D&D 5E Gnomes aren't Fey?

[The Crimson Binome]

Gnomes are an entirely optional race anyway. If you want to bend the game to allow them in the first place, then it won't break for changing them to be fey.

The less core a thing is, the more acceptable it is to alter the details.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Gnomes are an entirely optional race anyway. If you want to bend the game to allow them in the first place, then it won't break for changing them to be fey.

It's a bit strong to say that including them is "bending the game". They are right there in the PHB. All it says is that they're "less common".

 

[The Crimson Binome]

It's a bit strong to say that including them is "bending the game". They are right there in the PHB. All it says is that they're "less common".

The point is that they are opt-in, rather than opt-out. The DM has to intentionally decide to include them within the game, as compared to the common races which are assumed to be there unless the DM says otherwise.

And once the DM is actively making decisions about a race, it's not much further to decide to tweak it a bit. By that point, you have already overcome the inertia to do nothing.

 

[MrHotter]

I was still under the impression that Forest Gnomes were Fey and Rock Gnomes were not. Their entry pretty much makes them sound like a Fey creature living in Sylvan woods and allied with Elves and the good Fey creatures.

I made my world in 4E, so for me they will still be Fey for me.

 

[Sunseeker]

In 4e, you had both an origin- natural, shadow, fey, etc- and a type- humanoid, animate, etc. So gnomes were "fey humanoids".

In 5e, type reverted to being a single element, not having an origin attached; so there are "fey" and there are "humanoids", but not both.

I suspect that gnomes (and elves) being humanoid is to allow them to be targeted by spells like hold person.

This. 5E "simplified" everything and in doing so, had to cut some things. Being a fey-humanoid wasn't expertly complicated, it just means you could be targeted by things that only affect fey and things that only affect humanoids. I find the lack of origins/subtypes to be rather confusing but it follows the same pattern of "elves" as we know them on the material plane being descendants from the "true fey" of the feywild.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I agree with shidaku.

So far all PC options are humanoids, even if there is a nonhumanoid version in the monster manual (minotaurs and revenants). I am pretty sure it is to avoid the annoying "My PC should be immune to that spell, because he/she is an X, and the spell says it only affects humanoid" (almost inevitably followed by "What do you mean this buff doesn't affect my PC? That is so unfair."). Long story short: everybody can be healed the same way, are affected by the same buff spells, and they can all walk on hallowed ground. It is simpler and more easily accessible for new players.

 

[GreenTengu]

Well, remember also that 4E altered the Gnome great deal. They were basically turned into small elves making them even less distinct from Halflings physically. Although there were arguably fey-ish aspects about the Forest Gnomes, the oldest and most common version, the Rock Gnomes, were very much like a type of Dwarf-- like a subrace of Dwarves built around being mages and primarily limited to Illusion spells.

It is thus a bit difficult to try to figure out how to best merge the whole forest-spirit druidy concept with the dwarf mage concept to bring them together under a unified conception of a single race. 4Es version of declaring them all fey and making them Monsters while making the Tiefling a core race... well... not the best of solutions, really. It seemed too slanted and served to kind of erase the older concept of them as Dwarf mages to a degree and totally focus on the forest spirit sort.

5E intentionally aimed to walk that back and make them more like they were in 2nd and 3rd edition-- to a degree, at least. The whole "Tinker Gnome" aspect was merged into the Rock Gnome concept, but still... it is moving back towards tradition. That is why they are no longer listed as "fey"-- because the Dwarfy aspects were added back in.

 

[bedir than]

I keep considering and reconsidering the Gnome within my gameworld. They would make sense as fey (then again dwarves are fey-like in my world), but at the same point I'm moving further and further away from the Gnome as an interesting race. At this time I'm more considering them like garden gnomes so even smaller than halflings. They are more about mischief, illusion and conjuration. I don't know if it's working.

 

[Springheel]

I will keep them both as fey I think.

What will you modify to make them fey?

 

[TheCosmicKid]

The point is that they are opt-in, rather than opt-out. The DM has to intentionally decide to include them within the game, as compared to the common races which are assumed to be there unless the DM says otherwise.

That's a common interpretation of the "exotic races" distinction, but it's not what the book actually says. And all races are opt-in, really.