Dr. Niles Crane
First Post
I introduced a gnome necromancer (Wizard-6, Loremaster-6) as the leader of a competing adventuring team to the party. The team, called "The Wake" were a mixture of individuals, including a gargoyle and an ancient psionist who was recently awakened and transfered into a new body. The Wake tangled with the party, stealing a number of valuables from them, but the party eventually teamed up with them (despite alignment differences) for awhile to accomplish similar goals.
As for fear of taking the gnome seriously, we run a pretty serious campaign, so the players generally aren't looking for excuses to laugh at situations, NPCs, etc. unless it's obviously funny. Gundarson got some set-up in the form of some notes I handed out to PCs who heard about him (I do this all the time for introducing new characters), knew he was a necromancer, former slave who earned his freedom, kicked out of the local mage guild for indulging in the black arts, etc. I really wanted to do something different with a gnome character and lend him some gravity/weight, so I also avoided making him or his allies "over the top" evil but more (I think) realistic: "evil" by the methods they would employ rather than "let's destroy the world" kind of stuff. I also used a lot of spells from the Book of Vile Darkness and Dragon #300 (such as Wall of Maggots) and avoided Evocation magic for the most party to try and give him a unique style.
Regardless, I think it varies on your campaign and DMing style to a great extent. Not sure if this was helpful, but I think a good (well, so to speak) villian gnome is definitely feasible.
As for fear of taking the gnome seriously, we run a pretty serious campaign, so the players generally aren't looking for excuses to laugh at situations, NPCs, etc. unless it's obviously funny. Gundarson got some set-up in the form of some notes I handed out to PCs who heard about him (I do this all the time for introducing new characters), knew he was a necromancer, former slave who earned his freedom, kicked out of the local mage guild for indulging in the black arts, etc. I really wanted to do something different with a gnome character and lend him some gravity/weight, so I also avoided making him or his allies "over the top" evil but more (I think) realistic: "evil" by the methods they would employ rather than "let's destroy the world" kind of stuff. I also used a lot of spells from the Book of Vile Darkness and Dragon #300 (such as Wall of Maggots) and avoided Evocation magic for the most party to try and give him a unique style.
Regardless, I think it varies on your campaign and DMing style to a great extent. Not sure if this was helpful, but I think a good (well, so to speak) villian gnome is definitely feasible.
