DnD Gnome

Looking for a Gnome 5e guide? this is it. This guide explains dnd Gnome in details. Lets start with the level table because that is the most important (and probs what you're lookin' for eh?).

Embrace the Wonders of Small Stature

In this quick build guide, we'll show you how to create a Gnome character and provide valuable insights into playing this stout and steadfast race.

TABLE OF CONTENT
1. Traits
2. Subrace
4. Names
3. Story
5. Expectations
6. Quickbuild
7. Example
8. Resources

Gnome Traits

Your gnome character has certain characteristics in common with all other gnomes.

Ability Score Increase

Your Intelligence score increases by 2.

Age

Gnomes mature at the same rate humans do, and most are expected to settle down into an adult life by around age 40. They can live 350 to almost 500 years.

Size

Gnomes are between 3 and 4 feet tall and average about 40 pounds. Your size is Small.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Darkvision

Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Gnome Cunning

You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Gnomish. The Gnomish language, which uses the Dwarvish script, is renowned for its technical treatises and its catalogs of knowledge about the natural world.

Subrace

Choose one of the subraces below or one from another source.

DEEP GNOMES

A third subrace of gnomes, the deep gnomes (or svirfneblin), live in small communities scattered in the Underdark. Unlike the duergar and the drow, svirfneblin are as good as their surface cousins. However, their humor and enthusiasm are dampened by their oppressive environment, and their inventive expertise is directed mostly toward stonework.

Deep Gnome Legacy

Forest gnomes and rock gnomes are the gnomes most commonly encountered in the lands of the surface world. There is another subrace of gnomes rarely seen by any surface-dweller: deep gnomes, also known as svirfneblin. Guarded, and suspicious of outsiders, svirfneblin are cunning and taciturn, but can be just as kind-hearted, loyal, and compassionate as their surface cousins.

When you create a gnome character, you may choose the deep gnome as an alternative to the subraces in the Player’s Handbook.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 1.

Age

Deep gnomes are short-lived for gnomes. They mature at the same rate humans do and are considered full-grown adults by 25. They live 200 to 250 years, although hard toil and the dangers of the Underdark often claim them before their time.

Alignment

Svirfneblin believe that survival depends on avoiding entanglements with other creatures and not making enemies, so they favor neutral alignments. They rarely wish others ill, and they are unlikely to take risks on behalf of others.

Size

A typical svirfneblin stands about 3 to 3½ feet tall and weighs 80 to 120 pounds. Your size is Small.

Superior Darkvision

Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet.

Stone Camouflage

You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide in rocky terrain.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common, Gnomish, and Undercommon. The svirfneblin dialect is more guttural than surface Gnomish, and most svirfneblin know only a little bit of Common, but those who deal with outsiders (and that includes you as an adventurer) pick up enough Common to get by in other lands.

Rock Gnome

As a rock gnome, you have a natural inventiveness and hardiness beyond that of other gnomes. Most gnomes in the worlds of D&D are rock gnomes, including the tinker gnomes of the Dragonlance setting.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 1.

Artificer’s Lore

Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to magic items, alchemical objects, or technological devices, you can add twice your proficiency bonus, instead of any proficiency bonus you normally apply.

Tinker

You have proficiency with artisan’s tools (tinker’s tools). Using those tools, you can spend 1 hour and 10 gp worth of materials to construct a Tiny clockwork device (AC 5, 1 hp). The device ceases to function after 24 hours (unless you spend 1 hour repairing it to keep the device functioning), or when you use your action to dismantle it; at that time, you can reclaim the materials used to create it. You can have up to three such devices active at a time.

When you create a device, choose one of the following options:

Clockwork Toy. This toy is a clockwork animal, monster, or person, such as a frog, mouse, bird, dragon, or soldier. When placed on the ground, the toy moves 5 feet across the ground on each of your turns in a random direction. It makes noises as appropriate to the creature it represents.

Fire Starter. The device produces a miniature flame, which you can use to light a candle, torch, or campfire. Using the device requires your action.

Music Box. When opened, this music box plays a single song at a moderate volume. The box stops playing when it reaches the song’s end or when it is closed.

Gnome Names

Gnomes love names, and most have half a dozen or so. A gnome’s mother, father, clan elder, aunts, and uncles each give the gnome a name, and various nicknames from just about everyone else might or might not stick over time. Gnome names are typically variants on the names of ancestors or distant relatives, though some are purely new inventions. When dealing with humans and others who are “stuffy” about names, a gnome learns to use no more than three names: a personal name, a clan name, and a nickname, choosing the one in each category that’s the most fun to say.

Male Names: Alston, Alvyn, Boddynock, Brocc, Burgell, Dimble, Eldon, Erky, Fonkin, Frug, Gerbo, Gimble, Glim, Jebeddo, Kellen, Namfoodle, Orryn, Roondar, Seebo, Sindri, Warryn, Wrenn, Zook

Female Names: Bimpnottin, Breena, Caramip, Carlin, Donella, Duvamil, Ella, Ellyjobell, Ellywick, Lilli, Loopmottin, Lorilla, Mardnab, Nissa, Nyx, Oda, Orla, Roywyn, Shamil, Tana, Waywocket, Zanna

Clan Names: Beren, Daergel, Folkor, Garrick, Nackle, Murnig, Ningel, Raulnor, Scheppen, Timbers, Turen

Nicknames: Aleslosh, Ashhearth, Badger, Cloak, Doublelock, Filchbatter, Fnipper, Ku, Nim, Oneshoe, Pock, Sparklegem, Stumbleduck

Back story and about

Skinny and flaxen-haired, his skin walnut brown and his eyes a startling turquoise, Burgell stood half as tall as Aeron and had to climb up on a stool to look out the peephole. Like most habitations in Oeble, that particular tenement had been built for humans, and smaller residents coped with the resulting awkwardness as best they could.

But at least the relative largeness of the apartment gave Burgell room to pack in all his gnome-sized gear. The front room was his workshop, and it contained a bewildering miscellany of tools: hammers, chisels, saws, lockpicks, tinted lenses, jeweler’s loupes, and jars of powdered and shredded ingredients for casting spells. A fat gray cat, the mage’s familiar, lay curled atop a grimoire. It opened its eyes, gave Aeron a disdainful yellow stare, then appeared to go back to sleep.

— Richard Lee Byers, The Black Bouquet

A constant hum of busy activity pervades the warrens and neighborhoods where gnomes form their close-knit communities. Louder sounds punctuate the hum: a crunch of grinding gears here, a minor explosion there, a yelp of surprise or triumph, and especially bursts of laughter. Gnomes take delight in life, enjoying every moment of invention, exploration, investigation, creation, and play.

Vibrant Expression

A gnome’s energy and enthusiasm for living shines through every inch of his or her tiny body. Gnomes average slightly over 3 feet tall and weigh 40 to 45 pounds. Their tan or brown faces are usually adorned with broad smiles (beneath their prodigious noses), and their bright eyes shine with excitement. Their fair hair has a tendency to stick out in every direction, as if expressing the gnome’s insatiable interest in everything around.

A gnome’s personality is writ large in his or her appearance. A male gnome’s beard, in contrast to his wild hair, is kept carefully trimmed but often styled into curious forks or neat points. A gnome’s clothing, though usually made in modest earth tones, is elaborately decorated with embroidery, embossing, or gleaming jewels.

Delighted Dedication

As far as gnomes are concerned, being alive is a wonderful thing, and they squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of their three to five centuries of life. Humans might wonder about getting bored over the course of such a long life, and elves take plenty of time to savor the beauties of the world in their long years, but gnomes seem to worry that even with all that time, they can’t get in enough of the things they want to do and see.

Gnomes speak as if they can’t get the thoughts out of their heads fast enough. Even as they offer ideas and opinions on a range of subjects, they still manage to listen carefully to others, adding the appropriate exclamations of surprise and appreciation along the way.

Though gnomes love jokes of all kinds, particularly puns and pranks, they’re just as dedicated to the more serious tasks they undertake. Many gnomes are skilled engineers, alchemists, tinkers, and inventors. They’re willing to make mistakes and laugh at themselves in the process of perfecting what they do, taking bold (sometimes foolhardy) risks and dreaming large.

Bright Burrows

Gnomes make their homes in hilly, wooded lands. They live underground but get more fresh air than dwarves do, enjoying the natural, living world on the surface whenever they can. Their homes are well hidden by both clever construction and simple illusions. Welcome visitors are quickly ushered into the bright, warm burrows. Those who are not welcome are unlikely to find the burrows in the first place.

Gnomes who settle in human lands are commonly gemcutters, engineers, sages, or tinkers. Some human families retain gnome tutors, ensuring that their pupils enjoy a mix of serious learning and delighted enjoyment. A gnome might tutor several generations of a single human family over the course of his or her long life.

Seeing the World

Curious and impulsive, gnomes might take up adventuring as a way to see the world or for the love of exploring. As lovers of gems and other fine items, some gnomes take to adventuring as a quick, if dangerous, path to wealth. Regardless of what spurs them to adventure, gnomes who adopt this way of life eke as much enjoyment out of it as they do out of any other activity they undertake, sometimes to the great annoyance of their adventuring companions.

ALWAYS APPRECIATIVE

It’s rare for a gnome to be hostile or malicious unless he or she has suffered a grievous injury. Gnomes know that most races don’t share their sense of humor, but they enjoy anyone’s company just as they enjoy everything else they set out to do.

What to Expect as a Gnome

Gnomes are a diminutive race known for their intelligence, creativity, and affinity for both arcane magic and mechanical tinkering. They possess natural resilience, a love for exploration, and a mischievous sense of humor. As a Gnome, you can expect:

Gnomish Subrace Traits
Different Gnome subraces offer unique abilities, such as the Forest Gnome's affinity for illusion magic or the Rock Gnome's tinkering skills.

Artificer's Lore
Gnomes have a natural aptitude for crafting and identifying magic items, making them excellent wizards, artificers, and inventors.

Small Stature
Gnomes are small in size but big on curiosity, often standing around 3 to 4 feet tall.

Quick Build Steps for a Gnome

Creating a Gnome character involves selecting a character class, distributing your ability scores to match your desired role, and choosing equipment. Follow these steps:

Choose a Character Class: Decide on a character class that aligns with your preferred playstyle, whether it's a clever wizard like Wizard, a nature-loving druid like Druid, or an inventive artificer like Artificer.

Distribute Ability Scores: Gnomes receive a bonus to Intelligence, making them naturally intelligent and adept at magic. Depending on your class, prioritize other ability scores, such as Wisdom for Druids or Dexterity for Rogues.

Select Skills and Background: Consider skills that match your character's personality, backstory, and class. Gnomes' natural curiosity makes them adept at skills like Arcana, Investigation, or Nature.

Choose Equipment: Select starting equipment based on your character class. Gnomes often favor ranged weapons or spellcasting focuses, so tailor your choices to your character concept.

Plan Your Backstory: Develop a backstory that explores your Gnome's fascination with magic, machinery, or nature. Embrace their quirky and inventive nature.

Organize D&D Campaigns via a Calendar

To ensure your Gnome character can attend sessions and coordinate with your party, use a shared calendar. This can help schedule game nights and ensure everyone's availability. Here's a guide on creating events in Discord.

Example

Meet Quill, the Rock Gnome Artificer

Character Class: Artificer - Quill is a brilliant inventor and magic practitioner, specializing in creating magical gadgets and devices.

Ability Scores: Quill's high Intelligence makes him a formidable spellcaster and inventor, while his Dexterity helps him maneuver through tricky situations.

Skills and Background: Quill excels in Arcana, Investigation, and Sleight of Hand, reflecting his deep knowledge of magic and tinkering. His background as a Sage provides him with proficiency in the History skill.

Equipment: Quill wields a hand-crafted wand, a set of artisan's tools, and a trusty pet mechanical owl named Gearspringer.

Backstory: Quill's fascination with machines and magic began at a young age. He left his Gnomish enclave to seek knowledge and adventure, honing his skills as an Artificer while crafting wondrous contraptions to aid his travels.

External Resources

For more in-depth information on playing a Gnome in D&D, check out these external resources:

D&D Beyond - Gnome Race Guide: A comprehensive guide to the Gnome race, including subrace options and role-playing tips. Read the Guide

Roleplaying Tips - How to Play Gnomes: An article offering insights into the mindset and role-playing possibilities of Gnome characters. Read the Article

Artificer Class Guide: If you've chosen the Artificer class, this guide provides insights into Artificer abilities and gameplay. Read the Guide

Now, embrace the wonders of small stature and boundless inventiveness as you embark on your epic adventures in Dungeons & Dragons!