Dungeons and Dragons

Are you making a character and don’t know what race to pick? There are a lot of options in the Player’s Handbook, but where do you start? Unless you’re trying to make the most optimal character, race and class combinations don’t matter. Pick something that you like the sound of or are interested in playing. It’s your character after all. If you’ve never played before, here’s a brief explanation of Gnomes (without all the confusing numbers attached to it).

What can you expect from a Gnome?

Much like the Halflings, Gnomes have a deep sense and love for community, having the hum of people around them brings joy. They take delight in life, of every invention and creation, exploration and investigation. Although they are the shortest of the races – barely reaching over the height of three feet tall – they are near the top with how long they live. Gnomes can live anywhere between three hundred and five hundred years. Even with all this time, they never feel like they have enough to learn everything they want to know, or see all they want to see, or do everything they planned to do. Their brains work fast and speak as though they can’t get the ideas and words out of their mouths fast enough. Due to their jovial nature, Gnomes love jokes of all kinds. Everything from puns to pranks, but that doesn’t mean they can’t dedicate themselves to more serious tasks. Many are skilled engineers, alchemist, tinkerer and inventors. They are willing to make mistakes and laugh at their failures. They are lovers of dreaming big and taking risks.

Like the Dwarves, Gnomes do like to live underground, but they get out more fresh air than Dwarves do, as they enjoy nature and the living world around them. They have been known to hide their homes with clever contraptions or the use of illusory magics. Gnomes love names, and most will have a dozen names or more. Every member of the clan can give a Gnome a name or a nickname. Some may stick, while others may not. As they integrate with the world and other races, most Gnomes will give more simplified forms of their names: first name, clan name and a nickname.

How does this translate to your character sheet?

In terms of base stats (I will go into the extra things you get as part of subraces in the next section), you have a variety of wonderful traits. Gnomes are one of the naturally intellectual race, which some assume is why they spent so much time tinkering with new creations. Although due to their shorter stature, they have a lower walking speed compared to other races, but this isn’t something that will affect your character dramatically. (Using the scary numbers for a moment. Gnomes have a base walking speed of 25ft, whereas most races have a walking speed of 30ft). With their time spent underground, they developed the ability to see in the dark. With their origins based in magic, Gnomes have a better resistance against magic spells that would negatively affect their minds. And as always, they are able to speak Common and Gnomish.

Subraces:

There are two subraces in the player’s handbook. The first is the Forest Gnome, who have a natural knack for illusions as well as being quicker and stealthy than the other types of Gnomes. There are able to conjure up minor illusion to either cause distractions or add more weight to their harmless pranks. Being dwellers of the forest, they also have the ability to speak to small beast and animals, some even made friends and pets with the creatures that they speak with.

The other type is the Rock Gnomes. These are hardier than other Gnomes, and the majority of Gnomes within the world of Faerûn, are Rock Gnomes, and are generally the ones tinkering with, and creating new things to pass the time. This helps give them an advantage when discerning the history of magical items, alchemical objects or technological devices.

What class should I pick for a Gnome?

With their higher intelligence, Gnomes make great hardy Wizards with a Rock Gnome subrace, or master Rogues with a Forest Gnome subrace. Like all the other races, there is nothing stopping them from playing any other classes. Nothing sounds better than the idea of a Gnome Barbarian charging at you with unbridled rage.

Does that mean there are more varieties of Gnomes?

There are other types of Gnomes in some of the supplements for 5th edition. The most notable being the Deep Gnomes. Like the Dwarves, who have kin that live even deepen underground, the Gnomes have the same. Deep Gnomes live in the Underdark.