A Gnome Variant: Looking for critique...

[aceofgames]

This is a variant gnome I made for new setting I'm making up (you can see the map I'm drawing for it here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=2575211#post2575211). I'll post only the mechanics, since I haven't completely playtested them yet, nor have I gotten all the flavor worked out yet.
This Gnome variant is designed to be the Wizard race of the campaign (replacing Elves). I'm thinking of a tiny little magical, cabalistic race, dealing out magic like its a luxury or commodity. Like magical merchants of sorts.
Well here are the mechanics I have made up so far:

GNOMES
• -4 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +4 Intelligence
• Tiny: As a Small creature, a gnome gains a +2 size bonus to Armor Class, a +2 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +8 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are one-half of those of a Medium character.
• Gnome base land speed is 20 feet.
• Low-Light Vision: A gnome can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Spellcraft is always a class skill for Gnomes.
• +4 racial bonus on saving throws against illusions.
• Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against spells cast by gnomes. This adjustment stacks with those from similar effects.
• Add +1 to the caster level for all spells cast by gnomes. This adjustment stacks with those from similar effects.
• +2 racial bonus on Listen, Hide and Move Silently checks.
• +2 racial bonus on Spellcraft and Knowledge (arcana) checks.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Gnome. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Goblin, and Orc.
• Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day—speak with animals. A gnome with a Charisma score of at least 10 also has the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation. Caster level 1st. save DC 10 + gnome’s Cha modifier + spell level.
A Gnome with 5 ranks in Spellcraft, has the following spell-like abilities: 2/day— unseen servant, and comprehend languages. Caster level 3rd.
A Gnome with 17 ranks in Spellcraft, has the following spell-like abilities: 3/day— telekinesis, seeming, and dominate person. Save DC 10 + gnome’s Cha modifier + spell level.
• Favored Class: Illusionist. A multiclass gnome’s illusionist class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty.

Please tell me whatcha think.

 

[Arkhandus]

Seems rather over-the-top as it is right now, especially with the spell-like abilities. Even without the spell-like abilities, it seems a bit too great for Wizards. The +4 Int, +2 Dex, +2 size bonus to AC and attack rolls (such as rays), +1 caster level and spell DCs, and +2 Spellcraft and Knowledge (Arcana)...... Just too much in favor of wizards.

For a race with no real drawbacks as wizards, anyway; no level adjustment, no required racial hit dice, nothing but a -2 Constitution really. The other stuff doesn't hurt Gnome Wizards one bit. They can still manage a Con of 14 or 16 at character creation, so it's not like they're going to be fragile stick-men. All wizards really need is good Intelligence, and decent or good Dex and Con. I'd suggest planting a +1 Level Adjustment on your version of the Gnome, unless you want to strip away some of its benefits.

As it stands, your gnome as a wizard far outshines dwarves and half-orcs as warriors; that is, your gnome's wizardly benefits are much greater than a dwarf's or half-orc's warrior benefits, and warriors are already the most limited and more-or-less weakest classes.

The spell-like abilities effectively double the normal number of 0th-, 1st-, 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-level-equivalent spells per day a gnome wizard would have at upper levels (not to mention the lower levels!). And they're fairly useful spell-like abilities too, especially since they're useable several times per day each. Since your gnome gets Spellcraft as a free class skill, even non-wizardly gnomes will have access to all that magic at the same levels. Regardless, the race makes good rogues and bards as well as wizards, and makes fairly good sorcerers.

If you want to avoid a level adjustment but still have some respect for balance, then you'd have to do something like removing all but the 0-level spell-like abilities, and lowering the Intelligence bonus from +4 to +2.

Also, as a side-note; typically, Tiny-sized creatures would have a -4 Strength penalty instead of -2 (they're not much more than knee-high to a human!), and would normally have a +4 to Dexterity instead of +2, so unless your version of gnomes are supposed to be portly and robust like dwarves (albeit shorter), they should likely have their Strength and Dexterity adjustments shifted 2 points.

 

[aceofgames]

Finally a response!
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Okay...
I agree with you. I'm going to restrict the race a bit more:
GNOMES
• -4 Strength, +4 Dexterity, -4 Constitution, +4 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom
• Tiny: As a Small creature, a gnome gains a +2 size bonus to Armor Class, a +2 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +8 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are one-half of those of a Medium character.
• Gnome base land speed is 15 feet.
• Low-Light Vision: A gnome can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Spellcraft is always a class skill for Gnomes.
• +2 racial bonus on saving throws against illusions.
• -2 racial penalty on saving throws against enchantments.
• Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against spells cast by gnomes. This adjustment stacks with those from similar effects.
• Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day—speak with animals. A gnome with a Charisma score of at least 10 also has the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—mage hand, ghost sound, prestidigitation. Caster level 1st. save DC 10 + gnome’s Cha modifier + spell level.
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This should be a bit more balanced... Oh yeah, And I think you meant Con, not Str.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Personally, I think +4 Int is too much, for a LA+0 race. How about -2 Str, +2 Int (and the other ability mods as is)?

 

[aceofgames]

I'm starting to agree with marking the +4 to +2...
Just not yet.
I lowered the wisdom, though. I want them to be a little more... absentminded.

 

[DreamChaser]

When I look at a new race, generally the first thing I'll do is look at the favored class and ask myself "Is there any reason a person playing this race would ever NOT choose this class? Is there any reason a person playing this class would ever NOT choose this race?" If the answers to either of these questions is no, thenthere is something wrong with the race.

This race has no reason to EVER be a member of another class than illusionist (or perhaps bard). They cannot threaten (Tiny creatures don't) which means rogue is pointless. The major penalty to STR and CON mean no fighter, ranger, barbarian, or paladin. The wisdom penalty means no cleric, druid, or monk.

Okay so this is clearly an illusionist only race. If they at least didn't gain any bonuses with illusions/magic it might be okay. But they do.

Overall, introing this race into a game would guarantee that no one could ever compete with a gnome illusionist (or wizard of any kind really) and you would never see (based upon a relatively traditional game) a gnome of any other class.

Thus, in my opinion, the race is completely unbalanced.

DC

 

[Gnome]

+4 INT and +1 to DC of spells cast would mean that a Gnome wizard would get +3 to the save DCs of all their spells. A player would have to be crazy not to take this race if creating a wizard.

Likewise, +4 DEX and +2 size adjustment means +3 to AC ... this is a huge advantage.

-4 STR doesn't matter much for a spellcaster. -4 CON does, certainly, but it's not enough to balance out the other advantages, IMO.

 

[Spatzimaus]

Far, far too good. Most of the downsides (the -STR and -WIS, the movement rate, the 0' reach) just aren't issues for a caster class; the only real penalty is the CON. Also, being Tiny is generally better than being Small or Medium, due to all the AC/attack bonuses. The save penalty for enchantments just isn't even an issue, since it means that all Wizards will take Enchantment as their prohibited school. While this reduces flexibility a bit, it doesn't reduce raw power (especially since enchantment is a common drop to begin with).

And +4 INT is just HUGE. As you've written it, it's easily an ECL+1 race, edging closer to +2. Since you're clearly aiming for a +0, I'll just say flat-out that it's horribly unbalanced.

 

[smootrk]

I agree with the assessments that the +4 INT is way too good. The other ability scores that all characters have adjust skill modifiers, feat choices, spells (CHA/WIS), and the like but INT also above all this affects the number of skill points and bonus languages, which is a significant extra compared to simple STR for a fighter or DEX for a rogue. The intelligence bonus affects so many aspects of play because of the skill points granted.

I would not grant any PC race an INT bonus greater than +2, and even then, the +2 bonus would need at least a -4 counterbalance to another ability (or maybe -2/-2 on 2 abilities) to avoid any level adjustment, just to balance the one ability score.

And then you are still granting another +4 bonus to Dex, which in mind mind is another ability that grants more than some of the other abilities due to the effect on AC and a great number of combat situations and skills.

All in all, you are creating an Uber-Race, and topping it off with extra special abilities. As written in your second posting, I still see at least +2 LA, if not more.

 

[aceofgames]

After reading a lot of legitimate and obvious criticisms (since I've spent enough time away to notice a few things), I've done another edit:
GNOMES
• -6 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -4 Constitution, +2 Intelligence
• Tiny: As a tiny creature, a gnome gains a +2 size bonus to Armor Class, a +2 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +8 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are one-half of those of a Medium character.
• Gnome base land speed is 15 feet.
• Appraise is always a class skill for Gnomes.
• +2 racial bonus on saving throws against illusions.
• -2 racial penalty on saving throws against enchantments and poisons.
• Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against spells cast by gnomes. This adjustment stacks with those from similar effects.
• +1 racial bonus on damage rolls with polearms (glaives, longspears, guisarmes, lances, and ransuers).
• +2 racial bonus on Appraise, Diplomacy, and Move Silently checks.
• +2 racial bonus on Spellcraft checks.
• Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day—speak with animals. A gnome with a Charisma score of at least 10 also has the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—mage hand, ghost sound. Caster level 1st. save DC 10 + gnome’s Cha modifier + spell level.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Gnome. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Goblin, and Orc.
• Favored Class: Illusionist. A multiclass gnome’s illusionist class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty.