The Hindul of Karameikos

This describes the hindul (halflings), or hin for short, of Karameikos for use within Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition and Mystara campaign. Most of the this material is gathered from the GAZ8: The Five Shires (FSPB for Player's booklet and FSDMB for Dungeon Masters Booklet) by Ed Greenwood and GAZ1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos (GDK) by Aaron Allston and is merged with the information from Player's Handbook (PHB) pages 19 through 20. Some colorful dosing was sprinkled in here and there to keep in line with the humerous mood and philosphy presented in GAZ8.

-Joaquin Menchaca
Last updated: August 06, 2002

Hindul (halflings) Overview

The hin are a clever, straightforward, and honest, and yet somehow retain a sense of innocence and merry spirit despite any strife and dour times within their lives. The hin do have respect for property, dignity of others, and are generally sensitive to the needs of others within their community. Though often many hin that travel outside their land enjoy both thieving and mischievously playing pranks. They will only act stupid or innocent when performing plays in taverns or halls, or when exploiting another's preconceived stereotypes to gain an advantage. They are very cunning and resourceful survivors, and pride themselves in this trait. Despite this, they do not consider themselves superior to others and do not express their pride by being haughty, quick to find an insult, or by any difficult behavior towards others.

Personality: Hin prefer trouble to boredom. They are notoriously curious. Relying on thier ability to survive or escape danger, they demonstrate a daring that many larger people can't match.

Hin have ample appetities, both for food and for other pleasures. They like well-cooked meals, fine drink, good tobacco, and comfortable clothes. While they can be lured by the promise of wealth, they tend to spend the gold they gain rather than hoarding it.

Hin are also famous collectors. While more orthodox hin may collect teapots, books, or pressed flowers, some collect such objects as the hides of wild beasts - or even the beasts themselves. Wealthy hin sometimes commission adventurers to retrieve exotic items to complete their collections.

Physical Description: Hin stand about 3 feet tall and usually weigh between 30 and 35 pounds. Their skin is ruddy, their hair black and straight. They have brown or black eyes. Hin men often have long sideburns, but beards are rare among them and mustaches almost unseen. They like to wear simple, comfortable, and practical clothes. Unlike members of most races, they prefer actual comfort to shows of wealth. A hin would rather wear a comfortable shirt than jewelry. A hin reaches adulthood in his early twenties and generally lives into the middle of his second century.

Relations: hin like the Traladarans whom they consider life-loving, romantic, expressive people, while they feel that Thyatians are colder and less sympathetic. From the Five Shires, the hin view Thyatians with suspicion and consider them to be essentially decadent and dishonest; a Thyatian should never be trusted with his word until proven otherwise. Hin view dwarves as decent, fair, and intelligent people who work hard but who are incurably greedy when it comes to great mineral wealth. Hin get along very well with gnomes and elves.

Alignment: The hin tend to be neutral and practical. While they are comfortable with change (a chaotic trait), they also tend to rely on intagible constants, such as clan ties and personal honor (a lawful trait).

Hin Lands: The hin have migrated to a region west of Karameikos that they call Llora or Five Shires roughly 3300 years in the past. Most hin found throughout the world come from the Five Shires. There are some major hin colonies, such as the one near Alpha in Norwold, where hin have established themselves, and there are communities in just about every region of the world.

Religion: Hin do not worship any of the traditional Immortals like the members of other races do. Instead they revere Hin heroes; Hin who have accomplished greate deeds during their lives, often saving the Shires others against incredible odds, and now watch over the Hin forever. Despite this, hin priests are still rare. Very rarely do they ever step foot off of the sacred grounds of the Hin nation: Five Shires.

Language: The hin speak the tonuge of humans common to all the surrounding lands. They use only a few surviving fragments of their own, older tongue Keepers, Masters, and some Clanmasters preserve enough of this largely lost language to communicate with each other when they know they are being listened to and don't wish others to know what is being said. Few other hin understand more than the words listed below. The language is called Lalor: "lal" = old + "or" = speech; "ora" = talk, conmversation, discussion; "orag" = argument, dispute. Sentences always begin with the subject, then the details of what was said, then end with the verb.

In ancient days hin relied on clan Seniors and Keepers, and the telling of tales, to preserve the history of their people. Little which may have been written has survived the Shires' many invasions and recurring periods of slavery, which the hin suffered. Keepers carefully guard what little has come down and about al the average hin or non-hin can expect to see while exploring the Shires are old runes.

Names: A hin has a given name, a clan or family name, and a possible nickname. As many hin have the same first name as others within their clan, the hin will have a nickname to distinguis on hin from another.

Male Names: Alton, Beau, Bob, Cade, Eldon, Garret, Ian, Jaerbosz, Joam, Lyle, Marintor, Milo, Oglentyr, Osborn, Roscoe, Ulam, and Welby.

Female Names: Amaryllis, Anna, Charmaine, Cora, Delune, Euphemia, Jalassa, Jillian, Lavinia, Maeragh, Meermeera, Merla, Portia, Sildil, Seraphina, Sintyr, and Verna

Family Names: Brushgather, Goodbarrel, Greenbottle, Highhill, Hillhollow, Hilltopple, Leagallow, Tealeaf, Thorngage, Tosscobble, Trenchermann, and Underbough

Adventurers: The most important part of a hin's life is the yallara or "wild time", where hin go through a process of finding themselves. Such yallaren go on a rampage of adventure doing everything "just for the fun of it", joining wierd causes, societies, and clubs, and often traveling to the farthest reaches of the world. Most adventurers traveling far from the Shires are yallaren. They are not interested not only in trying many different lifestyles and professions themselves, but in observing others all around them. A hin encountered anywhere in the Known World, of any age and appearance, may as a result reveal an astonishing variety of knowledge and experience.

Hin Racial Traits

Most of these traits are straight from the Player's Handbook on page 20, under HALFLING RACIAL TRAITS. Abilities noted as "racial" abilities bonuses are in fact a bonus based on culture, and may not be shared by distant hin communities. Some abilities have been added, which are in green, to match the Mystara campaign.

• +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength: Hin are quick, agile, and good with ranged weapons, but they are small and therefore not as strong as other humanoids.
• Small: As Small creatures, hin gain a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide Checks, but they must use smaller weapons than humans use (PHB96), and their lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of Medium-size characters (PHB142).
• Hin base speed is 20 feet
• +2 racial bonus Climb, Jump, and Move Silently checks: Hin are agile, surefooted, and athletic.
• +1 racial bonus on all saving throws: Hin are surprisingly capable of avoiding mishaps.
• +2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear. (This bonus stacks with the hin's +1 bonus on saving throws in general)
• +1 racial attack bonus with a thrown weapon: Throwing stones is a universal sport among hin, and they develop especialy good aim.

• +2 racial bonus on Listen checks: Hin have keen ears.
• Once a hin acquires 5 character levels, he may perform a denial (Su) when upon his homeland. This is a supernatural ability. (FSBP3)
• Automatic Langauges: Common (Thyatian) and one other Common language.
• Bonus Langauges: Lalor (ancient hin), Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, and Orc. Smart hin learn the languages of their friends and enemies.
• Favored Class: Rogue. A multiclass hin's rogue class does not count when determining whether she suffers an XP penalty for multiclassing (see PHB56). Hin have long had to rely on stealth, wit, and skill, and the vocation of rogue comes naturally to them.

Karameikan Social Standing

The hin have to fend for themselves within Karameikos, and thus come for all levels of backgrounds. Generally though, as hin are generous, especially towards one another, a hin need not ask in order to get assistance with shelter and food.

The hin view how well one is doing by his or her luck. Those almost starving are simply unlucky, where as those that are a little bit better off as not working hard enough. Those that are comfortable are considered lazier, as they have enough money to be lazy, which is not actually a bad attribute in hin society. Those that have some sort of wealth are called moneybags or lucky.

A hin that is a moneybag or lucky should be a generous towards other hin, especially the unlucky, and must also throw large and exciting parties. Those that hoard wealth, are stingy and miserly, and do not throw lavish parties, will be sure to be a victim of many taunts and also unwillingly assist many hin in improving their skills at getting into things, such as the moneybag's coffers.

Players can elect to either choose to be comfortable (or lazier as hin put it), or roll for a chance to be wealthy (or a moneybag in the hin's view).

Note that despite the amount of money a hin has, he does not wield any actual power, as hin do not participate within the politics of Karameikan affairs. Though this could change if say for instance, a miserly moneybag wanted to corner certain markets controlled by humans, using the muscle that money can buy. Wealthy hin can exert influence over other hin within Karameikos by throwing lavish parties.

Permitted Classes

Generally with Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition any race can play any class, despite how outlandish, bizarre, or freakish the combination may be, or whether it fits in the campaign scope. This game master will not part from this path. Thus if a player wants to play a hin Paladin/Pscion/Monk/Wizard, but they will find themselves wholly unique within Mystara.

The hin of Five Shires have natural tendencies to certain classes. These include Fighter, Cleric, and Rogue. They avoid attempting to learn the arcane arts due to their difficulty overcoming the focus and discipline needed to those professions. Some hin within the Shires are also druids, and those in the homeland sometimes pursue the prestige class called Keeper of the BlackFlame (Kpr) (FSBP19).

Below are the list of classes are how common they are. Very Rare represents that no one studies this craft; rare represents maybe a few people study this profession; uncommon represents more than a few study this profession.

Classes, Common: Cleric, Fighter, Rogue
Classes, Uncommon: Bard, Druid, Pscion, Psychic Warrior
Classes, Rare: Barbarian, Monk, Paladin, Ranger*
Classes, Very Rare: Alchemist, Sorcerer, Wizard

* The ranger class is common for elves of Vyalia or hunters of Zirchev. It is rare, but not impossible, for others to be taught this trade.