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The Problem with Gnomes in D&D
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2024
- Gnome are the least popular option in D&D when it comes to core races. But why are Gnomes like that in DnD? Let's find out.
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Will there be international purchasing for the merch? I'm from Mexico, and I would really love to support the channel like this.
*audio quality will be fixed in the final video
Honestly I feel the Gnoll’s lore is as badly maligned if not even more ensnaring than the gnomes’ changes between versions. But I get what you mean in the video with it
PLEASE COME TO AZ SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE I WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU
I'm too far away and too broke for gong anywere, but It you'll ever go to Lucca comics i'll offer you and espresso (of the Perpetual storm curse don't kill Us both).
as someone from New Zealand I can confirm that we pray to Bilbo Baggins because he is responsible for 73% of our countreys wealth.
I thought New Zealand hated the LotR team?
@@averagejoe455 oh some of us do. i'm still young so I don't have too much an opinion but it's undeniable that rely heavily on film making and tourism too fuel our economy. We may not like it but it's undeniable that hobbiton stimulates our economy more than any politician ever could.
Funny enough, Paizo (the Pathfinder folks) takes the immortal trait of Tolkien Elves and gives them to Gnomes, with the caveat that if Gnomes don't have enough novelty in their lives they fade away. I like this change since it helps Gnomes feel even more the short equivalent to Elves, and it gives them an in-born reason to be adventurers.
How it feels to have ADHD
Ah, right, the Bleaching, yes?
@@kiranaun9593 I always kinda viewed gnomes as the living embodiment of ADHD anyway, so this statement is so factual to me specifically 😂
My husband: why don't you want to finish/do the thing you've been obsessed with for two months?
Me: it's bleached now.
They generally did a great job in making the different races more memorable (love the goblins and hobgoblins) but the gnome certainly takes the cake.
Your idea for making the gnomes aesthetically distinct from halflings is probably my favorite aspect of this video. It's so simple, and easy, and also there was a missed opportunity to use the word "Gnose"
But the word "Gnose" was totally used at 19:00!
Every time I hear about gnomes I think of 'gnoses.' Like, solely because of the name, I have always had the thought in the back of my head that gnomes HAD to have large noses.
Basically halflings drink tea with there grandparents, but gnomes go on roller coasters and smoke alcohol from a glass slipper
The tea the halflings drink with their grandparents is still spiked with plenty of whiskey.
@@charlespaape2258and half the tea leaves are fantasy marijuana clippings. Meanwhile the gnomes are building machines for measuring out perfect lines of coke and ritalin...
if halflings are anything like in lord of the rings, then they are hard drinkers and smokers ;)
im gnot a gnelf, im gnot a gnoblin, im a gnome and youve been Gnomned
.....
dang it
*HO*
*HO*
Thanks for reminding me that I made a gnome character during peak popularity of this meme and named her Gnotta Gnelf
you literally just saw the gnome vs. Knight wars on Instagram and thought: "yeah, now people remember gnomes exist"
I honestly cant blame you
I had gno idea it was a thing on instagram, I thought it was just an r/knightposting thing
Ooo
@@mejhdhhicbfshihids652also r/wizardposting
I’ve been following the war on TikTok
There are many sides we have to fight on, stay strong fellow gnomes 🧌
as a certified gnome lover, I love your rebrand and I hope it brings more people to TEAM GNOME 💪
We are 10x the gnome's market share and launching their new updates branding simultaneously on all platforms
Gnomes > Halfling every day!
I love the gnome redesign, it makes them look not just whimsical, but a little malicious with a bit of ghibli granny
I saw the elderly one and immediately thought, "Wasn't she in Spirited Away?"
I'm in love with the concept of using masks as a symbol of identity. I could see other races asking them why would they hide who they are, only for the Puck to argue that on the contrary, a face is hard to read, it hides secrets, it shows emotions that might not be the ones really felt, but their masks are a symbol of who they are, their passion, their interests. They are not hiding behind the mask, the mask draws who they are from inside.
I could see other races thinking that the Pucks are kind of weird. That they are secretive, and sneaky because they keep their faces covered. But to the Pucks, the other races are the secretive ones, because they hide who they truly are, they put barriers to protect themselves and you have to pry them open to get to know them, but the Pucks are an open book. Unless their muse is to keep secrets, these guys are as open as you can get.
This whole concept would mix real interestingly with my Race which are plagued not only with an inevitable trauma but with a more natural child's brand of searching for stuff to do
so meeting some Pucks will bring a lot possibly since a Puck is not subtle at all hehe
Reminds me of a related line of thinking, from Clan Scorpion in Legend of the Five Rings.
All Scorpions wear a mask, of some sort, through their entire adult life. It may be cloth, makeup, a veil, a full metal mask, but they may be quite subtle, designed to acentuate their facial features rather than hide them, or in some cases they can be more... abstract. Some have a strong preference for a single mask or style, others have a mask for every occasion. But there's always a mask. What's important isn't the type or style, merely it's presence.
The Scorpion are the emperor's underhand, spies, saboteurs and doers of all the things that may be understood as dishonourable necessities. A bit part of their job is to quietly take care of problems before they manifest (which has blown up in their faces in some /fantastically/ impressive ways), or create small problems that prevent larger ones. They are intelligence agents, internal affairs, secret(ish) police and more. They operate both openly and in secret... frequently at once. Collectively, they're often seen as a bit of a hot mess, full of internal rivalries and disputes, willing to turn on their own as easily as any other. They are mostly seen as being highly disreputable, untrustworthy, disloyal, dishonourable, some have far worse reputations, a few have found ways to have significantly better.
The clan's entire /thing/, their clans reputation everyone's understanding of precisely what they do and why, the whole lot of it... is a mask. A performance they've been putting on for centuries, cultivating a particular image, because being seen that way is useful. Every aspect of their outward presentation is intentional, though many individuals are not at all informed of the intent. It's just layers and layers and deception, misdirection and obfuscation. When everything is working well, nobody has the slightest idea what the Scorpion is doing, but everyone they care about /thinks/ they've pierced enough of the veils to believe they do.
To the Scorpion it is the /act/ of wearing a mask - any mask - that may be seen as their truest, most honest selves... After all, if they didn't wear a mask, you'd never know what they are.
@@Daemonworks band slogan at the end
It reminds me of the Malawish from mistborn era 2
"give a person a mask and they'll become their true self"
A kobold wrote this video.
Pointy hat has fallen to the goblins. The only surprise is that it didn't happen sooner.
Maybe a knight wrote it
Let's just hope gator didn't get in on it
Clearly Pack-Tactics
This is so ghomaphobic.
Gnose.
My favourite part of gnome culture is their love of nicknames. I want to play a gnome solely so I have an in-game reason to call everyone in my party anything other than their actual names, or so my PC can be excited any time someone calls them something other than their own name, including insults from enemies (not realising that they're being insulted). To have have multiple names, depending on who they're speaking to. A formal name, a casual name, a name enemies know you by, and a name for those who are closest. To keep their real name secret the entire campaign. Man, I need to find a group.
The pointy ears and nose contrast to the halfling roundness is a really neat idea
I like the approach of Pathfinder, where gnomes were cast out of the fey world, but outside of it they all develope an illness making them turn grey and whither until they die when they aren't experiencing new things regularly.
That, and their troll hair.
I was thinking the same thing. The Bleaching and fey ancestry is such a cool concept that I'm surprised D&D strayed away from keeping them fey-like in favor of making them more dwarf-like. Guess WoW was super popular when they made the switch and it unfortunately just stuck.
I just threw up my own comment on this because my experience with Jubilox and Regill in the Owlcat Pathfinder games actually made me like gnomes as a concept. It was a great treatment for a species I otherwise had completely ignored.
@@zulium 4e came out four years after WoW, to the point where when I played it I was comparing the rules changes to an attempt to make tabletop D&D more like playing WoW, so I'm not entirely convinced WoW had anything to do with it, as that was the edition where gnomes got the fey treatment.
@@warmachine5835 It's more likely that they intentionally avoided fey gnomes, because they wanted to distance themselves from Pathfinder.
I had an Arcane Trickster Forest Gnome that rode a very large cat with a saddle on it. She'd walk into places, steal exclusively magical objects, try to figure out the object until she got bored of it. Then she'd throw the magic item in the bay of her home city. She'd also go on tangents that were typically lies, but that she told so enthusiastically it was hard to tell, and she believed every story she was telling was true.
And this is how my husband decided that "The Woodpecker War" and that gnome knights ride badgers were canon in his world.
Thats awesome!
Norwegian Forest Cats or Maine Coons for the win!
Is the Woodpecker war anything like Australia's Great Emu War, but for Gnomes?
Pathfinder has a "cavalier" class that are knights who fight while mounted. There's a halfling specific "order of the paw" subclass that requires you ride a wolf or dog. Slightly less whimsical that gnomes on badgers but same vibe.
I imagine the badger cavalry devastating on the battlefield as in the taming/training
Eberron Gnomes and Eberron Halfings are so distinct, I forget they arent as easy to tell apart in default settings.
Congratulations on getting your very own shirt, Human Familiar!
Before watching: their main problem is that aside from being tech-nerds there is nothing distinguishing them from halflings in aesthetic, and anybody can be a tech nerd regardless of race
Also if you wanted to play a short person with good engineering/crafting skills, you'd probably just play a dwarf, because you're probably not wanting to make some work of art, you're wanting to invent the Goblin-Puliveriser-9000
I mean… insert every half-race ever.
@@starhalv2427 And what are your thoughts after watching?
@@korniestpatch Species hybrids are a diagetically inevitable outcome where two species can reproduce and the offspring are not entirely dominated by the heritable traits of one parent. They are also excellent for playing characters who are disenfranchised, ostracized, estranged, or who do not identify fully with either side of their lineage.
Gnomes are not really necessary at either the design or diagetic levels.
@@nevisysbryd7450if you are bleak about every character you make i can see why you think that way. But no, humans vs elves vs orcs are all the variety in the game the rest is just a copy or a dilution of those 3.
I like to imagine Gnomes be the sort of the "solarpunk" tinkerers of the fantasy world as a counterpart to Goblins dirty industrial style. They should be the magical forest-engineers that craft spells and inventions to support and "repair" nature. Oh, and give them beards and pointy hats, you cowards, that's how a gnome looks.
Renewable green energy themed gnomes? Awesome. Now I can't help but see 'civilized' Goblins wearing shabby top hats and other Steampunk accoutrements and acting in typical Robber Baron fashion...and it just occurred to me that's basically just Warcraft Goblins.
Beards makes them too similar to dwarves. I think optional beards, his design, and pointy hats would work though. Make pointy hats culturally significant in some manner and it works
Loved the Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes clip, wasn’t expecting to see him here. ❤
My first ever D&D character I *ever* created was a gnome named Blimblam, a whimsical little guy who strives to be friends with everyone they meet, even enemies. He's dumb, gullible and incredibly charming.
The Pathfinder take on Gnomes is pretty interesting :
They are explicitly originally from the feywild , and where imortal . But at some point they decided out of curiosity to jump into the material plane . Unfortunately, that thing called boredom and monotony exists , here witch they didn't know, so now they have to find ways to not ve bored or they start loosing there colour and when all fades , they die
(Except in very rare occasions where they miraculously live , but even then , they feel dead inside)
They can't die from old age , but there are so many things you can do before inevitably getting bored so , that acts like there lifespan.
I wanna say that the First World is a bit wilder than the Feywild.
It was the gods first draft of the world, it’s this ever changing unstable world. Like even gravity isn’t a consistent thing.
Gnomes being from there are kinda anathema to the stability of the material plane, which is what kills them when they Bleach
Me literally three (3) days ago: Gnomes are basically Halfling-Elves, I need to give them a flavor for my kitchen-sink setting
Antonio: Gotchu fam
Te quiero Antoñito
The Puck has such a fascinating backstory that I'm baffled it isn't official
I seriously don't get why Pointyhat isn't the most successful DnD TH-camr. His Videos are always fire, his humor is great and I LOVE his 100% certified pointyhat free content
I really like the pathfinder Gnomes. They really leaned into the whole curiosity thing and made it so that Gnomes only every truly age when they no longer gain new experiences. When their life becomes bereft of new things their face and hair loses its colour and eventually they die. This often causes them to take paths in life that grant them new experiences while avoiding more dull and exclusively sedentary lives. This particularly guides known into becoming artists researchers and above all adventurers. Because who get to experience new things the most often, those who travel everywhere on adventures.
My grandfather gifted me The Secret Book of gnomes, the book that inspired David the Gnome, and it is literally the reason I'm into worldbuilding and D&D today. I still have the book with me to this day.
Also, I'm already having nightmares of a modern day campaign with a Gamer Puck.
Love the "David the Gnome" footage used in your video, it was my favorite show when I was little!!
My perception of them was essentially as magic halflings in the way that elves are magic humans. Fun to see that’s a convergent line of thought within the video!
I have an interesting story with Gnomes, since I've gone from forgetting they exist to HATING them to finding them really cool and interesting to mainly forgetting them but still finding them neat.
The main reason for this is because my main gnomeledge of Knowns is either Garden Gnomes and the "steampunk chaotic 'yolo' cr*ck childs", which isn't my favorite thing (aside Goblins, don't know why) but when I read their lore and saw their more introverted, shy and hyperfixated side, I feel in love and identified with as a shy person on the spectrum
Please tell me Gnomeledge of Knowns was unintentional because it gave me a stroke and then made me cackle
@@thesausageman5388 just noticed now kkkk I'm not gonna change it
I'm creating a setting right now and a few weeks ago thought about how to give gnomes a little twist. My solution was to make them a steppe nomad equivalent, but riding the most wholesome animal in existence: Capybaras. Then I realized I just made gnome nomads. Gnomads. And now I feel silly 😅
Hahaha that is a cool concept tho :-) And capybaras are awesome
This is perfect. Gnomes are supposed to be silly. May I suggest that you also take my group's joke of giving them all perfectly normal N names but spell them Gn. Our favorite Gnome is Gned. Best shopkeep ever, and his wife Gnora always gives us cookies.
@@archellothewolf2083 Oh boy, I like that
Agree that gnomes are overlooked. In my last Eberron campaign, a patron of the group was a gnome artificer. And he was an arms merchant. They borrowed his elemental galleon and returned it with scorch marks from a fireball. He was not happy. But in the final battle with the Machine God Overload, he brought siege wands. Yes, magic wands made from the trunks of trees. The warforged fighter enjoyed totting one around while fighting the avatar.
I would only wish to be in America so I could come down and meet all you great nerds. Ginny D , you and DnD shorts in one room sounds awesome :). Definitely let us know when that merch goes live I for sure want one of the those shirts 👌🏻
The fact that the base height for Gnomes is 2'11" and Halflings is 2'7" shattered my world when I learned it.
?
It's a stupid rule and you should ignore it. Just like 5e saying that tieflings can only be certain colors.
Same! In my head halflings are between 3-4 feet, Gnomes take up
@@M4TCH3SM4L0N3huh? That’s like saying humans characters should be purple. Tieflings are impmen, and folklore wise they can only be certain colors, do whatever you want but it isn’t objectively a bad thing
@@oldylad ☝️🤓
I found a book in my local game shop called "The Quintessential Gnome" and it had some great tips and lore for role playing a gnome character. I ended up playing an Eberron flavoured gnome and she was a bawdy sorcerer and was a spy for one of the key organisations in the setting. She was a blast 😁
You are by far my favorite TH-camr and content creator. I get a massive hit of dopamine every time I see you post a new video. I'm so happy to see you are making merch now, and also working on a super secret project! I wish you great success at the convention, and I hope you have a (eldritch)blast! MWAH!
Funnily enough my first thought for Gnome redesign was also masks, but you REALLY took it a step further. Great stuff!
I know it took restraint to not put the “I’m a ggnome” clip in this video, proud of you.
I FUCKING LOVE the Pathfinder Gnomes. They are still relatively forgotten, but got an entire book to themselves. They are still Fey-adjacent (by default) and require constant enjoyment from life to not die. If they get bored they slowly turn grey and die a slow, sad death, HOWEVER if they can stave off the Bleaching they could theoretically live forever. They often still fulfill the "tinkerer/wizard" role due to their literal biological requirement for staying interested, but can also fill more interesting mechanical/roleplay roles.
They often are seen as eccentric, such as giggling while digging through entrails or spending weeks researching the history of ancient basket-weaving.
The last main biological feature is how they latch onto a magic source. This is often Primal magic (being from the First World), but a gnome might draw Arcane, Divine, or Occult magic from "an occult plane or an ancient occult song; a deity, celestial, or fiend; magical effluent left behind by a mage war; or ancient rune magic." This often manifests through spellcasting, but can also lead to gnomes with insane smell, or the ability to change their skin to camouflage, and at higher levels phasing into *different realities* to dodge an attack or jumping through an allies life force.
The idea of dying if you aren't happy is so cool, yet oddly terrifying. I love it
This is why I'll always prefer Pathfinder lore over d&d lore.
Somewhat related fun fact, Halflings in Pathfinder are also very different. My current Halfling character appears to be a sentient doll that is a dollmaker cause he's never met another doll-like halfling.
Also, post-Bleeching Gnomes are so interesting cause of their near lack of emotion while still being almost endlessly curious. It's a cold, detached curiosity.
I once ran a game where the party was embroiled in chaos at Gnomecon, the annual convention where all gnomes meet up
Just found this video, and it’s really funny because I basically came to the same conclusion for the gnomes in my world, that you did. Though my gnomes call it their “Calling”, rather than their “Muse”
You had me at your concept art. Amazing how you gave gnome a true niche, which still expanded their potential.
I like how Pathfinder depicts Gnomes, their skin and hair colours(maybe eyes I don't know) can be any colours, so you can tell the them and halflings apart at a glance, they are also more trickster with a hint of tinkerer while Halflings are just helpful little guys. I do like the Shadowfell Gnome you've made, though that might just be that I think if there is a Feywild counterpart to something there should be a Shadowfell version as well(and vice versa)
I love the aesthetic change you gave them, I'm definitely adopting that.
One of my favorite characters I played was a Gnome Bard named Pippin Honeybuns, who fell in love with a Gnome Artificer named Marlin Fizzlepop, who mass produced fizzy drinks.
Finally, some quality merch that isnt lazily slapped in the center. Loving the magic/celestial spread design. Stationary would be great considering the hobby this channel is about
Oh my god Pointy Hat notebook or block notes? Sign me up this instant
One idea I've always liked is that, rather than knockoff fey but not fey halflings.
That is to double down on their connection to the material plane, spirits tied to the material world like a fiend is to the hells. Shaped and defined by the state/nature of the world around them.
It gives a reason for why gnomes tend to almost feel like a charcuterie of the races they live around, whether it's the peace and understanding of all creatures you'd expect of woodland races like firbolg and wood elf or the industrious ambition of rock gnomes in the cities of the world, reflecting the rapid expansion and progress of the races that live in them.
I like what Eberron did with them: Constantly spying on everyone else and each other, elemental binding, and gathering as much information as possible.
Your idea for Gnome lore is really close to my Forest Gnome Bard that I've been playing for a year! He left his hidden hometown because his parents were tinkerers and woodworkers (as are most of the community, including blacksmiths and the like), and he wanted to learn about music, song, and the spoken word after finding a fey creature in the vicinity (why he got Fey Touched) singing. He pursued a political mentor in his community and became her protégé to learn how to use words and leadership to aid him in his music love, and to make the world a better place at the same time. This was received terribly by his parents, so he decided to leave and become a master of word, and to find rare materials to craft his own musical instruments (he's the son of tinkerers and woodworkers, so he's still good at this), so that he can one day go back to his hometown and prove his worth to both his parents, and the overall community 😄
Can mount medium creatures, treat half cover like full cover, can squeeze into holes one size smaller than them, can move through the space of a large creature(medium size creatures can't do this without the Tumbler feat). Just for a couple of benefits of being Small.
Thanks for pointing these out. As someone whose player characters are more often than not Small, I think folks who consider Small "trading disadvantages for flavor" are just thinking too inside the box.
still no comparison to 3e where small races got (in addition) a bonus to ac and stealth related skills, and exchanged some str for dex, not to mention the reduction of lifestyle costs
@@h.1699 To be fair, that was more a size benefit/ detriment in general rather than specifically a small creature thing. Large creatures had a penalty to AC and stealth, and I think had more str.
"Gnomes live in - that's right - the square hole!" I laughed so hard 😂😭
I love the pointy nose design! Such a simple choice that looks really cool. I love the lore you created and I hope one day to make Puck character! :)
14:20 glad you got the audio quality fixed
The gnomes having lore of them secretly being the gems from Steven Universe is one of the greatest things of all time.
I’ll never get tired of the human familiar bit
The aesthetic change of the gnome you proposed is really awesome. I vote for official change
I really love the suggestion for the aesthetic change. It feels gnome-y and is perfect for setting them apart from Halflings, and also in turn helps to clarify the image of Halflings to what it (in my opinion) _should_ be. Which is round.
Granted, I play Pathfinder and not DnD, but I‘ve always interpreted Halflings to just look like smaller, more delicate humans with larger extremities, and Gnomes to match them in size but be wayyy more cartoony in every area. Bigger eyes, wilder hair, more saturated skin, like if you saw a Halfling irl you‘d think "Oh wow that’s a short human" but if you saw a Gnome irl you‘d think "What the fu-… What? Huh?! Is that real? Can I touch it?". Easy to differentiate. :P
So Halflings just have literal dwarfism.
While Gnomes look like anime chibi characters drawn by a 6th grader who just picked up the hobby last week.
Take a drink every time the Hat says *"much like halflings"*
My friend once had a character that made me fall in love with gnomes & illusion magic in general by playing Sindri Burglepants, an illusionist wizard who was a forest gnome carrying on his family legacy of stealing the pants of others. He used his Disney princess powers with most animals he met and routinely tormented enemies with Phantasmal Force visions that would violate the Geneva conventions
12:26 also similar case happened in a lv 20 one shot. Assassin rogue had a rat that hid under his hat with a vorpal sword that the DM also allowed to use assassinate. The worse part was noticing after the fact that Vorpal Sword’s beheading doesn’t even work with Assassinate.
Well, very few people even know why they're different from halflings at all, so they just pick halfling unless Gnome offers a relevant stat.
Anyway, looking forward to the video & your amazing edits!
I liked the deep gnomes described in the Drizzt books. They are a lot like dwarves except they are even more in tune with the earth than dwarves are on a fundamental level. Speaking towards their magical nature with the plane of earth and miners like dwarves.
This. Gnomes were originally described as earth elementals IRL by Paracelsus. Alongside sylphs (air), undines (water), and salamanders (fire).
Yes! Can’t remember his name, but the guy with the hammer hands was so cool! Also, I love them being culturally the opposite of Drow, being warm and hospitable (as much as you can be in the Underdark) and caring a lot about community!
Gnomes have always been my favorite race. The way I run/play gnomes is as the embodiment of obsession. Mixes with the artificer/wizard trope, but also makes a whimsical town of eccentric bakers, bankers running around tossing papers everywhere, exceptional craftspeople....or unable to leave their path when evil.
ok so this time I'm playing as a young Puck. He used to live with his family in the feydark but one day on his way back home he witnessed a woman being harrassed by some drunk man, so he decides to intervene to defend the lady. turns out the drunk was an influential figure in this puck society and gets my character banned from the underground town.
He's forced to go living with a human friend of his parents who also happen to be an inn keeper. He goes to a magic accademy in order to become a wizard but, after witnessing yet another injustice perpetratted by one of the teachers, his rebellious spirit attracts the interest of a bizarre patron who offers him the pact of the chain, making him able to summon a peculiar familiar with black wings and a comically tall top hat. whit this new power, he decides to steal the treasures of twisted people and finds in being a phantom thief his muse, crafting a white eye-mask with long black eyelashes drawn on
NO, we're NOT doing Persona 5
YAYYY IT'S POINTY HAT AND HIS CUTE FAMILIAR i can now successfully start my day
My “twist” on gnomes is to merge them with halflings - the two become separate Subraces of a single race. “Halfling” is a derogatory name for gnomes and one which they chafe at. Like calling an elf “knife ears”
I LOVE deep gnomes. I love their lore. I love their appearence and I love their stealthy abilities.
The moment I found out you could play as one in BG3 was when I decided to buy the game.
My Gnome character in my Dragonlance campaign has become one of my favorite D&D characters I have played and his name is Professor Pebble Namfoodle Necklockle Stone, or just Pebble Stone. Battlesmith Artificer, my DM has allowed me to ride my Robot Companion as a mount which then made me use a Lance as my weapon of choice. He is a grizzled war veteran who has been thrown back into a war that he wished he could just forget. Hes the only "old" character of the group and the only one who has seen the ravages of war and wishes nothing more than to prevent such atrocities to repeat themselves.
What I love with Gnomes is the same as what I love with Artificer, they greatly reward you with thinking outside of the box, especially outside of combat encounters. They are what you make them and thats whats so fun.
I’m gonna make three Puck NPCs named Bell, Bloom, and Lulu who can’t find their muses but end up finding the muses of other Pucks as a service. Either that or all three try some really wild activities to try and find their muses and end up either being adored by the party or annoyed by their antics
What you did there? *I see it.*
I posted a similar comment, but I was not nearly as subtle with mine. Haha.
I fully support creating the Cutie Mask Crusaders.
The new gnome lore you crafted is so cool! I can just imagine that example spy/thief Puck having crafted an entire collection of fake masks that they wear for their cover, choosing whatever 'muse' will be most useful for the group or location they are trying to infiltrate, and only donning their true mask when they are going full stealth mode.
To further blur the lines gnomes have with dwarves and halflings, is the Kender race. In prior editions they were seen as an offshoot of halflings that were touches by the feywild and had pointed ears. Later, they became an offshoot of gnomes.
In 2e there was also the spriggan gnomes. A set number of times a day you could enlarge. This wasn’t the effect of the enlarge spell like the duergar. When used the spriggan essentially became a hill giant. They had the size and strength of a hill giant from the monster manual. If I remember correctly they had social penalties because it was said they would go their whole lives and not bathe (though in a setting based on medieval Europe I’m not sure how bad some body odor would be) and were said to be extremely rude, completely without manners.
That square hole reference caught me off guard, holy shit I spat out my drink
My current D&D party is exactly 50% gnome by number (which makes the party about 15% gnome by weight).
The Berry Guild shall not forget this slight
I played one of the most terrifying Gnomes in 3.5e ... so much so that the stories circulated far enough to maybe made an impression and got a reference in 5e Unearthed Arcana.
He had some ungodly fitness, able to keep up since childhood with larger peoples by ... being slow but never slowing down.
With such boundless energy all he ever wanted to be was a chef.
So he took an apprenticeship, and was made to do all the errands. Running around because he never ran out of energy.
One day, he was sent out back to fetch a chicken, and he chased it. And chased it. And chassed it some more.
It was an endless exercise in frustration until he pointed and yelled, "you're a dead chicken" ... and a yellow bolt of force (in the shape of a chicken) flew out and struck the chicken dead.
Zimmin Bottleneck was a sorcerer tank. 20 con to start and kept up with the best con boosting amulet available.
He bodyblocked doorways for the squishy elves and humans, fireballing rooms over and over so closely he scorched off the hairs on his nose.
The entire spell list was full of renamed spells, because he had no knowledge at all about magic, he just threw spells out of sheer orneriness. (It was in the Living Greyhawk campaign, so every new DM had to be given his own cheat sheet for translating spell names)
This was the character whose idea of a "counterspell" was readying an action to fireball the BBEG in the face as a distraction, in response to any magic-y gestures or words (and yes, mistake were made when that lizardman was just speaking a different language).
This was also the character who tanked some weird boss thing with 6 arms by using a lesser rod of maximize spell on an empowered ray of enfeeblement to reduce said boss' strength to 5.
My favorite character I ever made was a happy-go-lucky feylost moon druid forest gnome. I definitely enjoyed leaning more into the whimsical feywild side of things. As a quirk he always believed what people told him within reason and was friendly to anyone no matter what.
DAVID THE GNOME MENTIONED 🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯
I love that gnomes are now MLP coded and you can become a cutie mark crusader as your adventure seed
Cutie MASK Crusader.
This is just what i needed, my crew knows that i adore Gnomes and Loath Halflings/Hobbits. (I'm not prejudice, i just don't favor The Shire.)
Gnomes, Halflings and Tabaxi are my favourite races.
This sparked joy.
Gnome Druids are my favorite!
I genuinely love this so much. Upon understanding the Muse feature, I immediately thought of a Puck that hasn't found their Muse yet but pretends to have done such, wearing the mask of an old friend or mentor.
One of the best characters I ran as a DM was a Gnome Paladin. The backstory was fun and hilarious yet serious. I know, kind of hard to explain.
I've never seen any of your videos before, but I LOVE the designs of your merch! ❤
GNOME GANG RISE UP‼️
SOY UN GNOMO! Y AQUÍ EN EL BOSQUE SOY FELIZ!
Honestly Dungeon Meshi did a pretty neat thing with gnomes. Might do a similar thing with gnomes in my games in the future
The Spice World reference was very, VERY much appreciated ❤
KNIGHT GANG RISE UP 🔥🔥🔥🗣️🗣️🗣️
Ur not him bro
Gnome better
Knights Better!!!
The Rock Gnome "Tinker" ability sounds so cool until you realize how useless it is. Like, seriously ask yourself: when is a wind up toy that can't even move in a straight line, a 10x more expensive Tinderbox, or a music box ever going to be useful?
A creative gnome rogue can find many uses for such devices.
Strap a Book Nuke to it and use that windup time to sprint away as fast as possible.
Its as useful as every background feat, aka only for flavor.
I really like this one, not just the Pux, but even the species redesign which I was not optimistic about, good job 👍
Im just about to play a gnome path of the beast barbarian and im SO excited. I have a whole backstory for her, but the concept is basically princess unikitty from the lego movie. This video is going to help so much with brainstorming ideas!! Perfect timing!!
I feel like the decision to add gnomes to DnD was based more of the mere existence of the word than on anything else, like having a concept for yet another playable race. Like it was like "What cool names of mythical creatures we didn't use in our game yet? Let me see... Kobolds, dwarves, goblins, leprechauns, brownies, gnomes... Yes, gnomes! We have to use it for something".
In my setting gnomes are a powehouse. They built the Ming ("chinese-like" clockpunk) empire along with some dragons (1).
They aren't at all jolly jokers. Except during their version of "the purge".
They have the most powerfull, organized and advanced (in not all domains but most, with a focus on elemental magic or techno-magic) empire (they have +2 int after all).
OR they are mythical gipsies (not jolly at all either). I mean, ... A jolly joke gnome character can exist but it is NOT their mainline. They are no joke. ^^
For instance i have a player thinking about playing a gnome "chinese" wizard inspector now private detective in a cosmopolite victorian-steampunk city.
(1) in my setting Dragons are hives/egregore of dragonborn to make it simple.
I love all of this omg. You had me at clock punk! ❤
I ran a world back in 2nd edition where I made halflings into half-dwarves half-humans and gnomes into half-dwarves half-elves.
Once I made a gnome character with the Linguist feat and called him Gnome Chomsky
Very fun idea. My perspective on gnomes has generally been "If half-elves are elf+human, what if gnomes are just elf+halfling (forest), or elf+dwarf (rock), or halfling+dwarf (deep)?"
(Because, as you unpack, they're not distinct on their own, and have drifted somewhere between these three...)
16:09 "You literally can not distinguish Halflings from Gnomes at a glance..."
*Proceeds to show two Halflings*
I see what you did there! Well played sir, well played! 😂
Yet another amazing subrace spinoff! I also love bringing back the realm of fairy to gnomes, and this subrace inherently connects all the others to this too! Deciding that halfling = round and gnome = pointy is also a good distinction for D&D. I could also suggest tying into typical written descriptions, with gnomes looking a lot more like tiny old people and halflings favoring the tiny childlike people side. Anything to keep them distinct!
As far as the masks go, you've created gnome shyguys! Now we just need to get them to invade from the fey into some hapless plumber's dreams.
I’m playing a swashbuckling gnome rn and it’s seriously the most fun. Everyone judges my size and ability but being so quick and nibble with a rapier to just stab and go is so fun