Editing Gnome


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[[Image:5e PHB Gnome.jpg |300px|thumb|right|Want to play an [[elf]], but smaller, cuter and more fun-loving than arrogant? Then you want a gnome.]]
'''Gnomes''' are a fantasy race consisting of small, earthy men and women who possess magical powers and often look prematurely aged. If this sounds like a pretty poor way to describe them, then you're not wrong; the problem is that gnomes are basically the redheaded stepchildren of fantasy gaming, and even that race codifing titan, [[Dungeons & Dragons]], has never been able to give them a solid defining core the way they have done with the [[dwarf]] and [[elf]] races.

==Gnomes in Mythology==
The gnome as a mythical race dates back only as far as the Renaissance, when the writer Paracelsus created them for ''Liber de Nymphis, Sylvanis, Pygmaeis, Salamandris, et Gigantibus etc.'', describing them as small [[elemental]] spirits of the earth. It's believed that he used the term "gnomus" as a result of botching the spelling of gēnomos - "earth-dweller" in Latin.

Gnomes then took off as a result of Romanticism, when the English word "gnome" was coopted as a general blanket term for the "little people" - the vast assortment of small [[fairy]]-people from folklore across the many differing regions of Europe, essentially rolling together creatures like the [[dwarf]], [[goblin]] and [[kobold]] into a single generic term. Drawing upon Paracelsus' original creation, the gnome became a sort of cthonic fey; small, down-to-earth and often quite ugly and masculine in contrast to the masculine-yet-pretty [[elf]] and the very feminine [[fairy]].

Perhaps the closest thing to a defining image of gnomes has emerged from the various dwarf-like fae races of Switzerland and Germany; very small creatures of the forests and hills who live in harmony with nature, especially the animals, and who are shy but friendly towards humans. This was the school of thought that ultimately birthed the common garden gnome you see all over the place today, and the character David the Gnome, who has his own section elsewhere on this page.

With roots this tangled and confusing, it's no wonder that gnomes continue to struggle to define themselves to this day.

==Gnomes in Dungeons & Dragons==
Gnomes were latecomers to [[Dungeons & Dragons]], not appearing until 1978 in the [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 1e Player's Handbook - in comparison, the [[Elf]], [[Dwarf]], and [[Hobbit]] - sorry, '''[[Halfling]]''' had been there literally since the beginning, having first shown up in 1974's Men & Magic, the ''very first D&D booklet''.

Right from the start, there were troubles; gnomes had basically been introduced to try and replicate the Fighter/ Mage/Thief trinity in the "shortfolk" races, being the Wizard to the dwarven Fighter and the halfling Rogue. This, unfortunately, did not give them much of a backstory to draw from; D&D gnomes were portrayed as, essentially, a sort of dwarf-elf crossbreed; small, bearded men and homely women who, nonetheless, were playful, friendly, mischievous tricksters with a deep and abiding love of magic and practical jokes. Because, lacking anything better to do with them, they decided to throw them out as the obvious Comic Relief race.

Three editions came and went, and this lore stayed stable; from AD&D 1e to D&D 3e, gnomes were always the afterthought race, the joke race, the short and homely tricksters. Nobody could figure out what to do with them. Some settings toyed with this archetype in their own way - see Subraces - but for the most part, they remained the redhaired stepchildren of D&D.

Finally, by the early days of D&D [[4e]], the developers were sick of this. They decided to take gnomes out of the Player's Handbook and leave them there until they could come up with a decent backstory and "hook" for them, much like how [[halfling]]s went from being blatant [[hobbit]] ripoffs to nomadic hobbits to river & swamp-dwelling merchants & carnies. Gnomes ultimately made their triumphant return in the PHB2, and actually had an interesting backstory. 4e's gnomes had been denizens of the [[Feywild]], alongside the [[Eladrin]], but had spent generations as slaves under the cruel dictatorship of the [[Fomorian]]s; cursed fey giants with powerful magical abilities and mystic eyes. These gnomes worked hard, developing their skills with illusion magic and stealth, and ultimately managed to escape - for the most part.

To this day, they haven't forgotten their time as slaves, and so their culture revolves around both celebrating their freedom and making almost paranoid efforts to protect themselves. They build elaborately hidden bunker-villages, supplementing artful mundane camouflage with powerful illusions and other magical mind-fuckery effects. They hate slavery with a deep and abiding fury, and will do just about anything to avoid going back there. They even have specialist defenders, like the Nightcloaks - [[Paladin]]s armed with illusion magic who act as a combination of secret police and special commandos to eliminate threats before they can strike, and Phantasm Guards - [[Swordmage]]s wielding fear-inducing illusion spells to attack the body and the mind simultaneously. They are surprisingly badass little fuckers, but without going completely [[GrimDark]], so you can still play a comedic gnome if you absolutely want to.

Naturally, in the face of a positive revamp like this, 5th edition promptly threw it all away and went back to their original lore as inconsequential goofy dwarf-lite elf-lite hybrids.

Even [[Pathfinder]] thought that gnomes kind of sucked in 3e, and came up with their own take on them. They decided to double-down on the association of gnomes with wacky, goofball PCs, and so added a dash of [[Kender]] to their racial mix. The gnomes of [[Golarion]] are former residents of the First World, Pathfinder's equivalent to the [[Feywild]], who wound up stranded in the [[Prime Material]] as a race. Deprived of the mystical vitality of their faerie land home, the gnomes are afflicted with a condition called the Bleaching, which slowly sucks the color out of them both literally and metaphorically, until they wind up either dead or as a completely gray and eerily stoic parody of their former selves. Consequently, gnomes seek constant stimulation to thwart the Bleaching, constantly looking to experience the new and surrounding themselves with intense colors, tastes, scents and other sensation, essentially making them an entire race of non-evil [[Slaanesh]]i.

===D&D Gnome Appearances===
The classic gnome appearance in D&D is essentially a [[dwarf]] with a dash of [[elf]]; a small, squat humanoid who usually is described as both fairly homely and seeming to age quickly, giving them wrinkly faces and pronounced beards & mustaches. Unlike dwarves, they have no cultural attachment to their beards, and indeed often shave them into goatees or similarly small, neatly kept affairs to keep them out of their way. In AD&D, gnomes are most known for their prodigious noses. The elfin aspect mostly shines through in long, pointy ears.

The Feywild Gnome of 4th edition abandons the dwarfish elements; instead, they look like scaled-down [[eladrin]], with wild, spiky hair. They're surprisingly attractive, compared to the gnomes of past editions, or at least to AD&D. 

The Golarion Gnome of Pathfinder looks deliberately like a chibi anime character; weirdly sized facial features that invoke either their iconic D&D look (oversized ears and noses) or the classic anime look (seemingly too small mouth, near-absent nose, huge eyes) are actually canonical to their lore, and they come in a vast variety of different and weird skin, hair and eye colors. This is intended to help emphasize their fey, alien natures when compared to dwarves and halflings, and in fairness it actually works pretty well.

===Gnomish Subraces===
Rock Gnomes are the "mainstream" gnomes of D&D. These are the more dwarf-like gnomish race, though with a sense of playfulness and a love of practical joking that dwarves definitely lack. These are the intellectual and scholarly branch of the gnome family tree, making them naturally inclined towards arcane magic and practical sciences. By the time of 5th edition, they have been used to assimilate the "tinker gnome" archetype, mostly to provide an alternative to the Tinkers & Thinkers of [[Dragonlance|Krynn]].

Forest Gnomes, as their name suggests, favor the wilderness and are especially close to the creatures of nature, making them the shyest of the gnome subraces. They can be considered the more elfin of the gnomes, if one directly looks at gnomes as being a blending (metaphorically or literally) between dwarf and elf. Because their niche more heavily overlaps with the elf's niche than the rock gnomes' niche does with the dwarf's, forest gnomes are generally the least remembered and respected of the gnomic races, although 5e promoting them to a corebook subrace may see their fortunes reversed.

[[Svirfneblin]]s are the obligatory [[Underdark]] branch of the gnome family tree. Most known for their obsession with gemstones and for being the one Underdark counterpart race who aren't evil. See their own page for more details.

Arcane Gnomes are a rock gnome subspecies introduced in [[Dragon Magazine]] #291. Basically, these are rock gnomes who have gone urbanized to truly focus on mastering arcane magic, losing the more "woodsy" benefits of their rock gnome kindred and instead developing stronger wizardly traits. Mostly this manifests as losing the "speak with animals" ability inherent to most gnomes and gaining some classic "wizard's apprentice" cantrips as spell-like abilities (Ghost Sound, Dancing Lights and Prestidigitation), plus the ability to always use magical devices.

River Gnomes hail from the same Dragon Magazine issue as Arcane Gnomes, and basically are to the rivers what forest gnomes are to the forests. They're mostly known for being really good swimmers.

Wavecrest Gnomes, who hail from the "Stormwrack" coastal/aquatic sourcebook for 3e, are the coastal equivalents to River Gnomes. They're good at swimming and natural sailors. Not a lot more to say about them than that.

Ice Gnomes are another "environmental sourcebook" subrace. Hailing from 3e's Frostfell, they are the gnomes who inhabit "frostfell" regions - taigas, tundras, high mountains, basically the really cold parts of the world. They're essentially a watered-down version of the [[Uldra]], a small dwarven/elfin-like fey creature that shares the same environment.

Skygnomes are a [[Mystara]]n relative of the rock gnome who truly embrace their racial proclivities for magic and science to become competent tinker gnomes. These guys are so adept with [[magitek]] that they built their own homeland, in the form of a flying city-state the size of a small country which they defend with an armada of magitek biplanes. Told you these guys were competent.

Tinker Gnomes are one of the most well-known - and [[skub]]by - gnomish subraces. Created by a divine curse leveled on failed human worshippers of [[Reorx]], the [[Dragonlance|Krynnish]] god of craftsmanship and invention, Tinker Gnomes are obsessed with SCIENCE! but cursed to be utterly incapable of ever applying it successfully. They were supposed to be a comic relief race - and as this is the same setting that gave us the [[kender]] for the same reasons, you can figure out that it didn't work so good. These gnomes are also known as "Gnomoi".

Thinker Gnomes are rare Tinker Gnomes who have managed to shake off the worst of Reorx's curse, allowing them to actually do their science properly. Unfortunately, outside of the little-studied continent of Taladas, they are a distinct minority in a race that has come to define its very culture around the deep side-effects of their racial curse. As such, they are known as "mad gnomes" by their cursed kinsfolk. They call themselves the Minoi.

Feywild Gnomes, as discussed above, are a race of diminutive [[eladrin]]-like fey who have been shaped extensively by a history of slavery under the thumb of the [[fomorian]]s. They are charming but paranoid people, ever protective of their personal liberty, and with a potent natural knack for illusions.

Golarion Gnomes are, like Feywild Gnomes, a species of fey creature. Lacking access to the vibrant energies of their faerieland home forces them to seek constant emotional and mental stimulation, lest they be literally killed by apathy.

===Gnomish Religion===
Gnomes in D&D worship a small and tightly focused pantheon; emphasizing just how unimportant they are, whereas [[Moradin]] and [[Corellon]] have found audiences beyond the gnomish, the gnome gods have been pretty much forgotten by all but greybeards.

Leader of the pantheon is [[Garl Glittergold]], patriarch of the gnomish pantheon and depicted as a golden-skinned gnome with gemstone eyes. His portfolio is the gnomes as a race, jesting, play and good humor.

Baervan Wildwanderer is the gnomish god of the wilderness, thievery, and mischief. Depicted as a spry old gnome with nut-brown skin and a jaunty beard, accompanied at all times by a giant raccoon named Chiktikka Fastpaws.

Callarduran Smoothhands is the gnomish god of the earth and the patron god of the [[svirfneblin]].

FLandal Steelskin, with his mithral-steel skin, eyes like flaming coals and silver-blue beard, is the gnomish god of metalworking and mining.

Segojan Earthcaller is the gnomish god of burrowing animals, who appears as a gray-sinned gnome clad in a suit of armor woven from grass and roots.

Urdlen is the gnomish god of evil, avarice, envy, spite, malice, cruelty and destruction. Appears as a giant, blind, white-furred mole with steel claws.

===PC Stats===

====AD&D ====
;Rock Gnomes
::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 6/18, Dexterity 3/18, Constitution 8/18, Intelligence 7/19, Wisdom 3/17, Charisma 3/18
::Ability Score Adjustments: +1 Intelligence, -1 Wisdom
::Infravision 60 feet
::Speak to Burrowing Animals
::Detect Underground Features: Sloping Passages (1-5 on a d6), Flawed Stonework (1-7 on a d10), approximate depth underground (1-4 on a d6) and approximate direction underground (1-3 on a d6).
::Gain a +1 bonus to save vs. spell for every 3.5 points of Constitution.
::+1 to melee attack rolls against [[kobold]]s and [[goblin]]s.
::-4 bonus to Armor Class against all [[Giant]] class creatures.

;Tinker Gnomes
::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum:  Strength 6/18, Dexterity 8/18, Constitution 8/18, Intelligence 8/18, Wisdom 3/12, Charisma 3/18
::Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Dexterity, -1 Stregth, -1 Wisdom
::Infravision 60 feet
::Detect Underground Features: Sloping Passages (1-5 on a d6), Flawed Stonework (1-7 on a d10), approximate depth underground (1-4 on a d6) and approximate direction underground (1-3 on a d6).
::Gain a +1 bonus to save vs. spell for every 3.5 points of Constitution.
::-4 bonus to Armor Class against all [[Giant]] class creatures.

;Forest Gnomes
::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum:  Strength 3/17, Dexterity 8/19, Constitution 8/18, Intelligence 3/17, Wisdom 6/18, Charisma 3/18
::Ability Score Adjustments: +1 Dexterity, +1 Wisdom, -1 Strength, -1 Intelligence
::Speak to Forest Animals
::Pass Without Trace: Forest Gnomes leave no trace of their passage in any kind of wooded terrain.
::Gain a +1 bonus to save vs. spell for every 3.5 points of Constitution.
::Hide In Woods: A Forest Gnome inflicts a -4 penalty to its opponents' Surprise Rolls when in woodlands.
::-4 bonus to Armor CLass when fighting man-sized or larger creatures.
::+1 bonus to all attack & damage rolls when fighting [[orc]]s, [[lizardfolk]], [[troglodyte]]s or any creature they have directly observed damaging the woodlands.

====3rd Edition====
{{dnd-stub}}
;Common/Rock Gnome
::+2 Constitution, -2 Strength
::Small
::Base Land Speed 20 feet
::Loiw-Light Vision
::Weapon Familiarity: Gnomish Hooked Hammer
::+2 racial bonus on saving throws vs. illusions.
::Illusion spells cast by a gnome increase their Saving DC by +1.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls against [[kobold]]s and [[goblinoid]]s.
::+4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against Giant type creatures.
::+2 racial bonus on Listen and Craft (Alchemy) checks.
::Spell-Like Abilities: Speak With Animals (Burrowing Animals only) 1/day. A gnome with Charisma 10+ can also cast Dancing Lights, Ghost Sound and Prestidigitation 1/day.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Bard]]

====4th Edition====
There are three distinct gnome races in 4th edition. This page covers the Feywild/Common Gnome (PHB2) and the Tinker Gnome ([[Dragon Magazine]] #420) - for the [[Svirfneblin]], see its own page.

'''Feywild Gnome:'''
::Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma OR +2 Dexterity
::Size: Small
::Speed: 5 squares
::Vision: Low-Light
::Skill Bonuses: +2 Arcana, +2 Stealth
::Fey Origin: You are a Fey creature for effects that key off of origin.
::Master Trickster: You can cast the Ghost Sound cantrip 1/encounter as a minor action.
::Reactive Stealth: If you have any cover or concealment wen making an Initiative check, you can also make a Stealth check.
::Trickster's Cunning: +5 racial bonus to all saving throws against illusions.
::Racial Power - Fade Away: You can become Invisible until the end of your next turn or until you attack as an Immediate Reaction to taking damage.

'''Tinker Gnome:'''
::Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Intelligence, +2 Dexterity OR +2 Constitution
::Size: Small
::Speed: 5 squares
::Vision: Low-Light
::Skill Bonuses: +2 Arcana, +2 Thievery
::Quick Fix: When making Arcana checks to disable, identify or sense magical phenomena, or Thievery checks to pick locks, identify devices or disable devices, you can take the check as a minor action instead of a standard action, in return for a -4 penalty to the check.
::Use What's At Hand: You have Proficiency with Improvised Weapons.
::Racial Power - Lab Conditioning: When any attack misses you, or you are either hit or missed by an area attack or a close attack, you can, as an Immediate Reaction, halve the damage you took (if any) and then shit up to half your speed.

====5th Edition====
::Ability Score: +2 Intelligence.
::Typical Alignment: Any Good Alignment
::Size: Small. Between 3 and 4 feet tall, and clocking in at an average of 40 pounds.
::Speed: Base walking speed of 25 feet.
::Darkvision
::Gnome Cunning: Advantage on all mental (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) saving throws against magic.
::Languages: Common, Gnomish

'''Forest Gnomes'''
::Ability Score: +1 Dexterity
::Natural Illusionist: Free Minor Illusion Cantrip, with Intelligence as the modifier.
::Speak with Small Beasts: You can communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller beasts through sounds and gestures. Be prepared for your party to ask if you're having a stroke if you use this.

'''Rock Gnome'''
::Ability Score: +1 Constitution
::Artificer's Lore: Double Proficiency bonus when making History checks related to magic items, alchemical objects, or technological devices.
::Tinker: Proficiency with Tinker's Tools. Using the tools, you can spend an hour and 10 gp worth of materials to construct a Tiny clockwork device. It ceases to function after 24 hours unless you spend 1 hour repairing it, or you use an action to dismantle it. At that time, you can reclaim the materials used to create it. You can only have three active at one time.
* Clockwork Toy: The toy is a clockwork animal, monster, or person. When activated and placed on the ground, they toy moves five feet in a random direction. It makes noises appropriate to the creature it represents.
* Fire Starter: It's a lighter. Use requires an action.
* Music Box: When opened, the box plays a single song at a moderate volume. The box stops playing upon reaching the songs end or when it's closed.

'''Deep Gnome (Svirfneblin)'''
::Ability Score: +1 Dex
::Actually have shorter lives. Only 200-250 years, and consequently, are considered full grown adults by 25.
::Typical Alignment: Any Neutral Alignment.
::Superior Darkvision
::Stone Camouflage: Advantage on Stealth checks to hide in rocky terrain.
::Languages: Common, Gnomish, Undercommon
::Optional Feat: Svirfneblin Magic. While the other members of the Underdark Crew automatically get their magic, the svirf's have to waste an ASI to get a feat to get theirs. That said, it includes:
* Nondetection (at-will, self only)
* Blindness/Deafness (once-a-day, long rest recharge)
* Blur (once-a-day, long rest recharge)
* Disguise Self (once-a-day, long rest recharge)
* Intelligence is their modifier for all spells.

==Gnomes vs. Dwarves==
Part of the reason gnomes struggle to this day with finding an identity is that they overlap too much with dwarves. Which is to be expected, since gnomes (at least the iconic D&D version) were basically made by throwing together various dwarf-like mythical beings into one and dwarves were made to be expies of Nordic dwarves by way of [[Tolkien]]. It's far too easy for gnomes to fall into the trap of defining themselves as being "whatever dwarves aren't" - and if that's no longer the case, the gnomish identity struggled. The ability for dwarves to cast arcane magic alone was a huge blow against them when 3e came out.

Another part of the problem is that, really, anything gnomes can do, dwarves can do. This is most readily seen in how dwarves are often the go-to "tech guy" race in settings that don't adhere to [[Medieval Stasis]], despite the gnome's increasing attempts to be associated with fantasy technology and [[magitek]].

==The Tinker Gnome Phenomena==
As part of the general and ongoing attempt to make gnomes interesting, many settings have tried the path of making them tinkers. The general logic is that they have a vaguely-dwarfish industriousness and affinity for the sciences, but a distinctly undwarfy knack for magic, inventiveness, and prizing the new over the tried, true and traditional. So, they are a logical fit for a race that tries to create new inventions and things. In settings featuring them, dwarves may be better at rune-crafting or forging masterwork gear, but gnomes will be the ones who create [[steampunk]] and guns.

The very first example of this was in [[Mystara]], where the gnomish civilization is a ''flying city-state'', defended by ''manned machine-gun turrets and fully-functional biplanes''. Sadly, like most Mystaran stuff, it is generally unknown except to a few ancient neckbeards.

The most famous example, sadly, are the Minoi of [[Dragonlance]]. Unfortunately, as with the [[Gully dwarf|Gully Dwarves]] and the notorious [[Kender]], Tinker Gnomes were intended to be a Comic Relief race. So, once again, the authors failed to realise that A: traits that make one character amusing often become boring/embarrassing/ridiculous when applied to a whole race, and B: a race that is intended to be playable shouldn't come with traits that seem tailor-made for a character to be used as an excuse to piss off the rest of the party. With lore that they used to be humans who served [[Reorx]], the God of Creation, during the mythic era, only to anger him and be cursed and cast from his forge, condemned to never again be able to properly apply the creativity he had given them, the end result is that Krynnish Tinker Gnomes are a race of bungling idiots who deliberately overcomplicate their machinery because they find the extremes of Rube Goldberg design to be more aesthetically pleasing and "scientific". Most gnome-fans hate them, as they are implicitly called out as being responsible for Krynn's [[Medieval Stasis]]. Even in The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings, there's quotes from "real" gnomes denying that Tinker Gnomes are any relation to them, showing that TSR itself may have been aware of what sort of hack writers they had behind them.

Perhaps fortunately, the tinker gnome phenomena has mostly become associated in the modern era with the gnomes of [[Warcraft]], who are kooky and like to try the outrageous, but also prize functionality and safety (in contrast to [[goblin]]s, who are happy to risk being blown to bits if it means they get it working faster).

==Famous Gnomes==
* [[Dimkin of the Stump]]: The only Gnome who has left a written record of his travels is '''Dimkin of the Stump''', whose journal makes reference to a mysterious land with a vast plain of turnips and enormous landmarks that seem almost like constructions. 
* [[Baldur's Gate|Jan Jansen]]: Tinker, tailor, wizard, turnip. He ''seems'' stupid, until his army of knife-wielding gibbon commandos invades your house, saves his childhood sweetheart, and assassinates you. Anything is possible with ''that'' many heavily-armed apes.
* High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque: Informally known as King of the Gnomes (in exile), he is actually an elected leader, holding the position for an indefinite term. He and a substantial fraction of the total gnome population fled from their homes in Gnomeregan after an environmental disaster, and is now trying to recapture their old home.
* Underpants Gnomes: ...those little shits [[Profit|stole]] my boxers.

===David the Gnome===
If you hang out on /tg/ long enough, eventually, you're going to see a macro. A still from a cartoon, depicting a garden gnome-like figure with a blue shirt and a red hat. He's frowning intensely and has both hands clenched into fists, and emblazoned on the pic will be some variant of "How about I slap your shit".

This is David the Gnome, originally the star of a series of Dutch children's books presented as a anthropological study of the gnomes written by Wil Huygens and illustrated by Rien Poortvliet, whose influence on the series was as defining as [[Tony DiTerlizzi]]'s art was for [[Planescape]]. One of the books going into depth about gnome biology shows has a picture of [[PROMOTIONS|a shy topless female gnome]], with the description that [[Magical Realm|because of the firmness of their breasts female gnomes have no need for bras]]. Oh you, Netherlands. It was made into a very popular animated series in the mid 1980s by a Spanish studio. In a mountain forest, David lives the life of a goodly [[druid]]; telling lessons about nature to the audience off-screen whilst on-screen rescuing cute animals from danger, patching up their injuries and curing their sicknesses, all whilst protecting the forest from beings who would harm it. He frequently clashed with gnome-eating trolls, whom he defeated with his wits and [[trap]]s.

It is perhaps most famous for its soul-crushing ending. See, throughout the series, we're told that gnomes only live to be 400 years old - and both David and his wife are 399 at the start of the series. Most cartoons would have just ended in some upbeat fashion, but not The World of David The Gnome. Oh no! Instead, those tuning in for the final episode got to see the clock tick around to the gnomes' 400th year, whereupon they stagger out into the forest, withering quickly under the onslaught of age, share one final embrace, and then turn into a pair of young trees. And then just to reinforce that they're dead, we see their ghosts/souls emerge from the trees, hug each other again, and go dancing off into the sky to the gnomish equivalent of Heaven, all whilst David's series-long partner, a fox named Swift, lays down at the foot of the trees and cries his heart out.

Sweet fucking [[Garl Glittergold]], that was a depressing ending...

==Monstergirls==
As one of the [[demihuman]] races, you'd expect gnomes to get the [[monstergirls]] treatment pretty regularly - they are, after all, as close as you can get to a canon [[shortstack]] race in D&D. But, you'd be surprised; gnomish monstergirls are actually very rare, even though attractive female gnomes have been canon to D&D since at least 3rd edition. The root cause of this? Probably the fact that gnomes don't really have any unique defining culture or traits to build from. After all, what does a sexy female gnome have that you can't get from, say, a good-humored female [[dwarf]], or a mischievous [[halfling]] [[illusionist]]?

For the most part, if you see a "sexy" gnome on /tg/, /d/ or /aco/, it'll be either a [[Rule 34]] of the gnomes from [[Warcraft]], or else a tinker gnome heavily inspired by said - for all Warcraft's faults, it's still the closest thing to a unique and non-annoying gnome culture that people are familiar with... okay, aside from the Feywild & Golarion gnomes, at least.

One of the few /tg/ sources to address this issue is the [[Book of Erotic Fantasy]]. It claims that gnomes really enjoy sex and that bisexuality, partner swapping and group sex are common. They are responsible for some of the most elaborate sex toys and manuals, including the famed ''Gnomish Kama Sutra'', which is often banned outside of Gnomish lands. As long as it does not involve [[Loviatar|BDSM]] gnomes will try it at least once, and later try it again in new and interesting ways. Foreplay is considered to be very important for both sexes, and the act itself is supposed to be fun and exciting for everyone involved. Breeding with other species is about as difficult as it is for dwarves, making gnomes more likely to [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|try everything at least once just to see how it feels]]. This outlook on sex sets them apart from halflings and elves with whom they frequently overlap: to elves it's about the extension of the relationship while for halflings it is what binds the community together on a personal level. This outlook can be added to [[magitek]] interpretations to make them the premier manufacturers of sex toys and dolls... which is sometimes already used for the [[Warcraft]] gnomes.

The [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]] didn't really know what to do with gnomes. It used the name "Gnome" for its Earth [[Elemental]] mamono, a voluptuous [[slime]]-girl-like figure of earth (with its "Dorome" mud elemental variant probably being based on the dorotabo, a yokai that appears as a mud-man), used the common look of a gnome monstergirl for its [[Dwarf]], and gave the "mad tinker" archetype to its [[Gremlin]], a demonic [[loli]] [[catgirl]].

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Rawr Ima monster.jpg|He's a monster, rawr.
File:2e Gnome.gif|What gnomes look like in 2e.
File:2e Gnome 2.jpg
File:4e_Gnome_PHB2.jpg|4e's attempt to make gnomes look badass.
File:Gnomish Dire Weasel Cavalry.jpg|Being Small means you can ride animals that Medium-sized humanoids cannot, like DIRE WEASLES.
</gallery>

== External links ==
* [http://eye.swfchan.com/flash.asp?id=79003&n=gnomeparty.swf&w=688&h=384 gnomeparty.swf]

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[[Category: Monsters]]