Hello, thank you for your interest! I’ll try to answer your questions as best as possible.
@sameoldji,
This is phrased pretty much exactly like Corruption from Magic Burner and is intended to work this way - help the user himself. The reasoning is, he really focuses and does his best to get his job done, so he can drop it already and pursue his newfound interest. I realize this may be a bit too much to some people - first and foremost, you don’t have all those nasty downsides that Corruption brings, but I tend to keep artha pretty low in my games so I don’t think that’s something too easily abused. Feel free to restrict that in your game if it doesn’t agree with you.
@Taelor,
Those general skills are halflings’ unique selling point! See, humans have their magic and the most versatile range of lifepaths. Dwarves have quite powerful lifepaths, their craft, their equipment. Elves are OP, plus they wield their song-magic. Halflings don’t have anything like that aside from being very flexible due to those general points. And what’s the narrative explanation? They are spread thin, you can meet a halfling anywhere, thanks to both their travels and the diaspora. And because of their strong social identity, they learn a lot from their non-halfling neighbours, resulting in a wide variety of skills. This may be against the rules in Monster Burner, but my rules say it’s totally fine 
Now onto the Fellowship. I realize this could be abused from time to time, but definitely not in the way you described it. First of all, you still need to come up with a plausible description of how you help, can’t just declare “just so”. Second of all, apply some common sense! Imagine that ten thousand halfling soldiers, knowing nothing of the art of strategy, are being summoned to counsel the general. It would be worse than internet forums! The quarrels, the fights, because everyone knows better! And the time it would take, too! Now consider social ramifications as well - would the general be willing to ask simple footmen to help? Would they be willing to assist him?
But then it is totally cool to help your wizard friend with a research on some mystical matters. Just say you’re looking for some adventure stories in the library and maybe you accidentally bump into something useful to him. Done and done.
@Moxiethe4th,
Well of course, the edges are quite rough. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to use my halflings in game, since my group is very reluctant to play Burning Wheel, and I’d rather stick to D&D or something while having a full table than drop a player or two in order to play BW. I may do a second run through those lifepaths one day to rebalance a few things, but unless there’s something really glaring, it should be not too disturbing. Burning Wheel is full of imbalance itself.
