This is exactly what I mean about missing the nuance of D&D, no halflings on their own do not have weapon proficiencies
:
you are mistaken. That is all I was pointing out. You can say that they have a propensity towards certain things, and that's fair enough - but when you turn that into language that implies that people
Should use them that way, or even that they are
Restricted you using things a certain way, then you are taking away from the game and making it less. You are being a poor Dm and you are stifling players, when you do that.
Halflings used to have a favoured class, in older editions. They do not any more: this is a very deliberate philosophical decision that was made and upheld for the betterment of the game as a whole and the enjoyment of its players. You can backtrack on that if you want to, as DM, and you can attempt to shoehorn your players into type-cast moulds because that's how they 'should' be playing... but no-one will thank you for doing that.
So,
Again, I will ask you, becuase you still haven't adequately explained... Why did you say this:
It is possible to create a melee Cleric at higher levels [...] though you are limited to bludgeoning weapons such as maces, etc.
Why would you EVER try to tell players that they can't be an effective cleric of their god unless they use bludgeoning damage?
Why would you EVER suggest that a Cleric cannot effectively engage in melee combat unless they use bludgeoning weapons?
Why would you dream of restricting players, or even strongly implying that they should restrict themselves, in that way, when the gods present in the multiverse are so extremely many and varied and all favour different weapons, styles, outlooks and approaches to conflict, and their clerics may equally well follow their deity's ideal in those many and varied different ways, or even their own preferred style that suites them, as long as they're still acting in accord with their deity's tenets?
You can state a preference for following the super traditional stereotypes (*Even where they don't fit at all within the lore of the specific cleric and deity that is being talked about, if you want to...*) if you want, that's fine - I'm asking you to explain and justify why you'd try to state those stereotypes as factual restrictions when giving advice to less experienced players. That's deeply reprehensible.
