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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 3050350" data-attributes="member: 2011">Huge? A few 0th level spells are white noise.And, they really cannot hold their own in combat. They lose 2 points of damage (1 from Str and 1 from Weapon Size) compared to every core race except Halflings. They also have less mobility than most races.While it is true that a Gnome can be a good Illusionist, they really are not awesome in any other spell casting class. Low Strength and Mobility makes them subpar to be a Cleric or Druid (until they can shapechange) because they are weak in melee. They make ok Wizards or Sorcerers, but not awesome ones. Giving up 10 speed for +1 DC for Illusion spells is a bad trade.Race-wise for the lower mobility races, Dwarves and Halflings have better saving throws against spells. Halflings are better at AC, Ray and ranged touch spells. Dwarves have better vision and are harder to trip or bullrush. Defensively, many of the things you throw against spell casters, Dwarves and Halflings are typically better at.Gnomes are not a terrible race, they are just not great at anything except Illusionist. All of the other races have multiple class nitches they can fill. Gnomes are mostly a single nitch race.Gnomes are mostly stuck with being an Illusionist or an arcane caster who casts a lot of spells from the Illusionist school in order to take advantage of their strengths. Unfortunately, the Illusionist school is not known for being a powerhouse arcane school of magic. Even so, this makes Gnomes less versatile than other races. For most classes, there is always a better race choice than Gnome.Also, mobility is a big thing in the game, especially at lower level. Halflings have the same problem, but they make as good or better spell casters than Gnomes plus they can also play pretty decent Rogues. Dwarves too have the same mobility problems, but they can play any combatant type or be nearly as good of a spell caster as a Gnome.Finally, their Favored Class is a Bard. Bards are supposed to be able to melee a little bit (not a lot, but a little), but Gnomes are terrible at melee. It makes a weak class even weaker to make a Bard a Gnome.All in all, the Gnome Bard concept is pretty screwy.</blockquote>

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