Gnome haters? It's Lockwood's fault!

[Turanil]

I hate steampunk gnomes, I hate this drawing. I would be okay to play a steampunk game, but IMO gnomes would have nothing to do in it. I like gnomes in typical fantasy settings, only if they are brownies-like people related to the fey.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I dislike gnomes in almost all their incarnations, and I've can't recall a single person ever even being interested in playing one. And the steampunk gnomes have no place in stock D&D.

 

[ForceUser]

And the steampunk gnomes have no place in [my vision of what] stock D&D [is supposed to be].

Fixed that for ya.

 

[Aaron L]

I dropped gnomes myself.

Dont like steampunk. I do like mixing in tech, but not steampunk. Not gnomish.

Eugh, just dont like gnomes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Frankly, I almost never have gnomes in my campaign, precisly because I have a hard time "visualizing" what the race is about.

Since halflings are no longer hobbits, gnomes fit into that niche quite nicely. My gnomes are hobbits by way of Wind in the Willows.

 

[Samurai]

I'm actually playing a Tinker/Techsmith gnome right now, and I love it! The lil guy is a bit insane (it helps with the inventing...) and drives the rest of the party nuts sometimes, but he's a blast to play and very useful to the party.

 

[Aeric]

Gnomes have never had a niche, not even in 1st edtion AD&D. The only reason they were put in the game is because of a book about Gnomes created by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet that was very popular at the time.

Mythologically-speaking, gnomes are so close to dwarves as to be easily mistaken for them. When gnomes were made into tinkers for Dragonlance, they were finally given a niche of their own instead of simply being shorter, cuter versions of dwarves.

And then 3.5 made them bards.

 

[Cam Banks]

Dragonlance started it.

Mystara and the Realms picked it up and ran with it, then it sort of became the mainstream version of gnomes. Odd, that.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Gold Roger]

I prefer eberron-ish gnomes. It meshes well with their abilities and they fill a niche no other race fills.

Especially with beguilers gnomes make the perfect unexpected tricksters and manipulators.

 

[shilsen]

I prefer eberron-ish gnomes. It meshes well with their abilities and they fill a niche no other race fills.

Especially with beguilers gnomes make the perfect unexpected tricksters and manipulators.

Same here. I'd never made any real use of gnomes until I saw the Eberron take on them and now I love them. They're the scariest PHB race there, bar none.