THREE elven races, plus half-elves ... but they say gnomes have no niche?!

[Arkhandus]

You really can't just compare gnomes to elves, though. Elves and dwarves are THE two most iconic fantasy races, PERIOD. Orcs are about as common as gnomes, but only because of Tolkien doing it first. Gnomes have more precedent in folklore and such, but orcs were used by Tolkien.

Who also made hobbits, which spread around as halflings in other stuff. But that doesn't mean that orcs and halflings are more deserving of a spot in the PHB than gnomes, who actually have more traditional fantasy roots (orcs, far as I know, have some minor place in Norse lore and similar as orichar/orca/orcus, but that's all).

It's just that the traditional gnome was a lot scarier and stranger than what Tolkien wanted out of hobbits, so he made hobbits. Who somehow got twisted into an almost completely different race in 3E and 4E (and back in Dragonlance as kender, of course).

Of course gnomes and halflings don't sell as well as elves. Not even dwarves sell stuff quite as well as elves, but they're the only iconic fantasy race that comes close. That doesn't mean that halflings, half-elves, one oddball race that used to be rare and relegated primarily to monster books, and another oddball race that nobody knew about nor gave a darn about before, are better choices for the Player's Handbook than gnomes (or orcs for that matter; orcs are certainly more popular in fantasy games than halflings and half-elves! HECK, goblins are more popular in fantasy stuff than halflings!).

They could just as easily have played up the creepyness potential of gnomes, and a bit of a sinister fey or trollkin side, instead of throwing in Tieflings as a frickin' undeserving core race. It'd still fit Eberron gnomes well enough, and wouldn't be too much of a change from the mostly-silly archetype someone decided to foist upon them in other settings.

 

[Hussar]

Arkhandus - the problem is, you've got 30 years of gnomes not doing anything. Sure, they could have, had they been given a bone, maybe. Who knows. But, after all this time, they're STILL the red headed step child of the races in the PHB.

Howzabout moving over to give some space to something new?

Yes, they could have tried, yet again, to make an unpopular race popular. Sure, they could have taken yet another swing at the plate. However, after FOUR editions of the game, it hasn't worked in the past. Why is there any reason to think they will in the future.

The OP complained that elves get three races, while gnomes get axed. The fact that elves are probably the most iconic fantasy race out there explains why you get three flavors. The fact that gnomes are the least played race over 30 years explains why they get axed.

 

[Arkhandus]

No. Especially after most of that was just due to Krynn's tinker gnomes, and then 3E designers just not caring about gnomes to begin with. They went to the bother of changing halflings around to be more appealing, but didn't even bother to do anything with gnomes except to make them less appealing. Gnomes used to have some nice racial benefits before 3E.

8 years or so of not even bothering to do anything with them, aside from a token and mediocre bit of attention in a single book (Races of Stone), doesn't really count. Especially when most peoples' dislike of gnomes is purely a result of Dragonlance's silly tinker gnomes, not the actual gnomes that have been in the core rules for so long. WotC continues to ignore the fun, but capable of coolness, race in favor of yet more and more frickin' elves.

The lack of popularity for the gnomes-and-halflings book in 2E most likely stemmed as much from halfling-hate as from gnome-hate. Doesn't help if they did a half-arsed job with it, like WotC did with the Races of X books.

We don't need 3 flavors of elf in the PHB. 2 is plenty more than enough to emphasize the popularity of elves, considering that no other race gets two slots out of the PHB's eight or so slots. Two elven races alone take up as many race slots as all the small races in the PHB (meaning dwarves and halflings), or all the wierd races in the PHB (tieflings and dragonborn).

A third is hardly needed to please the elf-lovers, they'll get more than enough attention and choices for their elvish fetish from the elves and eladrin. Hell, I'd even be in favor of replacing tieflings in the PHB with drow, just to please the Drizzt fanboys and such, if only they'd chuck half-elves or dragonborn or something for gnomes.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Gnomes used to have some nice racial benefits before 3E.

Gnomes are fairly strong mechanically in 3e. Probably the 3rd best race, after humans and dwarves, certainly better than half-elves, elves and orcs. They make good casters, +2 con is very nice, slightly better than the halfling's +2 dex. The favored class is irrelevant cause multiclassing casters isn't optimal.

In our last campaign a guy chose a gnome sorcerer, purely for the mechanical benefits and another player who ran a halfling paladin said he wished he'd picked a gnome instead. Again purely for the power.

Which just goes to show how unpopular gnomes are. Mechanically strong in 3e. You say they were strong in 2e and yet Hussar/TerraDave's poll shows they are the 2nd most unpopular race.

 

[Rechan]

I will say that if I get the chance to play a Beguiler in another campaign, I will play a gnome.

Small, +1 DC to illusion spells, +2 to Con, and access to the Shadowmage class thingie.

If I really wanted cheese, I'd go for a Whisper Gnome.

 

[Doug McCrae]

If I really wanted cheese, I'd go for a Whisper Gnome.

Oh yeah, I see them recommended quite often on the Char Op board.

 

[Arkhandus]

Gnomes are fairly strong mechanically in 3e. Probably the 3rd best race, after humans and dwarves, certainly better than half-elves, elves and orcs. They make good casters, +2 con is very nice, slightly better than the halfling's +2 dex. The favored class is irrelevant cause multiclassing casters isn't optimal.

In our last campaign a guy chose a gnome sorcerer, purely for the mechanical benefits and another player who ran a halfling paladin said he wished he'd picked a gnome instead. Again purely for the power.

Bah. Gnomes in 3E are poor melee combatants, worse ranged combatants than everyone else, and decent only as caster or skillmonkey types. They're marginally better in a spellcaster role only because of their Constitution and size bonus to AC, both of which are fairly minor (dwarves get the same Con boost and some save boosts, halflings get even more AC and some save boosts).

Their bonus to illusions doesn't matter much because of the limited effectiveness of illusions in 3rd Edition. Halflings make better ray-focused spellcasters. Humans are better at utilizing magic feats, which can be pretty significant with some books. And humans make better warrior-mage types too.

Gnomes in 3E make terrible paladins compared to humans, their only advantage over halflings as paladins is that a halfling's high Dex is wasted on a paladin, because paladins are geared towards heavy armor, melee combat, and high Str. Both gnomes and halflings deal pathetic damage in melee compared to humans or dwarves. Dwarves make better or at least equally effective paladins to gnomes (it's not like a small Cha penalty is a deathwish for a paladin, it's just a slight reduction in some of their class features, whereas a dwarf's racial advantages make it quite worthwhile).


The best core races, mechanically, are dwarves, humans, half-orcs, and halflings. With elves somewhere between that and the miserable gnomes and half-elves. Whisper gnomes and other non-core races don't count for much in this, since they're non-core, and most of 'em are horribly balanced (either too strong or too weak). Of course whisper gnomes and goliaths and such are used a lot by optimizers, because they're non-core stuff that was never given any serious balance-checking or playtesting, only a cursory bit of it instead.

Gnomes are barely worth playing as bards, druids, or wizards in 3E, and not really worth playing as anything else. Mechanically speaking, of course. Yet a dwarven druid is tougher and more powerful, a halfling wizard is better with rays and avoiding harm (whereas the gnome is just able to endure a tiny, tiny smidgen more harm), and a human bard is better in combat and nearly on-par in spellcasting (and bards don't have much in the way of offensive spells to rely on, neither, whenever they need to fight).

 

[Klaus]

No. Especially after most of that was just due to Krynn's tinker gnomes, and then 3E designers just not caring about gnomes to begin with. They went to the bother of changing halflings around to be more appealing, but didn't even bother to do anything with gnomes except to make them less appealing. Gnomes used to have some nice racial benefits before 3E.

8 years or so of not even bothering to do anything with them, aside from a token and mediocre bit of attention in a single book (Races of Stone), doesn't really count. Especially when most peoples' dislike of gnomes is purely a result of Dragonlance's silly tinker gnomes, not the actual gnomes that have been in the core rules for so long. WotC continues to ignore the fun, but capable of coolness, race in favor of yet more and more frickin' elves.

The lack of popularity for the gnomes-and-halflings book in 2E most likely stemmed as much from halfling-hate as from gnome-hate. Doesn't help if they did a half-arsed job with it, like WotC did with the Races of X books.

We don't need 3 flavors of elf in the PHB. 2 is plenty more than enough to emphasize the popularity of elves, considering that no other race gets two slots out of the PHB's eight or so slots. Two elven races alone take up as many race slots as all the small races in the PHB (meaning dwarves and halflings), or all the wierd races in the PHB (tieflings and dragonborn).

A third is hardly needed to please the elf-lovers, they'll get more than enough attention and choices for their elvish fetish from the elves and eladrin. Hell, I'd even be in favor of replacing tieflings in the PHB with drow, just to please the Drizzt fanboys and such, if only they'd chuck half-elves or dragonborn or something for gnomes.

A good part of it boils down to artwork. Before you get a player to read about how awesome gnomes are, you have to make them look awesome.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I agree with you and others here who have expressed the same sentiment. I hope it's not a long wait.

In the meantime, I also reserve the right to be disappointed and even perhaps outraged that the designers weren't willing and/or creative enough to do so for the 4th edition PHB.

My turn - and I agree with you too.

 

[WarlockLord]

Gangsta Gnomes! Alliterative! Fun! Tasty when broiled!