For me, Gnomes are akin to Elven halflings, whereas actual Halflings are tied more to humanity. Rock Gnomes are a sect or culture who found themselves allied with Dwarves, grew beards and took up tinkering. Whereas Forest Gnomes are the original sect, who have been cut off from the Feywild and now take care of nature/animals.
Hmmm... interesting take on it. I could see that. Gnomes would be clearly be smarter than halflings, of course. Halflings having that icky human ancestry and all... :P
That's pretty close to my campaign setting: humans, halflings and dwarfs all have common ancestry; gnomes were exiled from the feywild together with elves on the PMP, than they split. Those who stayed among the human-halfling druidic circles are now the forest gnomes, those who allied with the dwarves are now the rock gnomes. Svirfneblin, duergar and drow were normal until they opened a portal to the shadowfell in the hope of going back home, and unleashed undeath on the world... Yes, Bald Gnomes are evil in my setting.
+RatchildUK I actually thought that was the canon version of how they were. As a relatively new player of under a year, they always stood out that way to me in the books
Stumbled upon what has become my favourite way to see Gnomes when someone once made a "all the best stuff comes from Gnomeland" joke. If you look at them like people have looked at the Japanese, suddenly they become a lot more interesting. The outside world views them as either wild inventors at the forefront of technology (your Rock Gnome artificers) or staunch spiritual traditionalists (your Forest Gnome wizards and druids) - reality is, while those two "groups" have strong places in the culture, it's hugely more diverse than that and many Gnomes can get quite exasperated when people keep assuming they fit in one group or the other ("Hey, Gnome warrior buddy, be a sport and calm this bear down will ya? You're one of those types, right?"). Transplant over ideas of erasure (everyone always steals ideas from Japanese/Gnommish culture while forgetting they exist) and you've got a fairly easy template for how they fit into the world.
This is a bit like how I use them in a homebrew I'm working on. They occupy a large island nation between the main continent and the rest of the world and control most sea trade. Mine are also a bit Ottoman in that sense, but I also really emphasize the Few connection.
Exactly. I don't understand the gnome hate. They're cool, underground tinkers with magical fey qualities. Much more interesting than dwarves, much better than halflings. Up there with elves as one of my two favourite non-human player races.
Were they live now, they didnt until a retcon put gnomes in the forgotten realms and they realized it was a perfect spot to throw a bunch of gnomes. they used to live in tethy i think is the name before it went all murder all gnomes and they had an underground railroad to escape. since it was retconned that gnomes were there it made sense that a bunch of gnomes migrated to Lantan since it was so close and culturally ideal.
YES! I played a human who was orphaned in Lantan and raised by gnome chimney sweeps and eventually became an airship captain. He was my first ever character.
In my world, gnomes were made by the gods right at the end of the universe, and they sent them slowly back in time to fix the errors of the universe, so their barrens will occasionally jump back in time as they both try to mechanically and naturally repair the world. I call them "time sick" and it makes them unique enough to stand out while still fitting into the world.
Guys there’s this weird audio glitch in the video where it sounds like you’re saying all these negative things about Gnomes while praising Halflings, when clearly you mean to praise Gnomes and say negative things about Halflings.
Yeah.... I got the same exact feeling. Halflings are way overrated.... just because their Hollywood kin, the Hobbits, did one or two things... I mean seriously!
Gnomes have been around since the 16th century, halflings are latecomers turning up in 1937, so let's be honest, halflings are just gnomes that can't grow a decent beard!
Can't really say that I understand your connection between gnomes and halflings. Sure, both are short, but that's really about where the similarities end. I think of gnomes as intrinsically magical and elf-like in many ways, while halflings are just short humans that like to chill out. If anything, I'd say the gnomes are more connected to elves, especially when you think of elves as the small kind in santa's workshop.
Halflings are basically hobbits, and Tolkien said Hobbits were a subrace of Men (humans). I agree, gnomes are much more magical and fey-like. In DnD though, they used to be a dwarf subrace (or so I've read)
Gnomes do have those burrow homes that are much more like hobbit holes and lots of halflings don’t have a similar Tolkien connection where instead they have similar, if smaller, dwellings to pastoral humans or outright live in cities. But this does make the elf vs halfling/human comparisons more apt.
I love to play as gnomes myself. One of my favorite characters I've ever made was a 5e forest gnome monk of shadows named Gillimead. He would serve as a scout for the party since we didn't have a rogue or a ranger. He would communicate with the small animals and then slink in and out of shadows knocking out people to help clear a path for his party members. I especially remember in the early stages, when I didn't have the power to teleport via shadows to get to high ground, I would ask our fighter to throw me up to places and prayed he rolled high. I face planted a lot of walls that campaign.
I LOVE Gnomes! Gnomes are fantastic, and they provide great stories! I love my Gnome Champion who uses a Longsword as a Great Weapon! I enjoy your shows, but I have never disagreed so much! In my Campaign there are enclaves of Gnomes who live just like humans, but there are also powerful gnome merchants, and an infamous gnome assassin who "everyone" knows about but has never seen.....
Watching this 3 years after it's published, and immediately scoffing at the Gnome minimization and conflating them with Halflings. The Gnome erasure will not stand!
I definitely see gnomes thriving in harsh environments. They only need a fraction of a food a hob- er- I mean, _halfling_ would need, so I could see Gnome communities popping up in arctic or arid lands -- coming and going with the seasons and wild game. Desert Gnomads, if you will.
One thing to keep in mind though is that Gnomes would also freeze more easily due to their smaller size and greater surface area relative to their internal mass, so the arctic regions might be difficult for them :P Although the desert regions could still work!
Nobody that thinks Gnomes are a type of Halfling would be a guest on Critical Role. This supposed DM needs to grow an imagination cuz gnomes are actually quite unique.
I think the difference in treatment between gnomes and halflings really boils down to the effect of Lord of the Rings. When you say halfling, people think Frodo and Sam trudging through Mordor, being all emo about their burden. When people hear gnome, they think weirdos that make shoes for stressed out shoemakers. Halflings have the luxury of being associated immediately with a serious fantasy story like the Lord of the Rings while gnomes are just those porcelain statues old people put in their gardens. That or gnomes in stories. Like Rumplestiltskin. Was he a gnome? Sure has a name of one. That sort of image is one that I like. Gnomes being these fey creatures that can be both helpful and malicious. It's that fairytale flair that I love. Never know what to expect from a gnome.
When I hear halfling I do think hobbits but not Frodo and Sam first, I think hobbiton. I think of the chapter Concerning Hobbits that starts LoTR. I guess I'm predisposed to think of Frodo and even Bilbo as aberrations of their races rather then the norm. A hobbit would happily live it's entire life never leaving the shire, might never personally know someone who isn't a hobbit.
In earlier drafts, Tolkien referred to the Noldor as gnomes, as they were the greatest of the elves in crafting and invention. I think I'd prefer that timeline.
In my party, the leader is a gnome assassin. And she is terrifying! She's the hardest hitter and I think she's the only one in the party who hasn't been knocked unconscious at least once
Jason Niebuhr I made a mundane magician using Rogue as my class for the build, and the first race I used for this build was a Gnome. It works perfectly well almost regardless of race, but I enjoyed playing a gnome. I never referred to myself as a rogue or thief. This character was a magician. No actual magic or spells, just skills like Sleight of Hand, Escape Artist, Use Rope, Bluff, Hide, Move Silently, and so on. It was all tricks and rapier and hidden daggers and now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t, and it was incredible how much it felt like I must have cast spells or use magic items but really I didn’t, and it was SO MUCH FUN! I had completely convinced NPCs that I was a mage. It’s surprisingly effective and deadly.
I had a 2'4" Forest Gnome spell casting bandit that used a 6' tall +1 trident that allows him to breathe underwater. He is one of my favorite characters in 35 years of gaming! I played many gnomes(most illusionists) in 2E!
The Gnomes in my homebrew world are obsessed with perfect shapes. They carved down their mountain to the 'perfect shape' as viewed by their leader. Unfortunately this often means they have to build new homes when a new leader comes into power. The leader who thought spheres were perfect didn't last very long. He was crushed by the mountainous sphere at the opening ceremony when a really strong gust of wind came through. (And yes, they're tinker gnomes)
I'm playing a 700 year old gnome named Jeffery right now. his goal is to become a lich. he's made a deal with graz'zt to learn the lichdom ritual. Now his eyes are pure red. it's fun
in my homebrew setting gnomes have three cities, no-one think that they are connected and one is entirely secret. No-one is allowed inside the cities except for some royalty that are allowed to see the throne room and nothing else, they have never been successfully besieged and are just all around op and fun to play with. The thing is that my players feel really special when they earn the privilege to actually go inside the city, although it is built for 3-4' people so they are uncomfortable the whole time. As far as importance in the world goes the 2 surface gnomish cities occupy the safest mountain pass in this massive mountain chain, so the ability for your army to use this pass, while others have to brave the harsh avalanches and snow and frostbite of the others, provides a massive military advantage.
I played a gnome barbarian that liked to punch/headbutt people in the junk. He had spiked gauntlets and a blue dragon's horn as a helmet so maximum disrespect XD
Grazz'zt That sexy hedonistic Bastard. I had a really dumb dwarf. (int score of 5) that wanted to be smart. Made a deal with the first being that answered the loudest. Just so happened to be Grazz'zt. My Dm is kind of a pervert in a fun silly way. So it Turns out Grazz'zt has a thing for Dwarfs. He gave my dwarf the ability to gain an int score of 23 once per day for 1 hour. However every time I did it I had to spend a day with Grazz'zt doing whatever he wished. So far i have cleaned his torture room, baked him bread? Polished his blade Wave of Sorrow. Helped him tame a Dragon by being bait. And last but not least. Dress up like a paladin and pretend to fight him???
Alan Brockhaus That is so funny my forest Gnome is also working on lichdom, but he uses adventures as minions. He has a ton of false identities and loads of money that he's gotten by ripping people off. My group often does jobs for him and they have no clue that he's pretty much the main villain of the campaign.
My gnome bard/wizard has taken over a small country, built a group of refugees into an army, founded an all-gnome organized crime syndicate, the Gnafia, and is currently working for Shar to assassinate another god.
In my current homebrew, I use halflings as half-human half-dwarf, and gnomes as half-dwarf half-elf. The dwarves are heavily influenced by the divine, and elves by the arcane, which is the source for the gnomes' strange, esoteric themes. This was largely built out of both the desire for more half-breed characters, and generally having no real justification for gnomes. While half-elves and halflings breed true, half-orcs and gnomes are mules, as a backhand way of shoehorning their rarity in.
One thing I love about gnomes is that they actually pick names for when they venture out based on how fun they are to say. In their own homes, each person has a different name for everyone who knows them. I love them.
In my world Gnomes are explorers and researchers, that run the Research Commission from this huge modernized (up to current tech levels in my world) city, that lies at the bottom of a giant green valley. They often send researchers and ambassadors to other lands for political and exploratory purposes.
Jake 3rd edition originally had Gnomes favoured class be, specifically, the Illusionist specialist of Wizard. In the 3.5e revision they changed Gnomes favoured class to Bard.
Gnomes from the Dragonlance/Warcraft standpoint always end up in my campaigns. It’s always fun describing a gnome hut/settlement and seeing my players faces range from “Interesting!” to “Is this safe?”
Frodo is to Halflings, as leprechauns are Gnomes. As a Brit, I think of Gnomes as Irish, Halflings as Welsh, Dwarves as Scotish, and Elves as from the Isles (Jersey, Man, Wight, etc).
Gnome bards have always been a thing for me dating at least back to 3.5. There is one campaign I remember playing in about a decade ago where we went "Hey, new guy, why don't you play this gnome bard and you can be awesome support every round of combat?"
Going to have to disagree rally self, the minion system was awesome and just a formalization of how i was already running hordes of enemies 4th edition i also find easiest to run tactical online games. Dragonborn really get their inspiration from Draconians from dragonlance anyway. it was 4th edition that gave them boobs which are now gone.
I kid, I never even played forth but also never been one for the animal races. Glad you enjoy them, DnD has something for everybody. AJ Pickett does a lot great videos on dnd lore and has one on dragon born. th-cam.com/video/naLOOpyaKYM/w-d-xo.html
I had to modify them for my setting, y dragons are hermaphrodidic and make clones of themselves like ssome lizard species. The giants and dragons cursed each other in a final battle and that is what caused 9/10 dragon eggs to hatch as dragonborn. I like having a few animal people races but if you have more then a handful then their is no point to lycanthropes. i love A.J pickett, he has awesome lore. i agree DnD has something for each player. i like a more theatric game thats why i prefer 5th edition yet if im in a more tactical group ill play 4th online or 3.5 in person.
I always like to home brew lore and the world when I run a game but just wasn't playing when 4e came out. I did find a game of 5e just a few months ago. It's mostly a dungeon crawl but we spend a lot of time role playing or really making dick and fart jokes in funny voices.
I like the race videos you guys are throwing down. They provide some interesting perspectives and inspiration. In my setting Gnomes actually play a pretty critical role (no pun intended). They are the magic savants, not the elves. In order to stop the advance of the Dwarven Hordes (mentioned in the Dwarf video comment) they set off a "Atomic Bomb". Essentially the Mana Bomb from WoW but much like in our own WWII, they weren't entirely aware of the scope of its effect and it has created a world wide instability in the flows of magic, creating pockets/bubbles where magic doesn't act reliably, opening portals to different planes, etc.
My fiercest character was a mad gnome sorcerer barbarian living on my DMs frozen moon of a setting. Talifergen Screamingwhisper aka Tali would axe murder you if you couldn't convince him you weren't a goblin spy... Gnomes were split into village and barbarian gnomes in his world thanks to my character concept, it was super fun and he went from 1st to 18th level before getting imprisoned in a cursed coin at the end of our campaign.
really? I akin them to Elves and Goblins far more than halflings, outside size. fey connection, often trapped on the material plane for 1000's of years. mine are typically all magical crazy tinkers, a step closer to the wild and erratic Fey side. a sort of 'elves adapted themselves to thier new world, gnomes try to adapt the new world to the whimsy of the fey.' without going to the full wild extent of satyrs and pixies and such.
Hello from a year and a half into your future! I know I'm late to the party, but since Gnomes are my favourite D&D race I feel the need to come to their defense: I think it's fairly easy to define Gnomes from Halflings by two distinct traits... Firstly they're far more industrious. Forest Gnomes, from the tradition of the Kabouter/Klabauter, might be fey-like guardians of nature but they'd still make regular use of non-destructive technologies like watermills and windmills. They need that infrastructure because to my mind they're not simply acting on a whim, pulling the occasional thorn from an infrequent rabbit's foot; instead they're running clinics to treat and heal *all* the small creatures of the forest; they're organising working-bees to help *all* the squirrels store enough acorns for a long winter; they're farming giant mushroom-houses in situ, growing whole villages in new forest copses; etc. Similarly the Rock Gnomes aren't carving out enormous caverns like the Dwarves do; they're not building Moria. They mine carefully and purposefully, in pursuit of rare elements. They don't treat the pickaxe as some kind of noble artifact, and mining for them is just a means to an end, not an end unto itself. Hell, it's a job for drilling automatons wherever possible... The ends are all those fantastical things which Gnomes can create from the rare minerals and gems they recover from the earth. The second trait, which Jim seems to have hit on, is that Gnomes always struck me as natural riders. They're more like Rohirrim or Dothraki at 1/4 scale than they are Halflings or Dwarves... Again, in my mind and in my homebrew this is because they always feel compelled to compensate for their small stature when dealing with the larger races. They're just as intelligent, just as capable, and yet I always imagine how hard it must be to feel like someone is taking you seriously when you only come up to their knees. So Forest Gnomes ride forest creatures: Wolves, Deer, Eagles, Goats, etc. Their children grow up riding foxes and squirrels, and it's all done in a reciprocal pact with those creatures, not through domestication or subjugation. Rock Gnomes might ride in automatons, warforged, auto-mobile carts or clockwork spiders, etc. But in both cases, whenever they're in a position to deal with the larger races I imagine they'd favour any conveyance which puts them at or near an eye-level between 4ft-5ft. [EDIT] In my homebrew setting it's the Rock Gnomes that invent blackpowder. It's still their exclusive technology, and it gives them a class of ranged weaponry equivalent to heavy crossbows and longbows. This has granted them a kind of independent military parity which they'd previously lacked... But it's their effort to share this technology with their Forest brethren which is creating a schism with the other fey races. And somewhere, in the back of my mind, is the further idea that the Forest Gnomes unknowingly hold the key to the future development of nitrocellulose smokeless powder. :)
I really like eberron Gnomes. they’re assassins creed 2 davincis. italian inventors with venice as their capital, but are unsuspectfully stabby and have their secrecy
My first character was a gnome, which I ran from 1st to 11th level in 2nd Edition AD&D. Our DM had made us roll for race. Ugh. In AD&D being a certain race meant you were restricted to certain classes, so in addition to being a crappy gnome, I had to be an Illusionist instead of (what I perceived to be) a more powerful Evoker. There was nothing I could do but play what i was given, so I grudgingly got into playing my "weak" illusion spells with my dumb gnome and quickly found that I was the most powerful character in the party. Minor illusions allowed us to avoid combat, use traps against enemies, sow dissension and generally wreak havoc. I started to really get into roleplaying the mischevious nature of the Gnomish and devising ever more creative ways of using my illusions and consequently had the most fun i have ever had playing DnD with that character. He is still my favourite charcter i have ever played. Don't knock a gnome til you've tried one.
I loved my gnome gunslinger... Rock gnome, Artisan, Artificer gunslinger... I handled picking locks, finding traps, identifying magic items, appraising loot, and smithing
David the Gnome! I loved that show man, it was so cool and so weird. To me Rock Gnomes are culturally related to Dwarves but distinct from them. They live in the same communities as dwarves and are generally the artisans at the end of the mining, processing cycle. No one makes a better blade than a gnome, or jewelry that can kill you, or an automated forge so the dwarves can produce all those epic axes. In general Gnomes have no homeland of their own and are an entire race of refugees. This is because their hubris was nearly the entire world's undoing. Once they had the most marvelous city. It was a techno-magical marvel and they were the centre of knowledge while humans were still scraping two rocks together and trying to make fire. The city of golden spheres floated in the caldera of an active volcano and harnessed its energy to power their magical experiments. At the end these involved long distance transportation through the voids between worlds without crossing space. Long story short things went very, very wrong. The city collapsed sinking into the earth and disappearing into the underdark , all of their knowledge was lost and they put the world in great peril. Because of this some decided to reject their technological ways and return to the old ways of caring for nature and being one with the land. Others craved a return to their glory and pursue that ancient knowledge one invention at a time. The deep gnomes, those who sank with the lost city, were enslaved by the denizens of the underdark and became a grim folk who think only of survival and do not dream of the workings of the universe. Except for the deep gnomes it is custom for few gnomes to congregate in large numbers for fear their natures will spur on an explosion of creative drive and they will rocket towards calamity again. Some still dream of finding the lost city, its gleaming orbs containing the lost knowledge of the gnomes. Others think it is better it stays lost if it ever existed at all.
I know that a lot of people see gnomes as a joke... So I made a custom setting in which there is an empire or rock gnomes that employs steam punk technology and black gunpowder guns to conquer other kingdoms...
Thank you for your love of David the Gnome! Had to sign along with you at the end, lol. And your gnome paladin sounds awesome, Jim! I love going against type. For my first 5e character, I made myself a gnome warlock of the archfey - her village makes a lot of druids, but she encountered an archfey on her druid training and...oopsie, warlock! In 3.5, I had a gnome bard and a gnome sorcerer/rogue/gnomish trickster. I don't get the gnome hate. They're awesome!
I recall a few bits of lore, perhaps in older editions, mentioning dwarves seeing gnomes as "cousins" of sorts. As a result, that's what they've always been in my head. Distant, but very friendly, cousins. Given Rock Gnome was the default in 3rd, it was my assumption Forest Gnomes split off from them, becoming more isolated and nature focused as a result. Perhaps a disagreement with the focus on machinery? The way I see it, though, gnomes are naturally creative, whether that's in machinery, or magic, or any other craft they pursue. Also, gnomes are one of my favorite races. I've always seen them as way more lighthearted and fun than halflings, who were either the stuffier hobbits or nomads eking out a living because they're mistrusted.
Much like your Gnome Paladin, I played a Knight that was a Gnome Fighter named Pipwhistle Dragonstone who opened every fight with a Rod of Wonder before spurring his wardog mount into the fray. Also, I kinda feel like the enemies of the Goblins might be Dwarves, but when you want to build in perfect animosity with Kobolds you go Gnomes. When Tucker's Kobolds are mining into your settlement and attacking you want a contingent of Breachgnomes to hold the line and go into those tunnels. They're the only PC race that stands a chance.
In my game there’s a mini gnome “kingdom” in the forest where a whole nation lives in a GIANT tree where the nature is preserved by forest gnomes but steam flies out of the branches from the rock gnome artificers and factories
I'm here because I'm a gnome for 10 years ;/ I've always imagined gnomes to be fae folks, they are doing prestidigitation, talk to animals, make illusionary tricks and fight giants occasionaly. I've been from the rogue one with has been hired because he could camouflage his presence as a child ; the warrior which was out of the forrest to kill someone because he had killed one nymph (as the outside world was considering badly gnomes, I was trying to find noble titles and buying stuff for being considered). Some kind of sorcerer who would use mirror image to high five himself, some kind of funny illusionist that try to discover the world in a funny way. A gnome that has been raised by birds and find out he has some powers. I'd like the "race of the stone" book where gnomes were described as pursuing fun. As long as they are having fun, they would not really age physicly. With the years passing, the wisdom will make you worries and having less fun and will decline from this point.
I used to be very critical of Gnomes which in retrospect is bizarre, my current PC is a deep gnome wizard and I'm having an absolute blast. Love all the content guys it's excellent
Gnomes in my setting are shadowfell beings created by a race of technologically advanced inter-cosmic nomads to be assistants and servants. They were simply left around after that race harvested what they needed from the prime material. That race was basically a master race of Halflings from a universe where halflings conquered every known race on each plane. Dwarf tech is based on Gnome tech.
I just recently added my younger brother into my D&D campaign and he plays as a gnome. He's a very excitable and energetic rock gnome, ranger with the new Monster Slayer archetype. He uses magic to debuff and negate the monsters attacks as well as give others an advantage. He then uses his tinkering ability to craft small devices such as net launchers, grappling hook, and mini flame throwers to deal some damage. It gets really fun in moments like fighting fire giants, when he crawls around on them Dealing mass damage. While the goliath barbarian struggles to stay alive. Gnomes are defiantly an awesome race to play. Its just one of those things you have to get creative with in D&D
The gnome actually might be my favorite of the races because of that, as you say, fey-type association. As for the idea of a gnome bard archetype, the 3e PHB has bard as the gnome's favored class (back when that was a thing). I'm actually playing a gnome bard right now, and it's given me a fantastic role playing opportunity. In my homebrew campaign setting, gnomes are Irish-inspired, so I tied that in with the gnome's inventive and tinker-ish nature in such a way that he "invented" what in the real world are Uilleann pipes. Can't wait to see your video on dragonborn. You guys are awesome.
Gnome druid is a great build. My guy Fafersch once turned into a brown bear grappled the bugbear warchief dragged him off, them through him into lava. Just having that option of for a fastball special is worth so much.
I used to have a setting where the gnomes were like Aztec pagans that practiced a blend of science and magic. Just throwing the idea out there, for anyone's inspiration.
I really like how Rich Burlew's _The New World_ treats gnomes. In his setting, there are no elves or dwarves or orcs, only humans and gnomes (and gnolls). Humans have the martial and population advantage, while gnomes are masters of magic. Their closely guarded history, and the way they kinda-sorta fit into human society, give them a surprisingly sinister undertone. Gnomes aren't happy and jolly in this one. And I love it!
I play a forest gnome moon druid. Love it. The thematic feel more than compensates for sub optimal stats in my mind. And I have learned to abuse minor illusion for camouflage. Took a horrible scar from a troll, now he gets advantage on intimidation checks. He became blood brothers with a PC half-orc. Great duo. Fun race to play.
Gnomes are great and Halflings suck, Thats what you guys ment right. I've played a Gnome wizard/bard who used illusions to tell his stories. Next I've got a Forest Gnome Arcane Archer to play, can't wait.
In my world I've gone with gnomes as a race of engineers as a sort of extension on the tinkering trope. They are relatively reclusive, and both exist as a later of mystery to the world and as a tool to handwave away why certain things like airships and trains exist.
In my homebrew campaign, Gnomes have one of the largest empires in the world. Despite them taking the smallest continent as their own, they technically have the largest due to how far the dig into it. Forst gnomes come from the surface forests, rock gnomes from the cities to the coast and deep gnomes from deeper down. My players have majoritivly only been playing in this continent, which means that theyre all about 2ft taller than all the other humanoids around them. Also, their origin is that they were created by the first fey lords who colognised the material plane as servants. The forest gnomes were those who remained slaves the longest, and the other two escaped deep into the ground to escape their servitude.
I'm playing an Eldritch Knight Fighter Gnome in a Storm King's Thunder campaign. He also multiclassed into a Ranger to become a giant hunter...he doesn't do a whole lot of damage in combat, but he regularly keeps 2-3 giants busy at a time while the rest of the party is dividing and conquering the others until they're able to come help him finish off his. And he's essentially a happy-go-lucky goodie-two-shoes jokester who loves magic and games when RPing. It's the most fun character I've played to date!
In my homebrew setting, gnomes are one of the races I created a new creature type for: Fae Humanoid. It’s kind of a middle ground between a humanoid and a fae. I also made dwarves, elves, goblinoids, and changelings into fae humanoids. I have 4 gnome subraces. The 2 playable subraces are Forest Gnomes (who are more focused on alchemy and illusions/enchantments) and Tinker Gnomes (who are inclined towards the arts, invention, science, and engineering). The two non-player subraces are Svirfneblin (reclusive and xenophobic subterranean Gnomes) and Leprechauns (greedy, avaricious, and sadistic Gnomes whose pranks tend towards the cruel). According to the faith of The Old Ways (one of the religions in my setting) the Gnomes were one of the races created and brought to life by Moradin. The god Moradin made Dwarves out of stone from the earth and gave them hearts of burning coal. But he made Gnomes from precious metals and gave them hearts of pure crystal, then gifted the Gnomes to the god Garl Glittergold. I want to note that one of the differences between Gnomes and Halflings in my setting is that Gnomes are faerie beings with close ties to Dwarves, but Halflings are technically subraces of Humans. In my setting, being a Halfling is an expression of a Human gene. So Humans and Halflings can breed, but their offspring will either be a full Human or a full Halfling, not a half-race. For the record, my Halflings come in 2 subraces: Lightfoot Halflings and River Halflings.
Honestly Gnomes are one of my favorite races. I love to view them as having a rich Spanish like background where they came from the fey wild and made a huge mark on the world carving out there own niche and settling it. with forest gnomes and the like being farmers on the outskirts of huge steam punk metropolis's. where they have a wide fusion of magic and technology and are constantly pushing that edge. Gnomes in the world hold there place by being fantastic enchanters and have a reputation of being kinda tricky but every gnome is always looking to make there mark on the world be it positive or negative. Just as long as the other races know that despite there size they are a magical, technological nightmare and a force to be reckoned with.
Forest Gnomes are great Land Druids. They aren't interested in giant wildshapes, just hanging with their little friends. And they are wonderful sages, full of knowledge of the small parts of nature. Illusions do show up in their spell list, eventually, and having a druid as part of their community would be huge for defense and warding off trouble.
I made an NPC for my home game. Living in the elven wood as the court arcanist for the wood elf archdruid. I just used the Transmuter NPC, but made her a little forest gnome with pink hair. Had her animate objects for an archery contest and basically MC the games for a spring festival.
In my campaign world (that currently is only in my head) Rock gnomes (or crag gnomes) are the creators of the warforged and have a clockpunk aesthetic instead of the steampunk dwarfs. They were an island nation and had a civil war that ended with effectively a magical nuke going off shattering the island.
For me, halflings were created to serve and humble the pride of the dragonborn, keeping them in line from becoming too proud and pompous and reminding them of the simple pleasures in life. Halfling Draconic sorcerers are common as a result. As for gnomes, I lean into the fey aspects: forest gnomes coexist with wood elves, like your description of them watching over the small critters of the land; rock gnomes coexist with high elves, developing the technological side of the high magic elves practice. Also, gnomes and goblins all came from the same common ancestor in my world, so there's that too.
I kind of see gnomes as the condensed version of larger races. Like race concentrate. All the foresty magic of the elves is boiled down into a forest gnome. All the craftiness of the dwarf is distilled down into a rock gnome. Which is what you would expect from a Fey race... one aspect of a thing, taken to almost absurd levels.
in my homebrew world, I made gnomes exiles from the feywilds - now they are basically the Gypsies. they travel in little vardo house trailers pulled by peacocks the size of ostriches (called a gypsy bird) - and they are like a carnival coming to town.
We WILL still be doing dragonborn, people! Thank you for watching! Need more Web DM in your life? Check out our podcast here: Patreon.com/webdm
Web DM I was about to say what about dragon born
You say you’re going to do Dragonborn, but what about Dragon-Blooded? You’ve got the core right behind Pruitt.
Also have to do tabaxi
Half elves?
Web DM
But what of the half elves?
For me, Gnomes are akin to Elven halflings, whereas actual Halflings are tied more to humanity.
Rock Gnomes are a sect or culture who found themselves allied with Dwarves, grew beards and took up tinkering. Whereas Forest Gnomes are the original sect, who have been cut off from the Feywild and now take care of nature/animals.
Hmmm... interesting take on it. I could see that. Gnomes would be clearly be smarter than halflings, of course. Halflings having that icky human ancestry and all... :P
That's pretty close to my campaign setting: humans, halflings and dwarfs all have common ancestry; gnomes were exiled from the feywild together with elves on the PMP, than they split. Those who stayed among the human-halfling druidic circles are now the forest gnomes, those who allied with the dwarves are now the rock gnomes. Svirfneblin, duergar and drow were normal until they opened a portal to the shadowfell in the hope of going back home, and unleashed undeath on the world... Yes, Bald Gnomes are evil in my setting.
+RatchildUK I actually thought that was the canon version of how they were. As a relatively new player of under a year, they always stood out that way to me in the books
@@Klespyrian
Started playing DnD 6 months ago.
I thought this was Canon to.
Gnomes are to Elves what Halflings are to Humans, or what Kobolds are to Dragonborn, or what Goblins are to Orcs.
Why don't gnomes have homelands?
They're gnomadic
Wah waaah
Immortalduck891 groan......
Leave
Wonderful
You just won youtube.
The wholesome love of Gnomes ive been reading in the comment section makes me happy.
Stumbled upon what has become my favourite way to see Gnomes when someone once made a "all the best stuff comes from Gnomeland" joke. If you look at them like people have looked at the Japanese, suddenly they become a lot more interesting. The outside world views them as either wild inventors at the forefront of technology (your Rock Gnome artificers) or staunch spiritual traditionalists (your Forest Gnome wizards and druids) - reality is, while those two "groups" have strong places in the culture, it's hugely more diverse than that and many Gnomes can get quite exasperated when people keep assuming they fit in one group or the other ("Hey, Gnome warrior buddy, be a sport and calm this bear down will ya? You're one of those types, right?"). Transplant over ideas of erasure (everyone always steals ideas from Japanese/Gnommish culture while forgetting they exist) and you've got a fairly easy template for how they fit into the world.
pieoverlord Very interesting. I like it
This is a bit like how I use them in a homebrew I'm working on. They occupy a large island nation between the main continent and the rest of the world and control most sea trade. Mine are also a bit Ottoman in that sense, but I also really emphasize the Few connection.
Are you kidding me?
Gnomes rule! They have all the coolest features of halflings, elves, and dwarves...
Besides, halflings don't exist.
Exactly. I don't understand the gnome hate. They're cool, underground tinkers with magical fey qualities. Much more interesting than dwarves, much better than halflings. Up there with elves as one of my two favourite non-human player races.
Setting Idea: Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings are all descendants of the Gnomes who are seen as the mythic precursors.
Lantan is the name of the place where forgotten realms gnomes live. They protect their high tech from outsiders. The island is near chult.
Leonardo Matias +
Needs moar likes. And a pin.
Were they live now, they didnt until a retcon put gnomes in the forgotten realms and they realized it was a perfect spot to throw a bunch of gnomes. they used to live in tethy i think is the name before it went all murder all gnomes and they had an underground railroad to escape. since it was retconned that gnomes were there it made sense that a bunch of gnomes migrated to Lantan since it was so close and culturally ideal.
Watch out for those gnomes. They pack heat.
Nothing like a geeky-looking shorty with a gat.
YES! I played a human who was orphaned in Lantan and raised by gnome chimney sweeps and eventually became an airship captain. He was my first ever character.
In my world, gnomes were made by the gods right at the end of the universe, and they sent them slowly back in time to fix the errors of the universe, so their barrens will occasionally jump back in time as they both try to mechanically and naturally repair the world. I call them "time sick" and it makes them unique enough to stand out while still fitting into the world.
Guys there’s this weird audio glitch in the video where it sounds like you’re saying all these negative things about Gnomes while praising Halflings, when clearly you mean to praise Gnomes and say negative things about Halflings.
Inquisitor Thomas weird for me actually the glitch makes it sound like they bash Kobolds at one point, but that can't be right...
Anyone who bashes a kobold is left in KFC, where they learn the first rule of KFC quick.
Yup yip
Yeah.... I got the same exact feeling. Halflings are way overrated.... just because their Hollywood kin, the Hobbits, did one or two things... I mean seriously!
Gnomes have been around since the 16th century, halflings are latecomers turning up in 1937, so let's be honest, halflings are just gnomes that can't grow a decent beard!
we should stand together against the big folk, not do their work and fight each other! damn whoever god created those races so unreasonably tall
Can't really say that I understand your connection between gnomes and halflings. Sure, both are short, but that's really about where the similarities end. I think of gnomes as intrinsically magical and elf-like in many ways, while halflings are just short humans that like to chill out. If anything, I'd say the gnomes are more connected to elves, especially when you think of elves as the small kind in santa's workshop.
Yeah, Gnomes are fey descendents but halflings are like human/dwarf hybrids.
Im totally with you on this.
Besides height they have no similarities except perhaps being said to always have a jovial disposition.
Halflings are basically hobbits, and Tolkien said Hobbits were a subrace of Men (humans). I agree, gnomes are much more magical and fey-like. In DnD though, they used to be a dwarf subrace (or so I've read)
Gnomes do have those burrow homes that are much more like hobbit holes and lots of halflings don’t have a similar Tolkien connection where instead they have similar, if smaller, dwellings to pastoral humans or outright live in cities.
But this does make the elf vs halfling/human comparisons more apt.
I love to play as gnomes myself. One of my favorite characters I've ever made was a 5e forest gnome monk of shadows named Gillimead. He would serve as a scout for the party since we didn't have a rogue or a ranger. He would communicate with the small animals and then slink in and out of shadows knocking out people to help clear a path for his party members. I especially remember in the early stages, when I didn't have the power to teleport via shadows to get to high ground, I would ask our fighter to throw me up to places and prayed he rolled high. I face planted a lot of walls that campaign.
There's no race like gnome
I think you meant "There's GNOME race like gnomes"
My favorite race, what up gnomies!?
I LOVE Gnomes! Gnomes are fantastic, and they provide great stories! I love my Gnome Champion who uses a Longsword as a Great Weapon! I enjoy your shows, but I have never disagreed so much! In my Campaign there are enclaves of Gnomes who live just like humans, but there are also powerful gnome merchants, and an infamous gnome assassin who "everyone" knows about but has never seen.....
darkzomb I agree with you 100%. Maybe they smoked something funny before taping this?
Excellent gnomenclature, gnomesayin'.
You're saying they're from... Gnome Man's Land?
Watching this 3 years after it's published, and immediately scoffing at the Gnome minimization and conflating them with Halflings. The Gnome erasure will not stand!
I definitely see gnomes thriving in harsh environments. They only need a fraction of a food a hob- er- I mean, _halfling_ would need, so I could see Gnome communities popping up in arctic or arid lands -- coming and going with the seasons and wild game.
Desert Gnomads, if you will.
One thing to keep in mind though is that Gnomes would also freeze more easily due to their smaller size and greater surface area relative to their internal mass, so the arctic regions might be difficult for them :P
Although the desert regions could still work!
I've had desert gnomads in my campaign world for years.
Finally, my preferred playable race. I love these little guys. 💕
RadiantBurrito I forget her name put your profile picture perfectly fits a gnomish setting
bears 4 days Hatsume Mei from My Hero Academia!
Me too. Kilmanook, the Forest Gnome Barbarian!
Paul Brezina I actually have a genealogy of gnome PCs at this point. The Odawyse clan is long and prosperous.
That's awesome! I'm working on mine. Only two generations right now.
Waiting for the day one or both of you guest on Critical Role!
or dice, camera, action
I want critical role. It’d be great
Nobody that thinks Gnomes are a type of Halfling would be a guest on Critical Role. This supposed DM needs to grow an imagination cuz gnomes are actually quite unique.
I think the difference in treatment between gnomes and halflings really boils down to the effect of Lord of the Rings. When you say halfling, people think Frodo and Sam trudging through Mordor, being all emo about their burden. When people hear gnome, they think weirdos that make shoes for stressed out shoemakers. Halflings have the luxury of being associated immediately with a serious fantasy story like the Lord of the Rings while gnomes are just those porcelain statues old people put in their gardens.
That or gnomes in stories. Like Rumplestiltskin. Was he a gnome? Sure has a name of one. That sort of image is one that I like. Gnomes being these fey creatures that can be both helpful and malicious. It's that fairytale flair that I love. Never know what to expect from a gnome.
Totally Agree, which is why I draw my gnomish influence from Gravity Falls ;)
When I hear halfling I do think hobbits but not Frodo and Sam first, I think hobbiton. I think of the chapter Concerning Hobbits that starts LoTR. I guess I'm predisposed to think of Frodo and even Bilbo as aberrations of their races rather then the norm. A hobbit would happily live it's entire life never leaving the shire, might never personally know someone who isn't a hobbit.
In earlier drafts, Tolkien referred to the Noldor as gnomes, as they were the greatest of the elves in crafting and invention. I think I'd prefer that timeline.
I like my gnomes to be laid back.
In my party, the leader is a gnome assassin. And she is terrifying! She's the hardest hitter and I think she's the only one in the party who hasn't been knocked unconscious at least once
Jason Niebuhr I made a mundane magician using Rogue as my class for the build, and the first race I used for this build was a Gnome. It works perfectly well almost regardless of race, but I enjoyed playing a gnome.
I never referred to myself as a rogue or thief. This character was a magician. No actual magic or spells, just skills like Sleight of Hand, Escape Artist, Use Rope, Bluff, Hide, Move Silently, and so on. It was all tricks and rapier and hidden daggers and now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t, and it was incredible how much it felt like I must have cast spells or use magic items but really I didn’t, and it was SO MUCH FUN! I had completely convinced NPCs that I was a mage. It’s surprisingly effective and deadly.
I had a 2'4" Forest Gnome spell casting bandit that used a 6' tall +1 trident that allows him to breathe underwater. He is one of my favorite characters in 35 years of gaming! I played many gnomes(most illusionists) in 2E!
The Gnomes in my homebrew world are obsessed with perfect shapes. They carved down their mountain to the 'perfect shape' as viewed by their leader. Unfortunately this often means they have to build new homes when a new leader comes into power. The leader who thought spheres were perfect didn't last very long. He was crushed by the mountainous sphere at the opening ceremony when a really strong gust of wind came through. (And yes, they're tinker gnomes)
Also, this has caused a large chunk of the mountain range around them to be completely flat.
Sounds like Doozers. Nice
No mention of Gar Glittergold :(
This is great inspiration for my wizard tinker gnome, Cleophrastus Bombastus!
I'm playing a 700 year old gnome named Jeffery right now. his goal is to become a lich. he's made a deal with graz'zt to learn the lichdom ritual. Now his eyes are pure red. it's fun
in my homebrew setting gnomes have three cities, no-one think that they are connected and one is entirely secret. No-one is allowed inside the cities except for some royalty that are allowed to see the throne room and nothing else, they have never been successfully besieged and are just all around op and fun to play with. The thing is that my players feel really special when they earn the privilege to actually go inside the city, although it is built for 3-4' people so they are uncomfortable the whole time. As far as importance in the world goes the 2 surface gnomish cities occupy the safest mountain pass in this massive mountain chain, so the ability for your army to use this pass, while others have to brave the harsh avalanches and snow and frostbite of the others, provides a massive military advantage.
I played a gnome barbarian that liked to punch/headbutt people in the junk. He had spiked gauntlets and a blue dragon's horn as a helmet so maximum disrespect XD
Grazz'zt That sexy hedonistic Bastard. I had a really dumb dwarf. (int score of 5) that wanted to be smart. Made a deal with the first being that answered the loudest. Just so happened to be Grazz'zt. My Dm is kind of a pervert in a fun silly way. So it Turns out Grazz'zt has a thing for Dwarfs. He gave my dwarf the ability to gain an int score of 23 once per day for 1 hour. However every time I did it I had to spend a day with Grazz'zt doing whatever he wished. So far i have cleaned his torture room, baked him bread? Polished his blade Wave of Sorrow. Helped him tame a Dragon by being bait. And last but not least. Dress up like a paladin and pretend to fight him???
Alan Brockhaus That is so funny my forest Gnome is also working on lichdom, but he uses adventures as minions. He has a ton of false identities and loads of money that he's gotten by ripping people off. My group often does jobs for him and they have no clue that he's pretty much the main villain of the campaign.
My gnome bard/wizard has taken over a small country, built a group of refugees into an army, founded an all-gnome organized crime syndicate, the Gnafia, and is currently working for Shar to assassinate another god.
In my current homebrew, I use halflings as half-human half-dwarf, and gnomes as half-dwarf half-elf. The dwarves are heavily influenced by the divine, and elves by the arcane, which is the source for the gnomes' strange, esoteric themes. This was largely built out of both the desire for more half-breed characters, and generally having no real justification for gnomes. While half-elves and halflings breed true, half-orcs and gnomes are mules, as a backhand way of shoehorning their rarity in.
One thing I love about gnomes is that they actually pick names for when they venture out based on how fun they are to say. In their own homes, each person has a different name for everyone who knows them. I love them.
In my world Gnomes are explorers and researchers, that run the Research Commission from this huge modernized (up to current tech levels in my world) city, that lies at the bottom of a giant green valley. They often send researchers and ambassadors to other lands for political and exploratory purposes.
It's older than Critical Role. One of the 3.5 iconics was a gnome bard.
Yeah, Gimble, who always struck me as one of the cooler looking characters in the art.
Gimble the Bard was a pimp.
I am playing a gnome playful trickster rouge with entertainer background. I had to resist the urge to name him Gimble the Nimble.
Pretty sure the Gnome bard thing started in 3rd Edition, with favored classes and everything.
Jake 3rd edition originally had Gnomes favoured class be, specifically, the Illusionist specialist of Wizard. In the 3.5e revision they changed Gnomes favoured class to Bard.
Ah, never played 3.0. I assumed it was the same because that seems like a dumb thing to change.
2nd edition had illusionist-thief as the favored (multi)class for gnomes.
I don't think it has to do with flavored classes but rather with the gnome being the only race with a Cha bonus in the phb
Alex Bermann incorrect, gnomes don't have a cha bonus. int and con/dex.
Gnomes from the Dragonlance/Warcraft standpoint always end up in my campaigns. It’s always fun describing a gnome hut/settlement and seeing my players faces range from “Interesting!” to “Is this safe?”
"Nome. Alaska". Took me a moment, but I gnome a good pun when I hear one.
Frodo is to Halflings, as leprechauns are Gnomes. As a Brit, I think of Gnomes as Irish, Halflings as Welsh, Dwarves as Scotish, and Elves as from the Isles (Jersey, Man, Wight, etc).
Burly D ha!
I just joined my first party and semi-randomly picked the forest gnome. This conversation was really thought provoking. Thanks!
Weird, it seems like you somehow think that gnomes and halflings are basically the same thing, but that can't be right. Right?
(way late to this party but...) it seems to be like the think gnomes are Diet Halfling.
Gnome bards have always been a thing for me dating at least back to 3.5. There is one campaign I remember playing in about a decade ago where we went "Hey, new guy, why don't you play this gnome bard and you can be awesome support every round of combat?"
Well you be covering the Races in Volos Guide to Monsters?
I think covering them could give you more video ideas & maybe people haven't heard of them.
Mocking Urkin Firbolg plsss
Yes please do this! 5e Firbolg are my favorite D&D race!
That's great and all...
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But what about the dragonborn?
Anything that's a carry over from forth edition should be burned with fire. Sadly that doesn't work on dragonborn.
Going to have to disagree rally self, the minion system was awesome and just a formalization of how i was already running hordes of enemies 4th edition i also find easiest to run tactical online games. Dragonborn really get their inspiration from Draconians from dragonlance anyway. it was 4th edition that gave them boobs which are now gone.
I kid, I never even played forth but also never been one for the animal races. Glad you enjoy them, DnD has something for everybody. AJ Pickett does a lot great videos on dnd lore and has one on dragon born.
th-cam.com/video/naLOOpyaKYM/w-d-xo.html
I had to modify them for my setting, y dragons are hermaphrodidic and make clones of themselves like ssome lizard species. The giants and dragons cursed each other in a final battle and that is what caused 9/10 dragon eggs to hatch as dragonborn. I like having a few animal people races but if you have more then a handful then their is no point to lycanthropes. i love A.J pickett, he has awesome lore. i agree DnD has something for each player. i like a more theatric game thats why i prefer 5th edition yet if im in a more tactical group ill play 4th online or 3.5 in person.
I always like to home brew lore and the world when I run a game but just wasn't playing when 4e came out. I did find a game of 5e just a few months ago. It's mostly a dungeon crawl but we spend a lot of time role playing or really making dick and fart jokes in funny voices.
To much Gnome racisms going on. GNOMERCY!!!!!
I like the race videos you guys are throwing down. They provide some interesting perspectives and inspiration.
In my setting Gnomes actually play a pretty critical role (no pun intended). They are the magic savants, not the elves. In order to stop the advance of the Dwarven Hordes (mentioned in the Dwarf video comment) they set off a "Atomic Bomb". Essentially the Mana Bomb from WoW but much like in our own WWII, they weren't entirely aware of the scope of its effect and it has created a world wide instability in the flows of magic, creating pockets/bubbles where magic doesn't act reliably, opening portals to different planes, etc.
My fiercest character was a mad gnome sorcerer barbarian living on my DMs frozen moon of a setting. Talifergen Screamingwhisper aka Tali would axe murder you if you couldn't convince him you weren't a goblin spy...
Gnomes were split into village and barbarian gnomes in his world thanks to my character concept, it was super fun and he went from 1st to 18th level before getting imprisoned in a cursed coin at the end of our campaign.
@Jake Sangria roll for it.
@Jake Sangria i was actually playing MUD/MUSH rps around then, Dark Metal was my favorite, but they had similar dice rolling commands for that
That thumbnail is amazing
really? I akin them to Elves and Goblins far more than halflings, outside size. fey connection, often trapped on the material plane for 1000's of years. mine are typically all magical crazy tinkers, a step closer to the wild and erratic Fey side. a sort of 'elves adapted themselves to thier new world, gnomes try to adapt the new world to the whimsy of the fey.' without going to the full wild extent of satyrs and pixies and such.
As a first time player setting up my first character I'm super glad the gnomes were in the book I borrowed. I enjoy their characteristics and subraces
Hello from a year and a half into your future!
I know I'm late to the party, but since Gnomes are my favourite D&D race I feel the need to come to their defense:
I think it's fairly easy to define Gnomes from Halflings by two distinct traits... Firstly they're far more industrious. Forest Gnomes, from the tradition of the Kabouter/Klabauter, might be fey-like guardians of nature but they'd still make regular use of non-destructive technologies like watermills and windmills. They need that infrastructure because to my mind they're not simply acting on a whim, pulling the occasional thorn from an infrequent rabbit's foot; instead they're running clinics to treat and heal *all* the small creatures of the forest; they're organising working-bees to help *all* the squirrels store enough acorns for a long winter; they're farming giant mushroom-houses in situ, growing whole villages in new forest copses; etc.
Similarly the Rock Gnomes aren't carving out enormous caverns like the Dwarves do; they're not building Moria. They mine carefully and purposefully, in pursuit of rare elements. They don't treat the pickaxe as some kind of noble artifact, and mining for them is just a means to an end, not an end unto itself. Hell, it's a job for drilling automatons wherever possible... The ends are all those fantastical things which Gnomes can create from the rare minerals and gems they recover from the earth.
The second trait, which Jim seems to have hit on, is that Gnomes always struck me as natural riders. They're more like Rohirrim or Dothraki at 1/4 scale than they are Halflings or Dwarves... Again, in my mind and in my homebrew this is because they always feel compelled to compensate for their small stature when dealing with the larger races. They're just as intelligent, just as capable, and yet I always imagine how hard it must be to feel like someone is taking you seriously when you only come up to their knees.
So Forest Gnomes ride forest creatures: Wolves, Deer, Eagles, Goats, etc. Their children grow up riding foxes and squirrels, and it's all done in a reciprocal pact with those creatures, not through domestication or subjugation.
Rock Gnomes might ride in automatons, warforged, auto-mobile carts or clockwork spiders, etc. But in both cases, whenever they're in a position to deal with the larger races I imagine they'd favour any conveyance which puts them at or near an eye-level between 4ft-5ft.
[EDIT]
In my homebrew setting it's the Rock Gnomes that invent blackpowder. It's still their exclusive technology, and it gives them a class of ranged weaponry equivalent to heavy crossbows and longbows. This has granted them a kind of independent military parity which they'd previously lacked... But it's their effort to share this technology with their Forest brethren which is creating a schism with the other fey races. And somewhere, in the back of my mind, is the further idea that the Forest Gnomes unknowingly hold the key to the future development of nitrocellulose smokeless powder. :)
I really like eberron Gnomes. they’re assassins creed 2 davincis. italian inventors with venice as their capital, but are unsuspectfully stabby and have their secrecy
Gnomes are my favorite. They are funny, fun, happy, good hearted, curious, intelligent, magical and just awesome.
I love Gnomes. Comedic badass sounds like the perfect description of every hero id love to play. Glad you guys gave em a fair shake!
Someday, I shall play a gnome barbarian named Tottleby Tempertoss. I wish for him to be thrown at his enemies.
Fastball special
I don't like halflings, but Gnomes are the best.
My first character was a gnome, which I ran from 1st to 11th level in 2nd Edition AD&D. Our DM had made us roll for race. Ugh. In AD&D being a certain race meant you were restricted to certain classes, so in addition to being a crappy gnome, I had to be an Illusionist instead of (what I perceived to be) a more powerful Evoker. There was nothing I could do but play what i was given, so I grudgingly got into playing my "weak" illusion spells with my dumb gnome and quickly found that I was the most powerful character in the party. Minor illusions allowed us to avoid combat, use traps against enemies, sow dissension and generally wreak havoc. I started to really get into roleplaying the mischevious nature of the Gnomish and devising ever more creative ways of using my illusions and consequently had the most fun i have ever had playing DnD with that character. He is still my favourite charcter i have ever played. Don't knock a gnome til you've tried one.
I loved my gnome gunslinger... Rock gnome, Artisan, Artificer gunslinger... I handled picking locks, finding traps, identifying magic items, appraising loot, and smithing
David the Gnome! I loved that show man, it was so cool and so weird. To me Rock Gnomes are culturally related to Dwarves but distinct from them. They live in the same communities as dwarves and are generally the artisans at the end of the mining, processing cycle. No one makes a better blade than a gnome, or jewelry that can kill you, or an automated forge so the dwarves can produce all those epic axes. In general Gnomes have no homeland of their own and are an entire race of refugees. This is because their hubris was nearly the entire world's undoing.
Once they had the most marvelous city. It was a techno-magical marvel and they were the centre of knowledge while humans were still scraping two rocks together and trying to make fire. The city of golden spheres floated in the caldera of an active volcano and harnessed its energy to power their magical experiments. At the end these involved long distance transportation through the voids between worlds without crossing space. Long story short things went very, very wrong. The city collapsed sinking into the earth and disappearing into the underdark , all of their knowledge was lost and they put the world in great peril. Because of this some decided to reject their technological ways and return to the old ways of caring for nature and being one with the land. Others craved a return to their glory and pursue that ancient knowledge one invention at a time. The deep gnomes, those who sank with the lost city, were enslaved by the denizens of the underdark and became a grim folk who think only of survival and do not dream of the workings of the universe.
Except for the deep gnomes it is custom for few gnomes to congregate in large numbers for fear their natures will spur on an explosion of creative drive and they will rocket towards calamity again. Some still dream of finding the lost city, its gleaming orbs containing the lost knowledge of the gnomes. Others think it is better it stays lost if it ever existed at all.
I know that a lot of people see gnomes as a joke... So I made a custom setting in which there is an empire or rock gnomes that employs steam punk technology and black gunpowder guns to conquer other kingdoms...
Jan Rudzki i did the very same, except they have a hidden megacity sculpted on the side of a cliff
Gnomes advantage on half of all magical saving throws is pretty dang nuts. They are cool
Thank you for your love of David the Gnome! Had to sign along with you at the end, lol. And your gnome paladin sounds awesome, Jim! I love going against type. For my first 5e character, I made myself a gnome warlock of the archfey - her village makes a lot of druids, but she encountered an archfey on her druid training and...oopsie, warlock! In 3.5, I had a gnome bard and a gnome sorcerer/rogue/gnomish trickster. I don't get the gnome hate. They're awesome!
Starting a campaign today with a STR-based rock gnome fighter, and love your forest gnome paladin and lots of the other ideas in here. Cheers!
I recall a few bits of lore, perhaps in older editions, mentioning dwarves seeing gnomes as "cousins" of sorts. As a result, that's what they've always been in my head. Distant, but very friendly, cousins. Given Rock Gnome was the default in 3rd, it was my assumption Forest Gnomes split off from them, becoming more isolated and nature focused as a result. Perhaps a disagreement with the focus on machinery? The way I see it, though, gnomes are naturally creative, whether that's in machinery, or magic, or any other craft they pursue.
Also, gnomes are one of my favorite races. I've always seen them as way more lighthearted and fun than halflings, who were either the stuffier hobbits or nomads eking out a living because they're mistrusted.
One of the things that always makes my day is Jim's excited face while Pruitt is doing the intro. It's the personification of :D
Much like your Gnome Paladin, I played a Knight that was a Gnome Fighter named Pipwhistle Dragonstone who opened every fight with a Rod of Wonder before spurring his wardog mount into the fray. Also, I kinda feel like the enemies of the Goblins might be Dwarves, but when you want to build in perfect animosity with Kobolds you go Gnomes. When Tucker's Kobolds are mining into your settlement and attacking you want a contingent of Breachgnomes to hold the line and go into those tunnels. They're the only PC race that stands a chance.
In my game there’s a mini gnome “kingdom” in the forest where a whole nation lives in a GIANT tree where the nature is preserved by forest gnomes but steam flies out of the branches from the rock gnome artificers and factories
I'm here because I'm a gnome for 10 years ;/
I've always imagined gnomes to be fae folks, they are doing prestidigitation, talk to animals, make illusionary tricks and fight giants occasionaly.
I've been from the rogue one with has been hired because he could camouflage his presence as a child ; the warrior which was out of the forrest to kill someone because he had killed one nymph (as the outside world was considering badly gnomes, I was trying to find noble titles and buying stuff for being considered).
Some kind of sorcerer who would use mirror image to high five himself, some kind of funny illusionist that try to discover the world in a funny way. A gnome that has been raised by birds and find out he has some powers.
I'd like the "race of the stone" book where gnomes were described as pursuing fun. As long as they are having fun, they would not really age physicly. With the years passing, the wisdom will make you worries and having less fun and will decline from this point.
I used to be very critical of Gnomes which in retrospect is bizarre, my current PC is a deep gnome wizard and I'm having an absolute blast.
Love all the content guys it's excellent
Gnomes > halflings every damn time
Brent Steffen false, sir
@@johnathanera5863 no, u
I will never play a halfling, their just short humans to me.
Gnomes in my setting are shadowfell beings created by a race of technologically advanced inter-cosmic nomads to be assistants and servants. They were simply left around after that race harvested what they needed from the prime material. That race was basically a master race of Halflings from a universe where halflings conquered every known race on each plane. Dwarf tech is based on Gnome tech.
I just recently added my younger brother into my D&D campaign and he plays as a gnome. He's a very excitable and energetic rock gnome, ranger with the new Monster Slayer archetype. He uses magic to debuff and negate the monsters attacks as well as give others an advantage. He then uses his tinkering ability to craft small devices such as net launchers, grappling hook, and mini flame throwers to deal some damage. It gets really fun in moments like fighting fire giants, when he crawls around on them Dealing mass damage. While the goliath barbarian struggles to stay alive. Gnomes are defiantly an awesome race to play. Its just one of those things you have to get creative with in D&D
The gnome actually might be my favorite of the races because of that, as you say, fey-type association. As for the idea of a gnome bard archetype, the 3e PHB has bard as the gnome's favored class (back when that was a thing). I'm actually playing a gnome bard right now, and it's given me a fantastic role playing opportunity. In my homebrew campaign setting, gnomes are Irish-inspired, so I tied that in with the gnome's inventive and tinker-ish nature in such a way that he "invented" what in the real world are Uilleann pipes. Can't wait to see your video on dragonborn. You guys are awesome.
Gnome more races after this one?
Gnome druid is a great build. My guy Fafersch once turned into a brown bear grappled the bugbear warchief dragged him off, them through him into lava. Just having that option of for a fastball special is worth so much.
I used to have a setting where the gnomes were like Aztec pagans that practiced a blend of science and magic. Just throwing the idea out there, for anyone's inspiration.
I really like how Rich Burlew's _The New World_ treats gnomes. In his setting, there are no elves or dwarves or orcs, only humans and gnomes (and gnolls). Humans have the martial and population advantage, while gnomes are masters of magic. Their closely guarded history, and the way they kinda-sorta fit into human society, give them a surprisingly sinister undertone. Gnomes aren't happy and jolly in this one. And I love it!
My group has played two gnomes and they were two of my favorite characters we've had.
I play a forest gnome moon druid. Love it. The thematic feel more than compensates for sub optimal stats in my mind. And I have learned to abuse minor illusion for camouflage. Took a horrible scar from a troll, now he gets advantage on intimidation checks. He became blood brothers with a PC half-orc. Great duo. Fun race to play.
Gnomes are great and Halflings suck, Thats what you guys ment right. I've played a Gnome wizard/bard who used illusions to tell his stories. Next I've got a Forest Gnome Arcane Archer to play, can't wait.
Chaotic Monk you have it backsards sir. Gnomes could be erased from the game and nothing would change and nobody would notice or care
Gnomes in forgotten realms are from island of Lantan, and they were the quintessential steampunk gnomes, long before WOW popularized it.
I think this is the first time I noticed the Crown Royal dice bag, classic!
It was cool to see you film this with some of your actual fans in the background!
13:00 Gnomes are from Lantan, the great temples and workshops of Gond, etc. etc.
This one's for my gnomies (pours out his drink)
In my world I've gone with gnomes as a race of engineers as a sort of extension on the tinkering trope. They are relatively reclusive, and both exist as a later of mystery to the world and as a tool to handwave away why certain things like airships and trains exist.
In my homebrew campaign, Gnomes have one of the largest empires in the world. Despite them taking the smallest continent as their own, they technically have the largest due to how far the dig into it. Forst gnomes come from the surface forests, rock gnomes from the cities to the coast and deep gnomes from deeper down. My players have majoritivly only been playing in this continent, which means that theyre all about 2ft taller than all the other humanoids around them.
Also, their origin is that they were created by the first fey lords who colognised the material plane as servants. The forest gnomes were those who remained slaves the longest, and the other two escaped deep into the ground to escape their servitude.
I'm playing an Eldritch Knight Fighter Gnome in a Storm King's Thunder campaign. He also multiclassed into a Ranger to become a giant hunter...he doesn't do a whole lot of damage in combat, but he regularly keeps 2-3 giants busy at a time while the rest of the party is dividing and conquering the others until they're able to come help him finish off his. And he's essentially a happy-go-lucky goodie-two-shoes jokester who loves magic and games when RPing. It's the most fun character I've played to date!
I'm by gnome means bragging, by the way...
In my homebrew setting, gnomes are one of the races I created a new creature type for: Fae Humanoid. It’s kind of a middle ground between a humanoid and a fae. I also made dwarves, elves, goblinoids, and changelings into fae humanoids.
I have 4 gnome subraces. The 2 playable subraces are Forest Gnomes (who are more focused on alchemy and illusions/enchantments) and Tinker Gnomes (who are inclined towards the arts, invention, science, and engineering). The two non-player subraces are Svirfneblin (reclusive and xenophobic subterranean Gnomes) and Leprechauns (greedy, avaricious, and sadistic Gnomes whose pranks tend towards the cruel).
According to the faith of The Old Ways (one of the religions in my setting) the Gnomes were one of the races created and brought to life by Moradin. The god Moradin made Dwarves out of stone from the earth and gave them hearts of burning coal. But he made Gnomes from precious metals and gave them hearts of pure crystal, then gifted the Gnomes to the god Garl Glittergold.
I want to note that one of the differences between Gnomes and Halflings in my setting is that Gnomes are faerie beings with close ties to Dwarves, but Halflings are technically subraces of Humans. In my setting, being a Halfling is an expression of a Human gene. So Humans and Halflings can breed, but their offspring will either be a full Human or a full Halfling, not a half-race.
For the record, my Halflings come in 2 subraces: Lightfoot Halflings and River Halflings.
Worth a like purely for the thumbnail alone! Love you guys!
Honestly Gnomes are one of my favorite races. I love to view them as having a rich Spanish like background where they came from the fey wild and made a huge mark on the world carving out there own niche and settling it. with forest gnomes and the like being farmers on the outskirts of huge steam punk metropolis's. where they have a wide fusion of magic and technology and are constantly pushing that edge. Gnomes in the world hold there place by being fantastic enchanters and have a reputation of being kinda tricky but every gnome is always looking to make there mark on the world be it positive or negative. Just as long as the other races know that despite there size they are a magical, technological nightmare and a force to be reckoned with.
Gnomes fit in as a technologically advanced race
Forest Gnomes are great Land Druids. They aren't interested in giant wildshapes, just hanging with their little friends. And they are wonderful sages, full of knowledge of the small parts of nature. Illusions do show up in their spell list, eventually, and having a druid as part of their community would be huge for defense and warding off trouble.
I made an NPC for my home game. Living in the elven wood as the court arcanist for the wood elf archdruid. I just used the Transmuter NPC, but made her a little forest gnome with pink hair. Had her animate objects for an archery contest and basically MC the games for a spring festival.
In my campaign world (that currently is only in my head) Rock gnomes (or crag gnomes) are the creators of the warforged and have a clockpunk aesthetic instead of the steampunk dwarfs. They were an island nation and had a civil war that ended with effectively a magical nuke going off shattering the island.
Whenever I play a gnome, they're a collector of names. They have tons of names they consider their own, and will respond to any of them
My favorite character I've ever played was a Rock Gnome and I can't wait to play as a different kind of Gnome, they are truly underutilized
In the Forgotten Realms, Gnomes come from the island of Lantan.
For me, halflings were created to serve and humble the pride of the dragonborn, keeping them in line from becoming too proud and pompous and reminding them of the simple pleasures in life. Halfling Draconic sorcerers are common as a result. As for gnomes, I lean into the fey aspects: forest gnomes coexist with wood elves, like your description of them watching over the small critters of the land; rock gnomes coexist with high elves, developing the technological side of the high magic elves practice. Also, gnomes and goblins all came from the same common ancestor in my world, so there's that too.
I kind of see gnomes as the condensed version of larger races. Like race concentrate. All the foresty magic of the elves is boiled down into a forest gnome. All the craftiness of the dwarf is distilled down into a rock gnome. Which is what you would expect from a Fey race... one aspect of a thing, taken to almost absurd levels.
in my homebrew world, I made gnomes exiles from the feywilds - now they are basically the Gypsies. they travel in little vardo house trailers pulled by peacocks the size of ostriches (called a gypsy bird) - and they are like a carnival coming to town.
A beautiful and tragic story of a gnome? Burt Reynolds esq.
#themeatmancometh
The way Gnomes are depicted in path finder are great.
Gnomes are great in Pathfinder since they're centered around firearm creation and industrial age technology.