Hello and welcome; in today's video, I am going to be covering a weapon developed by the Hin people of the Forgotten Realms, arising from their homeland in the Southern Coast of Faerun, the nation of Luiren. I will answer what it is, exactly how it evolved into its current form, the real-world proof that this fantastic bit of gear is entirely possible, and by the end of the video, I will give you the exact tools to fit the weapon, its use and its game mechanics easily and seamlessly into your dungeons and dragons experience. Also, you will learn a fascinating and wonderful new sporting activity which I think deserves a lot more attention, and perhaps a place, eventually, in the Olympic games.
Today, it's time to discover the Halfling Segmented Pole.
As you may already have noted, it's not exactly a pole; it is normally carried and configured as a form of spear or light lance, and it's important to keep in mind the proportions and physical capabilities of the hobbits, so let me start off with a little bit of science here.
Hobbits are the size of human children, but they are hardy and robust folk who are well known to be expert farmers with prodigious appetites and a certain fearless strength to them that in many ways rivals the amazing constitution of the Dwarven people, a halfling community is patrolled and protected by a relatively loose organization of Wardens, who act very much like a constabulary, emergency militia and as Rangers who operate in all types of weather, in all types of terrain. When you look at the strength of Halflings and Gnomes, they are capable of lifting well over their own body weight with far less effort than it would take a human to do the same thing with their own weight, and in reality, if one were to get into a wrestling match with a Halfling or Gnome, a human would fare not much better than if they were trying to go hand to hand with an angry chimpanzee, which is to say, not very well at all. The same could be said when comparing the actual strength of an orc to a human, even a teenage orc girl would make short work of Mike Tyson in a boxing ring, as they should, according to biological science, have twice the strength of any human being, but, it is what it is, I am not here to reinvent the game, its sufficient to say, that what I am about to describe to you is not just humanly possible, it is something that would be easy for any halfling or gnome to achieve.
So, let's travel to planet Earth for a moment, and I encourage you to investigate for yourself the Canary Islands and The Shepherd's Leap; there are a few YouTube shorts where you can swiftly see, in moments, exactly what I am about to talk about. Using a two to four-meter-long pole with a metal tip and some goat fat, a person can drop from an eight-meter or 26-foot cliff, jamming the pole, known as a Garrote, into the ground below and sliding down the pole, arresting their fall safely. This traditional technique evolved from shepherds needing to navigate rugged terrain with a lot of rocky areas and cliffs; the shepherd's leap, along with pole vaulting and wall scaling or chasm crossing methods, are all part of their training. The Garrote is actually a lance, much too heavy to be used like a thrown spear, but as you will see, it really is a unique form of exotic weapon and a very handy tool, and I am sure it would be far more popular with adventurers in the forgotten realms if it was more widely known.
So, let's travel back to planet Toril and learn about their use and how they came to be.
When traveling through the lands of Luiren in the southern coast of Faerun, one may see the local Hin people, the hobbits that call the Forgotten Realms their home, carrying very long and sturdy spears with a metal spike on one end, for a human the proportions are similar to what was a light lance, its not made for jousting and not tapered to like that, its more like a staff with a metal tip on it. When a halfling is riding on a dog or goat, or walking along the path, they will lance just behind the metal tip with the long shaft of the spear resting on their shoulder. If you take a closer look at the spear and their hands, you will see that the shaft of the spear is coated in a slick varnish and shining coating of goat fat, making it very slippery and smooth, and the hands of these halflings are strong, calloused from day after day carrying the long lance around.
While the long spear can be used in battle formations to defend groups of hobbit militia in times of war, used exactly like a pike, that is not why they are carried. They are actually used to perform a remarkable feat called the Shepherd's leap.
When a ranger or shepherd comes to the edge of a steep rock ledge or cliff, they point the metal tip over the edge toward the bottom of the drop, grip the other end of the spear and leap off the edge, when the point of the spear digs into the loose soil, stones and rock below, they slide down the spear, their hands protected by the slippery goat fat, which brakes their fall gently and they can land safely at the base of the cliff almost like they had cast the featherfall spell on themselves. The Hin also practice this as a sport, learning it and practicing from a young age and it allows them to navigate the rough terrain that you would swear was damn near impassable without a pair of wings on your back.
If this sounds a bit far-fetched, I encourage you to type in the Canary Islands Shepherd's Leap, and you will see that this ancient and very clever practice is quite real and performed to this day, keeping the ancient tradition alive by turning it into a sport. Its basically a reverse pole vault, but, skilled rangers and shepherds use the poles in both ways, and are also very skilled at laying the pole across gaps, chasms and such, then running across the pole, using it like a bridge.
To add this seamlessly into your Dungeons and Dragons game, I have crafted a feat you can select for an Origin or a Druid or Ranger class feat called Shepherd's Leap, but we will get to the specifics of that in just a moment.
Naturally, longer poles are desirable for this activity, but carrying around a very long pole, for folk who are half the height of a human, can be a bit of a bother, so, they came up with the solution of segmenting the pole into sections that neatly screw together and are hollow to reduce the weight. The shepherds also figured out that a standard size for the pole's girth was very important because sometimes they would need to combine their sections and make a very long pole to cross much wider gaps or check dangerously high drops from clifftops, drops that you wouldn't believe anyone could survive if they just jumped off the edge like they do.
Now, the hobbits also realized that the hollow sections of the spears were very handy for keeping things like fishing lines and hooks, a little tube full of brandy, a cloth and tubes of goat fat for greasing the pole, and all sorts of other handy items. This is the origin of the Halfling Segmented Pole. There is almost no end to the things that can stored in the slim tube of the pole segments, even doses of healing potion, vials of acid or holy water, I will leave the filling of those spaces to the imagination of your players, though I will say its a great way to safely store and explosive or quite unstable magic crossbow bolt.
OK, crafting a feat for this involves looking at what other options are available for player characters at the first few levels of experience and we see there are quite a few magic options for the character classes, so, we want the feat to be seen as worthwhile, as its quite an important factor, the feats are a lot more comprehensive in the latest edition of the game and so, the capabilities of a character who takes the Shepherd's Leap feat represent someone who has spent a lot of time training and using this ability until they can perform movement actions that are at what I imagine an Olympic level would be if it was actually widespread and popular enough to be as well known as pole vaulting is.
I will include the full feat in the desciption text below the video and also pop it on the screen here for you, as you can see the shepherd's leap is formatted in the same style as the other 2024 D&D feats, it can be an Origin feat, meaning its part of the character's cultural upbringing, or part of ranger or druid character class training, its not exclusive to Halflings, gnomes or elves, but they tend to have this skill more often than humans or others do. Since its quite a physical feat it includes the standard attribute bonus option of either +1 to Strength or to Dexterity, its your choice, but remember your attribute can't go higher than 20 points.
You gain familiarity in the use, both utility and combat use, in pikes, spears, ten foot poles and quarter staffs, including those that are a lot longer than usual, so the overall length of it should be around twice the height of the character using it, for halflings, that's no change at all from any human made and proportioned spears and quarterstaves, for an elf or human the length will be around 12 feet or three and a half meters, another good reason to segment and divide the pole into more manageable lengths.
When assembled, the long pole can be used to make high jumps or pole vaults up to four times the character's normal jumping height or four times their long jump distance, we will call this aspect Shepherd's mobility, and for the special cliff leaping aspect, lets call that Shepherd's descent and give the character the ability to plummet 120 feet or thirty six and a half meters, safely arresting their fall by digging the tip into the ground and sliding down the pole to land without any injury.
I think for a non-magical option, that is quite an advantage and perfectly suited for a halfling, gnome or elven ranger or druid, but an argument could be made for a rogue character who grew up in a big city like Waterdeep or Baldur's gate, using this technique to climp, vault and leap around from rooftops, over walls and across canals, making them damned hard to chase, and very good at getting into properties that they should not be getting into or easily out of.
Remember, you can fit all sorts of things into the segmented pole, adding a saw blade or a hook to the end of one can be very useful, or even a grabber claw that is closed and opened by way of a cord going right down the inside of the pole. You thought a ten foot pole was handy for dungeon delving, well, they are a poor substitute for a well crafted segmented pole from the lands of Luiren!
I do hope this is useful to you and you do include it in your games, but as always, your table, your rules, I am just here to provide some inspiration and the occasional clever idea.
Being a sneaky dire hobbit, its what I do!
My name is AJ Pickett, if you want to learn a whole lot more about the Halflings, check out the link on the screen to the first of a couple of comprehensive videos on the hobbits of the Forgotten Realms, thanks for listening and as always, I will be back with more for you, very soon.
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