Why are there no halfling bards.

While your point would have been valid originally, it isn't now. Wood elf beastlords get treants as their pet. If you can have a thinking tree as your pet, I don't see why you can't have a clockwork. As for the treelord warder, treants do cast spells, just not that one.

It's not a tree, it's an animal that looks like a tree.

Clockworks are machines not animals, Gnomes should know better after all they made them and claim to be smart.

OK then why can't something evolve to look like a clockwork spider then? IF your explanation works for the tree thing then it works for the metal spider looking thing. Heck in DND mimics look like treasure chests so its not far fetched.

OR my go-to is you use an animal spirit stored in a phylactery as the power source for the clockwork spider.. so pick one

Mimics appear like something in their natural environment, there's nothing natural about a machine

That's Necromancy since the animal the spirit was from would be dead, and every other Beastlord has a union with a living creature, so Necromancers could arguably get clockworks as pets using that logic but Beastlords cannot.

treasure chests, of course, are grown from giant treasure oaks. right?

Stubby fingers work fine to play drums.

That one specifically isn't a good example, since that is an ambush predator that basically sits immobile for hours & hours in the guise of an inanimate object only becoming active once prey is close.

I am not fond of the "Treelord" warder model myself, I think another forest-animal would have been a better choice but with Wolves taken by Barbarians & Bears taken by Ogres already there wasn't anything left for Wood Elves, and Wasps aren't animals as they are insects, personally I would have gone with something like Squirrel, Badger or Fox but you don't see those in Greater Faydark.

It's worth noting that EQ Treants are not the same as those in D&D or LoTR Lore which are truly sentient beings of human-like intelligence.

This thread calls attention to the fact that adding weird race/class combos would have been an astoundingly fun and cool feature for their new TLP

It's not even too late! Add a new one each expansion unlock to hype people up

Give them a small white rabbit as a pet then

The only one I can think of is the harmonica. You know, with the neck mount so you can play another instrument while you harmonicize.

The theremin. Im on mobile and its a pain to provide a link.

Kazoo.

Guitar. Couple guys have played it with their feet after being born without arms. Halflings should be good at that with their big feet.

Where are you drawing this information on what BST Warders are, Skuz? and does this mean that the Warders are un-related to EQ treants? I just always assumed it was the newer model, but it was still a treant. I figured they said a treant was 'close enough' given the obvious choices were taken, as you mentioned. But to complicate the picture.. treants in some parts of EQ are absolutely sentient, spell casters, with a level of intelligence comparable to humans [or even greater?] think Xanuusus, in the Druid and Ranger epic. I've never looked at EQ treants as radically different than D&D or Tolkien, though, what am I missing?

Maybe EQ has two kinds of Treants, the animal used as a warder & a sentient or magical creature kind or perhaps the former becomes/evolves/ages into the latter after a very extended period of time with the sentient type usually depicted/described as being very ancient.

please stop...

Camp a mask, problem solved.

Except the odor. You'll never get that distinct halfling scent.

Loved my gnome dirge in eq2. We need gnome bards.

I see a Halfling Bard every time I log in.

disgusting

I think there's a Bard usable cloak with Illusion: Gnome on it that drops in Brell's Temple in Underfoot. Not sure if it's a zone-wide rare drop or if there was a specific named mob that drops it.