Hob

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Content with the simple comforts of hearth and home, hobs, colloquially as “halflings”, elect to enjoy a quiet existence, uninterested in the distant and dangerous affairs of other peoples. Ionically, it is their unassuming nature which makes hobs so exceptional. While unimpressive at first glance, being small and adverse to danger and unpleasant conditions, they have a habit of becoming truly heroic in a pinch, surprising even themselves.

A cheery people who take delight in rustic pleasures, hob are largely unambitious and dislike adventurers ("makes you late for dinner!"). However, some hobs are possessed by wanderlust and depart from the safe and familiar to try their luck in the vast unknown.

They stand between 2 and 3 feet in height, weighing 40 to 45 pounds on average. Hobbish skin is soft and prone to freckling, often with a ruddy hue. They have bright, childlike eyes even in adulthood, usually brown or hazel in colour; blue in rarer cases. Their hair ranges from dark brown to blond and often possesses subtle curls.

Because hobs are small, rather than medium in size, they can hide even when obscured only by a man or beast of medium size or larger.

Most hobs live in small, tight-knit agrarian communities, formed of scattered farmsteads surrounded by common greens and well-tended groves. These villages are usually to be found deep amidst the countryside, equally distant from noisy, bustling towns and the savage wilderness. Such communities are generally self-reliant, hobs are not known to form larger polities, controlling little beyond the assarts of their quiet shires. A loose collection of hobbish villages is managed by a sheriff, who oversees cooperation between communities and represents his fellow hobs when dealing with outsiders.

Due to their subtly of movement and nimble fingers, hobs add 1 to initial dexterity scores. Their small size and fragile bodies cause them to subtract -1 from their initial strength scores.

A character of the hobbish race can be a bard, cleric, fighter, or thief.

The initial languages an elf can learn are common, hobbish, dwarvish, and any others your DM allows.

Hobs are uncannily adept at moving silently, avoiding detection by the "big folk", or any other threat they might encounter on uncomfortable adventures. Thus, a hob can gain a bonus to surprise opponents, provided he is not in metal armour. Even then, the hob must either be alone, or with a party composed only of elves, half-elves, or halflings (also not in metal armour), or 90 feet or more away from his party to gain this bonus. If he fulfils these conditions, he moves so silently that opponents suffer a -4 penalty to their surprise die rolls. If the hob must open a door or screen to attack, this penalty is reduced to -2.

Accustomed to burrowing into hillsides, hobs are able to safely navigate underground environments, even if less adeptly than dwarves. While underground, they can detect the following information when within 10 feet of the particular phenomenon (but they can determine their approximate depth below the surface at any time).

Note that the hob must deliberately try to make these determinations; the information does not simply spring to mind unbidden.

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