Halflings vs. Gnomes

[mefdinkins]

I have been playing my halfling rogue a lot and everyday I regret not rolling as a gnome. Why lord why did I do this to myself? Was it min/max stats that mattered in Kunark that mean shit in 2017? Was it a XP bonus, even though I've dinged 61 a bajillion times?! WHY LORD WHY AM I A GOD DAMN halflingg?!?

Is this racist?

[jakerees]

Delete and reroll

[mefdinkins]

If I could transfer all my no drop items from my halfling to a rogue, I would for sure.

[mefdinkins]

I do think mini-skele or shrunk barb is funny too but yes Dald life is cruel out here.

[Lammy]

At least you wised up. Be thankful for that.

[Phenyo]

Barbarian. Slam is the best racial boon for interrupting casts when you don't have enough melee push. Doesn't even matter that it shares cd with bs.

[Lhancelot]

Just reroll a gnome.

After you get to lvl 20-30 either you will fall in love with it and be happy or find it a waste of time and not as great as you originally thought and go back to your halfling.

[mefdinkins]

Originally Posted by Lhancelot [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Just reroll a gnome.

After you get to lvl 20-30 either you will fall in love with it and be happy or find it a waste of time and not as great as you originally thought and go back to your halfling.

Can't you see I'm transracial, this is an identity crisis!! Plus I already re-rolled 60 human monk to iksar... that was a real struggle. As I was re-doing blacksmithing and pottery I almost killed myself.

[skarlorn]

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles. Fettuccine Alfredo has always been a special halfling to me. I enjoyed watching the fettuccine sauce spill out of his pockets and the noodles get tangled in his little beard during Sky Raids.

But honestly, rogue is the worst class available to halflings. Think about the Historic halflings, very few of them were actually rogues.

Frodo - Paladin. Mercy, honor, armor, and a bright sword. Eventually foreswore killing to preserve integrity of his soul against weight of the Ring.

Samwise Gamgee - Warrior with min/maxed baking and gardening skills (nothing better for guerilla warfare than a self-sustaining warrior class). EQ Berzerker rage is modeled after Samwise's zerker rage while fighting Shelob. His crippling blows and immunity to fear inspired the creation of Filbus Furyfoot

Meriadoc Brandybuck - Warrior of Noble birth, is noted for fighting bravely in Moria when other hobbits are afraid; Pippin recalls Merry cutting off the hands and arms of several Uruk-Hai during their capture near the Falls of Rauros.

Peregrin Took - Pippin was the only rogue halfling to accompany the Fellowship. He had some skill with magical devices (didn't reveal too much to sauron via palantir), more agile (crossed rope bridges of Lothlorien easily), and was mainly responsible for him and Merry escaping the Uruk-Hai at the edge of Fangorn. You might argue that Pippin multi-classed into warrior; however, I disagree. He wore MAIL armor and a custom crafted helm with plate graphics. In battle outside the Gates of Mordor, he clearly uses a Sneak Attack do defeat a Troll Captain. However, Pippin is then struck down due to his rogue's small stamina pool

Finally, we can conclude our criticism of the halfling as a rogue class by a brief look at the most famous halfling rogue of all time:

BILBO BAGGINS - Thief, burglar, or wielder of overpowered artifacts? Bilbo's failures as a rogue craft the arc of the Hobbit. He fails to steal mutton from the trolls. He only survives his trial in the goblin tunnels due to racial bonuses to sneak and hide (had he been a human rogue he would have needed skill to survive). In reality, the only reason Bilbo succeeded as a rogue is because he had a powerful enchanted sword of Gondolin and the One Ring which blessed him with invisibility. His racial bonuses to sneak and hide carried him when he went AFK and lost his party in the Misty Mountains, and then from that point on he barely relied on skill to be a successful rogue at all.

The metaphor that Tolkien was trying to draw was that halfings are ideally suited warrior, cleric, and druid classes because their racial bonuses to sneak and hide give a massive advantage to those classes. Halfling rogues, while initially looking good on paper, are actually very weak in the long run due to the fact that they always get their big bellies stuck on narrow doors and then their brass buttons pop off and litter the ground and suddenly all the goblins know where you are.

[Muggens]

Great post^

If straying away alittle from EQ, I would argue the point of morale also, where the "best" rogues would often be of an evil alignment, allowing them to be more unrestraint in their actions(such as stealing and stabbing people in the back). The adventures of Bilbo was more or less placed upon him via his friendship to Gandalf, who infact introduced him as a burglar to the dwarves. The role of Rog being appointed to him. (because he is small)
Halfings being nonadventurous and goodhearted are perhaps not suited to be cold blooded rogues.