D&D 5E (2024) WotC Should Make 5.5E Specific Setting

[Remathilis]

Fun fact: gnomes were invented in 1566 by the German alchemist and “Renaissance Man” Paracelsus, who needed an earth being for his book on elemental spirits of the four classical elements: undines (water), sylphs (air), gnomes (earth) and salamanders (fire).

I guess genasi fill that role, but I think it would have been neat to see undines, sylphs, gnomes, and salamandars fill the "lesser elemental" PC species niche.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I guess genasi fill that role, but I think it would have been neat to see undines, sylphs, gnomes, and salamandars fill the "lesser elemental" PC species niche.

That's what I do in my homebrew world. Elves are wood and Dwarves are metal.

 

[Yaarel]

Gnomes, Undines, Sylphs, and Salamanders.

These could be different Gnomes lineages.
. Forest illuders: possibly Plant element
. Rock tinkerers: Earth Gnome
. Sylph: Air, grant flight or gaseous form
. Undine: Water
. Salamander: Fire

(The name sylph, sylvanus, seems to have in mind wind blowing thru forest leaves. The Forest Gnome lineage could be the Sylph, if also gaining flight or gaseous form.)

Alternatively, make Sprite a creature type that covers the many kinds of wee folk, including Small/Tiny Gnome. Somewhat the opposite-size Giants.

These animistic beings can populate the Border Ethereal, being the virtual bodies made out of the immaterial forces in the Material Plane.

 

[Yaarel]

The wee flok are surprisingly prominent in the Greyhawk setting. The 1e and 2e Monsters listed many different kinds of wee folk. Sprite itself was a creature, albeit it should be a creature type. In folkbelief, sprites includes many species of wee folk.