eyesight" or "bows because dwarves need reach"
Love this kind of content, btw I remember in pathfinder there are exotic picks that a gnome could use without penalty
It's good to see you're still around and doing this. Would love to see more fantasy creature discussions. I enjoyed Shadiversity's videos on the subject, until he went crazy. Hard to watch him now.
This was very informative, thank you. These sorts of tactics may apply to goblins, kobolds, and bullywugs as well. Though they likely have an effective bite as well.
I like the idea of a slightly longer hafted kama - not quite a scythe. but with a decent reach - and perhaps a small axe blade on the back to make it more of a utility tool. Maybe it could even be something that unfolds, and can also act as a climbing pick. I think the standard procedure would be to try to cut the Achilles tendon of the opponent's forward foot if it isn't adequately protected. Basically, swing and aim at just behind the ankle. Assuming you hit, when you run away they can't chase you. And if you're brave, quickly move around to get the other foot, possibly with the axe head, and they've lost mobility. If that happens, and if they haven't fallen backwards, you can probably get at their relatively unprotected back zone, potentially with a two-handed spike hit.
Ah, the return of fantasy hypotheticals and analysis. Love it.
I feel like a slingshot would be an ideal weapon for a halfling. They're small and easy to carry, and would probably be easier to use than an normal sling.
On the subject of slings, yeah the halfling has shorter arms, but the main mechanic of the sling is force multipliers via centripital force.
If we dont want to increase the sling length then we can put the sling on the end of a pole, allowing them to use two hands to power the sling.
Great video skall!
A very fun topic. Thanks for covering it!