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I just noticed the other gnome thread was revived from 2011. So hey, here's a gnome thread for 2013. Let's talk about gnomes.
I like gnomes. I like what I read in Races of Stone from DnD 3.5, and I also like what I've found in PathFinder. I think gnomes are a great vehicle for players who want to be inventive, and for that reason what I want is an option to choose gnomes from all across the spectrum. Ie. gnomes who are closer to fae, and gnomes who have better acclimated to this world, such as spriggans. Essentially, this would allow the various gnome variants from DnD 3.5 to all evolve from the core gnomes presented in PF.
Because what I expect of gnomes is hyper evolution. Not just hyper cultural evolution (where each gnome settlement might be more likely to develop their own unique cultures), but a wide range of genetic (or magic or whatever) mutation as well. So we'd be more likely to have elemental or terrain based gnome races, and the like. So I think that gnomes are especially well suited to being iterated on with the Advanced Race guide.
But one issue with me is that I simply never saw gnomes as the Garden Gnome variety, and I wonder, really, if anyone who plays a gnome wants to play that. If you exist, nows the time to speak up.
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I love gnomes but I hate the garden gnomes. So boring.
I love gnomes! They're like little dwarves!
I dislike gnomes, mostly due to how they treat kobolds.
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Really like what Pathfinder did with gnomes. Have come up with my own idea for a gnome subrace called gloomlings, though that name may change. Essentially, a gloomling is what you get when a surface gnome and a svirfneblin mate. They typically have the wild hair color like their surface gnome parent, but the subdued skin tone of the svirfneblin. They are typically very introspective and somewhat dour, hence gloomling. Haven't come up with stats for them yet.
I love good gnome names, like Nakawakett and Mr. Dawdletossle.
I like gnomes.
I think the only thing I've really taken from garden gnomes is that all of my gnomes have some form of head wear. Be it pointy hat, feathered beret or over-sized helmet.
Gnomes are also probably the most fun to name.
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Following a recent PC death our party is now 50% gnome.
I like the garden gnome variety as a friendly, wise, hard to find, druidic NPC that knows more about the forest that anyone else. He seems all meek and timid but is a powerful druid with a dangerous animal companion.
But outside of that type of scenario...I really favor the hyper explorative, technologically inclinded gnomes.
I love gnomes and I wish I could play them more. They're awfully niche at what they're good at (casting), and what they're good at isn't generally what I like playing (hitting things with weapons). I was really hopeful at what the ARG would bring, but while the archetypes are nice, the feats and spells make me sad.
My first pathfinder character was an OLD gnome summoner. Oodles of fun. Very popular. Ended up turning evil and betraying the party because he got bored. So it goes.
I love the flavor and RP elements, but I agree with the point that they're such a pastiche of other things they don't particularly have a home. I was hoping the ARG would change that, but it was further evidence that gnomes don't know what they're doing.
I really like what Paizo has done with gnomes. The bleaching part, particularly. Very interesting.
I would love to try playing a gnome since I haven't had the opportunity yet. I have some ideas...but my GM hates them so strongly that he wrote their complete and utter eradication into his game world. They do not exist. No exceptions. No lost colony. Just no gnomes. <sigh> Oh, well.
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I remember the Gnome illusionist from way back when, so I am a little disappointed in the direction they went. Why do we need two small races with a bonus to Charisma? In my house rules Gnomes get Intelligence instead of Charisma.
Other than that minor point I like what they did with them.
I don't like default gnomes because they try to do "too much". They're short (like halflings) and magical (like elves) and .. like technology (like dwarves and not like elves),What in the Pathfinder rule set says they like tech?
That racial archetype where they add crazy inventions to their guns.
I'm the opposite. There are two core small races. Halflings should be Dex. Gnomes should be Cha.
They each get two good stats. Halflings Dex and Cha, Gnomes Con and Cha. So if Halflings are Dex and Gnomes Cha, what should their second good stats be?
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I love gnomes, they taste good in virtually any curry.
Int and Cha would be interesting...I'm the opposite. There are two core small races. Halflings should be Dex. Gnomes should be Cha.They each get two good stats. Halflings Dex and Cha, Gnomes Con and Cha. So if Halflings are Dex and Gnomes Cha, what should their second good stats be?
i had plans for a half nymph that got bonuses to int and cha.
I don't particularly care for gnomes. I grew up with not only lawn gnomes, but also Troll Dolls, which pathfinder gnomes bear a striking resemblance to. I don't like either, mostly stemming from negative association biases related to the people who owned them. When I think of "gnome" I think of a trashy neighbor with a poorly maintained pastel house and an overgrown lawn which the gnomes would suddenly appear out of when you got close. Their eyes, always staring. Their mouths always grinning mockingly. And troll dolls are just ugly.
If I want to play a small character, I prefer a goblin.
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Mayhaps I'm biased, but I don't like gnomes for the same reason I steer clear of most small races, even some of my favorites like goblins, kobolds, and ratfolk. Equipment and gear is usually generalized for medium creatures, and I've found it difficult to shoe-horn in equipment made for small characters when I frequently don't bother with smaller NPCs. And the ones I do bother with are usually spellcasters and thus offer almost no useful equipment beyond their spellbooks or what have you. Ah well.
Thematically though, I love gnomes. I still think it's hilarious that their Pathfinder splatbook has a background like a split prism, and how frantic their lives are. Very neat.
Gnomes are varied. Some are tinkers and love tech. Some love nature. Some love magic. Some love music. Some love death and destruction. I love the idea that if they don't keep experiencing new things, they literally become bored to death.
Do they still have a cultural aversion to specializing in magic? I can't remember if it was 3.5 races of stone or wherever, but the idea was that magic came to them normally, and thus wasn't admirable. Tinkering, on the other hand, was something they had to really fight for, which was why it was more respected. That idea seems to fit the Pathfinder gnomes, but is it stated in the PF lore?
The obsessive trait gives them a +2 to a craft or profession of choice, so I suppose that covers it.