Homebrew Garden Gnome Species Details
Garden Gnomes are tiny fey creatures whose lives are bound to the places they call their gardens. A garden need not be an actual garden: it may be a woodland, a frozen valley, a forgotten ruin, a city sewer, or even a rooftop crowded with chimneys and pigeons. Once a Gnome settles upon a place as their own, they and their spouse devote the rest of their lives to tending it, protecting its creatures, and keeping its delicate balance.
Garden Gnomes commune naturally with beasts and plants, and their physiology, temperament, and peculiar talents are deeply shaped by the garden they inhabit. A Woodland Gnome might be a cheerful herbalist who spends his centuries treating injured foxes and arguing affectionately with the owls. An Urban Gnome whose woodland was swallowed by a growing city might become a stern and methodical mediator, spending his days settling disputes between rats, pigeons, stray cats, and migrating birds. No two gardens are quite alike, and neither are the Gnomes who tend them.
Though they are small and long-lived, Garden Gnomes rarely see themselves as adventurers. To them, caring for a place and its inhabitants is a lifelong calling. Those who leave their gardens usually do so because something threatens the balance of the world they have sworn to protect, or because some distant place has called for a caretaker of its own.
Garden Gnomes are good-hearted by nature. Even their tricksters rarely seek cruelty, preferring mischief, riddles, and harmless inconveniences. After centuries spent watching generations of creatures come and go, most Gnomes develop a patient, peculiar wisdom—and a profound attachment to the little world beneath their care.
When a Garden Gnome finally dies, their body does not decay. Instead, it takes root and slowly transforms into a tree, becoming one final part of the garden they spent their life tending.
Garden Gnome Traits
Even at a mere 6 inches tall, a Garden Gnome's chest can hold the biggest of hearts.Truesight
Due to your fey nature you are naturally tied to the world of illusions. You have Truesight of a range of 1 feet.
Gnomish Wisdom
There's a lot to learn from the frogs and mice in your garden.
You have Proficiency on Insight, Arcana, or Animal Handling.
Greater Speech of Beast and Leaf
Your connection to nature allows you to understand its emotions and the ones inhabiting it.
You have the ability to communicate with Beasts, Plants, and vegetation. They can understand the meaning of your words, and you can understand them in return. You have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence them.
The Limits of Your Size
There's a bigger world out there.
You have a maximum strength score of 5, starting with 3.
Gnomish Lineage
You are part of a lineage that grants you supernatural abilities. Choose one of the following options; whichever one you choose, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for the spells you cast with this trait (choose the ability when you select the lineage):
- Woodland Gnome. You know the Minor Illusion cantrip. You also always have the Beast Sense spell prepared. You can cast it without a spell slot a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest. You can also use any spell slots you have to cast the spell.
- Winter Gnome. You know the Thaumaturgy cantrip. You also suffer no effects from The Limits of Your Size. You count as a medium creature when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. You have disadvantage on Charisma Saving Throws.
- Urban Gnome. You know the Find Familiar and Prestidigitation cantrips. You also always have the Find Familiar spell prepared. You can cast it without a spell slot a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest. In addition, If you have a Familiar, you can spend 10 minutes casting Prestidigitation to imbue it with magic. When you do so, you determine an effect from Prestidigitation; the Familiar can produce that effect whenever you take a Bonus Action to command it. If the chosen effect has options within it, you choose one of those options for the device when you create it. For example, if you choose the spell's ignite-extinguish effect, you determine whether the Familiar ignites or extinguishes fire; the Familiar doesn't do both. You can make your familiar have at most 3 of these effects.
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