I like playing small characters (and small medium characters, like dwarves), and gnomes are my favourite of the small options available. I've had some really fun gnome characters.
Might be because I'm tall and quiet. When people don't know me as a player, they tend to suggest enigmatic elven mages for me. I'd rather play a gnome and go for something like swashbuckler in most cases, though.
I suppose it's escapism from the expectation that I be the reserved mystery lady who towers over all her friends.
You could start the encounter by having the background manipulator snap his underlings neck telekinetically for leading these meddling adventurous right to him. They could have got to know said underling throughout the story, perhaps he is on a redemption arc of some kind xD
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Why is a 3 foot tall archvillain any more absurd than having a demilich as a BBEG? The lich is just a floating skull and some dust, the gnome at least has arms and legs.
BBEGs with tremendous physical prowess are generally less of an issue for PCs than ones who bring to bear considerable arcane power, just because of how action economy works, anyway.
Gnome villain: Master Tinker and Pyromaniac alternate racial traits; NE/CE alchemist (beastmorph, reanimator) 10/master chymist X, VMC barbarian; with the Doppleganger Simulacrum and Fast Bombs discoveries... Add a Tumor Familiar for more freakishness (and increased resilience).
The PCs "kill" the BBEG, but "Ah'll be back..." And if they only fight the villain in their Mutagenic Form, then the villain can act as both the "brute" and the "puppet master."
Alternate gnome villain: Fell Magic and Knack with Poison alternate racial traits; NE druid (blight druid), VMC cleric (negative energy); Death domain (from Nature Bond), Destruction/Murder domain (from VMC).
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I like how Pathfinder has handled the flavor and culture of gnomes (and halflings) in Golarion. It works well.
I just have an extreme dislike of the Small sized character mechanics*, so tend to house rule them to be on the short-and-light end of Medium and typically clocking 80-120 lbs, and aren't dwarfed by my three-year-old.
** spoiler omitted **
Again. Love the background and flavor of gnomes in Pathfinder. Hate the mechanics.
How would you change the mechanics?
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How would you change the mechanics?I like how Pathfinder has handled the flavor and culture of gnomes (and halflings) in Golarion. It works well.
I just have an extreme dislike of the Small sized character mechanics*, so tend to house rule them to be on the short-and-light end of Medium and typically clocking 80-120 lbs, and aren't dwarfed by my three-year-old.
** spoiler omitted **
Again. Love the background and flavor of gnomes in Pathfinder. Hate the mechanics.
I only have my house-ruled halfling variant on hand. Gnomes get a similar treatment, though are slightly larger and heavier (by 10-15 lbs). As an example, though:
HALFLINGS
Physical Description: Halflings rise to a humble height of 4 feet. They prefer to walk barefoot, leading to the bottoms of their feet being roughly calloused. Tufts of thick, curly hair warm the tops of their broad, tanned feet. Their skin tends toward a rich almond color and their hair toward light shades of brown. A halfling's ears are pointed, but proportionately not much larger than those of a human.
Height (male): 3 ft. 8 in. +2d4 in. (Average 4 ft. 1 in.)
Weight (male): 75 lbs + 2 lbs./in. (Average 85 lbs.)
Height (female): 3 ft. 6 in. +2d4 in. (Average 3 ft. 11 in.)
Weight (female): 65 lbs + 2 lbs./in. (Average 75 lbs)
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Strength: Halflings are nimble and strong-willed, but their small stature makes them weaker than other races.
Size: Halflings are medium creatures and gain no bonuses or penalties associated with their size.
Type: Halflings are humanoids with the halfling subtype
Base Speed: Halflings have a 30ft base speed
Senses: Normal. Halflings have no special senses
Languages: Halflings can speak, read and write Common and one other language of their choice - typically a regional dialect. Halflings with a high Intelligence can choose from: Dwarven, Elven, Gnome and Goblin.
Halfling Luck: Halflings gain a +1 racial bonus on all saving throws.
Keen Senses: Halflings gain a +2 racial bonus to Perception checks.
Little Folk: Halflings are barely large enough to count as medium creatures and do not suffer penalties while squeezing through a space that is at least half as wide as their normal space.
Nimble: Halflings gain a +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics, Escape Artist and Stealth checks
One of the other issues (for the groups I game with) is that small sized characters tend to be stereotyped and never taken seriously; either by the player, or by all the other players. The "they are the size of a toddler" becomes the be-all and end-all of how people treat such characters, an inevitably silliness and snark ensues. It doesn't matter how serious the situation is, or how hard the player (or GM) tries to make them dangerous; out of character jokes and puns derail them 90% of the time.
I find that bumping them up to "slightly shorter than a dwarf, but of slimmer build" (generally around the 8-10 year old range) is enough to make them noticeably short, but not so much as to trigger the above reflex.
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I like how Pathfinder has handled the flavor and culture of gnomes (and halflings) in Golarion. It works well.
I just have an extreme dislike of the Small sized character mechanics*, so tend to house rule them to be on the short-and-light end of Medium and typically clocking 80-120 lbs, and aren't dwarfed by my three-year-old.
** spoiler omitted **
Again. Love the background and flavor of gnomes in Pathfinder. Hate the mechanics.
Small Characters get a +2 DEX (per the smallizing character rules in Reduce Person), but for the gnome, that is its racial -2 Stat, so it cancels out. (Racial +2 CON, CHA, -2 DEX; Size +2 DEX, -2 STR)
See a kobold for a small character who has a racial -2 in something other than DEX. Conversely, Halflings suffer the same as true 'half' races and only get a single +2 modifier (CHA).
For me, the gnome is the goto "ray-caster" sorcerer. You can take the necromancy option from ARG instead of the Illusion default and have a pretty nasty debuffer ray gun, that has better DC's than the same build as a halfling. Though honestly, for this type of character, the real coin-flip is whether to take +1 on Dex stuff for Halfling, or Using that CON bonus for the Gnome on either dropping some point-buy points into another stat (getting that INT up to more skill points maybe) or more HP per level.
Really only a DC heavy caster is a mechanically advantageous build for a Gnome over a Halfling if you're wanting to play a small.
Flavor wise, though, I don't care for Golarion's "Adventure or turn into a boring white guy" gnomes. I like the whole fey aspect, but the Bleaching Shtick is kinda meh.
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HALFLINGS
Physical Description: Halflings rise to a humble height of 4 feet. They prefer to walk barefoot, leading to the bottoms of their feet being roughly calloused. Tufts of thick, curly hair warm the tops of their broad, tanned feet. Their skin tends toward a rich almond color and their hair toward light shades of brown. A halfling's ears are pointed, but proportionately not much larger than those of a human.Height (male): 3 ft. 8 in. +2d4 in. (Average 4 ft. 1 in.)
Weight (male): 75 lbs + 2 lbs./in. (Average 85 lbs.)
Height (female): 3 ft. 6 in. +2d4 in. (Average 3 ft. 11 in.)
Weight (female): 65 lbs + 2 lbs./in. (Average 75 lbs)Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Strength: Halflings are nimble and strong-willed, but their small stature makes them weaker than other races.
Size: Halflings are medium creatures and gain no bonuses or penalties associated with their size.
Type: Halflings are humanoids with the halfling subtype
Base Speed: Halflings have a 30ft base speed
Senses: Normal. Halflings have no special senses
Languages: Halflings can speak, read and write Common and one other language of their choice - typically a regional dialect. Halflings with a high Intelligence can choose from: Dwarven, Elven, Gnome and Goblin.
Halfling Luck: Halflings gain a +1 racial bonus on all saving throws.
Keen Senses: Halflings gain a +2 racial bonus to Perception checks.
Little Folk: Halflings are barely large enough to count as medium creatures and do not suffer penalties while squeezing through a space that is at least half as wide as their normal space.
Nimble: Halflings gain a +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics, Escape Artist and Stealth checks
I think I like this and will run it by my players. I am now curious to see your Gnome stats. I assume, similarly, you merely turn the "Small Size" into the "Little Folk" trait and call it done.
How long have you been doing this for?
I really enjoy playing gnomes. This guy, Krah, was my Iron Gods Bloodrager and he packed quite a punch. He was just the right about of crazy for the job.
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While I've used them as NPCs while GMing, I've only played gnomes twice as a player, and the first time was in a Forgotten Realms game back when the only 'magic-user' a gnome could be was an illusionist, and the second was in a Spelljammer game in which the gnome was also a 'clockwork mage' (no real rules difference, he just carried blueprints instead of a spellbook, and spent his morning 'assembling' his spells, instead of 'memorizing' them) and also a giant space werehamster...
While I love the gnomes of Golarion and their First World ties {and find them much more memorable and interesting than the Gnomes of Greyhawk, the Realms or Eberron) I haven't played one under this system yet.
Gno I definitely do Gnot. for they are a silly thing. Gnow that I think about it I might have to try one gnow.
Yep. Gnomes are my go to smalls. So glad Paizo made them something other than dwarf-lite.
Call me 'kender'again, punk.
Gnomes are hilariously passive aggressive and spiteful.
They can also be incredibly dark. Like... Messed up...
I LOVE Gnomes.
Simmered in cream and olive oil over low heat for...
Ah, yes.
The actual question.
I prefer goblins for a variety of reasons, but of the core species... I'm far more likely to play a gnome than an elf, dwarf, or halfling
Seems to me that Gnomes, for all that they are supposed to have Fey origins/magical nature, got shortchanged by some of the things that would have been thematic for them being put on Halflings instead. For instance, the Creepy Doll and Halfling Jinx (ought to be Gnome Jinx) alternate racial traits. Speaking of which, if you want to build a small villain that's really scary, put these alternate racial traits on a highly optimized Halfling debuffing Witch or Gravewalker Witch (or possibly hybrid of these). By the origin story, these should really go on a Gnome, but the Rules As Written mechanics give them to Halflings.
A theme that might work on a Gnome villain would be something I have heard of for Halflings (again), but souped up: The crime boss. First, think of the Goblin crime boss in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Now, change that from 1920s-style crime boss Goblin to full modern Punk Boss Gnome, intentionally dressed as garishly as possible, showing off sickening amounts of wealth, and openly flaunting control over every branch of government that the PCs can access, with an attitude bordering on that of a hybrid of the Jokers of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger.
If you want a non-villain Small character that can be taken seriously, look to Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, I know of no equivalent for Gnomes (at least, not yet, and probably not for a long time, since the average American moviegoer has only so many stereotypes they can keep track of, in many cases with perceived real-life stereotypes counting against that number).
I know this isn't most people's experience, but honestly, I started playing D&D with the Red Box. When I eventually got into AD&D, one of the perks was that gnomes were playable. I'm not a big gnome person, but I like gnomes, and I like having them as a player option. I was very annoyed with the way D&D 4e treated gnomes, as they took away a race some people liked to create a monster no one wanted.
Actually, there aren't really any gnomes. We are all halflings in disguise. Please don't tell anyone!
Mad, you are mad, I say, as a proud member of the gnomish race !
I generally find gnomes to be better on most charisma caster builds than other core races. They get attack and AC bonuses unlike their medium counterparts, and have more HP potential than Halflings. Couple that with racial traits for improving your spells, and the fact that most of the downsides really have no impact on a caster, and it makes for an incredibly solid race. For me they legitimately are my go-to (I play a lot of full casters with charisma).
I kind've want to play a Gnome with the apocalypse mystery, darkly using fire and ending the world near them.
Who's silly now...
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It's funny Gnomes are the core race I always consider but never seem to play.
Don't care for elves and dwarves.
Like the half races because I always have to think of them as individuals, as in, what did your parents do to you you freak. This is a great way to start looking at a character?
Humans are boring but powerful, but if you have something to make each indivdual interesting they are great for "generic" greatness.
Halfings occasionally get considered, and I have one for pfs, but he is mostly a GM credit dump (played five times but 9th level).
But Gnomes always come up in my thoughts, and they always seem to on the edge of being chosen but never are chosen.
Any thoughts as to why (and I am very much a core races kind of guy).
{. . .}
Human is my go-to race, since it's thematically appropriate for almost every setting while also a very solid choice. For example, I'm playing Strange Aeons where the player's guide says something along the lines with "you should probably play a human" - and I can agree that having your typical gnome in that campaign wouldn't really work.
{. . .}
I just looked at the Strange Aeons Player's Guide again, and it doesn't say "you should probably play a human", but that Humans are the most common natives of Ustalav (which is also known to be xenophobic), so if you're playing someone of local origin, you should probably be Human(*) -- but then it goes on to talk a bit about other choices, with the most restrictive thing being a warning about being careful when choosing uncommon races.
(*)But then again, being discriminated against for not being Human might be a way to end up in the insane asylum, possibly including having your memories tampered with.
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I'm still dying to make a pyromaniac gnome ninja for recharge innate magic/produce flame abuse, especially now we have a bunch of meta-SLA feats lying around. Plus gnome ninjas get access to Bewildering Koan, and that's always fun.
I always had reservations towards Gnomes but Bewildering Koan actually makes them worth while...
I've played a couple gnomes over the years, and they were both fantastic.
My first gnome was Ellywick Thimbletack, a gnome illusionist. She stuck to the back lines and provided utility and support to the party through her spells.
My second gnome was also my second PF character: Segwick Flickerflame. Segwick was originally envisioned as a highly convoluted 3.5 build involving wizard (illusionist), shadow caster (from Tome of Magic), into the Noctumancer and Shadowcraft Mage PrC's. We then converted to 4E and he became an illusionist wizard multiclass dark pact warlock (perfect since 4E Gnomes received +Int and Cha.) Not sure what he'd be these days mechanically (he's just known as a powerful Noctumancer in our game's canon) and most recently was the mentor to my Iron Gods character.
I loved them both. Segwick was a real treat to play. Here he is, consorting with dark forces and energies, binding an imp as his familiar, and he's just the most happy-go-lucky little guy. Always really positive and encouraging to his team, etc. The juxtaposition was a blast.
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I play gnomes a lot. Halflings, too. I wouldn't say they're my immediate go-tos, but I play them a LOT.
I've also contemplated having a gnomish mage as an archvillain before. When you're between two and a half to three and a half feet tall, magic is the go-to means of ruining people's days. Making people go flying across the room with a wave of your hand, or making them grovel and kiss your shoes by dominating them - that turns the gnome from a laughable threat to an entirely insufferable a$#+&@@ who can ruin you with a wave of his hand. Playing up the a*$$!%~ aspect and the REVELING in your inability to fight him makes it even better. Honestly, the best way to make that sort of villain work would be to first introduce him at a level that the party is too weak to face him - and then have him idly send them off to be slaves in the mines or something.
The background manipulator is also a great way to play a small-sized villain. Heck, why not have an illusion-specialized wizard with great social skills and a lot of connections to nobility and the like? And have him be in fairly close contact with the PCs at all times; perhaps even have him serve as what appears to be an advisory role, helping the PCs along, rewarding them for their efforts to save the day when in reality they're only furthering his plans. Later, he calmly reveals - with a smile, of course - that they've been his patsies from the beginning. Oh, and they should stop underestimating the little guys, by the way. Bad call.
And misdirection is a lovely tool in fights. A gnomish wizard or bard should make great use of Illusion spells, constantly escaping JUST as the party thinks they have him in their grasp. A gnomish cavalier should have plenty of mooks and some Betrayal feats to use their minions as meatshields. A halfling rogue should only strike when he's certain he has the advantage, and always have an escape plan - and, of course, he's letting his bigger, more thuggish friends wade into the melee while he shoots with impunity under the effects of Greater Invisibility.
And on that note, small-sized villains can also humiliate the party by taking advantage of the fact that they can simply walk in places where the party has to freaking CRAWL.
Basically, make it seem like the BBEG is playing games - vicious, cruel games, of course - with the party. Make them ENJOY what they're doing. Make them manipulative and cunning. Then the halfling or gnome suddenly doesn't seem like a joke anymore.