D&D General Short folk appreciation thread – what do you play?

[CreamCloud0]

Me too!

Thread 'The Unified Theory of Gnomes'

Nov 30, 2007

Reposting myself from October. People periodically link to the post in an old thread I made, with my explanation that, IMO and IMC, I don't see gnomes has having too many disparate focuses; they have one focus that's never been properly identified as such:

Gnomes are the equivalent of magical rabbits. They are smaller and weaker than almost everyone else (except for kobolds, whom they compete for living space with -- no one ever remembers that kobolds also live in dark forests per the RAW). EVERYONE can wipe them out if they want to, so gnomes, like rabbits, have learned to hide...

• Whizbang Dustyboots
• Replies: 60
• Forum: *Pathfinder & Starfinder

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okay that is a very nice analysis of gnomes you linked.

 

[Deset Gled]

The last campaign I ran was an all halfling dungeon crawl. Super fun.

In 3.x, I had a lot of fun with kobolds. They were just enough underpowered to be interesting and still useful (but slightly limited). Great underdog characters. Now that they're just another generic draconic race in 5e I've lost interest.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The last campaign I ran was an all halfling dungeon crawl. Super fun.

In 3.x, I had a lot of fun with kobolds. They were just enough underpowered to be interesting and still useful (but slightly limited). Great underdog characters. Now that they're just another generic draconic race in 5e I've lost interest.

I think kobolds still have their underdog status, but you need to have someone else nearby to create that contrast.

In my campaign, they were the servants of a green dragon who just ... left. So they were still ensconced in the dragon's lair, but they didn't have their protector with them and it was obvious to everyone that, at some point, the nearby humans and especially dwarves (whose mountain the dragon had claimed) would work on evicting them. And that imminent crisis caused the kobolds to start scheming to strike first, setting the wheels in motion for the campaign for several years. (They went with the obligatory "summon a thing," in this case, summoning an aspect of Tiamat, which required collecting dragon scales from all five colors of chromatic dragons.)

 

[CreamCloud0]

ah the gnome identity problem

i personally thing gnomes ought to be shifted more towards an identity of like, lesser elemental slash proto land druid, them being these magical spirits with a connection to their land who tend and take care of it.

 

[Mind of tempest]

i personally thing gnomes ought to be shifted more towards an identity of like, lesser elemental slash proto land druid, them being these magical spirits with a connection to their land who tend and take care of it.

it is more they are many disparate things without a clear guiding thread, there is a clear point where an elf would stop being an elf or something becomes elf in spirit, same with dwarves but nothing is gnome-coded.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

it is more they are many disparate things without a clear guiding thread, there is a clear point where an elf would stop being an elf or something becomes elf in spirit, same with dwarves but nothing is gnome-coded.

Gnomes are whimsical and overly complicated, and this manifests in a variety of forms. Typically it has to do with them being plugged into either an ecological or technological system, introducing a bit of extra chaos on the way to their goal, but still produces an end result that works while delighting the senses in ways not originally anticipated.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

think Gnomes are supposed to be the artificer/inventor/machinery types, and that's not my thing or a thing in my settings. Except they also talk to animals? Are they the Keebler Elves? I don't know.

They can be thpugh that isnt actually as mv of a thing as the forest gnome before world of warcraft.

And no, they arent keebler elves. They are weird little forest people, hidden folk, more sidhe in root burrows than elfs.

Autognomes are...robot gnomes? Warforged already own the robot slot, and they are much cooler.

Well....no one option owns so broad a thing as "robot" (which warforged arent since they have no movinf mechanical parts and are living creatures made of wood and stone and some metal).

Its like saying humans own the mammal slot.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

it is more they are many disparate things without a clear guiding thread, there is a clear point where an elf would stop being an elf or something becomes elf in spirit, same with dwarves but nothing is gnome-coded.

Nah. There are two broad gnome archetypes and they are both quite clear and have plenty of "gnome-coded" things in fantasy media.

Any weird little forest guy that is more fey than pretty is gnome coded. Any weirdo inventor that laughs while blowing things up for science is gnome coded. Any magic toymaker. A ranger with a small critter animal companion.

I played alongside an elf druid once that had mossy hair and bark armor and a carved wooden mask and a spear with a knapped stone head, and the whole game we all kept forgetting she wasnt a gnome. Because thats a gnome.

 

[Mind of tempest]

They can be thpugh that isnt actually as mv of a thing as the forest gnome before world of warcraft.

And no, they arent keebler elves. They are weird little forest people, hidden folk, more sidhe in root burrows than elfs.

Well....no one option owns so broad a thing as "robot" (which warforged arent since they have no movinf mechanical parts and are living creatures made of wood and stone and some metal).

Its like saying humans own the mammal slot.

it is more they can feel superfluous without something else, hence why we have a million things which are big fight type and why elves keep eating up all the mystical slots.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Gnomes are whimsical and overly complicated, and this manifests in a variety of forms. Typically it has to do with them being plugged into either an ecological or technological system, introducing a bit of extra chaos on the way to their goal, but still produces an end result that works while delighting the senses in ways not originally anticipated.

okay but can that be used in a less living comic relief way?

Nah. There are two broad gnome archetypes and they are both quite clear and have plenty of "gnome-coded" things in fantasy media.

Any weird little forest guy that is more fey than pretty is gnome coded. Any weirdo inventor that laughs while blowing things up for science is gnome coded. Any magic toymaker. A ranger with a small critter animal companion.

I played alongside an elf druid once that had mossy hair and bark armor and a carved wooden mask and a spear with a knapped stone head, and the whole game we all kept forgetting she wasnt a gnome. Because thats a gnome.

those feel like desperate things to me, what would the distilled version be, the prime gnome-coded being the ur gnome if none presently exists? What would it logically be like?