Shortfolk in DND: your picks?

Dungeons & Dragons has a long tradition of short humanoid races, from the goodly aligned iconic dwarf, gnome and halfling trio to the iconic villains of goblins and kobolds to more obscure critters like kenku, grippli and ratfolk, and except in the obvious all-human campaign settings, few settings are without at least one race of shortfolk.

But, I'm curious; what shortfolk race/s do you most like including in your D&D games? How do you portray them? And what is it about them that makes you want to include them in your setting?

Actually, topic makes me wonder; when did Dwarves switch to officially being considered a Medium race? Didn't they use to be Small sized but with some special features to make them carry stuff like Medium PCs?

Speaking personally... I have fairly easy times for figuring out places for dwarves, goblins, and the more bestial shortfolk like kobolds and ratfolk, but I struggle with finding a place for gnomes and halflings. Especially when it comes to featuring them both in the same world.

Which is weird because I admittedly like to mess around with D&D lore a lot. For example, one of the things I'm currently contemplating is a culture of kobolds who've converted from worshipping dragons to worshipping coatls. Pic related - not mine, but related.

>those gems spilling out of the bag
Stupid fucking bitch, you're dropping the loot. Maybe if you hadn't spent so much time getting that gigantic 80's hairstyle you'd notice you were throwing away a fortune.

Morbidly curious, and I figured it probably made more sense to ask here than to start up a thread for it: I've seen threads on Veeky Forums talking about the appeal of shortstack races. But which D&D race do you think makes the best source for shortstacks, and why?

Is it halflings, who're supposed to be "the cute"? Is it dwarves, whose womenfolk have really grown hotter over the editions? Is it kobolds, for being monstrously exotic? Is it goblins, for being horny little monstergirls who could justifiably look prettier if you cleaned them up?

Deendee is trash, its stupid cringe-y 'western fantasy' vibe is trash, and all its short races but the dwarf are trash. Pic related is proper fucking fantasy.

I find of the playable races, it's Gnomes that I have the most difficulty placing. Dwarves are fairly easy and I have a rather strong mental image of what they are, how they live, and what they do. Same with Halflings who sound small and even pathetic, so I imagine them in a sort of servant/menial labour position in cities, and small out of the way homely villages in their own lands.

Halflings, I think a hot female Dwarf is an exception than a rule. Dwarves for me in general are rather ugly.

Start of 3rd ed.

>but I struggle with finding a place for gnomes and halflings. Especially when it comes to featuring them both in the same world.

I've been playing around with the idea that dwarves, gnomes and halflings are all three different castes of the same species.

Dwarves are the warrior caste and treat mining, lumbering and smithing as combat arts. Mining is fighting the mountains, lumbering is fighting the trees and smithing is fighting metals.

Gnomes are the scholar caste and made up of alchemists, magic users, inventors, writers and philosophers.

Halflings are the servant/hospitality caste filled with cooks, weavers, farmers and artisans.

>Dwarves
A mainstay in fantasy, I find it easy to find a place for them. They have enough characteristics make something recognizable as a dwarf without being pigeonholed into a single interpretation.
>Halflings
A bit more difficult to work with due to being overly similar to humans aside from height, but that can be worked around. I try to find a way to fit them in for posterity.
>Goblins/Kobolds
Like them both and they're my go-to for unconventional main races. I really enjoy when they straddle the border between monstrous and civilized, sometimes becoming second-class citizens in nations populated by the common races. If that's not an option they always make good evil beasties.
>Ratfolk
Like them in theory, but have a hard time finding a place for them.
>Gnome
Only one that I'm outright against. If I include gnomes it's as a non-playable spirit of elemental earth.

Holy shit this. This one billion times.

>I'm currently contemplating is a culture of kobolds who've converted from worshipping dragons to worshipping coatls

That makes my dick so hard.

Gnomes are the odd one out for me. Dwarves are industrious, isolationist, stoics. Halflings are either disaporated gypsies or comfy salt of the earth farmers and nice folk. Goblins are marauding sacks of EXP and Blood that exist to show how savage and cruel less advanced societies can be. Kobolds are sort of the more LE answer to goblins, being ridgid, prone to serving larger beasts.

Gnomes, Gnomes suffer for a place in my opinion.

Also, dat ass.

Halflings followed closely by slut goblins

My Gnomes are the gypsys of my setting. Their race (or so they say) was born of earth spirits who rebelled against their god because they wanted to 'go their own way', or act in contradiction to the state of things as dictated by the earth.

For this transgression they were thrown into mortal form and cursed to never find rest on the earth. This is why what few villages and towns of theirs exist are either in tree's or at sea. They claim if they spend more than one night in the same place they break out into rashes and fall sick.

It's not really clear if any of this is true or just a massive race wide case of psychosomatic hypocondriacism

something between a halfling and a gnome. I don't have enough to really differentiate the two from each other

I hear gnome, my mind goes strait to warcraft gnomes and when I hear halflings, I just imagine a human, but maybe 3 1/2 feet tall

but mostly? goblin girls

god damn

Honestly, I can probably see any of the shortfolk females as cute shortstacks, especially with the "hotter & sexier" slant that dwarfs, gnomes and halflings all got in 4e, but... personally, I kind of like the goblins, kobolds and ratfolk better.

I think it's one part the "bad girl" factor, one part that they're the most "monstergirly" of the options compared to the demihuman trio, and one part they're all really known for breeding, so you'd expect them to have some serious curves to handle all the baby-making.

Before anyone asks how that works with kobolds, since they're egg-layers, I go with the idea that they're sporting nice, egg-laying hips and a juicy ass to go with it. Plus, if I'm feeling magical realm about it, they can also store fat on their chest in breast-like bumps, so you end up with kobolds who've got pseudo-tits.

Larry Elmore knew what was up.

Yeah. I'll take pieces like this or the 4e halfling over the chubby too-too-innocent 2e halfling or the awful abomination of the 5e halfling anyday.

>Halflings followed closely by slut goblins

This. Fuck do I love my slut goblins.

Why can't we have halfling art like this anymore?

Also does anyone have a clean image? The artist's site was no help.

For me at least I've found PF gnomes to be a wonderful way of doing them. They are fey exiles, having done some terrible thing in the First World (the gods prototype and foundation to the material plane and origin for all fey). They retain much of their fey ancestry, sporting hair and eye colors that are unnatural along with bones and muscles that are far stronger than they would normally be. Their features are slightly unnerving, with eyes slightly too big, and wide expressive mouths and a form that is too thin.

When it comes to psychology, they need constant stimulation and new experiences or else they go through what's called the Bleaching. The color of their forms literally drains away and their passions are stifled until they go mad with boredom and ennui. eventually just dying from lack of new things. Some survive, but are forever changed, often being shunned by other gnomes.

They come to all kinds of professions that provide opportunities for new experiences, from tinkerers to alchemists, to wizards and adventurers, to more mundane professions that still give new things to do and see.

This really separates them from the homebodies that are the halflings, the stoic and industrious but not technological dwarves, and other short races.