Gnomes, what are they good for?

[TheCrowing1432]

Absolutely nothing!


No, but seriously. In my many years of playing DND I have played a wide variety of races and classes, but never have I picked up a Gnome character. Oh sure, ive played Whisper Gnomes but those are borderline broken.

Im talking about the standard PHB Gnome race.

They're supposed to make good illusionists, but thats all we ever hear about them. Is there something im missing?

[Gnorman]

Lightly grilled, with a side of ranch.

[Inevitability]

Are you familiar with the 'killer gnome'?

Then again, I suppose whisper is best for those, too.

[Eloel]

Gnomes are the best core race for:

Melee-killing giants. (Blade Bravo!)

Dragonfire Adepts. (+con, small, no -cha)

Wizards, Sorcerers, Bards and Beguilers. (+1 DC to illusions, small, +2 con with -2 at irrelevant stat)

Druids. (+2 con, small and thus able to ride relevant animal companion starting level 1, no penalty to mental stats)

[Coidzor]

Bullette bait.

Beholder bait.

Being Dr. Doolittle.(Forest Gnomes)

Having sanctioned elemental binding in Eberron.

[Seppo87]

Gnomes make amazing spellcasters in general.

[nyjastul69]

Gnomes make great lawn decorations.

[Troacctid]

They make good bards and illusionists. +1 to illusion DCs, a Con bonus without a Cha penalty, small size, and, if you're a forest gnome, vastly improved stealth abilities and you can play party face even against animals. If you don't care about illusions, there's a good chance some variety of halfling or dwarf would be better for you, though.

The trouble with the PHB rock gnome, of course, is that it's just about the weakest version of the gnome you could possibly choose, except maybe aquatic gnomes (because hey, who needs to breathe air, right?) and svirfneblin (but they don't really count). I mean, in the Monster Manual alone, you have forest gnomes, which are flat-out strictly better--they get huge upgrades to stealth (+8 Hide and leave no scent? Yes please!), a free extra language, and they can speak with all woodland animals at will instead of burrowing mammals for 1 minute/day. Air gnomes gain the ability to hold their breath indefinitely (and trade Con for Dex, but that's mostly a lateral move). And, obviously, whisper gnomes, which are one of the strongest LA +0 races out there. Even variants like arctic gnome and desert gnome offer clearly favorable tradeoffs, marginal though they might be.

[Psyren]

Punting!

(Also something or other about illusions)

[ZamielVanWeber]

Dragon Magazine (which I know is not allowed at all tables) added the arcane gnome, which traded its stats around a touch but gets a bonus to Int, making it great as a wizard, beguiler, factotum, psion, or erudite. Honestly arcane and whisper are my go to gnomes and some of my go to spell casters.

[tomandtish]

Gnomes make great lawn decorations.

You forgot that they can apparently also help with your travel arrangements (http://www.roaminggnomestore.com/)!

[ATHATH]

I think that the Arctic, Desert, and Aquatic templates only work on the core PHB races, so if you wanted a race that can create ice cubes 1/day (Create Water+Ray of Frost), Arctic Desert Rock Gnomes have you covered.

[Gnorman]

I think that the Arctic, Desert, and Aquatic templates only work on the core PHB races, so if you wanted a race that can create ice cubes 1/day (Create Water+Ray of Frost), Arctic Desert Rock Gnomes have you covered.

You know, add in that racial bonus to alchemy checks, they probably would make pretty good bartenders.

[Necromancy]

I played a gnome sorcerer womanizer/pyromaniac that became a legend at our table.

[Kelb_Panthera]

There's a minor roleplaying advantage in being one of the most common and least xenophobic types of gnome. Everything else has already been said upthread.

[The Viscount]

Shadowcraft mage is gnome only, a DM could very easily rule this means the standard rock gnome.

Gnome Artificer is also pretty interesting.

[Piggy Knowles]

Gnome paladins are one of my favorite core-only options. They're small enough to ride medium creatures but +2 Con is way more useful than the halfling's +2 Dex, and Power Attack/Spirited Charge shenanigans from the top of a medium-sized mount aren't bad at all in a game with restricted books.

Honestly they're not a bad race; small size with a Con bonus is pretty great. The problem with non-whisper gnomes isn't that gnomes are bad so much as that whisper gnomes are really really good.

[GnomishPride]

Gnomes are my favorite! (as my name would suggest)
They're great rogues - +4 size bonus to hide, no penalty to Dex
They're great bards - see gnome paragon.
They're great illusionists - +1 racial bonus to DCs, and of course the killer gnome.
They're great casters overall - no mental ability score penalty and con bonus is great for squishy casters!
They're great artificers - gnomes are the unofficial mad scientist race!
That +1 size bonus to attack rolls and AC doesn't hurt either.
The biggest downside is either the Str penalty (unless you don't care about Str), the grapple penalty (which is compounded with the Str penalty - Gno Gnome Grapplers!) or the 20ft movement speed (which kinda sucks).
Gnomes are also really fun to roleplay!

[Eisfalken]

I like to make them butlers, put them in little outfits, dance for my amusement some evenings.

Also, if we run out of fun things to do, gnome-punting is an old and hallowed tradition in some places...

[gadren]

In general, primary spellcasters benefit from being small. Bonus to AC and attack rolls, penalty to a bunch of things that don't matter to you (strength, weapon size, etc.).

Gnomes, being small, thus make a good spellcasting class even before you add their bonus to Illusion DC and such.

It should be noted that Pathfinder made gnomes even better. No only do they make good spellcasters (particularly cha-based ones), but they make good martial characters too. Yes, they have to use smaller weapons, but they basically get all weapon and armor proficiencies (including exotice) for free with an alternate racial trait in addition to their bonus to con, bonus to AC, and bonus to attack rolls.

[Oncoming Storm]

Well, I hear you can use them summon Old Man Henderson...how fond are you of your resident Elder Things That Should Not Be?

[Necromancy]

Don't bring up old man Henderson. That story is as fabricated as Leeroy Jenkins

[Gnorman]

Don't bring up old man Henderson. That story is as fabricated as Leeroy Jenkins

Aren't, uh... all stories fabricated? Technically?

And even if true, so? Does that make it not a fantastic story?

[Kelb_Panthera]

Any good legend is true, whether it actually happened or not.

[zylodrizzt]

In general, primary spellcasters benefit from being small. Bonus to AC and attack rolls, penalty to a bunch of things that don't matter to you (strength, weapon size, etc.).

Gnomes, being small, thus make a good spellcasting class even before you add their bonus to Illusion DC and such.

It should be noted that Pathfinder made gnomes even better. No only do they make good spellcasters (particularly cha-based ones), but they make good martial characters too. Yes, they have to use smaller weapons, but they basically get all weapon and armor proficiencies (including exotice) for free with an alternate racial trait in addition to their bonus to con, bonus to AC, and bonus to attack rolls.

Just wanted to point out that racial substitution only says weapons. I do concur though pathfinder has really given them thier own identity away from Halfling. I personally have a great alchemist i call blastigar kaboom the mad though he has no idea why people think he is angry. I didn't use stock racial abilities though. Almost everything was replaced. Same goes for alchemist since he a trapbreaking sabatuer. And since I gave him racial resistance against poison especially against poisoning himself n ones he creates he doesn't even miss out on poisoning. Lots of cool stuff going on with my gnome alchemist.

[Troacctid]

Don't bring up old man Henderson. That story is as fabricated as Leeroy Jenkins

Old Man Llymic, on the other hand...

[Coidzor]

Old Man Llymic, on the other hand...

I believe it's Father Llymic, now.


Any good legend is true, whether it actually happened or not.

Indeed!

[Troacctid]

I believe it's Father Llymic, now.

Oh, well, congratulations to him, then. And at his age, too!

[The Viscount]

Gnome paladins are one of my favorite core-only options. They're small enough to ride medium creatures but +2 Con is way more useful than the halfling's +2 Dex, and Power Attack/Spirited Charge shenanigans from the top of a medium-sized mount aren't bad at all in a game with restricted books.

Honestly they're not a bad race; small size with a Con bonus is pretty great. The problem with non-whisper gnomes isn't that gnomes are bad so much as that whisper gnomes are really really good.

Especially if you can add in Shadow Cloak Knight substitution levels, turning your paladin into a sneak with HiPS.

[Zaq]

Gnomes are clearly not the top tier of LA 0 races, but they're still pretty darn good if you don't feel like being a human.

I mean, unless a race gives you a penalty to a stat you really need, has a bizarre restriction that not every table will accommodate (a race that is aquatic/semi-aquatic, that can't speak normally, that is small enough that carrying capacity becomes a real challenge, that has severe movement speed problems, that is the subject of fantasy racism in this particular campaign and is going to be hated on sight, etc.), or has LA, it's hard to really play a race that's a BAD idea, because your race is only as big a component of your character as you choose for it to be.

Naturally, ideally you'd like a race that actively enables something (anything that gives an extra feat is huge for that, anything that opens up a racially-locked feat or PrC can be character-defining, anything that has a truly unique capability like certain illumian sigil combos or changeling shapeshifting can be helpful) and/or a race that boosts a stat you care about, but at the end of the day, your race doesn't have to be a big deal.

PHB gnomes don't have a massive pile of unique capabilities (though they're the only inherently magical PHB race and they're the only PHB race that directly boosts any form of spellcasting), but really? Most races don't have anything super crazy about them. And while they're clearly behind humans or warforged, they honestly aren't bad as a whole.

The most important things about them are that they're Small, they have +2 CON, and they have –2 STR. Everyone needs CON, so that's a great bonus. STR, in contrast, is generally a pretty binary stat—either it's your primary (or nearly your primary) or you can afford to dump it to oblivion. So they don't make good traditional melee characters (though there's many ways to do melee that don't involve high STR), but if you choose not to use STR, it's relatively rare for you to be forced to care about STR. I mean, you'll sometimes have to make an opposed STR check against a trip or a grapple, but that's way less noticeable an impact than having reduced initiative/AC/Ref (DEX), having reduced HP/Fort (CON), having fewer skill points (INT), or having reduced Spot/Listen/Sense Motive/Will (WIS). (CHA is the other stat that relatively few people will FORCE you to use, though CHA has more uses than STR does if you do choose to use it.) But the point is that a character who chooses to ignore STR can generally afford to do so, and they'll generally notice their low STR less often than someone else would notice low DEX, CON, INT, or WIS. And then there's Small size, which is both good and bad. It's bad for movement speed, grapple/trip/etc. checks, and weapon size, but it's good for AC, attack rolls, and Hide checks. The penalty to STR already means you likely aren't going to be made or broken by using smaller weapons (if you do choose to rely on weapons, you likely aren't going to be relying on big weapon dice), so I'd argue that most characters will get more benefit from the AC/attack bonus than they give up from the other parts of being Small.

I mean, yeah, if you're trying to make a heavily armored Fighter who just hits things in the face with a big stick and doesn't do anything fancy, you're going to be way unhappier with a gnome than with, say, a half-elf. (Half-elves aren't GOOD at anything, but they have no active detrimental effects, so they're a baseline of comparison.) A gnome in heavy armor has a really pathetic move speed, and if you really care about making normal melee attacks with no tricks up your sleeve, you'll notice the reduced weapon size and the penalty to STR. And honestly, even if you're making STR-based weapon attacks, losing one effective point of bonus from STR is actually not a huge penalty. Being Small makes up for the penalty to hit, and while every point of damage counts, chances are good that STR isn't going to be your only source of damage (at least past the very earliest levels). Melee beatsticks are going to cobble together plenty of different damage bonuses over the course of their career, and STR is just one part of that. (In comparison, very few things will affect your HP as much as CON will, so it's harder to overcome a penalty to that. Very few things can grant you extra skill points to make up for a penalty to INT. But lots of things will contribute to damage just the same way STR will.) So a STR-using gnome will be at a disadvantage, but not an insurmountable one.

For just about anything else, though? You can find a way around the downsides of being a gnome and you'll still get some benefits. Damn near every caster gains some benefit out of being Small and having a bonus to CON, and if they happen to use illusions as well, then gnome looks like a perfectly fine choice to me. (Again, yeah, nearly anything is going to pale in comparison to having a human's bonus feat, and there's plenty of times when you need to be a specific race to open up a feat or a PrC, but gnomes still aren't a bad choice overall.)

[Seward]

In addition to the above, they're a good choice for a mounted combat/heavy armor build where dex matters less than con. Size medium mounts, especially flying size medium mounts, make mounted combat work a lot better.