Thing is Dwarves are always more serious compared to the other shorter races, They Drink, Smith cool weapons and are total badasses,
Gnomes are interesting because they have pointy ears, fey ancestry and have this whole thing of being inventors, they're like the Nikola Testlas of Faerun,
Goblins have this have this gremlin mode, they're like cats but with an extra bit of mean streak, they'll break your stuff, steal your gold, eat your food and then insult you about it afterwards, lets say they have an attitude,
while Halflings on the other hand are based off of a race of lazy gluttons with hairy feet, the D&D version is better but not by much, if you hit a halfling then their god will take revenge by deaging you, like what GT did with Goku.
Meanwhile Sam, the hobbit, was the bravest character in the whole LotR story. I don't think, that Tolkiens hobbits are lazy gluttons, they are just normally that adventurous, but they do well, when they go out adventuring.
I didn't get your last reference, since I'm no tfamiliar with whatever fandom that is, sorry.
My point was, that generally small races are often used as funny characters, while Larian brought in the Ironhand gnomes and made them complex personalities. Or the dwarven sisters Korilla and Hope, so they can make well written characters from the small races and I would have confidence, that they had made Helia awesome.
