Attack of the Gnomes

[TheThan]

Ok I have taken to writing a whole knew campaign world. While I was fleshing out some of the early details I struck upon the notion of altering several of the core races significantly. I decided to do this for a few reasons, the first one, is simply to help further create a new and unique world for the players to explore, and secondly to sort of throw my players for a loop, with redesigned races. I would appreciate any questions, comments or suggestions you; the Oots community has to offer.

So here I present to you the heavily tweaked gnomes:


The Gnomes
Gnomes are fierce tribal warriors. While they have a strong sense of honor, they have a reputation for viciousness and cruelty in combat. As well as head hunting and even cannibalism.
Personality
Gnomes are quick to anger, and naturally fierce. They are brave and fight with a surprising degree of honor. They move quickly to establish themselves in a dominant role. They are aggressive and try to intimidate others. Some scholars believe this is a cultural inferiority complex their whole species suffers from (due to their small size and lack of physical strength). They are very superstitious and view magic with fear, suspicion and even hatred. Once they learn about the nature of an object they are quick to adapt it to their own uses. Above all gnomes respect strength, they often are willing to follow those that prove to be strong.
Physical description
Gnomes stand only about 3 to 3.5 feet tall and only weigh up to 45 pounds. Their skin ranges from tan to a woody brown. They usually have dark hair ranging from brown to black. They have large eyes that are usually brown and round faces. They have no facial hair or sideburns. Gnomes are well known for their incredible toughness.
Gnomes wear grass skirts that are ether knee length or full length. Men do not wear shirts. They adorn themselves with beads, bones, feathers and other sorts of primitive jewelry. They also sport piercings. They are almost always bare foot. Chieftains and shamans wear brightly colored headdresses, otherwise they dress like the others. Warriors nearly always wear their blowguns across their backs, carry bandoleers with the rest of their gear on it. They are well known for the face paint they adorn themselves with.
The females wear the same grass skirts. But they wear brassieres made out of natural materials including, but not limited to banana leaves, coconuts, and even seashells. They adorn themselves with the same kinds of beads, bones, feathers and other primitive jewelry that the men do. The less aggressive tribes have more access to metals. Metals are primarily used to make tools and weapons. They use the extra metals to make jewelry. Gnome pottery and jewelry are highly valued as art among collectors.
Children usually do not wear clothing until they reach the gnome equivalent of puberty.
Alignment: gnomes favor neither good nor evil. But their fierce nature and their tremendous independence lead them towards chaos.
Relations A gnome usually doesn’t trust beings that are not from his village. But over time they can come to develop and understanding with other races.
Gnome Lands
Gnomes live in small tribal communities located in and around tropical islands. There they hunt, fish and gather fruits and nuts. Gnome tribes compete against each other for recourses; which has lead them to become fiercely independent of each other. Each tribe considers itself a separate nation unto itself. This makes it very difficult for other nations to establish talks with them. Gnomes defend their land with an unmatched ferocity. They use guerilla tactics and traps to fend off those they see as invaders.
The less aggressive gnomes do brisk trade with traders who frequent the island.
Religion
Each gnome village has their own god. Their religious practices remain a mystery; outsiders are rarely allowed to take part in the rituals. Though it is rumored that one particular tribe practices in cannibalism.
Names
Adventures
Gnomes that venture beyond their homes due so to bring honor and glory to their tribe. Some are lead on vision quests that take them around the world. While some are outcasts (they probably wont tell you why they are outcasts though).
Gnome racial traits:

• +2 constitution, -2 charisma. Gnomes are tough but they are aggressive, quick to anger and rely on intimidation.
• Small: as a small creature, a gnome gains a +1 size bonus to armor class, attack rolls and a +4 size bonus on hide checks. But he uses smaller weapons than that of a medium size creature. Land speed is 20 ft
• Low light vision: a gnome can see twice as far as a human can in poor light.
• Weapon familiarity: A gnome receives the martial weapon proficiency for the kukri; as well as the exotic weapon proficiency for the blowgun, bolas, and net.
• +2 fortitude save vs. poison: tropical areas usually sport a large variety of poisonous dangers, as a result, gnomes have developed a natural resistance to poisons.
• +2 bonus to craft: (trap making): gnomes are skilled in booby traps and use them in conjunction with guerrilla tactics to defend their villages. They also use them as hunting tools.
• Favored class: barbarian

edit: increased low light vision from 20ft to 60 ft. then changed it again.
deleted the intery for weapon finesse, it was put in there to keep them mechanically equal to the other races. But without a minus to strength its no longer needed.

[CaptN]

*applauds*

[The Glyphstone]

Cool. This appears to be 3.0 converted, though, since it mentions gettings Weapon Finesse for the kukri (WF is 1 feat applying to all light weapons in 3.5). If this is supposed to be 3.5, maybe reword it to something like "Gnomes can always use their Dex modifier on attack rolls with Kukris, as if they had the Weapon Finesse feat. This does not allow them to use Weapon Finesse with other weapons unless they take the actual feat." Of course, if these are 3.0 'Savage Gnomes', then it's all good.

[Nikolai_II]

Nice revision :)


But..

Low light vision 20 feet

Seems strange. I guess the "20 feet" stumbled into there by mistake?

[Gordon]

Nice revision :)


But..

Seems strange. I guess the "20 feet" stumbled into there by mistake?

I'm guessing it was a cut & paste error from the Land Speed.

This is very like what I did with Gnomes in my own homebrew world (minus the tribalism). Their kingdom, to the north of the little principality the PCs call "The Great Kingdom," is a bit of a thorn in the side of neighboring kingdoms. Basically, they got sick of being easy prey for the goblinoids and giants, and militarized their society, rounded up mosntrous humanoids for "work camps," emptied the forests of fey and the like, and let giants know they could leave the kingdom now or die. Expatriate Gnomes in the Great Kingdom are somewhat embarrassed by Lawgiver Talloran's "reforms," and are just glad to be out of there. The neighboring Drow cities are in a Cold War with the continual probing on their borders, and upset with the continual influx of monsters the Gnomes have driven out.

I've modelled them on certain earth nations that have moved from being downtrodden minorities, to self-protective governments, to oppressive/aggressive imperialists that replicate all too well the sins of their former oppressors.

[Spuddly]

The females wear the same grass skirts. But they wear brassieres made out of natural materials including, but not limited to banana leaves, coconuts, and even seashells.

Hahahaha! Just have them all go topless. No need to have a bunch of little mermaids running around. Besides, they seem too barbaric to really worry about breasts. They eat each other and then decide to cover up? Coconut bikinis seems too... 50's tropical paradise.

Is the cannibalism ritualistic or because they get hungry?

[Phasm]

Um, you are obviously male, Spuddly. There are practical considerations to bras as well as cultural ones; chiefmost of these is the fact that breasts are tender and need protecting from things like thornbushes. Also, it's pure misery for a woman any bigger than an A cup to run without a bra on, especially if she's PMSing. I honestly don't know how RL tribal women do it.

Bravo on the jungle gnomes! I would take away the Strength penalty (small folk already have a carry weight penalty) and give them something like an Int and/or Cha penalty, but that's me.

[Bitter_Elf]

Very cool. I don't see any inherent problems with it, and I like the brutal style - it's something very different!

I do have a question about ability modifiers in general, though: creatures (races and monsters) of size "small" have a natural +2 Dex and -2 Str modifiers based on that small size. When character races are written as having "-2 Str, +2 Con," this effectively means that they are getting, on top of their size modifiers, a +2 Con bonus and a -2 Dex bonus, yes?

[Spuddly]

Um, you are obviously male, Spuddly. There are practical considerations to bras as well as cultural ones; chiefmost of these is the fact that breasts are tender and need protecting from things like thornbushes. Also, it's pure misery for a woman any bigger than an A cup to run without a bra on, especially if she's PMSing. I honestly don't know how RL tribal women do it.

And you are obviously in ignorance of primitve societies, especially tropical ones. Clothes were mostly for practical purposes. Sewing and weaving took considerable time to make garments in a tropical climate. Why wear clothes when the temp is always in the mid 70s?

Coconut and sea shell bras are hardly comfortable, even for my unsensitive male breasts.

[triffid]

Yeah, lots of sewing and weaving involved in making a coconut bra.

[TheThan]

Thanks for the praise everyone. ;D
I’ll try to answer all of your questions in order.

Well I guess I need to do some work on the whole idea of cannibalism. I believe it was supposed to be done by only a couple of tribes who worship an evil deity, and then only rarely. But I intentionally left the religion part vague so people could have a lot of freedom to choose what kind of deity they worship.

Yeah the low light vision is a mistake, it’s supposed to be 60 feet. I’ll fix it.

The weapon finesse is also a mistake, I can’t figure out why I thought it still applied to only one weapon. I don’t even have the 3.0 books so this is a strange mystery. Maybe I looked in my StarWars d20 rpg books by accident. Well anyway I’ll make the correction.


I left the ability mods as per the 3.5 handbook. The strength minus is something I have been considering. Haha I just noticed that the standard gnomes don’t even go by the dm’s guide’s suggestions concerning ability modifiers. So a change is probably in order to de-nerf them. Probably drop their charisma instead.

[Talanic]

Let's put it this way, Spuddly.

Assume the temperature is 110 degrees and there's no clothing taboo in your culture. It's just fine for anyone to go naked; nobody cares what they see.

Assume then that you have to walk through waist-high bushes covered with thorns. Would you want to wear some shorts for that, or would you still be fine going naked? Or how about a mosquito infestation, or biting flies (those things STING!). Still fine with no shorts?

Probably not...and women--even in primitive cultures--would likely want bras for the same reasons. There's always at least a potential reason for clothing. It's not just for warmth or shelter from the elements. It can also shelter you from pokey or bitey things.

At the very least, the rich gnomes would have clothing, even if the rest of their compatriots are pretty much naked.

[Annon]

Low- Light Vision isn't ranged--it's just straight "Low-light Vision." You see twice as far in the dark as someone with regular vision, so it's more of an exponential gain than a stright +X gain.

[Spuddly]

Assume the temperature is 110 degrees and there's no clothing taboo in your culture. It's just fine for anyone to go naked; nobody cares what they see.

Assume then that you have to walk through waist-high bushes covered with thorns. Would you want to wear some shorts for that, or would you still be fine going naked? Or how about a mosquito infestation, or biting flies (those things STING!). Still fine with no shorts?

Probably not...and women--even in primitive cultures--would likely want bras for the same reasons. There's always at least a potential reason for clothing. It's not just for warmth or shelter from the elements. It can also shelter you from pokey or bitey things.

In super hot climates, like deserts, you wear clothes to keep the sun off.

You stay out of spiky bushes. Regardless of whether you have a thin layer of clothes on, thorns go right through. In fact, they tend to shred your clothes which you spent making rather than hunting for food.

Most insects can bite right through clothes. What's the flatfooted AC of the average human? 10? What's the flatfooted AC of a boar? Like 12, with +2 natural armor? 13?

Bugs can bite right through both. Adding 0 AC to your soft flesh isn't going to help against bug bites.

Believe me. I've lived in the tropics. I've seen hordes of mosquitos that drive caribou to migrate. Even bears get hit by the bugs.

Clothes also mold and keep your body wet, which is very unhealthy. Wearing coconut bras all the time is gonna lead to some real funky rashes. There are many sorts of insects that are attracted to where you wear clothes, especially leeches and chiggers.

On top of all that, the manufacture of clothes by primitive, non-agrarian societies is expensive. Each individual is more of a generalist rather than a specialist. Time spent meticulously weaving something that will rot in a few months and keeps you hot and sweaty could be time spent hunting or in recreation.

--Anyay--
I'm just saying, for a race of warlike, barbarian cannibals, coconut bras seem a little under them.

Does D&D consider any form of cannibalism (perhas outside of necessity, such as just eating the dead when you're starving) an evil act? Would ritual consumption of an enemy you killed be considered evil, RAW?

[Umael]

Bras, yes.
Coconut, no.

Kill an animal, skin it, wear a strip around the chest, wash the strip in running water at least once a day, replace every two weeks or so, call it good.

Oh, and Spuddly? Clothing serves many purposes*. While the mechanics will not protect any bonus to AC, in concept and in real life, clothing does help protect the skin. I am not saying that I would want to run through chest-high thorny bushes all day, but if I did, I would rather have some clothing on rather than going naked.

* Modesty, to keep warm, to keep dry, to display status, and for fun. Oh, yes, and for protection, already mentioned. And yes, most of those reasons are impractical for these gnomes, I already know that.

[Gordon]

Um, you are obviously male, Spuddly.

Male != wrong, no matter how often that implication may be made.

On the one hand,

There are practical considerations to bras as well as cultural ones; chiefmost of these is the fact that breasts are tender and need protecting from things like thornbushes.

On the other hand,

RL tribal women do it.

You can't really demand to have it both ways.

[Gordon]

Yeah, lots of sewing and weaving involved in making a coconut bra.

You're anticipating just gluing them on, I take it?

And wouldn't the sharp edges cut the declared-to-be-uber-tender skin and hurt like the dickens?

[WhiteMonkey]

breasts are tender

;D ok I know it's juvenile... he he

Anyway, about breasts and thorns. He said that gnomes lived in tropical islands. Well, then that they wear bras at all is more a side towards modesty isn't it? I thought Polynesian women were generally topless.

Maybe there aren't an abundance of thorns on the tropical Islands?

Though I agree with the need of support for stuff like running and such for the urm... larger ladies. So uh, yea for that stuff I doubt a banana peal is gonna cut it.

[Umael]

...

A bunch of gamers, on the internet, discussing women's breasts, and how tender they are.

...

Can This Get Any Geekier!?

(Yes, I know I contributed to this conversation. Don't remind me.)

[Gordon]

...

A bunch of gamers, on the internet, discussing women's breasts, and how tender they are.

...

Can This Get Any Geekier!?

(Yes, I know I contributed to this conversation. Don't remind me.)

Remember the following philosophical experiment:
"If a man is talking alone in a forest, and no woman is there to hear him, is he still wrong?"

[Spuddly]

Maybe there aren't an abundance of thorns on the tropical Islands?

They have thickets of thorn bushes that make blackberries seem tame in comparison.

But how often do you go crashing through blackberry thickets, bra or bra-less?

[triffid]

You're anticipating just gluing them on, I take it?

...Yes. Absolutely. Because if they don't involve spending hours weaving reams of cloth there must be no other way to put them together. ::)

If the gnome chicks want some uplift, let them have some uplift. Yeesh.

[TheDarkOne]

These gnomes sound slightly similar to the gnomes out of Terry Brook's Shannara books.

[Spuddly]

How effective would coconut armor be?

[triffid]

I don't know, but now I want some. I knew I should have had a go on the coconut shy at the school fair last weekend... ;D

[Spuddly]

Hmmm....

Gnomish racial proficiency: "Coconut splint mail"

A gnome may wear coconut splint as though she were proficient with heavy armor. This racial proficieny only counts towards wearing coconut splint mail. All normal penalties of splint apply.

[TheThan]

Wow if I had known this was going to burst into a conversation over the adverse effects of wearing different types of clothing in tropical weather I would have gave it a different title. :)
Anyway I wrote that they are not limited to just coconut bras. So they could just as easily wear normal fabrics, depending on what’s available to them. It only makes sense that the tribes that live closer to “civilization” would adopt other types of clothing. I simply used the coconut bra idea to help present the feel of a tropical people.
Now since the gnomes I presented have a bonus to constitution, we can assume that stinging insects and thorny plants don’t bother them as much. Just remember that they aren’t human so they may have a different reaction to their environment than what we would have.

edit no I haven't read any of Terry Brook's books... but they sound interesting.
coconut armor sounds a little too goofy for these gnomes to wear. But if you like it, the knock yourself out!

[WhiteMonkey]

Just remember that they aren’t human so they may have a different reaction to their environment than what we would have.

Indeed!
Maybe Gnomish women are just a little thorny.

Heh heh heh ;)

[HempRope]

You know, I hate to (a) disctriminate against the samll people, or (b) contribute to this conversation, but mightn't coconuts be a bit large for most gnomes? And what if we just used, like, palm fronds? You need something that you can tighten.

And I like the rest of the gnome stats. Though they seem a little weaker, now. Mostly I don't think that the bonus vs. poisons & the Craft bonus make up for spell-like abilities.

[The_Werebear]

You said they were tribal. You could give them an ability that only works if they are a team, kinda like Kuo-Tao's lightning bolts or Shocker Lizard's leathal shocks.

Maybe, if they all team up and focus, they can produce illusions, magic poisions, that sorta thing.

Speaking of poison. I think they ought to be poison proficient, IE, suffer no chance of accidently poisoning themselves. Blowguns (if I remember correctly) are mainly used to deliver a poison, which actually kills things. They should have the +2 to alchemy, so they can make the previously said poisons.