Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in- Marketplace
Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in
Who IS running a Gnome righth now? Tell us about them. How is it going?
In a Cyber Dieselpunk homebrew, I'm running a level 10 Forest Gnome Stars Druid, Zincofax Bramplewood. He's an apothecary (family business) and Calligrapher. One of his sisters turned to the dark side (ok, mycelium side) and nearly wiped his party out. Zinc had to tell his dad about her timely demiSe and he ws dissapointed but not angry.
Let's see, he is carrying Illusionist's Bracers (they are awesome!) and a whole bunch of bags, tricks, holding, and bounty, not that he gave the bad of Molding (not a typo (homebrew), and it used to be a bag of Colding) to the Paladin.
His familiar's name is Oxford, and he's a bat right now, but temporarily dismissed.
Recent news: An animal Hunter (Celestial) cat decided to "kill the healer" and started using special abilities on zinc. he hit her with two shots (see the bracers) of acid (primal savagery) which it turned out was one of the few types of damage she was not resistant to. She decided to harass the wizard instead. :)
So, tell me about your Gnomes!
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
As of now (June 2026), currently playing 5.5E homebrew cyber/diesel punk and the Wildsea.
We have a group that is almost all gnomes. Hijinks and shenanigans galore!
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the only proper way to name a gnome character is to throw two darts at a map of Australia.
Seriously. Try it. It works.
Yellabina Cocklebiddy. Marla Ravensthorpe. Fitzroy Davenport. Yulara Tanami. Albany Bussleton. Adelaide Barker. Tara Willangra. Agnes Rockhampton. Cobar Gunderbooka. Moonbie Toowoomba. Mudgee Bombala. Bremer Broomehill. Westonia Freemantle. Sydney Bindebango. Hobart Hamilton.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
How many trenchcoats? :)
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
As of now (June 2026), currently playing 5.5E homebrew cyber/diesel punk and the Wildsea.
Ha. Zincofax's whole family is names after OTC and RX drugs since they are apothecaries. Some are birth control or antihistamines.
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
As of now (June 2026), currently playing 5.5E homebrew cyber/diesel punk and the Wildsea.
(Cries in Forever DM)
So since 2004 and the release of an MMO that choose to not have High Elves with Magical powers, and after testing the Hippy Druid Elves and not liking their class options I created my first Gnome character.
Kompressor the Warlock with Gnomish Engineering. So I have a full stable of characters both as NPCs and PCs because I loved my little green haired angry gnome, who did not dance everywhere he went. (This video is almost old enought to buy a beer in the USA: link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfoQj9kVnLU the youtube plugin doesn't work anymore. )
But along side him, and my MMO characters I've had many D&D characters, to include Bhuemka Bhuem Rock Gnome Artillerist Artificer. See my Avatar.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/40921452
Sadly that campaign lasted 5 sessions and was one of the last times I was a player in D&D, and became a forever DM.
I also have Merymiz Flickercoil~ https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/47916753
Sanchiá Maria Teresa García Ramírez de Arroyo (Gnomish Inquisition https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/87898540 )
I have several other gnome ideas, a Circle of Dragons druid, a GunFu Gnome (Fighter, Monk, Rogue) who specializes in pointblank pistol weapons, and of couse a 2024 version of Bhuem... only still working that one out.
Brilliant method.
Meanwhile I go full r/tragedeigh
Boom Ka Boom = Bhuemka Bhuem
Doom Bunny (Evil tiny pink twin tails) = Dhuembhunay
Kompressor..... yeah didn't have to change it away from the music artist that inspired the character.
Daviston Hannedil: Light Domain Cleric
Berendo Lindwicket: Illusionist Wizard with one level of Arcana Cleric
(Pointing you with a crossbow). "My name is Tyrion Lannister, you killed my father. Get ready to die!"
I love the gnomes because they are the "little ugly duckling" of the core PC species, rejected by the most of players. In the past they were too much "typecasted" into to be rogues or illusionists. They are perfect as nPCs if you want a cozy or comedy tone in your games, at least during a couple of scenes.
I liked the "variant" version from an article "martial cultures " from Dragon magazine #341 (March 2006).
I am happy with the archetype of gnome artificer but I would like a gnome as monster-rider to be a viable class.
Did somebody call?
I love gnomes. My favorite character was a gnome barbarian.
My party keeps getting hit with fear spells but no, +9 to wisdom save (high wis druid) plus advantage (Gnomish Cunning) so he makes his saves. :)
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
As of now (June 2026), currently playing 5.5E homebrew cyber/diesel punk and the Wildsea.
I had a gnome once in a 3.5e D&D MUD so like a persistent campaign in a text scrolling RPG. I pissed off the entire Realms and was blamed for the first and then second Sundering as well as was the reason Shar survived. Dr. Haydn Sigel, PHD in both magical engineering and advanced arcane theory, member of the Gnomish Adventurer's League, Harold of the Sundering, Bookbinder to the Temple of Oghma, and a dozen of other titles I forgot. I was collecting titles but not names like candy and I was a Greater Divination Wizard. Playing a Wizard in the game was tough because you got all your spells to add to your spell book when you left the Newbie area where you were safe from PvP but you couldn't add them until you could cast spells of that level meaning other Wizards would PvP each other to get a bunch of scrolls to fill out their spellbooks. I spent most my time invisible and then warded against scrying when I was able to and by the end the entire game wanted to kill me.
I never really got into combat once I could turn Invisible, I started baiting enemies into attacking each other or my summons while I remained hidden from them. At a really low level I dragged the entire fort of goblins near the low level town to their gates, waited for the fort to respawn with more goblins, then baited them to moving over to join the others in front of the gates. I did this four or five times until there was an army of over 100 goblins outside this small town meant for lower level players. There was a low level player there roleplaying in the tavern with some elves. They walked outside to see the army and then started roleplaying investigating it all as the goblins marched forward into town. I let the town guards and elves kill the hundreds of Goblins I led into town and since I pegged each one with a crossbow bolt to arggo them into chasing something they couldn't see to attack up the road I got experience for each goblin they killed. I also took the majority of the loot afterwards while the elves continued to roleplay everything from inside the gatehouse with staff. The next weekend the staff hosted an event that mimicked what I had done. An army of goblins "officially" invaded the city and this time I publicly joined the fight against the goblins landing the killing blow on their Hobgoblin leader. I got a title. Oh, that's right one of my titles was Champion of Tabor! Anyway, got a fat pay day too and no one even knew I was the entire reason the goblin army showed up in the first place. The staff thought there was some spawning bug for a few months until they figured out, I was behind dragging all the goblins there. ^_^
Same character but a while later the staff were already discussing culling the deities. They would often use the deities to interact with players, and they figured they'd run the Sundering as an event to bring down the number of deities in game so that each staff member could play as just one deity. It had advantages and drawbacks. If you wanted to complain about something, then you'd have to wait for your deity to come on line or hope one of the others cared about you enough to do it. Sometimes your deity might drop in on your play session in secret and spice things up or sometimes a deity who hated you would ruin your session by turning exp gains off. It made who you worship matter. So, as the Bookbinder in the Temple of Ogma where I was hiding out from others after they attempted to murder me, I found this old tome. It was the Book of Oghma and in it was everything ever known or to be known about all that ever was or ever will be. My character exploded with knowledge and began vomiting it all back out physically. I dragged myself to the doctor still vomiting and another player saw me so they roleplayed it with me. I had taken in too much information and it had to escape somehow but during the whole ordeal I saw Ao and saw all the deities and foretold of the Sundering. They would all loose their powers and there was going to be "The Silence" in the months that followed as everything was getting re-arranged. All the clerics lost their powers along with the Paladins, Druids, and Rangers. Anything that dealt with the divine was without it. Players were upset and blamed my gnome because I was the Harold after all. I ran away and then watched as one deity after another disappeared. I was being chased by the "good guys" so I made a masterwork wooden doll that looked like Shar from wood taken from the trees of this evil forest. Then I went to her Temple and she escaped the Sundering by entering the fetish I made for here. In came the evil players all upset that a gnome was able to sneak into their Temple then the good players teleported to me because I dropped my wards inside the Temple. With Shar "gone" or in the doll there was no Temple Wards to prevent PvP so a huge fight broke out. I ran and then both the good and evil players chased me as I teleported around the Realms. I set all my teleportation spots up on the various ferry boats around so those chasing me would have to pay to board each and every ferry marking them for their own teleportation. Then we spent like an hour or two as mages chased me from ferry boat to ferry boat. I forget how I escaped exactly but I did.
At this point I was the only level 20 Divination Wizard making me the Archwizard of Divination. I saw most of what people were doing coming at they all wanted me dead because of all the craziness I caused. Even the patrons to the deity of chaos didn't like me because I went to their Temple tore down all their post and put up sticky notes with one word each on them reading "The gnome of gnome who gnomes all that there is to gnome is the gnomiest gnome that will ever be gnome to the gnome world." or something like that. They told me "stop playing with out Temple board" to which I replied "CHAOTIC!" which just made them angry but they had no idea where I was. I wanted to keep it that way so I went to the largest desert there was, got lost incase someone tried to invade me memory to get the location. Then I dug a hold, buried a bag of holding in it, warded the hole against scrying, hid the wards with a Wish spell so they couldn't be detected, teleported into the bag of holding, summoned an air mephit to breath, took a rest to regain spells, cast Rope Trick then entered the rope trick and from the rope trick I cast Create Demiplane where I got stuck. When the Rope Trick ended it collapsed the space and severed me from the Prime Material, i.e. I created a bug. It took the staff like two years or so to fix the bug. They could have fixed it sooner but during that time no one could actually get to me and being the only level 20 Divination Wizard I pretty much sat back to just watch everyone else play. I would uncover someone's plot then use Telepathy to speak into someone else's mind to tip them off and thwart that plot or I might encourage their scheme. Basic meddling with the affairs of people on the Prime Material and it just made people hate me even more.
Eventually, the bug was fixed and I was returned to the Prime Material a decade later in game and I sought out the old Temple to Shar so I could get her out of the fetish I crafted. At the Temple she demanded I see her former head cleric, but she was nasty and mean to me because I was gnome so I took my time. Then when I found their cleric they ignored me thinking I was a good gnome, but I was neutral. So, it took me like three years until I could corner them and force the doll into their hands. When I did Shar was furious at them but this set off the next Sundering as Shar and Selune returned in this huge battle. No one except the head cleric of Shar was ever aware that a gnome saved their deity from the Sundering and the head cleric was angry that I was the one who rescued her instead of him. Meaning the followers of Shar still hated me regardless. Oh, and I got another title Saviour of the World Tree or something like that.
I was almost always in people's business, and I was always getting away with helping evil or doing some really evil stuff. In fact, I kept getting awarded as a "Good Guy" for saving people from situations I created myself. The staff caught on after the Tabor war with the goblins and we ran with it. I retired the character and everyone found out maybe about five years after that I was like the cause of literally everyone's problems in game for a few IRL years; but I was also the hero who saved them from those problems. Needless to say, I am still the most hated character in that game. The put a whole invisible gnome town in the game afterwards that teleports around to prevent people from finding it and my character became an NPC in that town, I think. One of the staff does absolutely hate me regardless of the character I play now though. I even tried making a cleric to worship them and try to unburn that bridge but that just made them even more angry. The other staff like me and found it all hilarious, so they give me boons to counteract his banes. So, there is that....
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.
My only knowledge of gnomes is that old ladies place them in their yard and what the 5.5 PHB says. I assume I missing something, as I don't quite understand why a gnome is different from any other species besides the obvious abilities listed in the PHB. For those abilities, I like playing gnomes but again, I am missing something obviously. Why would they be a mage or a thief? I play them as other classes.
Well, as a long time Gnome fan, I would say to watch a good lore primer, as 5.5e, and 5e in general fails at giving lore and cultures of the various species in D&D. Gnomes are very interesting, have a lot of lore and culture. I would say Warcraft Gnomes hit the Rock Gnome personality quiet well, but that is just a minor scratch on the surface of who they are.
See AJ Picketts video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcTmqhFGLHA
Or Jorphdan's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8UAZwW80NM
Thanks for the links to you tube but I can't see You tube, any text based links?
I also enjoy gnomes, but I really like what pathfinder did with them. As they are not native to the plane and come from a more magical place, the mundane world tends to, literally, suck the life from them. If they don’t constantly seek out new experiences, they succumb to “The Bleaching.”
https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Gnome
https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Bleaching
It’s easier for pathfinder to do lore like that since they have a single default setting. But an idea like the bleaching could easily be adapted into a D&D world.
https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/The_Complete_Book_of_Gnomes_&_Halflings
That is the Gnome I grew up with. The Half-Priced Books in my neighborhood had the entire set of 2e AD&D books and we would hang out there reading them for free. Sometimes we'd buy one, make copies, and then sell it back too. Classic Half-Priced Books experience. To this day I still feel like 2e AD&D is the definitive lore on the Realms. Maybe things have grown and species have matured or whatever but generally the 2nd era has the most D&D vibes.
Pathfinder's gnomes are slightly different and it has some cool rules as well as creatures like Xvarts, blue goblins, not found in D&D. I think using Pathfinder as a loose reference for D&D stuff makes sense. It isn't a drastically different setting after all.
EDIT: I also became a Patraeon to MrRhexx so that I could ask for a video series on gnomes like he has done with Dwarves and elves. He never made one though. :(
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.
From Zinc (forest gnome stars druid) to the party:
"Zinc is a little confused about divinity. "We" killed a god, vamps were infused with divine magic, and now, a celestial attacked us. He's pretty sure we aren't the bad guys. Right? He is very happy he didn't decide to be a cleric like his third cousin twice removed's roomate from boarding school."
That wa sintended to be humorous but just FYI for readers here:
The diety (and whole city of daywalker vampire being killed were unintentional. The celestial was neutral but an animal lord that attacked us for wanderinf into a summoning. And no, the party isn't evil. :) Maybe revolutionaries though.
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
As of now (June 2026), currently playing 5.5E homebrew cyber/diesel punk and the Wildsea.