Gnomes

[The Shaman]

The niche occupied by gnomes has evolved since the early days of D&D - AD&D's burrowing demihumans of hills and woodlands have become 3.x's tinkers (and bards, strangest of all).

Some gamers complain that the former is too much like elves and dwarves, lacking distinctive qualities - others (myself included) find the latter silly and out-of-place in medieval fantasy. Some drop gnomes from the game altogether - others modify gnomes to make them distinct from other races. And of course there are the folks who play them as written, depending on the version.

How do you play gnomes in your game?

 

[Crothian]

Another race I never figured out why people don't like, I do define them differently then the PHB but that is to fit the world; all the races are defined differently. But I have no problems playing a regular gnome.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I used to dislike gnomes. I used to hate gnomes. Then, slowly, I grew to accept them, and eventually really like them. This is in part to two things: one of my players is the Gnome Advocate and I played in a game where the DM put them to good use.

The first thing that I've found makes gnomes interesting is that they're, in our games, hillarious. They know that they appear to be odd and non-intimidating to outside folk, and they use this to their advantage. Gnomes also don't think like people. They think like slightly high people. When using illusions to look like a human, a gnome might forget how tall the illusion is and walk under a table!

They also have a flair for the dramatic and like making magical items that serve no purpose other than to make them look more important than they actually are. They relize that they are small so they might make some magical boots that make them stand 1 foot off the ground, or create a cloak that waves in the wind even when indoors. They have some realization that this doesn't actually make them look more important but it doesn't mean that they won't try!

This isn't to say that they are noting but comic relief. These are just some quirks to make them stand out. It's not like every gnome exhibits all this behavior, but it has been seen in most gnomes that PCs run into in our games. One of my favorite NPCs is a gnome barbarian/sorcerer who has a proficiency in hitting on the female ranger in the party. Every time the PCs are in town she really wants to go see Duncan, the gnome! He loves to show off his prestidigitation and send out the woo waves. The fact that he's 3 feet tall only makes him more endearing. Why, at one point he was hitting on 3 female characters at once and they were fawning! Go gnome!

I really think their magical aptitude should be up-played. I also like giving them a little quirkyness. It's also fun when the PCs know their prankster/oddball behavior and don't see the evil gnome necromancer as much of a threat. Heh, oh yes...

 

[Evilhalfling]

Gnomes are a subrace of Halfling called Hairfeet -
Gnomes, Halflings and Gobllins evolved on and archipelligo, living like Hawiian natives, easy lives execept for the occasional huricane. They were brought out of the stone ages by elves and humans. Who basically stopped by, introduced them to magic and metal working, the elves vanished and the humans stayed, conquering some of the islands. Finally peace came and there was a golden age of a thousand years (or so legend says.) then the dragons came.
for the last 1000 yrs gnomes halflings and goblins have lived underground, there cities destroyed by the dragons.

-2 str, +2 dex, lowlight vison, keen ears, illusion abilities out of PHB
small, + 4 AC vs Dragons, +1 to hit dragons, +2 to Move Silently
Preferred class Sorcerer or Thief
They are craftsmen, miners and farmers (fungus and domesticated lizards) to dream of better days. Long exposure to dragons has made sorcery common, and their hawwian based pantheon incorperates druids and clerics equally.


They still don't get played as much as stouts(halflings) but they make up a lot of the NPC's
on the green Isles.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

In my campaign world, the gnomes control the most wide reaching and most feared organized crime syndicate. The wee folk of the hills thing is just a front. In fact, the most dominant race of gnomes are the Whisper Gnomes from Races of Stone.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Hate these little buggers.....house ruled them out.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

Gypsies. Gnomes are gypsies.

 

[driver8]

..are creatures of the hills and forests. I play Castles and Crusades now and thats they way theyve been imagined..the older AD&D way. Tricksters, related to foxes (with requisite long nose) sneaky and they have connections with burrowing creatures.

Goodbye tinkers and steampunky inventors.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I've selected the third option-- something else entirely.

Gnomes are the loremasters and the experts of fantasy settings. They know obscure facts about nearly everything; they know the stories and songs of far-off lands. They know how the world works, both the magic and the mundane, and they know how to make this knowledge work for them.

They also know the natural world, the secrets of the woodlands, and the inner mysteries of the flora and fauna.

Gnomes can be the mysterious wee folk of the woodlands, or they can be the insane tinkers, or the cloistered sages in their ivory towers. They can do any of these things.

In my games, Gnomes have an Intelligence bonus, and they also have Bard/Druid as a Favored Gestalt. However, their vast and widespread knowledge allows Gnomes to specialize in a different area entirely-- in Dragonstar, I give them a Favored Gestalt of Mechanist/Wizard. If I were to design a homebrew setting, I'd probably have different Gnomish cultures that have different knowledge focuses.

 

[trowizilla]

Korimyr the Rat:

Creepily enough, we have the same concept of gnomes. In my homebrew, each intelligent race was made by a god who valued a certain theme: dwarves get duty, halflings get freedom, etc. Gnomes get wisdom. They like to know how things work, how they fit into the world. They often have a mechanical bent, work on learning ancient secrets, will be historians, philosophers, theologians, phychologists, doctors, naturalists, etc.

I didn't change the mechanics, though, because I'd have to choose between wisdom and intelligence, both of which would work equally.

I like the little buggers. If you want to know what's going on in the city, you ask a human. If you want to know why it's going on, ask a gnome.