The Problem with Gnomes in D&D

[Music] hello little men gnomes are the resident little guys of D and D they are known for their curiosity their Whimsy and for being the least popular cold race in all of D and D by like a wide margin why well I'm antono this is poy hat and that's what we're here to find out and offer a fix for in this brand new episode of DN D with a Twist no medition so when I think of gnomes I think of gnome is the race for vertically challenged athletes and Lego children and not much else these guys do not see much play gnomes are often typ cast as Wizards and when they let the everon books out to play with the other books artificers they are here to embody a hardly defined and nebulous fantasy of tiny small man who is also very smart and more importantly kooky and if you feel like this is too specific you are right so what does the lore tell us about these short kicks let's take a look so gnome lore has fluctuated a lot throughout Editions so water is wet and the sun will most likely come out tomorrow in for E gnomes were very firmly planted in the Fay wild adjacent Camp along with elves and whatever this is in 3.5e they were more dwarf adjacent sort of a convergent evolution kind of situation happening their origin myth has it so that they were born of gemstones with each gnome subra originating from a different gemstone so it does feel dwarfes 5be leans towards the dwarf kind of thing but not really but kind of but maybe are you surprised me too I also thought we all agreed that these guys were of the leprechaun scented variety but nope no fate the reason for this is that gnomes just feel very fake coded even in 5 whenever a poor soul that seeks to start D and D comes to me for guidance the fool and ask the curse question what is gnome I often say that gnomes are to halflings what elves are to humans halfling is sort of the mundane Baseline to the Gnomes magicky weirdo Vibes L wise and you better listen up because this will show up later don't make me tap the sign gnomes are all about being unseen much like halflings and expect me to say much like halflings throughout this entire video these guys have a brand in problem gnomes have survived by generally being out of everyone else's way they live in a world that is filled with creatures bigger and stronger than them and they have managed to survive in this world by using the ancient technique called the birthday boy argument happy birthday Gomes are just a little guy a guy with glasses and it's their birthday you wouldn't hit a Little Gnome boy with glasses on their birthday this coupled with their pension for illusion magic have made their culture all about just not standing out that much and hoping people just kind of forget they are there which apparently has worked really well when people are picking a race to make their characters other than standing against the wall at prom and hoping people won't notice that they didn't bring a date gnome second def fighting treat is their curiosity gnomes are extremely extremely curious to a point there's even writings stipulating that boredom is extremely negative to their health this is once again very interesting let's tap the sign one more time gnomes will generally Chase anything they find intellectually stimulating which is what makes them good wizards because you really really got to find the Arcane interesting to spend half a C in a library trying to learn to cast Dancing Lights it's very much a labor of love a third bit of gome lore is that they're sort of generally Whimsical like they are much like halflings again a good time to be around there's a lot of writing on their D and D Beyond presentation about how they are all about fun and joy and Good Vibes only and laughing and dancing and savoring every last drop of life and painting with all the colors of the wind and whatever blah blah blah blah we get it happy people Shiny Happy People in terms of society as I said there was a time where they were very associated with the Fay wild but not anymore which has surprisingly not changed much about them they live in very much like halflings yes again very much like halflings they live in small Burrows in Hills although they add the grass typing to this by also living in the forest wow so creative I told you they are elves for halflings that's it that's that's what they are those that mingle among other races tend to go for jobs like engineering artificer magical shopkeeper that your DM tries an unsuccessfully and mildly annoying accent for cuz has wees if you have coin if the halfling is here so that DMS can default to them when describing an inkeeper gnomes are here so that the DM can default to them when describing a tinkerer since gnome Society is all about not standing out and fame and fortune are like negatively valued gnomes much like halflings tend to not produce many adventurers very inspiring stuff when coming up with a PC okay so that's the primer on lore as I said they used to be more fake coded but they're not fake coded anymore which makes it hard to marry a lot of the text on how gnomes had a big presence in the F wild and got along grade with like eladrin but that's just redcon for you what are you going to do oh apparently we are doing something anyway appearance-wise gnomes are very shockingly and surprisingly tiny tinier than dwarfs but bigger than halflings perfectly mid much is made about their hair being like alurn Einstein like sticking out in Wild directions as a matter of fact you can just show this picture and Y that's that's what a gome is Wild Hair fun math related yeah that's pretty much it at the start of the nd5 they gave them like these vertically squished faces with no foreheads which no thank you wow I wonder why these guys weren't popular and they've since abandon this so we can all cheer okay this seems like a good time for me to get on my Soap Box about this so let me just gnomes have pointy ears halflings don't have pointy ears as a resident expert on pointy things this is my PSA these two little guys are already basically in distinguishable from one another and not popular so let's not make it even harder to tell them apart also pointy ears are a good way to explain the whole they are the elves of halflings okay great we did it we got that out of the way let's move on to abilities human familiar give us the rundown on what gnomes can do humili okay magical manlets I've been taking notes and abilities and everything so gnomes get a bunch of what are you showing on screen Oh you mean the little Gucci dress the little Gucci dress the little Gucci dress no what's all that oh you mean merch merch merch that's right finally I've been working on this for ages look at it we're working on merch I have drawn and designed everything myself how many YouTubers can say that the reason why it's taken so long is that I'm doing much much more than merch much much more and you'll know about it when the time is right if you thought Kraken week was big get ready for this but why am I talking to you about it now well because all soft goods that means clothes the clothing will be available for purchase at Gen Con that's right I'm going to Gen Con or rather I'm possessing my human familiar and sending him as my eyes and ears I and we're going big this year I'll be at the crown Booth booth number 2543 right here on Friday the 2nd of August from 1: to 2:00 p.m. and on Saturday the 3rd from 5: to 6:00 p.m. so we can just hang out and sign whatever y'all want me to sign merch included and just say hi but that's not all I have four panels one is a panel with just me about making your own stuff for games I'll talk about how I started but it's going to be very audience participation E I wanted to be a space for y'all to ask questions and hang out together one is an actual event we're going to be making a monster together like the people that come to the event and me are going to create some weird little creature together I have like a whole system set up for it and if you come you get the stat block of whatever monster we end up making there the other panel is a panel with g d and dingo Doodles which come on that's amazing I can't believe I get to sit with them and talk it's all about how to start content Creation in a unique way that makes you different from everyone else and more likely to succeed and the final one is a massive with a capital big panel in a insanely big room with dungeon dudes D and D shorts and Jin and that one is like one of the biggest panels at gencom this year I don't know if it's the biggest one but it's one of the biggest ones scary terrifying please come support I'm very scared please that that sounds like the scariest thing to me so if you want to meet and say hi and snack some very early merch very early and come hang out with me at these panels I've been planning for months and like whatever sighting say hi I've left the links to the panel and my gen conon schedule below and by the way the tickets flew last time I'm talking within the first 50 minutes so don't forget to snatch your tickets now I just wish you would tell me when you do these things it's a very expensive plane ticket and I'm not teleporting after what happened what's that here you go I can merch too yeah I just thought it'd be cute okay okay don't get all mushy Gomes no gnomes now back to gnomes okay back to gnomes gome abilities let's go so gnomes my God my own t-shirt if you play with ability score increases gnomes get a plus two to intelligence intelligence is a stat that only matters to literally one core class artificer is not a core class no matter how hard you and I want it to be which you know probably part of the reason gnomes don't see much play it's funny that in a game made to attract OB actually they made intelligence the least useful stat gnome is one of the small races which say it with me means are worst a medium race in every possible way halflings and goblins get little perks to kind of sort of not really make up for this but gnomes don't so I guess you're just Thug with 25 ft of movement and permanent disadvantage to all attacks with heavy weapons last time I talked about this some people told me that the fact that small creatures can mount medium creatures makes up for all the inconveniences and I I hope they got some numbing cream for that incredible reach they may not get a single thing to make up for the crime of being short little baby boys but gnomes do get one of the best abilities in the game Gnome cunning this gives gnomes wait for it advantage on all intelligence wisdom and Charisma saving throws against magic this is up there but not quite as strong as halflings look but like what is it's basically as good as the amount of casting enemies that the end throws at you during the campaign and that's it that's it that's it well okay onto sub races I'll take it from here go wear your T-shirt yeah my own t-shirt okay so there are two types of gnome sub races first off Forest gnomes this is where they stored the fwat connection gnomes used to have but ton it down to Hell and back until we came to Disney princess gnome for as gnomes Liv in you guessed it the square hole if gnomes are generally secretive and like to move by unnoticed these guys are like the social anxiety version of that they concentrate on illusion magic to Shield themselves and their communities from prying eyes if you're the type to beeline towards the whole cage core little fairy that lives in a mushroom and sits on a stump to eat porridge of Stew of Pie as she wears air tones exclusively and puts on too much blush and draws too many fake freck holes on this is it this is the one for you also how is that stardew Valley addiction going this sub race gives you decks if you do the whole ability score TI to race thing which means I guess foresome has Synergy with Blood Hunter a perfect fit they get natural ill Illusionist which is a nice way of saying you get minor illusion and they also get speak with small beasts which completes the transformation into certified Disney princess Disney Prince's Blood Hunter the other subas for gnomes is the school of rnome and it's better in every way to Forest gnomes rug gnomes have little to no flavor we're not even told if they live on the square hole it goes in the Square but we do know that they're like tougher and more inventive this is where the Dwarven flavor of gnomes lives rather than the fa thing they used to have at one point real talk this is just because Dragon L was popular at one point and it made gnomes into tinkerers so now gnomes are the tinkering Race Across the board it's all very World of Warcraft as a gnome of the School of Rock you get a bonus to con which is better than a bonus to Dex because everyone likes when the HP is high and you get artificer lore you're an expert on checks on items be it some weird magical glowy sword or a fantasy elevator this is so much better than Disney princess certification or minor illusion that it's not even funny but if that wasn't all you also get Tinker if you spend 1 hour and 10 gold cosplaying Bell's dad for from mut and the Beast you can make a little guy your little guy can make a little guy of his own it's worthless in combat but it's worth outside of combat is dependent on how clever and resourceful you are which is a great way to push you to roleplay at gnome the little guy in question can do some very limited things like go in a random direction making noise make a fire or play the greatest gnome hits but you can also argue with your DM to build a little guy that does something else and then your DM can agree to something without thinking about it allow your little guy to somehow just destroy the campaign and then go on Reddit to complain about balance it's what the game is about and that's all gnomes we can now move on to psych much like a gnome I have played the most Whimsical prank on all of you for there is yet another one deep gnomes also known as that Swedish Chef gnomes people these guys are under dark gnomes gnomes that live underground if gnomes were found underground by their God and led outside why are these guys different who knows deep gnomes are the most different of all the Gnomes on account of them being like an entire race of accountants whereas other gnomes are known for their and they're Whimsy or sorry Whimsy de gnomes are known for being boring as in literally described as joyless by like the text I don't know I like it in terms of abilities these guys get dark vision duh but also they get 30 ft of speed and not 25 despite being small look at them they also get gift of the swi SW gift of the Swedish Chef that's sweet and Mama despite not being fought to be around de gnomes are still master illusionists so they get disguised self at level three and non detection at level five this is so much better than Forest gnomes getting minor illusion that it's just funny they also get their normal gnome magic advantage on basically every saving through against magic which is wild and they also get God Swedish Chef camouflage which just gives them advantage on stealth a number of times equal to their proficiency bonus this is so strong this is so much stronger than the Baseline gnome okay swe Chef work okay so we've looked at gnome lower gnome abilities gnome saw braces though works so what if we give gnomes and you twist but before we get into the thick of gnome building we're going to want to outfit our gnome with some gear yes picking and choosing magic items at the start is fun but what about that magical feeling of finding something not knowing what it does what about this weird snake thing it looks neat but what does it do how about this funky looking sword does it spin does it light up in fun colors does it decimate your enemy's forces in a world wind of Steel and pain well this is the entire feeling that Falco's Vault of Wonders is trying to elicit that's right we've talked about them before and we're talking about them again because the kickstarter is up these are decks of magic items that work in a very special way to maximize Whimsy and wonder at the table which you're watching a video on gnome so you know maximizing Whimsy is pretty big you hand your players the card with the illustration and once they figure out how the item works either by identify or some other darker means you give them the second card with all the info that first item I showed that's the Viper necklace and it allows you to see in heat site like the Jurassic world dinos the second one that's a phantom Fang baby and it lets you teleport when you crit and these are just two out of the get ready 240 All In theme decks so if all of this sounds fun and I'm all about things that generate cool exciting interactions at the table so I think it is go ahead and check out their kicks outter it's life right now and it's the first link in the description and thank you to Falco's Vault of Wonders for sponsoring this video and now back to gnome hours it's quite obvious that there's a problem with gnomes literal data shows that they are as I said the least played core race people are not resonating with these guys and I think I found the reasons why yes stuff like them giving a big plus to intelligence when the stat is Barely Used does not help but no the issues here are deeper I know I banged this draw 24/7 when it comes to talking about races but I truly think that Aesthetics basically Trump every other metric when people decide to play a race no you cannot make an aesthetic that pleases everybody but you can make an aesthetic that is recognizable and iconic to everyone and let those that find it appealing come to it we can at least aspire to make every option distinguishable at a glance and you literally cannot distinguish halflings and gnomes at a glance like at all they both have changed so much with each swing of our direction that at this point it's a 50/50 chance if something is either a halfling or a gnome you cannot tell them apart but if halflings have the same problem why are halflings popular and gnomes aren't trick question they aren't halflings are just above half works in the core race popularity contest that is the third least popular C race but that's still higher than gnomes why well IP baby halflings are Hobbits they're they're just Hobbits they were literally called Hobbits before the tolist state decided that it was feeling Suey that day one of the most popular fantasy IPS has halflings as the heroes of their story the main character is a halfling in Lord of the Rings hell the main character is also a halfling in The Hobbit movies it's named after them gnomes well there's David The Gnome and look I love David The Gnome just as much as any Spanish speaker but homeboy is not feeding half of the New Zealand tourism industry like froto and his male wife are so is that all well no this is smaller but it's still a reason remember all the yapping I did about gnome lore changing substantially between additions this kind of always happens but it's a pretty big jump here now I barely mention it because I don't want yall asking me for a dwarf video I love them as is but dwarf is my favorite D and D race it's either them or t Lings depending on the day I am the furthest thing away from a dwarf hater I'm at dwarf Defender at dwarf enjoyer and yet I think that the gnome switch from F to dwarfish has hurt them more than anything else I get why they did it gnomes and folklore are literally underground fa Spirits so it kind of Mak sense to make them dwarfish and they really really wanted to lean hard on the tinkering thing but I think this is a mistake tinkerer is way too narrow of an aesthetic it pushes you into such a specific character concept that unless you're going for that extremely specific thing you're just going to outright ignore it dwarfs have blacksmithing as like a part of their culture but it's not the only part of their culture gnomes now that the the whole Fai thing is out of the window it does very much feel like they are here to be Maurice from Beauty and the Beast and that's it not much else this whole tinkering business coupled with the fact that gnomes are all about not standing out and going unnoticed makes them like perfectly designed to be NPCs and not adventurers which wow maybe that translates to people not making known PCS so what do I generally don't do this but why not I'm going to propose a visual redesign for the whole race first we'll get into the actual twist later reminder here that I'm not trying to appeal to every single person ever if you don't like like this that's fine there's 3,000 other races what I'm trying to do here is to give gnomes a unique visual identity that makes them easy to tell apart from every other D and race while still keeping them feeling no me let's go curious inventive Whimsical these are the ingredients to make the perfect little girl I mean gome my proposal pointy noses sloping foreheads wild hair put in that Whimsy with mildly exaggerating proportions in the hands and such but where halflings are all round shapes bulba's noses and full faces gnomes are angular even to how the hair grows on them and well that knows okay that feels no me to me and that rhymed so it must be right now some eagle-eyed viewers might think this looks very Fay and guess what you're right I try not to Recon when it comes to lore but rather add to the existing lore to solve some of the issues gnom lore is basically non-existent this is what we know gnome God was spelunking found gnomes in cave took them out God of Cobalts made gnomes interns for a second God of gnomes played a practical prank on the god of Cobalts that consisted in dropping an entire Mountain on top of the Cobalt guy the end no much so if gnomes used to have a connection with the Fay and also the underground being born out of gems if gnomes were led by their God to the surface and if there's a race of gnomes specifically from the underd dark one that continues to live below ground what about the F dark that's right gnomes have a fay Vibe with ti to it in previous editions gnomes have connections to the underd dark with deep gnomes what have we combined those what if the Gnomes that stayed in the faay wild stayed not in the surface but in the fade dark something happened to pucks at the beginning of time some say that the god of Cobalts hunted the pucks nearly to Extinction and the few of them that remained fled to the Fay WS to escape him others say that it was the GN God that abandoned the Pucks in the fwell after the pucks greatly offended him in some way lost to history so it cannot be repeated somehow managing to erase the God's Perpetual smile off of his face and turning it into a scowl of anger whatever the actual reason is it was was erased from all memory but it forever changed puckish culture while all gnomes are skittish pucks take this to a new extreme they hide away underground in the Wilds of the fade AR away from most creatures that roam the plane but this is not enough bucks hide their face from All by wearing masks that they never take off even around those closest to them despite not even knowing what they are hiding from hiding has become a part of their culture and they take great pride in their masks seeing them as extensions of themselves they animate them using their tinkering abilities to make the mask reflect their emotions making them frown and smile along with the face beneath only taking this mask off when feeling an incredibly deep connection with someone or Upon A Puck's death beings from the fa wild often feel emotions in a deeper stronger way when compared to beings from the prime material maybe the Puck's fears were Amplified by the pl of fairy but so was their innate Nish curiosity pox call it their Muse they believe each and every one of them is born with a muse and object of Fascination that they simply must study and learn more from a puck crafts their mask when they found their Muse making it in the Muse's image and dedicate their lives to pursuing that Muse Puck with a useful Muse Ascend ranks quickly in both puckish Society fake courts in general and even the material plane for those that cross the path into it there are stories of pucks who had the art of combat as amuse and became impossibly great Heroes whereas others found their Muse in medicine or musical Mastery however not all pu are quite as lucky some Muses are not seen as valuable by as many or by any and this is a great source of angst amongst pucks Puck parents will discourage children from taking on any hobbies that they feel won't lead to a good Muse and yet it happens that a puug finds their Muse in something their culture does not value this is often a reason for pucks to become adventurers joining those that found a muse that requires them to travel to study their Muse in more detail there are even pucks who can't seem to ever find their Muse and go through life without ever Dawning a mask being Sha by their peers for it these often leave too in search of their Muse elsewhere in the Falk or Beyond it so that they may finally make a mask for themselves whatever the reason is for a puck to leave the nest it is a fact that many of them do and whether they do it led by the Invisible Hand of their Muse or by the lack thereof pucks always leave an indelible mark on anyone that meets their path okay I think that's really neat that's right much like with the goblins we leaned on mythology to make them brownies My take here is to lean on mythology to bring more of the actual gnome mythological figure forward gnomes and fulker are underground fake creatures let's make them exactly that in D andd or rather give them the option to be that I also wanted them to feel like not just good for NPC fod but good for PC fod these guys basically sit you down and ask you to come up with a character motivation for them that's great for a race what about a puug that has humans as their Muse and leaves a f while to live among them and understand them better what about a puck that cannot find their muse no matter what they do and leaves their home to find it as they constantly try new hobbies to see if anything sticks what about a puug that is a detective and their Ms is investigation techniques their curiosity is aimed towards finding who committed any crime and why and what about a puug that lies about what their musees relying on everyone assuming that a puck with a useful Muse is bound to be useful so they LED that puck into the houses of extremely powerful people and once inside their true Muse can finally be satiated spycraft it's gnome James B Bond James Ned all of those sound fun sure but it's just a shame that puck live right at the very tip of my hat where my brain resides if only you could play them oh what's that you are curious as to what that link in the description is well I'll satiate your curiosity for it is the puck The Gnome rise made by me that you can use for 100% certified pointy hat free bars and also the merch and the events of jetcon are also there please come I don't want to be lonely please don't make me be alone but what if your Muse is another short King but not gnomes well how about halflings here's the video on them to date one of my favorite twists of all time I've done on this channel and on the subject of short Kings and the Fate wild check out the Goblin video F goblins named brownies perfect okay bye-bye gnomes no messes and no mixes

Channel: Pointy Hat

Views: 65,479

Keywords: DnD, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, DnD with a twist, D&D with a twist, 5e, TTRPG, How to, Illustration, D&D battle music, Pointy Hat, Animation, Rant, Hat, Hombrew, Trailer, D&D trailer, One D&D, Onednd, OGL, SRD, Wizards, Wizards of the coast, WotC, WOC, OGL drama, Class, Classes, Best subclass, Gnomes, Gnome, Halfling, Small Races, Fey, Fae, Feywild, Feydark, Puck, 2024 rulebook, 2024 phb, new PHB, player's handbook, hobbit, DnD hobbit, DnD gnome, DnD gnomes, DnD Race, D&D gnome, D&D gnomes

Id: ND3OIFj2ey8

Length: 24min 47sec (1487 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 12 2024