When did gnomes fall from grace?

[Plane Sailing]

gnomes were in OD&D. heck, they were in Chainmail.

they weren't a PC race. strictly NPC. and they were a variant/subrace of dwarf.

ah OK, I wasn't thinking of "monsters". I stand corrected.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Thematically, it makes much more sense for a Child of WInter to associate with a swarm of rats than with a giant praying mantis - but because we've gone with vermin in the ECS, as it stands that's exactly the case.

That provokes an interesting thought. Do you think it would be appropriate for a Child of Winter to have a Rat Swarm as his animal companion? They aren't as bad as the other types of swarm IIRC, so making them one of the animal types that becomes available as a 'second rank' companion at 4th level might be OK.

Cheers

 

[Hellcow]

That provokes an interesting thought. Do you think it would be appropriate for a Child of Winter to have a Rat Swarm as his animal companion? They aren't as bad as the other types of swarm IIRC, so making them one of the animal types that becomes available as a 'second rank' companion at 4th level might be OK.

This is, in fact, the very reason this came up. I like the idea of a Child of Winter having a swarm companion, but having an animal companion that's immune to weapon damage (as most of the insect swarms are) is too powerful. "Go for rat swarm!" I said, until someone pointed out that rats aren't vermin. "Huh?" I said. "Oh... right." So yes, you may see a variant of the Vermin Companion feat that instead lets you take a swarm companion.