Halfling

The Cantara Player's Compendium    PF2e Player's Handbook    Ancestries      Halfling

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.

Halflings reach physical adulthood around the age of 20. A typical halfling can live to be around 150 years old.

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.

Popular Edicts share good meals with friends and strangers alike, stand up to bullies and oppressors, stay beneath the taller folk's notice

Popular Anathema take your luck for granted

Halfling Mechanics

Hit Points

6

Size

Small

Speed

25

Attribute Boosts

Dexterity Wisdom Free

Attribute Flaw

Strength

Languages

Common Halfling Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it's positive).

Traits

Halfling Humanoid

Keen Eyes

Your eyes are sharp, allowing you to make out small details about concealed or even invisible creatures that others might miss. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus when using the Seek action to find hidden or undetected creatures within 30 feet of you. When you target an opponent that is concealed from you or hidden from you, reduce the DC of the flat check to 3 for a concealed target or 9 for a hidden one.

Heritages

Gutsy Halfling

Your family line is known for keeping a level head and staving off fear when the chips were down. When you roll a success on a saving throw against an emotion effect, you get a critical success instead.

Hillock Halfling

Accustomed to a calm life in the hills, your people find rest and relaxation especially replenishing, particularly when indulging in creature comforts. When you regain Hit Points overnight, add your level to the Hit Points regained. When anyone uses the Medicine skill to Treat your wounds, you can eat a snack to add your level to the Hit Points you regain from their treatment.

Jinxed Halfling (Uncommon)

You were born with a strange blessing: bereft of the typical halfling luck, you can instead manipulate the fortunes of others. You can never take the Halfling Luck feat, and you gain the Jinx action.

Jinx

CURSEOCCULT

Frequency once per day

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You can curse another creature with clumsiness. This curse has a range of 30 feet, and you must be able to see your target. The target gets a Will saving throw against your class DC or spell DC, whichever is higher.

Success The target is unaffected and temporarily immune for 24 hours.
Failure The target is clumsy 1 for 1 minute.
Critical Failure The target is clumsy 2 for 1 minute.

Nomadic Halfling

Your ancestors have traveled from place to place for generations, never content to settle down. You gain two additional languages of your choice, chosen from among the common and uncommon languages available to you, and every time you take the Multilingual feat, you gain another new language.

Twilight Halfling

Your ancestors performed many secret acts under the concealing cover of dusk, whether for good or ill, and over time they developed the ability to see in twilight beyond even the usual keen sight of halflings. You gain low-light vision.

Wildwood Halfling

You hail from deep within a jungle or forest, and you've learned how to use your small size to wriggle through undergrowth and other obstacles. You ignore any difficult terrain caused by plants and fungi, such as bushes, vines, and undergrowth.