Gnome haters? It's Lockwood's fault!

[Drowbane]

. . . So I won't apologize for saving the gnomes, only for not doing it in time to make them cool . . .

Todd Lockwood

Welcome to ENworld and thanks for chiming in! I must say, I've always enjoyed your work. Especially 3e's Dragons and your 2e rendition of Jarlaxle and... well I hope you get the picture. (hah, I made a pun)

 

[Nyaricus]

That's because one of the big design paradigms in 3e was to minimize player races with racial bonuses to stats that change DCs. Penalties were alright, as the half-orc shows, but the designers apparently didn't want any one race dominating spellcasting (as gnomes with +2 Int would definately be the superior wizards).

And then the MM came out with all the elven subraces. Funny how life works.

Demiurge out.

Oh, I know that story well - I just think it's kinda dumb. Besides they could have just taken the leap and given elves +2 Int, -2 Str on top of their other abilities, ot even just +2 Int -2 Con and have been fine.

It's kinda pointless getting into details of stuff that's set in stone - but when you wake up and realise that a[n orc] fighter trying to hit an AC is just a check vs a DC, you realise how well that design philosophy carries in D&D. Alas, poor Orc-zies...

 

[librarius_arcana]

Dragonlance started it.

Yeah thats what I was thinking reading through this thread,

Not a fan of gnomes, just can't get the idea out of my head of the little buggers being garden decoration

:\



Anyhow Lockwood rocks!

 

[Tonguez]

?..
What I want to know is why do artist insist on making gnomes look like blonde halflings!
Give me jolly little fairy-men with oversized noses and thick curly beards (preferably 15 inches high) and then I for one wopuld be very happy. Just because its short doesn't mean it has to look like Elijah Woods

 

[Vanuslux]

The beautification of gnomes in 3rd edition bugged me, as did the skinnification of halflings.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

i still prefer OD&D(1974) gnomes... surprise, surprise...

they were a race of dwarf that was rumored to dabble in magic.

The way I run them too.

I have a player that ALWAYS plays a hobbit...err halfling, or a gnome. I think its becuase he is only 5'5" so he identifies with the wee folk.

 

[Dragonbait]

I have a player that ALWAYS plays a hobbit...err halfling, or a gnome. I think its becuase he is only 5'5" so he identifies with the wee folk.

I've had the opposite experience. None of the 'short' players I've dealt with played anything smaller than a human (most people in my different groups think of elves as being as tall as humans.. Clearly they never read the height/weight tables in the PHB). One of them hated dwarves, gnomes, and halflings even. He openly associated this hatred with the fact that he was short in real life. The only people in those groups that play the races under 5-feet tall were over 6' tall in real life.