D&D General 5.5 PHB Species Options

[Paul Farquhar]

The optimizers love the Goliath this edition. So many little helpful powers usable proficiency bonus times a day.

Most of them don’t scale well at high level though.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They're among the least used on both D&D Beyond and in Baldur's Gate 3

Ok. I can only go by their own experience, and my people like gnomes. I don't use D&DB, and I've never played BG3.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Ok. I can only go by their own experience, and my people like gnomes. I don't use D&DB, and I've never played BG3.

My players like halflings and warforged. And we have had a couple of gnomes. But I don't think my players are choosing based on power or popularity.

BG3 gnomes are pretty ugly, so that is probably a factor. But you definitely want Speak with Animals in BG3.

 

[Zardnaar]

Ok. I can only go by their own experience, and my people like gnomes. I don't use D&DB, and I've never played BG3.

That's hard data.

Also gnomes didn't poll well 3.5 to 4E hence cutting them.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's hard data.

Also gnomes didn't poll well 3.5 to 4E hence cutting them.

Again, ok. Doesn't mean a thing to me. This is a thread about personal opinions about preferred heritages.

 

[Chaltab]

Again, ok. Doesn't mean a thing to me. This is a thread about personal opinions about preferred heritages.

I mean.. you're the one who expressed skepticism about their unpopularity. Nobody's saying you and your table are wrong.

(Literally playing a gnome in my Eberron game)

 

[Corinnguard]

Feels like they ate Genasi lunch a bit and took on the elemental vibe with the Giant types as well.

I wonder how long we'll have to wait for the Genasi to debut in 5.5 and what they'll look like compared to the 5.5 Aasimar and the 5.5 Tiefling.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I've never seen the unpopularity. In all the games I've been in as player or GM, I've never seen a group without at least one player who loved gnomes, even if they weren't playing one at the time (and it wasn't me, I'm neutral on the subject).

what did they like about gnomes?

 

[CreamCloud0]

one thing i don't get about the gnome is that their two primary archetypes that DnD seems to want to focus on, to me seem to be directly opposed to each other in aesthetic, the unobtrusive and peaceful friend of animals forest dweller who excel with illusions VS the eccentric and loud city gearheads always tinkering with something.

i'm not saying species can't have range in their archetypes but i don't feel as if there's any strong connective idea underlying those two halves of gnomes as a whole, i'd rather we split off their tinkery side and gave it to goblins and leave gnomes to focus more on the magic/nature side of things.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

one thing i don't get about the gnome is that their two primary archetypes that DnD seems to want to focus on, to me seem to be directly opposed to each other in aesthetic, the unobtrusive and peaceful friend of animals forest dweller who excel with illusions VS the eccentric and loud city gearheads always tinkering with something.

i'm not saying species can't have range in their archetypes but i don't feel as if there's any strong connective idea underlying those two halves of gnomes as a whole, i'd rather we split off their tinkery side and gave it to goblins and leave gnomes to focus more on the magic/nature side of things.

Yeah, I’ve noticed that, it’s a tension that has been around since 2nd edition at least. Really some people like the tinker gnome concept whist others are “get this MF Steampunk out of my MF D&D!”, and WotC trying to keep everyone happy.

If I had to pick a side, I would go for the tinkers. The nature lovers just aren’t distinctive enough.