Gnomes are an artificial race created by Dark Lady Ta-tiki-tekh-uata, the Witch Mother, to serve as her attendants, spies and enforcers. Some sources suggest that she tried to replicate the long-lost Sidhe biomantic recipe for turning humans into elves, others claim that she did so successfully, but used her plentiful goblin slaves as the base stock instead of her much more sparse human subjects - in any case, gnomes were the result.
No one has a satisfactory answer for the colourful cap thing.
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| Old Gnome Wizard by Skywise00 |
This is a racial class, so its template A can only be gained during character creation. Inspired by Konsumterra.
I have no love for gnomes. They are surprisingly bland fey dwarves. There is no strong theme, no nice twist that would make me want them in my world. Yet for some reason, my players want to play as gnomes. Or rabbits. Making gnomes a regional offshoot of goblins gives them a place in the world, but at the same time, there don't need to be any gnomes save for the player characters, unless the party travels to Pflec. I can live with that.
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| High level grey cap gnome From here. |
Quest: Visit Pflec or the Witch Mother's lost demesne.
Language: Sylvan (Red, Green, Gold, Blue, Grey) or Pflecian (Svirfneblin)
Items: gnome cap, tool of your hereditary trade
Skills: (per sub-species) Parade, Recall Details, Music, Cooking, Tinkering, Ward-Breaking
Age: There was a mild imperfection in the biomantic formula used to create this race. Gnomes reach adulthood at age 20, but their appearance ages faster than that. A twenty years old, young adult gnome will look like a human in their sixties or seventies. They only get wrinklier and more stooped with age, though this does not affect their physical capabilities much. Gnomes live up to 200 years and in old age start to develop plant-like characteristics - wrinkles become bark, beard is more moss than hair. This is another flaw of the biomantic formula.
A: Gnome Cap, Small Stature
B: Gnomish Magic, +1 MD
Gnome Cap
Gnomes possess an innate magical spark than can be imbued into a special cap, which must be made by the gnome's own hands and have the appropriate colour. Only gnomes can use a gnome cap, but they can use any gnome's cap. Each breed of gnomes has a different power that they can imbue into their cap.
Each gnome can only make one cap at a time. Should they wish to make a new one, the old one must be destroyed first for the gnome's spark of magic to return and be ready for imbuement again. Thus gnomes are highly protective of their cap. Stealing a cap is seen as a heinous crime in gnome communities, often resulting in harsh punishments. Similarly, confiscating one's cap is a harsh punishment reserved for the most vile criminals.
You cannot wear both a cap and a helmet.
Small Stature
You only need half as many rations as a grown man. You can fit into small spaces rather comfortably.
Many items will be bulky for you due to awkward size. You can only wield long weapons (long sword, spear) with both hands and cannot use heavy weapons (great sword, halberd) at all.
You cannot reach the top shelf.
Gnomish Magic
You have learned to use your magical gift similarly to a wizard, though you do not possess a spellbook. Gain 1 Magic Die. Each subspecies gains two spells:
- Red: death scythe, speak with blood
- Green: misty step, speak with animals
- Gold: part crowd, unseen orchestra
- Blue: clean up, speak with doors
- Grey: make material, move earth
- Death: non-detection, spell collapse
You have to be touching your cap to cast your spells - your spells are "memorised" in your cap.
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| Young blue cap gnome From here. |
Gnome, Red Cap
Red cap gnomes were soldiers and enforcers. Once the most plentiful of gnomes, their numbers were mercilessly culled when the Dark Ones fell, the remaining few fleeing to Pflec or abroad.
Red Cap
When you put on your cap after it has been drenched in fresh blood (enough to actually drench it, a few drops will not suffice), you can take any number of Fatigue points - that number will be X. You gain Xd6 temporary HP, deal +X damage in melee, roll Strength with +X bonus and count as X size categories larger for grappling purposes (without actually growing larger). This lasts until you lose all the temporary HP or take off the cap.
Gnome, Green Cap
Green cap gnomes were scouts and messengers. Most have found refuge among wood elves or druids.
Green Cap
When you put on your cap, you can transform into a natural animal - specifically the animal whose blood and viscera was used during the creation of your cap. This animal can be no larger than a dog and no smaller than a mouse. You can transform as often as you wish, but your equipment (except for the cap) doesn't transform with you, you cannot speak (unless the animal can) and you can only use the animal's abilities while transformed. Your HP carries over between forms.
Gnome, Gold Cap
Gold cap gnomes were entertainers and designers.
Gold Cap
You can manifest tangible illusions from your cap, no larger than what would fit into the cap. For lack of a better term, these illusions are like a hardlight hologram. They can be be pretty much any inanimate object, but they do not have any special effects (illusory potion does nothing), they pop when they would take damage, deal damage or get overexerted (illusory dagger or crowbar are pretty useless) and they last no longer than 10 minutes.
Gnome, Blue Cap
Blue cap gnomes were servants and spies.
Blue Cap
When you put on your cap and close your eyes, you become invisible.
When you put on your cap and hold your breath, you become as light as a feather. When damaged or otherwise distracted, roll Concentration to keep holding your breath.
Gnome, Grey Cap
Grey cap gnomes were custodians and sappers.
Grey Cap
You can manifest small tools and spare parts from your cap, which can be used to repair various mechanisms, from locks to clocks. If not handled by a gnome for more than a day, anything you manifested from your cap crumbles into fine sand - pretty disastrous for any mechanism.
With an hour of time, you can construct a small, fragile clockwork device that performs a simple function. For example, it could be a walking toy soldier, a lighter or a music box.
Gnome, Death Cap
Death cap gnomes are a splinter group of gnomes who rebelled against the Witch Mother and helped the Attnamese Empire in toppling the Dark Ones. They call themselves Svirfneblin and ignorant commoners sometimes know them as Bog Gnomes - a name whispered with disgust and fear. Once the designated infiltrators and saboteurs, they carried out a series of attacks that turned Pflec - a thin stretch of land between the river Amir and the Trollish Peaks - from the breadbasket of the Dark Ones to a haunted, miasmatic wasteland of spellborn horrors.
After the war, imperial magistrates granted the Pflecian Marshes to Svirfneblin along with Hin halflings and some of the few survivors of the dwarven genocide as their new sovereign territory. The so-called "gnomish dictatorship" is the direct result of the resulting anti-imperial sentiment. Hidden behind a nigh-impenetrable mix of mires, mutated war-beasts and curse-warped illusions, Svirfneblin have established tightly controlled enclaves run with relentless efficiency and ruthless surveillance. Paranoid, secretive and unapologetically authoritarian, the Svirfneblin are widely hated for their plundering raids, river blockades disguised as taxation and the occasional disappearing of useful individuals from the borderlands.
And yet, for all their cruelty, they have made their death-bogs thrive.
Black Cap
When you put on your cap, you are warded against all magic. Any magic used on you - baleful or benign - has a 50% chance of failing.
Note that you will have to drop your cap when you want to be for example healed. Also note that your cap doesn't help you against secondary effects of spells. For example, ground coated with a grease spell will still be slippery.
Other subspecies of gnomes exist, such as quicklings and darklings, but they are a) basically extinct and b) not a player race.
Spells:
Clean Up
Up to [highest] creatures or objects within 30' no larger than a human/horse/ogre/dragon are instantly cleaned, groomed and perfumed.
One may specify the grooming, e.g. shaving, shaping or trimming of the beard; type of perfume, etc. This does not destroy the filth, merely puts it into a neat pile on the side.
Adapted from the handsome wizard.
Death Scythe
Plunge your arm into a corpse and pull a black scythe from its chest as it crumbles into dust. The scythe deals 1d8+[dice] damage, or double damage to creatures of the same type as the corpse. It lasts for [sum] rounds/minutes/hours/until dismissed.
Adapted from the necromancer.
Make Material
R: 60'
Produce [dice] slots worth of basic items or equipment from thin air. They are very low-quality and have a 50% chance of breaking when used. You may produce [sum] slots of items instead, but they will be of such poor quality that they always break on first use. Broken items or items older than a day crumble into fine sand.
Adapted from the manufacturing wizard.
Misty Step
R: self and touch; T: creature; D: [sum] rounds
Transform into a fog cloud. You can fly at your normal movement speed, but lose all senses except for touch. For every [dice] after the first, you can take someone with you.
Move Earth
D: concentration
Control a small amount of earth within 30'.
At 1 [dice], you can (a) excavate a bucket's worth of dirt, (b) shape the same amount, (c) cause the earth to swallow a small item or a non-resisting person, (d) knock over a shoddy shack with a tiny tremor.
At 2 [dice], you can move a wheelbarrow's worth and even make the earth slowly levitate.
More [dice] increase the effects further.
Adapted from the garden wizard.
Non-Detection
R: touch; T: [dice] creatures, places or objects no larger than a wagon; D: [sum] hours
Target is warded against divination magic. The target and anything on or in the target cannot be detected or perceived through magical means.
Part Crowd
Raise your hands over your head, then swing them down. Along a 500' line, creatures move out of the way, opening a clear path. Hostile creatures get a Save. The path closes naturally in 2d6 rounds.
Stolen from the civic wizard.
Speak with [thing]
Talk to [thing] for [sum] (real-life) minutes, or ask [dice] questions it must answer. Each [thing] only knows what it cares about:
- Animals care about food, shelter, safety, etc.
- Blood knows about sex and violence, instinct and base wants.
- Doors know what is behind them and who uses them.
Spell Collapse
R: direct line of sight; T: spellcaster; D: reaction
The target caster must make a Concentration check at -[dice], or their spell collapses. In that case, roll d6:
- Normal spell effect inflicted on target caster.
- Half spell effect inflicted on target caster.
- Half spell effect inflicted on you.
- Half spell effect inflicted on random target.
- Half spell effect inflicted on original target.
- Spell works in an unexpected way. GM tells you how.
Adapted from the metamancer.
Unseen Orchestra
D: concentration
You are surrounded by instrumental music, as a single musician at 1 [die] and a full orchestra at 4 [dice]. It can play any song you have heard before, but cannot duplicate speech. The effect can either follow you, or stay anchored to the spot where it was cast.
Adapted from the elf wizard.
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| Svirfneblin butler by edubenavente |
Gnomeblight is a poison developed by Svirfneblin and used profusely against their red-capped brethren during the war. It causes mild gastrointestinal inconvenience when ingested by most species, but rapid necrosis on touch to gnomes - they must Save vs Death; on success they "merely" take 2d6 Con damage. The formula is a tightly guarded state secret of the gnomish dictatorship.
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