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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gez" data-source="post: 3705289" data-attributes="member: 1328">Never going to happen.WotC could publish "Complete Elf", "Complete Drow", "Complete Half-Elf", and "Complete Elf 2", each with 320 pages full color, and make a stupendous profit on each.A "Complete Gnome", on the other hand, would be bought by about twenty-three players worldwide, on a span of ten years. Seventeen of these buyers would wait until it's in the bargain bin before getting their copy, though.I like the race, personally. But looking at EN World makes one thing very clear, they're the least popular race, for the following reasons:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dragonlance contamination. While the Halfling dodged the kender stigma, the gnomes didn't. This race with illusions and nature power is still pigeonholed as lame mad scientists, who'll die when their steam-powered automatic turnip toaster will explode (during the first test), and who will never -- even if they had Int and Wis 18 -- have the idea of making something useful. Because of that, they're much hated. With reason, I hate Dragonlance gnomes too.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Niche. Looking at the description and abilities of gnomes, they have one blatant niche, which is that of the mystical nature-loving race. They have supernatural powers, can talk with animals, are good with magic-related stuff like alchemy, etc. But! That niche is already taken by the elves, even though it doesn't make as much sense. (Honestly, gnome wizards and elven bards would be much more appropriate than the reverse, which is what they went with. Sigh.) So, no niche.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Garden gnomes. Yeah, they don't look anything like them; and in fact these garden gnomes are usually dwarfs (like the Disney "Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs characters). Doesn't matter. That's a big stigma. Which makes the classic name "gnome" worse than the ugly neologism "halfling". (Seriously, "halfling" as a race name is ugly.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Not in LotR. This is the killing point. Despite all the influences listed for D&D. Despite how magic is completely different. Despite the myriad of monsters that would never fit in the Middle Earth. Despite that all D&D settings are very different from the Middle Earth. Despite a lot of other factors as well, the fact that there are no gnomes in the Lord of the Rings means that most gamers just will never think of them. They'll play Legolas, Gimli, Frodo or Elrond, sure. But gnomes? What's a gnome?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Miniatures. Seriously, on twelve sets of miniatures released, there are a total of five gnomes. Except for the half-breeds, all the other races have had at least one mini per set.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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