NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 3959202" data-attributes="member: 19675">Actually, yes: in 2003-4, I did a few polls for a bit of academic credit (for my MBA), albeit with small (50 gamers) samples and only a limited sampling area (it was done in person in the D/FW area, not online) .What I found was a drop in players playing various races in 3.X- most people who had played 3 or fewer PHB races heavily favored Humans and Elves, with Dwarves being the distant 3rd.In earlier editions, while humans and elves still predominated, the 3rd race was fairly evenly distributed- well within the sampling error.  IOW, Gnomes fared no worse than Dwarves, Half-Elves, Halflings or Half-Orcs.For those who were allowed to play outside the PHB (in each edition), Humans & Elves still predominated, and no other PHB race got significantly better numbers than races from other sources.What I'm saying is that gnomes, dwarves and elves (and goblins, pixies, etc.) as a whole are indistinct in legend and lore, and there are enough roles in the legends that they didn't all have to be allocated to elves & dwarves in the games.The only reason "stronger contenders" may exist in other races is that the designers made it so.  They could just as easily designed gnomes to fill this niche or that.Not even close.The legends of Rübezahl vary- he is a capricious giant/gnome/mountain spirit; he is the fantastic Lord of Weather of the mountains and is similar to the Wild Hunt, in others, he is similar to Wotan. With good people he is friendly, he teaches medicine and gives presents. If someone derides him, however, his revenge is severe. He sometimes plays the role of a trickster in folk talkes.  In other words, he is kind of like a mortal version of Loki.This would lend it self to a more nature minded take on the Gnome- possibly with favored class Druid or some such.Definitely not a Dwarf.  Probably Fey.Heck- making them Fey, with all of the attendant strengths and weaknesses would be a good start to improving them, and would definitley distinguish them from Dwarves and Elves (who, by legend, should also have been fey).Quote:I'd disagree with that- he's very much like gnomes you'd find in the legends and folklore of Europe, such as were collected in Grimm's Fairy Tales.  He also has tendencies linked to the darker fairytales in which fey trick and keep humans as pets or slaves.Hardly the D&D dwarf or gnome.Meaning at least one author out there has taken the gnomes seriously enough to give them a solid anti-heroic role in his novels- something claimed to be lacking.__________________</blockquote>

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