Whither the gnome?

[ferratus]

They should be this...what sort of gnomes are these?

Yes, this is what Gnomes should look like. Or like Whizbang Dustyboots avatar picture. Or like this:

I don't think anyone disputes that they should look like the classic image of gnomes that have stepped out of a fairy tale. But aside from being a little bit dwarfish looking, and having the dwarvish traits of metalworking and gems, they should also have fairy magic. In other words, they should be a little elvish, in their love of nature, in their fairy magic of illusion, and their sense of humour.

They shouldn't be dwarves who spend a little more time on the surface without scottish accents. They should be more fey than that. They should be dwelves, a good bridge between the dwarven and elven archetypes.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't particularly see that as a problem.

High Elves get a free cantrip, so I don't see why the drow's cantrip can't be darkness or faerie fire, picking up both with a feat. Drow aristocrats had levitation, but that seemed to be from their house insignia.

Duegar's invisibility and giant size are too powerful to be a racial power, but it could be picked up with a race specific speciality, and psionics will show up as a class eventually.

Svirfneblin (I really want to call them rock gnomes) have the same sort of illusion spells as other gnomes, along with the ability to summon an elemental if you have enough Hit Dice.

None of these things really scream "I need my own race" as the abilities are either trivial enough to be a racial variant, or are so powerful you couldn't get a racial ability for it anyway so it has to be a power you pick up later in the game somehow.

Either way, I don't see a pressing need to put them in the PHB. They're traditionally NPCs or villains, so they can be done later, esp if monsters can take class levels if desired for NPC creation purposes.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't particularly see that as a problem.

High Elves get a free cantrip, so I don't see why the drow's cantrip can't be darkness or faerie fire, picking up both with a feat. Drow aristocrats had levitation, but that seemed to be from their house insignia.

Duegar's invisibility and giant size are too powerful to be a racial power, but it could be picked up with a race specific speciality, and psionics will show up as a class eventually.

Svirfneblin (I really want to call them rock gnomes) have the same sort of illusion spells as other gnomes, along with the ability to summon an elemental if you have enough Hit Dice.

None of these things really scream "I need my own race" as the abilities are either trivial enough to be a racial variant, or are so powerful you couldn't get a racial ability for it anyway so it has to be a power you pick up later in the game somehow.

Well, we know what drow monsters will look like (check the updated packet with the module for stats) so we can decide if it can be reconciled with an elven subrace or now. (My money is on no).

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I don't think anyone disputes that they should look like the classic image of gnomes that have stepped out of a fairy tale. But aside from being a little bit dwarfish looking, and having the dwarvish traits of metalworking and gems, they should also have fairy magic. In other words, they should be a little elvish, in their love of nature, in their fairy magic of illusion, and their sense of humour.

Gnomes : halflings :: elves : dwarves

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Whither the gnome? Gnomewhere. I just don't see gnomes in the books I like to emulate with my games, so it always feels odd to have them in there.

My favorite gnomes are the one from the prominent book Gnomes. Unfortunately those guys are about the size of a mouse, which would pose some challenges in working with the rest of the party.

 

[The Shadow]

Gnomes : halflings :: elves : dwarves

Huh. That's one way of looking at it. I think I'd be more inclined to this, though:

Gnomes : dwarves :: elves : humans

 

[Howndawg]

I think subraces would be the way to do this. Rock gnomes, forest gnomes, tinker gnomes, and because nobody has said it yet, underpants gnomes. Not to mention garden gnomes and long-haired leaping gnomes.

 

[TwinBahamut]

Go way back in Aragorn's linage and you will see that he is a distant relitive of Elrond.

<snip>

No human lives to 200 or is not old when 76 (Aragorn was stil young).

I think arguing whether Aragorn is a half-elf is a bit beside the point. "Half-elf" isn't an idea seen in The Lord of the Rings. As you say, the children of elves and humans typically choose whether they are humans or elves, and have all the qualities of their chosen race. Talking about what that means in D&D will never go anywhere, since LotR and D&D are two very different franchises with very different ideas at their core. Aragorn is stated as being human in LotR, and it is impossible to say "what Aragorn would be in D&D" since any version of Aragorn in a D&D game would be an expy of the character, not the character himself, and is thus subject to all of the reinterpretation and re-imagination that involves.

Anyways, back to the other topics at hand...

I would be very happy to see Drow and all the other "evil subraces" be folded directly into their primary races. Drow should just use normal elf stats. It makes things so much simpler.

Also, I'd rather not see pointy-hat garden gnomes in D&D. They would really be out of place and pointless... Well, I guess almost any form of gnome would be. I won't exactly say that I don't want to see gnomes in D&D, but they are not even on my radar for personal preferences and they are so bland, redundant, and generally unpopular that they should be a very low priority. They are more of a secondary splatbook race than an essential one. Making them a cultural variant of dwarves would probably suffice, if my previous suggestion of returning back to their elemental origins won't work.

 

[spudspotato]

I'm probably going to worldbuild ten different settings before 5e is even released, but the default gnomelore is a tricky issue. I like the idea of them being the fey race, but only if that's their flavor, I don't wanna see fey descendants who also are tinkerers with airships. I also like the techno/magic tinkerer gnomes, but really what's important is that a new player can tell that gnomes are different than halflings or short elves.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

what's important is that a new player can tell that gnomes are different than halflings or short elves.

My campaign has gotten a lot of mileage out of gnomes and halflings being hard to tell apart for members of other races. It fits in great with Gnomish deception and eliminates the need for kludges like whisper gnomes.