Dwarves and Halflings are different ethnicities/subspecies of the same race

>Dwarves and Halflings are different ethnicities/subspecies of the same race
How do you feel about this idea?

You could probably get away with them just being different cultures. I mean, aren't "hill dwarves" usually pretty halfling-like or something?

I actually did exactly that in my last fantasy game.

I homebrewed "Mountain Dwarves" and "Hill Dwarves". Mountain Dwarves were the classic mountain hall-dwelling society of minors, craftsmen, and warriors. The Hill Dwarves lived in the surrounding foothills as a vassal state. They had some societal similarities to Hobbits but with a more Dwarven appearance.

I never liked having actual Halfings in fantasy games. Unlike most races, Hobbits are something Tolkien has exclusive ownership over so as far as I'm concerned they belong in Middle-earth and Middle-earth only.

>throw gnomes in and you have a deal
>halflings are more inclined do druidism, ranger and barbarian, gnomes are the bards, sorcerers and wizards, dwarves are the fighters, clerics and paladins. Any of them can be monks.

Inb4 the human race

>How do you feel about this idea?

I didn't actually like Gnomes or Halflings until I started doing that; just making them different ethnicities of Dwarves that is.
Dwarves live in the mountain, Gnomes live in the forest on the mountain, and Halflings live in the valley that's beyond the forest that's on the mountain, but they are all fundamentally just Dwarves.

If the setting is one where things like orcs and drow are related to elves, sure why not.

Doesn't seem important in any way at all.

I've wanted to implement it as Hill Dwarves literally just being Halflings, basically exactly like said. I'm glad I'm not the only one with an idea like this.

I imagine Dwarven society being very hierarchical and caste based, with the Mountain Dwarves being the upper class, warriors, traders, artisans, nobles, and miners being up there with them due to the prestigious nature of mining and the dangers they face underground. They live in the Mountainhomes and are more adapted to underground life and culture, which explains their adaptations like being able to smell gold, see in the dark, detect changes in grade, identify old and new construction etc, being the hall builders, miners and architects.

The halfings, or Hill Dwarves live in the foothills and fill the caste of simple laborers, being farmers, ranchers, woodcutters and etc, they are more scrappy and less strictly traditional compared to their higher born cousins, and their more underground specific abilities have gone away or never developed after their generations upon generations of life in the Dwarven society's caste system, being rarely allowed to enter the Mountainhomes without actual business to do in them.
Think of how super traditional India was.

I really don't know how gnomes would fit in, I might consider adding them if I had somewhere they could fit in, though the system my group has been playing only has rules for Elves, Dwarves and Halflings as races besides humans, so I haven't really considered it much.

Not a fan. Prefer halflings as a subset of human.