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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4380177" data-attributes="member: 2067">Step 1: Turn halflings back into farmers/survivors/tough little SOB's. Halfling fighters and barbarians and rangers and the like should outnumber halfling rogues. Bonuses to Wisdom and Constitution. This is the Halfling schtick. They're going a little bit back to Tolkein, but not far enough to be boring. Step 2: Re-monster-ize Eladrin. Unapproachable elite mystic fey should be off hiding in the woods, not drinking at taverns looking for Adventures. Elves remain purely the "wild" elves of 4e, and they're fine pretty much as they are.Step 3: Make sure that Dwarves are the "engineering" race, with a massive Industrial Revolution vibe. Dwarves should use crossbows, have steam-powered shovels, and should be on the verge of steampunk sci-fi. There will be no tinker gnomes. Maybe adjust the Dwarf ability bonuses to Strength and Intelligence, or Constitution and Intelligence, to reflect this. This prevents them from treading too much on the halfling toes, and makes them good "magical crafters."Step 4: Develop a good "illusionist" core class. Not a Wizard knock-off, but something like a magical rogue who is a master of stealth and deception. A little like the Duskblade from 3.5, for instance. This is now the class that gnomes will be good at, the class that the bard should have been. Step 5: The Gnome Itself. It's a Small race that is good at hiding and sneaking. Bonus to Intelligence and Dexterity. They make good arcane spellcasters, and good rogues, but they shouldn't be very good at the frontline fighting (the halfling should be okay at that, and okay at divine magic as well). The gnomes are the "fey" race, the race with links to the Unseen World, they are crafty and dangerous, but they're not engineers. Dwarves craft weapons and build statues and engineer subway systems. They have the big, heavy tech. Gnomes know valuables -- they make magic rings, gnomish clothing with enchantments, gold and gems and fine pelts. Gnomes are associated with luck, with the unseen hand, with the finer points of philosophy.When you see a gnome, you will see a small, old creature dressed in fox fur holding a gnarled staff, but then you blink, and it's just a fox, and you forget why you ever thought that branch was a staff it was holding. When a gnome goes on an adventure, it is often quiet about the reasons, but it claims that the golden ring whispers to him. Meanwhile, the dwarf is concerned with the flaming magic sword, and the halfling just picks up an axe twice its size off of the ogre it just slew, and the elf makes some arrows out of its bones.Halflings are warriors; tough and doughty and resilient, fighting for Hearth and Home.Dwarves are scientists; engineering marvels deep below the surface of the earth to wage war smarter, not stronger.Elves are hunters; the rustle of branches and the arrow out of nowhere.Gnomes are wizards; the creature that changes shape before your eyes and makes you believe what is not true. Possible Alternate Way (To Keep Dwarves Tough): To preserve the "dwarven berserker" and "clever halfling" angles, if you wanted, you could swap those archetypes, so that the dwarf is now "Mr. Small Tough Guy." and the halfling is now "Mr. Tough Clever Guy." You just need to be sure that Halflings are Wise and Gnomes are Intelligent as one of the big distinguishing features. Dwarves can stay as the strong little guys, but they should loose the cleric-y and paladin-y features that they have; those belong to halflings. Dwarves are about SCIENCE!Possible Alternate Way (To Not Re-Hash So Many Races): If you don't want to re-concept the Eladin, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings all at once, the gnomes might have the Scientist archetype available to them. This means going the Tinker Gnome route and using the great engineering marvels that the dwarves currently don't have. The Dwarves make instruments of war: axes, swords, armor, digging tools, etc. the Gnomes make instruments of art: rings and statues and paintings and books. For this to work the best, you need a good "artificer" class to support the archetype, and you have to be comfortable with a "later-period" assumption than 4e D&D seems to want.</blockquote>

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