Honestly, how often have you used gnomes?

[JDJblatherings]

Gnomes have not ever been the most popualr choic in the gamign groups I've played in but they outnumbered half-orcs. We had a couple of gnome PCs in my 3e group. A bard that thankfully died in the second or thrid session and a monk that was kicking butt for years are the two most memorable but there were 2 or 3 others at least. We had 0 half-orcs at my table and I recall 2 in the other groups I played with since 3e came out.

Gnomes fit in just fine. They do have a place, more so since kender became the baseline for halflings in 3e.

 

[Sadrik]

I played a gnome in a second edition Al-Qadim game.

As far as my 3.x experience I mostly DM'd this arc and during that time their was one gnome played- A gnome wizard who did nothing because he was played as a scared little guy who was nearly always- flying invisible in the corner of whatever dungeon room the party was in. So that stereo type sort of stuck with us. Gnomes hide in the corner somewhere and only come out when it is absolutely necessary. Oh wait there was also a gnome warmage too.

By my experience though- counting out of the ~100's of characters we have had humans were by far the most played in my 3.x games, so that means: only 1 halfling, there were a lot of dwarves, um a couple half-orcs, several elves, no "0" half-elves, 1 teifling ;p, and 1 Aasimar.

 

[Arnwyn]

Honestly, how often have you used gnomes?

"Enough".

And that's all that needs to be said, for me.

 

[Jhaelen]

I can't remember a single PC gnome, just a couple of npcs - probably all from adventure modules.

My 2E campaign was set in Darksun, btw.: it didn't have gnomes either! I don't think anybody missed them.

 

[TerraDave]

The poll is here:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=213059

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If you don't like tieflings, WotC is firing you as a customer.

If you don't like eladrin, WotC is forcing their flavour choices on all players everywhere.

Both of those, of course, are physically impossible, and thus not really comparable. WotC HAS decided, because of their personal preferences, to remove the gnome.

 

[Cadfan]

After three pages, every objection to gnomes boils down to some version of, "I don't like them because...." The exact same sort of objection could be applied to every race. IOW, there really isn't any reason to not include gnomes in the PH except that they aren't being included.

Umm. Actually, several quite reasonable, mechanical objections have been made.

1: Being small and burrowing isn't enough to support a full race, and overlaps with halflings and dwarfs.
2: Illusion magic isn't enough to support a race.
3: "Likes to be bards" isn't enough to support a race.
4: "Natural artificers" IS enough to support a race, but you'd need a whole new power source and character class to put artifice-ing into the PHB.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Never played a gnome. Never included them as NPC's. ONCE and only once did I have a player attempt to play a gnome and that was simply because I'd commented that nobody ever did. First gnome for him too. That character did not last long enough for either of us to form any impression and upon his death the race was never seen again.

I take that back - I did some homebrew setting design (Spelljammer - but these gnomes were NOTHING like Spelljammer gnomes) that included gnomes in a fairly distant way but they never saw light in actual play, even through remote influence.

Gnomes, to me, are a non-entity.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Umm. Actually, several quite reasonable, mechanical objections have been made.

1: Being small and burrowing isn't enough to support a full race, and overlaps with halflings and dwarfs.
2: Illusion magic isn't enough to support a race.
3: "Likes to be bards" isn't enough to support a race.
4: "Natural artificers" IS enough to support a race, but you'd need a whole new power source and character class to put artifice-ing into the PHB.

None of those are reasonable or mechanical. They're opinions at best, and not terribly well supported:

Dwarves are medium sized. Halflings don't burrow. If "medium sized and walking around on the surface of the planet" is a niche that can be shared by the bulk of the PHB, I find it difficult to believe that "short and lives underground sometimes" is such a narrow field.

If elves can be good with rapiers and bows, what exactly is wrong with gnomes being good at illusions?

How is "likes to be bards" (which no one has said is true) any different than "likes to be fighters?"

And as long as there's a crafting skill in the PHB (and who knows, there might not be in 4E), no additional rules are needed.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

Once.

Fingledorp Winglestamp, Gnomish Freelance Chartered Accountant, once approached a PC party and offered to manage their finances, invest their treasure as capital, and acquire interests in businesses that would help them in their adventures - for a modest stipend, of course.

Assuming he was a spy from the Halfling Mafia (whom they had earlier offended via the application of disrespect, murderous violence, and arson to their social club) they kidnapped him, drowned him in a rain barrel, and dumped his corpse in the sewer.

He wasn't, mind you, but nobody seemed to feel too bad about it.

I don't think my players will miss them.