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Halfling 5e – What D&D Character Classes Should You Play

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Our series continues for what D&D character classes should play for your race. This time we will look at the halfling for 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. At Nerdarchy we love the wee folk and always have. Halflings, gnomes, and even goblins are all small characters in the fantasy worlds of DUngeons and Dragons. Though they might be small in staure I wouldn’t recommend underestimating them.

Below you’ll find the video and trnascription.

Halfling 5e – What D&D Character Classes Should You Play Video

Halfling 5e – What D&D Character Classes Should You Play Video Transcription

Dave: “They think just because we’re little, we can’t get angry and cover ourselves. It spikes.”

Ted: “Or sing to our swords.”

Dave: “We’ll show them us. Halflings can do anything that big folk can do.”

Ted: “Let’s Talk D&D. Halfling. What character class should you play?”

Dave: “Hey, welcome to Nerdarchy for nerds by nerds. I’m Nerdarchist Dave and as always I’m hanging out with this nerd.”

Ted: “Nerdarchist Ted.”

Dave: “Hey, maybe this is the first time hanging out and Ted’s basement. It’s a place where we like to talk about news, views, and homebrews for 5th edition, Dungeons, and Dragons. Sometimes we talk about other role-playing games too.”

Ted: “So if you don’t want to miss a single video, don’t forget to crit hit that subscribe button and attune to that notification bell.”

Dave: “All right, so maybe you gather from the intro, we’re going to be talking about D&D halflings and what character class should you play.”Halfling

Ted: “So with this, a series of videos, we like to dive into the base race and then break it down into the sub-races and figure out what class should that sub-race be able to play. And then maybe talk about some unexpected, uh, classes that might work well with that racial abilities.”

Dave: “Exactly. All right, so diving into the core race off halfling themselves, they actually get a lot of really good abilities. They get dexterity as their plus two stat, which is a really good stat in 5e. They also get the lucky ability and they get the brave ability, both of which are really good.”

Ted: “So this tells us that as a race look tends to favor them because you know, they, they can, you know, reroll one’s so good. Things tend to happen to halflings. They’re brave. They don’t get afraid. That is utterly terrifying. You know, that they were like, you know what Yeah, I’ll try that. And they’re nimble. They’re dexterous having a plus two to dex means overall they have a plus one modifier better than any other average race that’s out there. So they’re going to be nimble. They’re going to be quick.”

Dave: “Yeah. That plus one is to hit, to damage.”

Ted: “To armor class.”

Dave: “To initiative to armor class to Dex saving throw, which is one of the better saving throws. It’s really important.”

Ted: “and there’s a lot of skills that go off of dex as well.”

Dave: “All right, so before we dive into the subclasses, let’s talk about the sponsor for this video.”

Ted: “and that’s going to be D&D beyond. It is a great tool set. It doesn’t a great website, highly recommend you look at all of the great stuff that’s over there. Even if you want to go check out the free stuff, they got articles, they got videos and all the stuff that’s on the SRD. You can go check it out over there.”

Dave: “Not only that, if you become a subscriber and become a customer of D&D beyond, it’s going to give you the largest digital database for Dungeons and Dragons information out there on the web. You know you can, if you get access to all the books as the DM that all your players have it as well, you can use it to build your campaigns, modify your monsters, create new spells, new magic items, build your characters. There is a plethora of stuff you can do with it. It’s awesome. I would highly recommend maybe even going in with your gaming group and getting a subscription so you can all share it.”

Ted: “Absolutely. I think it’s, it is utterly amazing and all the aspects, we use it on a daily, weekly basis, you know, not only for, you know, creating these awesome videos but for making, making our characters doing research as DMs and players alike. You know, it is just a great tool that I feel you need to have.”

Dave: “So in the description below, you can find a link to D&D beyond go check them out. Go show him some love.”

Ted: “All right, so we’re going to dive in and as I said, we’re gonna break this down by each sub-race and Dave loves doing things alphabetically. It makes him happy. So first up is going to be ghost wise.”


Dave: ”So ghostwise halflings they get a bonus, the wisdom and they get the ability to speak telepathically to other people that can understand them.”

Ted: “So it doesn’t even need to be understood and just needed to be able to have a language. You know, they can communicate within with one person at a time that is up to 30 feet away. So you know, this means they’re, they’re wiser than the average person and they don’t need to speak out loud. So this pairs nicely with a couple of different classes that you know in my opinion worked well for this particular class.”

Dave: “ Okay, so let’s dive into those classes and then we’ll talk about like the unexpected, which there’s some weirdness with the ghostwise halflings because of their lore, they actually warred with the other halflings. These halflings were ferocious, more violent and more savage than the others at the end of the war. That kind of, they lost with the other halflings. They, they kind of decided to go away from their savage ways. So that’s going to make for some interesting possible story choices.”

Ted: “All right, so what classes are they going to be best at All right, well they get a plus two to dex and a plus one to wisdom. Does anyone else hear monk screaming Uh, besides me?”

Dave: “It screams monk. It also screams are divine casters. One of the things a monk does really well for the small folk is the monk unarmed or martial weapon or martial arts of weapon damage goes up as they’ve advanced in levels. One of the biggest problems with being a small race as you can’t use the bigger weapons, totally negates that eventually, so it’s a great mix, but then we’re going to also, because of that Dex and wisdom, not necessarily the dex but that wisdom is going to make this a great character for those divine casters.”

Ted: “Specifically, if you dive into Druid, there is nothing that’s going to stop you from talking telepathically while you’re in wild shape so you, you can be an animal and still have the capacity to communicate. Fantastic. Crossover.”

Dave: “Yeah. This actually negates one of the disadvantages of Druid, which is when you’re wildshaped you can’t communicate with the rest of the party verbally. Well, now you can do a telepathic kind of negates that, wipes it away. There’s also a couple of other classes that they going to excel that with that combination.”

Ted: “Well dex and wisdom are going to pair nicely with your ranged combatants or your finesse fighter. So if you’re going to look at ranger or rogue, both of them do kind of favor that wisdom usage specifically for perception and are going to have that prime stat of dex for their weapon choices.”

Dave: “A prime stat of dex. Still the same thing for the fighter. Also though, you know the ranger wisdom is their spellcasting ability. So it’s perfect for that as well.”

Ted: “Absolutely. So you had brought up, you know that these, that these guys have some really interesting lore behind them and because of that there are some unexpected character classes that kind of work thematically for them.”

Dave: “Yeah. Well one, they took an oath to forsake their savage ways. That instantly makes me think of a particular class in 5th edition Dungeons and dungeons.”

Ted: “And I wonder who is it that makes an oath?”

Dave: “So thematically paladin would probably work really well. But the other one is what have they forsake their forsaking and don’t take the oath and go back to their old ways. Right.”


Ted: “That’s going to lead them right to the barbarian.”

Dave: “Yes, savage and ferocious fits right in the, in there with a barbarian. So I think for the unexpected, I think those two work really well.”

Ted: “Couldn’t agree more.”

Dave: “Next we’re gonna move on to the lightfoot halfling.”

Ted: “Alright now lightfoot is going to get you a plus one to charisma and then they’re naturally stealthy. So they’ve got the ability to kind of slip behind, you know, your party members and disappear.”

Dave: “Super useful for the rogue. Who wants to use the hide action There’s nothing to hide behind, but Bob, the fighter works perfectly so he does that. Ducks behind Bob the fight or breaks line of sight gets advantage on his next attack so we can sneak attack.”

Ted: “Super helpful, but it’s getting a plus one the charisma. So that’s going to lead anything. That’s going to be your charisma caster. That’s going to be your bard, that’s going to be your sorcerer, and that’s going to be a warlock.”

Dave: “Don’t forget paladin is also a charisma based class as well. Uh, if you want to make the dexadin, you could do that as well. We have a video on the channel about that somewhere, but then there are also some other options as you’re going to have as a lightfoot halfling as well, but you also have a rogue that’s going to pair nicely and again, you could do any kind of dex based fighter. That charisma there’s definitely some areas where that charisma is going to come into play as well. There are subclasses of rogue that playoff of charisma and there also features from even the fighter where you use your charisma as well.”

Ted: “going off of rogues. That expertise can be, you know, super helpful. So if you decide to make a the talky rogue, it definitely is like, okay, you know, I’m going to take persuasion, I’m going to take deception and dump. My expertise is in there. I’m going to start with that 16 charisma because I put, I put a 15 there, you know, you’re going to be right off the bat, you know, Super suave and getting away with anything.”

Dave: “Now, one of the things we did find with the halflings is because the halflings are dex based are so good at playing so many different character classes out there that makes it really hard for us to pick that unexpected class for the race. So we’re going to wait because stout has the same problem and we’re going to kind of pair them up.”

Ted: “All right, so with that, let’s dive into the stout and talk about what they’re going to get.”

Dave: “All right. Stouts are kind of like little dwarves, uh, except for their Dexy and they get a bonus to con they get resistance. The poison like the dwarves do as well. So of the wee folk, they’re the hardiest.”

Ted: “So getting dex and constitution, it’s kind of a no brainer to me that’s going to speak highly towards making a dex based fighter or any of the other dex based classes that might go into a melee that says ranger that says, you know, a melee based rogue as well.”

Dave: “Yeah, absolutely. So for all of those, you know, very efficient could do it. You could do a monk, but during the or some of our other videos, we explained why a con dex is not a great way to go for, for the monk build early on anyway, later on, if you, you make it to those levels, you’re going to be fine. It still can be fun and thematic”

Ted: “and this is the only talking mechanically you can play whatever you like it just talking about the most efficient.”

Dave: “Yeah. If you’re gonna pick a halfling for a monk, I would go”

Both: “ghostwise.”


Dave: “Even barbarian and paladin to a certain extent. If you’re doing dex builds can kind of work. The halflings really have a lot of choices. Uh, it’s only when you get into the intelligence based characters that they really kind of get, get pigeoned or, or nudged out of. But we’ve got some ideas there too.”

Ted: “Unexpected for the halflings, you know, we’ve already talked about them being brave, that them being lucky as a base race. So these, these are are things that you could double down on. So first off that lucky, you could, you could really look into anything that is a dice manipulator. So whether you’re playing your bard, uh, whether you’re playing the, the wild magic sorcerer, whether you’re playing the diviner, all of these classes have to some degree, the way to manipulate dice and having that, hey, you know what, I’m going to reroll ones that makes them so much better at those things and it makes them a more fitting thematic choice for those particular characters.”

Dave: “ Yeah. At least two of the sorcerer subclasses, uh, have some dice manipulation to them. The divine soul, as well as the, uh, wild mage sorcerer both of those, can do it. If you look at the college of lore bard with their cutting words, even more, these are definitely going to be based built on onto that dice manipulation. Obviously, portent from the diviner is awesome. Then the other area that I would look speaking thematically is maybe luck gods, you know, luck or home and hearth. All of those seem to fit really thematically for playing a halfling.”

Ted: “So while they’re not getting, you know, minus the ghost wise, the plus to wisdom thematically that cleric choice, just like, hey, you know what, if you’re going to be an adventurer anyway, you know, this is someone who, who could be like the gods reached out and say, hey, you know, whether it’s hearth and home or whether it’s luck, you know, these are the kind of gods that they might wind up worshiping.”

Dave: “I, and when I think gods and I think halflings like, you know if I’m not considering halfling gods specifically think, Tymora right off the bat. So the question is, what is your favorite character class to play halflings with Let us know. We got a place where we can discuss it down in the comments below. While you’re at it, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.”

Ted: “On your way down. Or don’t forget to stop by the description and check out the link to D&D beyond.”

Dave: “Until next time.”

Both: “Stay nerdy!”

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david friant

My name is Dave Friant I've been gaming off and on for over 27 years. But here is the thing it's always been a part of my life I've kept secret and hidden away. I've always been ashamed of the stigma that gaming and my other nerdy and geeky pursuits summon forth. Recently I decided screw it! This is who I am the world be damned. From now on I'm gonna be a geek, nerd, or however folks want to judge me and just enjoy life. Currently one of my greatest joys is introducing my 13 yr old son to table top RPG's.

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