Gnome Tinkering, Tinkering, Building devices...

[Kerilstrasz]

Gnomes have the "Tinker" trait, that allow em to craft small devices..
Are there any rules for crafting other things? for example a clock.. or a compass.. or even more complex devices..
like a clockwork door that in order to open needs the right combination or pulling levers, pushin buttons etc..
or by adding some magic even a self propeled boat or wagon.. maybe even the catamaran from waterworld..
or a clockwork horse..

PS: don't bother with, how the character got the inspiration/idea to craft a given device.. im just asking for the rules to craft the device.

Thank you for your time :smallwink:

[Slipperychicken]

For any crafting, just figure out how many gold pieces it costs. From there, you use the normal crafting rules: if you have proficiency and the right kind of tools, you can make 5gp of progress per 8-hour workday spent on it. Once your progress equals the item's price, then it's done.

[Townopolis]

Normal Crafting
A spyglass, which I believe is the most high-tech gadget in the equipment section, is listed as costing 1,000 gp. A spyglass is just a telescoping tube with a lens at either end--it's a precision instrument, but not exceptionally complex. When thinking of a device, consider how complex it is compared to a spyglass. Would it be 2x as complex? 5x? 1/2x? Take that number and multiply it by a thousand to determine the items GP cost. Once that's done, you can either use the base crafting rules (5gp/full work day) or work out something better (I like (craft check result)-10gp progress per full day's work and if that results in a negative number, well, you done screwed up and lost ground).

Expanding the Rock Gnome's Racial Ability
There are no rules for this. If you want to do this, I wouldn't allow them to make anything that is clearly better than the examples given, and I would generally steer clear of anything with obvious adventuring applications. The ability is supposed to be weak but occasionally reward creative thinking. Things I would allow are a balloon, a pen, and a small firework with a semi-erratic flight pattern. These are all things that might occasionally prove useful on an adventure, but aren't as readily useful as, for example, a spyglass.

[JAL_1138]

The general rule* for tinker gnomes is that whatever they make should probably explode or be completely unsuited for its intended purpose (to sometimes-horrifying effect, for example an automated potato-peeler that escapes and kills fifteen men before it can be put down, but much more often simply doing something completely different, like a mechanical beard-trimmer that can practically only be used to sharpen and polish polearms instead, or a music box that makes toast but doesn't play music). All are pointlessly Rube Goldbergian. </grognard>


*Note: derived from old 2e Krynnish gnomes and not a part of 5e rules or fluff.

[Phion]

One of my players are playing a character called "Bat Gnome" (rogue assassin/monk shadow) who is a vigilante by night and a noble by day who creates items for their utility belt......how on earth could I say no to half the things they wanted to make? (to be fair nothing over the top or electronic, more like suit grappling hooks and so on.

[Baptor]

Ha. I made a thread asking this same question a few months back and didn't get nearly the feed back you did.
As the GNOME's DM, here's what we did.
The gnome is a tinker, which isn't quite the same as inventor. He can fiddle with things and sometimes create neat devices.
For example last session they disarmed a lightning bolt trap. The gnome took the parts and tinkered with them and rolled a 30 on his check. I ruled that he fashioned a functioning wand of lightning bolts from it with limited charges. Each time he uses it he has to roll a d20, if he rolls a 1, the wand turns to dust. All gnomish devices he makes other than the phb ones have this chance to fail.
In addition, his magnum opus is a mechanical man he's been working on. Right now it's a functioning porter and nothing more but one day if he's successful it will be sentient, the first war forged of this setting.

But that's just us. You may think those ideas are insane.

[JAL_1138]

. I ruled that he fashioned a malfunctioning wand of lightning bolts from it with limited charges. Each time he uses it he has to roll a d20, if he rolls a 1, the wand turns to dust explodes.

Fixed that for you :smalltongue:


In addition, his magnum opus is a mechanical man he's been working on.

Behold! The autognome! http://www.lomion.de/cmm/autognom.php


You may think those ideas are insane.
For gnomes, insane is how it should be. This is, after all, the species that gave us the Giant Space Hamster.

[Chronos]

And then the Miniature Giant Space Hamster.

[Baptor]

Fixed that for you :smalltongue:



Behold! The autognome! http://www.lomion.de/cmm/autognom.php


For gnomes, insane is how it should be. This is, after all, the species that gave us the Giant Space Hamster.

my only regret is that I did not know about the autognome before we started this venture.

[JAL_1138]

my only regret is that I did not know about the autognome before we started this venture.

Maybe it's not too late to have that be the result of the next round of "improvements"...?

[nomotog]

I have two ideas for how you can expand tinkering.

Combo items. Let a player take two items and turn them into one. Like a sword that extends into a spear, or a shield that folds out into a herbalism kit. Having two items in one isn't that powerful mechanically, but it's really cool fluff.

Another idea I just thought up is letting the player tweak a item so that it gets an advantage in one aspect of it's use and a disadvantage in another. Like you might add razor teeth to an axe to give it an advantage when attacking unarmored enemies, but a disadvantage attacking armored enemies. This idea is a little more powerful because the players can rig the game so that they will have the advantage more, but at the same time it's just an advantage so the power is caped.

[TrollCapAmerica]

I always hated the "Gnome items explode every 20 times you use them lol" gimmick. I get it Medieval stasis is what your going for but if a crossbow isn't constantly bursting into flames why should everything a Gnome does explode? Are they an entire species incaple of science without killing themselves or isn't it Designers fist?

[Rowan Wolf]

One phrase comes to mind. 'I wonder what's this red button do?'

[kaoskonfety]

I always hated the "Gnome items explode every 20 times you use them lol" gimmick. I get it Medieval stasis is what your going for but if a crossbow isn't constantly bursting into flames why should everything a Gnome does explode? Are they an entire species incaple of science without killing themselves or isn't it Designers fist?

Oh Dragon Lance... Tinker Gnomes and Explosions....

Played for a few cheap laughs in passing it works 'ok'. Its when you have one in your group blowing things up every night or a civilization of them doing the same, it starts to break down.

Ways to leave the trope and keep it from being sanity breaking:

The defective/exploding/crazy ideas come from a very small subset of the experimenters; paint them as shunned madmen, honoured martyrs to the advancement of knowledge or what have you - either way they are dangerous and insane and best kept away from civilization and children. People in the know react as you would around someone with a bandoleer of grenades and dynamite and a crazy look who is yelling about how awesome explosions are - you calmly and carefully try to talk them down or you RUN.

The inspiration can take any one, any time - most creations/advancement take place slowly but every so often... there's that glint in the eye and now the watch shoots poison darts, has a built in compass, implants itself into your wrist with hooks... and then explodes if you say... shoot the darts any direction but magnetic north or south...
"why would you make that! I asked for a pocket watch" - Well I was making a pocket watch... and just sorta kept going? To keep this on the rails its RARE - either "no its not going to happen" rare or under 1% of constructions (say a prof check with a natural 20 and then another natural 20 to "confirm" - and then its the players choice to hand the process to the DM's sadistic whim knowing only that it will not function as intended


For myself I've generally avoided the "Exploding Gnome inventions" series of tropes and either left them slightly odd tech savants (for the middle ages) or dropped the whole thing and focused on something else.