D&D 5E Conerning Gnomes (+thread. please don't crap the thread with anti-gnome negativity)

[Paul Farquhar]

I think gnomes are fine, personallity-wise. They are whatever the player makes of them. In the game I DM a gnome was a major villain. Specifically because gnomes tend not to be taken seriously the players never twigged before he was ready to reveal himself.

I think 5e rock and deep gnomes are a bit lackluster in terms of interesting racial abilities though.

 

[Shiroiken]

I like the concept of the gnome, and it's one of the early/classic races of the game. Unfortunately I'm not a fan of the 5E gnome, mostly because of the sub-races. The Rock Gnome used to be the standard, generic gnome, with the Forest Gnome and Deep Gnome becoming later variants. Instead, the Rock Gnome is now the Tinker Gnome (one of the worst aspects of Dragonlance IMO), which really doesn't work for a lot of settings. I understand they wanted to differentiate the sub-races, but it just doesn't work for me.

In my Greyhawk campaign I merged the two sub-races to create the singular "Surface Gnome." It's really the Forest Gnome, but gets +1 Con instead of +1 Dex. I considered altering the speak with small animals to only burrowing creatures, but realized it wasn't worth the bother. This is the way the standard gnome should be, IMO.

 

[Maxperson]

Define "rediculous"

Rediculous
adjective

1. A silly shade of red. example: He's wearing a rediculous t-shirt.

 

[Maxperson]

Something positive about gnomes...

...Uh, they make GREAT footballs!!

I've been testing this since you posted, and after 4,228 attempts, I just can't get their aerodynamics right. None of those suckers have cleared the uprights.

 

[Umbran]

Rediculous
adjective

1. A silly shade of red. example: He's wearing a rediculous t-shirt.

Good. I feared we were talking about getting whipped gnome from a spray can, and that's just nasty.

 

[Richards]

I've used a couple of gnomes as villains in my previous 3.5 campaign. In one adventure (which spawned a sequel), they were up against a skeletal equiceph (a Large, horse-headed, spellcasting skeleton) who called himself Darklord Drago Von Mordak. It turned out that was all just an illusion; he was really just a gnome lich whose name in life had been Toofles Pigwilligan. (But that didn't sound nearly as impressive.)

Another time they were up against an evil gnome baker named Pogo Snuffmuffin, who managed to petrify almost an entire Adventurers Guild (including all of the PCs) and was looting their headquarters - and would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for the PCs' familiars, animal companions, and an elderly NPC hireling.

Johnathan

 

[Shadowdweller]

I think 5e rock and deep gnomes are a bit lackluster in terms of interesting racial abilities though.

Interesting is entirely subjective. But advantage on mental saves, stone camouflage, and 120' darkvision w/o sunlight sensitivity makes for pretty damn awesome rogues. With an intelligence bonus to boot for arcane trickster.

 

[Tallifer]

My favourite Gnomes in the published 5E books are the Sivis Dragonmark Gnomes from Eberron. My ultimate preference however is munchkins from the movie The Wizard of Oz.

 

[Azzy]

Im not familiar with the Golarion depiction, can you give a tl:dr of why you love them so much?

They were originally from the First Word (the fey realm) and were immortal, but migrated to Golarion. Because of their fey ancestry, gnomes have a hard time adpating to a reality is not malleable (as it is in the First World) and must seek out new experiences, innovate, etc. or the succumb to a condition known as the Bleaching—where the gnome loses color in their hair and skin, succumbs to demetia, and eventually dies.

I’d also love to hear about your favorite non-silly Gnome PCs!

My favorite one is from a 3.5 Greyhawk campaign I DMed. I forget the character's name (because this was about the time that 4e started coming out and, well, that was just over decade ago), and she was a druid with an wolf animal companion that was about as big as her, and was a bit of the mother type to the party.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

They were originally from the First Word (the fey realm) and were immortal, but migrated to Golarion. Because of their fey ancestry, gnomes have a hard time adpating to a reality is not malleable (as it is in the First World) and must seek out new experiences, innovate, etc. or the succumb to a condition known as the Bleaching—where the gnome loses color in their hair and skin, succumbs to demetia, and eventually dies.

very interesting!

My favorite one is from a 3.5 Greyhawk campaign I DMed. I forget the character's name (because this was about the time that 4e started coming out and, well, that was just over decade ago), and she was a druid with an wolf animal companion that was about as big as her, and was a bit of the mother type to the party.

Nice! The 4e gnome/forest gnome is definitely my favorite dnd gnome. I have a rogue/wizard with a wolf familiar (it’s a story thing), and sometimes he rides his wolf friend. If not for the story that lead to that, I’d have gone with an otter, badger, rabbit, or something like that, but a wolf that’s as nearly big as him is pretty rad. She actually weighs more that him, bc her and her brother are mountain wolves modeled after Northern Colorado Mountain Wolves.