Gnomes

[~Johnny~]

Gnomes as fey-descended race

The way I like to look at fey is to set aside the stereotypes and look at the mechanics to see what flavor fits them. Gnomes are:

• Little and tough
• Natual illusionists
• Good listeners
• Good alchemists
• Natural enemies of goblins and giants
• Capable of speaking to badgers, rabbits, rats, and other burrowing mammals
• Predisposed toward being (or excellent at dabbling as) bards

I look at that combination and it screams FEY to me. Little people who live in the hills and trick humans with their natural illusions, gnomes seem like they're begging to be used as humanoids descended from woodland faeries. To me, that's totally distinct from the unearthly, arcane elves and the deep-dwelling, stolid dwarves.

Of course, Keith Baker took the same mechanics-up approach and came up with something completely different (and, I'd say, more creative). Eberron's gnomes are primarily defined by their unquenchable thirst for knowledge and lore (hence the bard as favored class), their study of magic (hence the illusions and alchemy), and their penchant for being more than they seem (the illusions again). It puts a more serious spin on the trickster stereotype. Anyway, check out Keith's articles for more.

Dragonshards: the Gnomes of Zilargo Part 1 and 2

If I ever make an Eberron wizard, it will definitely be a gnome... perhaps with a level of bard thrown in to boost his Knowledge skills.

 

[brvheart]

The concept of gnomes being tinkers is not new. They were introduced in this manner back in the 1980's in Dragonlance. How I play them depends on the setting. In Dragonlance they are tinker gnomes, in the Scarred Lands they are barbarians, but I prefer them more in a traditional role of hill gnomes, lured by trinkets and gems.

 

[palleomortis]

I agree that what they are does depend on the setting, but they usually come out as the little people in the forsest that stick together, are rather magicall, and enjoy a good luagh, a good conversation, and gaze at gems. But one question, does anyone here ever make ther own campaign, or do you all follow stuff like dragonlance, and scarred lands?

 

[Kanegrundar]

I make my own settings, but I use ideas from other settings that I like. The setting I'm currently working on pulls from Midnight, FR, DL, Diamond Throne, Eberron, IK, Warcraft, and EQ. The histories and how it all fits is my own, but some site names, a few NPCs, and various other bits and pieces can easily be recognized as being from other settings.

Kane

 

[The Shaman]

But one question, does anyone here ever make ther own campaign, or do you all follow stuff like dragonlance, and scarred lands?

*SCREECH!*

Excuse me if I put the brakes on the thread hi-jack - we're talking gnomes here, folks, and as this has been very helpful and inspirational to me so far, I'm going to intervene so that we stay on track.

Thank you - please resume posting your gnome stories...

 

[Gez]

I agree that what they are does depend on the setting, but they usually come out as the little people in the forsest that stick together, are rather magicall, and enjoy a good luagh, a good conversation, and gaze at gems. But one question, does anyone here ever make ther own campaign, or do you all follow stuff like dragonlance, and scarred lands?

I make my own homebrew campaign world, in which gnomes occupies the "wise, magical race" niche IMC. It is a niche often given to elves, but I don't think it fits D&D elves. I can't picture a chaotic race of eternal adolescents as wise. Magical maybe, why not, but then fickle and unpredictable and idle and easily distracted. Oooh, shiny! Wants it!

So, the wisdom niche is given to gnomes. You want to find an old loremaster who knows all the secrets of Earth and the Stars? Chances are, he'll be a gnome. The best loremasters are gnomes.

Gnomes are wise and benevolent. Not many are adventurers, and when they are, they try to look as irrelevant as they can, for they know their strength lies in their head, not in their arms or legs. This is a kind of humility -- even if some of them hide this humility behind buffoonish pride and ridiculous claims of grandeur.

Gnomes as bards? It could be OK if you ditched bardic music, modified the class skill list, and gave them an Int-based, prepared spellcasting from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. And ditched the alignment restriction, or at least replaced "non-lawful" by "non-evil".

No, but my gnomes are wizards. And/or druids.

I've house-ruled back in the gnome cantrips from 3.0. They cast low-level arcane spells, which are subject to arcane spell failure, and which requires to have at least Int 10. Not Cha-based spell-like abilities. As a result, this mean that each and every gnome (with at least 10 Int), regardless of his profession, can create alchemical items. This is one of the consequences I was looking for. All gnomes are alchemists.

As you probably know, alchemy is also a transcendental philosophy. The philosopher's stone, which turns metals to gold and grants eternal life, is a magical wonder, but also a metaphor for enlightenment. My gnomes have a strong affinity for alchemy, both the practical aspect, and the philosophical aspect. Again, gnomes are the wise folk of the campaign.

This lead to one of the most surprising aspects of my gnome. Guess which is the typical "elite combat class" for gnomes? Not fighter, not ranger or paladin, absolutely not barbarian... But monk. Gnomes are famous for their zen monasteries. As a whole, the gnome race is somewhat monastic, living a secluded, peaceful existence dedicated to the acquisition of wisdom, knowledge, and enlightenment.

In fact, in my homebrew campaign world, "gnosis" is a word derived from "gnome".

If you want a tinker race, you'd have to go look to dwarves, who are famous for their engineers. Of course, the dour and grim dwarves are more noted for making large mills and similar utilitarian mechanisms than for silly explosion-prone contraptions. There are no silly explosion-prone contraption makers in my homebrewed campaign setting. I heavily dislike this concept and would never play in Dragonlance because Dragonlance is silly. It is silly because it has exploding gnomes, and anything that features exploding gnomes is silly. Unfortunately, explosive gnomes have invaded the other settings, like Forgotten Realms (see Lantan, which was a human country before). So the FR are silly. Not because of the Chosen of Munchstra, not because of Drizzle the Rainger, no no no. Because of exploding gnomes. So faced with this overflow of silliness that had contaminated all official campaign settings, I had no choice but to create my own homebrew. Which is not silly. Because I made it myself and it has no exploding gnomes.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

...There are no silly explosion-prone contraption makers in my homebrewed campaign setting. I heavily dislike this concept and would never play in Dragonlance because Dragonlance is silly. It is silly because it has exploding gnomes, and anything that features exploding gnomes is silly. Unfortunately, explosive gnomes have invaded the other settings, like Forgotten Realms (see Lantan, which was a human country before). So the FR are silly. Not because of the Chosen of Munchstra, not because of Drizzle the Rainger, no no no. Because of exploding gnomes. So faced with this overflow of silliness that had contaminated all official campaign settings, I had no choice but to create my own homebrew. Which is not silly. Because I made it myself and it has no exploding gnomes.

I used to agree with you. Until World of WarCraft. The nutjob gnomes of that game charmed me completely. Which may have a lot to do with my fiancee playing a gnome Warrior with the Engineering profession. She tends to "Yar!" a lot while playing, and when people say "Gnome Warrior?" She responds, "I am a tiny ball of FURY!" Who packs a mean exploding sheep.

That aside, I'm a fan of the "Gnomes as keepers of knowledge" idea. It actually allows you to do variations on the theme that include Tinkers, Keepers of the Forest, and many others while still keeping true to the core of the race concept. That's how I like my races to be. Why is it that humans get to be everything under the sun but all Elves must be chaotic, adolescent wizards? (Or angsty, EXTREMELY childish dark-skinned warriors?) I like to see more than one culture among my demi-humans.

 

[Alhazred]

Although gnomes exist in my homebrew, no one has ever wanted to play one, and I've never used a gnome as an NPC. I don't ever recall seeing anyone play a gnome. For all intents and purposes, gnomes don't exist in my homebrew.

 

[cholke]

I use Gnomes in a homebrew campaign as a race of shrewd merchants that intermediate between the xenophobic, daylight-shunning dwarves and the rest of the world. They are the only ones dwarves will trade with (having been related in the ancient past) and run powerful guilds in the large cities. They are mostly LN and surround themselves with large, humanoid bodyguards. They mostly function as NPC's, but have occasionally been played in the past.

They are a powerful political force that, while not looking for trouble, will crush the livelihood and reputation of any that get in their way. It's nice to have enemies that want to utterly defeat the PC's without resorting to violence.

 

[Darkness]

The best gnomes were in Dark Sun.

I'm currently using Eberron, though, which has tolerable gnomes.