pawsplay
Hero
I wish the 3.5 designers had switched elves to having sorcerer as a favored class and gnomes having wizard. Then elves would be graceful and charismatic, and gnomes would have something of a mechanical justification. Gnomes were originally "small dwarves" who were later described as pranksters and illusionists. They had some weird abilities. In basic D&D, they were yet another pointless 1 HD humanoid. But it was something.
The current incarnation suffers from a cardinal design sin: the monolithic, one-note culture. Sure, nonhumans are supposed to be less versatile than humans, and each race is supposed to evoke something in particular. That doesn't mean every member of the race is supposed to be the same. Further, there needs to be more to them than one aspect. They should have a complex, multifaceted society. Simply because dwarves know a lot about rock and earth does not mean they should eat rocks, wear rocks as armor, use rocks as weapons, use "earth power" in combat, name all their kids Stoney, etc. Dwarves have the benefit of external mythologies (Norse myth, Tolkien, Warhammer, some reasonably solid fictional presentations in D&D novels).
Gnomes are whoppee cushion assassins, and that sucks. Further, the only gnomes to be detailed in books are Krynn gnomes, which are something else again.
To me, gnomes are crafty, semi-solitary, good with tools, a little greedy, not too proud, somewhat cantankerous but generous in nature, somewhat magical, a little mysterious. Simply giving them something besides banjos and whoopee cushions would help.
The current incarnation suffers from a cardinal design sin: the monolithic, one-note culture. Sure, nonhumans are supposed to be less versatile than humans, and each race is supposed to evoke something in particular. That doesn't mean every member of the race is supposed to be the same. Further, there needs to be more to them than one aspect. They should have a complex, multifaceted society. Simply because dwarves know a lot about rock and earth does not mean they should eat rocks, wear rocks as armor, use rocks as weapons, use "earth power" in combat, name all their kids Stoney, etc. Dwarves have the benefit of external mythologies (Norse myth, Tolkien, Warhammer, some reasonably solid fictional presentations in D&D novels).
Gnomes are whoppee cushion assassins, and that sucks. Further, the only gnomes to be detailed in books are Krynn gnomes, which are something else again.
To me, gnomes are crafty, semi-solitary, good with tools, a little greedy, not too proud, somewhat cantankerous but generous in nature, somewhat magical, a little mysterious. Simply giving them something besides banjos and whoopee cushions would help.
