D&D 5E What interesting niche do Gnomes have in your Homebrew Campaigns?

[Lycurgon]

I am interested in what place Gnomes fill in your campaign worlds? Is it different from standard Gnomes as Depicted in the PHB?

I often have difficulty finding an interesting niche for Gnomes in my campaigns world. I don't like the tinker Gnome stereotype, I think that an entire (sub)race of tinkerers is like have all dwarves being Blacksmiths or all halflings are bakers.

Back in 1e Gnomes were a bit Dwarvish with a forest bent and a like for illusion magic. Now they have a Faewild connection that makes them feel almost like a mixture of halflings, dwarves, and elves to me.

This is just my thoughts on them. If you like them the way the are or think of them differently that is okay. I am just looking for different ways to represent them.

So do you have an interesting/unique take on Gnomes in your world? Where do they fit in?

Also, if their is a 3rd party campaign world that does something interesting with them I am happy to here what they are too.
For example, I kind of like the 3e Midnight campaign's take on Gnomes being travelling boat people that traded with everyone as they travelled the rivers of the continent.

 

[MGibster]

I am interested in what place Gnomes fill in your campaign worlds? Is it different from standard Gnomes as Depicted in the PHB?

Gnomes were driven to near extinction in my campaign world by the current big evil empire. There are a few that are still around, but it's not a viable population and eventually the last gnome will grow old, die, and that'll be it. I suppose the niche they fill is to serve as a reminder that the evil and what the stakes are when it comes to resisting them.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Slow cooked, with coriander and oregano.

 

[Blue]

So, I ran a 5e game for my kids, my niece and my nephew. They got into it, and as often happens started to make up characters.

My youngest made up a forest gnome, and then they spent liek two hours brainstorming from the information in the book and what I had told them.

About how they all lived in hidden homes in the forest, some in trees and roots and such, and when outsiders came they would all hide and the villiage itself would seem like nothing to notice. But when there weren't outsiders everything was lively. Different trees would have bands that competed against each other, but they really had a community vibe going for anything. Big pot-luck dinners regularly, "barn raising" type of community joining together, etc. If there was a missing child they would put up an illusion in the air pointing down so they kid would know where to go, and every other gnome who saw it would use their minor illusion ability to put up an arrow pointing at it so it would spread wide. They brainstormed on all the ways talking to animals could be used for the community.

It was really fantastic.

So of course, I had to steal it and twist it for a 5e game I was running for a different group, exploring new lands.

They came across a very xenophobic forest gnome empire. Outsiders were not welcoem within their borders at all. They fed the local wildlife and use them as scouts and early warnings about those coming within their borders. They were extremely community driven still, but that community excluded all outsiders. Ended up making them fairly scary.

 

[Umbran]

When I run D&D, gnomes typically fill the "fey humanoid" niche far more solidly than elves do. While tinker gnomes are possible, overall their society leans a bit more druidic, and owning their innate magical nature. The greatest sages of magic are old gnomes that must be sought out in their natural environs, and they will not be found if you are a chowderhead.

 

[SakanaSensei]

I have them as intensely reliant on socializing with others, to the point where a gnome left alone will die of loneliness. This causes them to create incredibly tight-knit communities, which they extend to outsiders as well as themselves.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Villains.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Hmmm. Thus far, I don't think I've had any gnome NPCs. Looks like I'll have to correct that! When I come up with something, I'll make sure to share it here.

 

[tetrasodium]

I pretty much steal the gang banger "gaangsta" gnomes from the monster hunter international books & swap the glocks for eye catching magic staffs no mater what their role & position in society

 

[Charlaquin]

They’re the hulderfolk - like hobs and brownies. Strange and mischievous beings that have one foot in the mortal world and one foot in the Otherworld. Elves and dwarves are too grounded in mortal reality to properly fill that niche, at least in their modern incarnations, and Eladrin are too close to fae, at least as I portray them. Gnomes skirt the line between the two.

I also like mine to have tufted ears and tails.