Description

Athasian gnomes average 3 feet and a half feet tall, and weigh between 80 and 100 pounds. They usually wear their hair long and arranged in braids, often using brightly colored stones to decorate the braids. In their home community, gnomes usually prefer to wear bright colors, but prefer to not draw too much attention to themselves outside Dorrock. They tend to be talkative among people they can trust, but are very careful in choosing their friends. Gnomes once had sandy or brown colored hair, but blue and green hair have become quite common since leaving Athas for their demiplane. Gnomish eyes come in many shades of metallic colors, with purple being the most common. Gnomes can live to an age of about 500 years, but rarely live past their third century.

Culture

In the Green Age, gnomes were a culture of tinkerers, innovators, and philosophers, and some of that carries on into the present day. Gnomes are still tinkerers, but they are now more preoccupied with the maintenance of what they managed to salvage than with the creation of new and innovative solutions. They are still philosophers, but changed their philosophy’s focus from the possibilities of the future to the mysteries of the past and the dangers of the present. Humor is still an important part of gnomish life, but they have shifted from jokes to pranks because while wit is still appreciated by the gnomes, practicality has become a highly regarded virtue given their limited resources.

Gnomes have a strong sense of family and great respect for their ancestors. With their society being so tightly knit and focused on survival, gnomish culture has long emphasized the value of friendship and mutual aid, and the need for gnomes to stick together to survive, leading most gnomes to be Neutral or Neutral Good.

Gnomes are quite stunned by the way Athas have changed in the centuries of their absence, and they are quite terrified by many of those changes; this has made them a cautious people.

The gnomes of Dorrock tend to be averse to the use of violence, but they will defend themselves and their people if necessary. Gnomes do not kill other gnomes and are very unlikely to commit cold-blooded murder against other races, though gnomish adventurers might be an exception.

Magic & Religion

Gnomes have mixed feelings towards the use of sorcery: they despise defiling, but grew quite proficient with preserving magic during the Cleansing Wars. During their time in Dorrock, they have developed a unique arcane tradition using the energies of their demiplane.This type of spellcasting is similar to preserving magic, but far more subtle.

Separated from Athas and the elemental planes, the gnomes of Dorrock have developed an ancestor cult in which they honor their dead. The dead are cremated in a psionic ritual and their ashes used to create crystal skulls, which are called Laughing Skulls, because they seem to constantly giggle. The souls of the dead are bound to the skulls and can be summoned to speak with and advise other gnomes. The collective psychic power of these preserved souls - many of which predate the retreat to Dorrock - is strong enough to power divine spellcasters called Skull Whisperers, though the effectiveness of the Skull Whisperers beyond their home demiplane has yet to be tested.

Law and Society

In Dorrock, the gnomes follow a set of established laws, interpreted by a number of judges who are nominated once every ten years from the demiplane’s population. Judges can order the Crystal Guards - Dorrock’s police force - to arrest those suspected of committing crimes. Criminals are usually fined or marked with psionic geas, though the worst offenders are placed into an induced coma-like state and reeducated through psionic means. Exile has been considered in the past for the most violent criminals, but was rejected for being excessively cruel.

Dorrock is ruled by a king, King Garras II, who is a direct descendent of King Garal the Laughing. The king is assisted by a council of elders, each the eldest of their family. Every adult gnome has a right to present a petition to the council or to the king, and also to propose legislation. Decisions of crucial importance are voted on by the entire adult population, and everyone is called to contribute to their society, with even art being seen as a valid way to contribute to gnomish society. Those who do not contribute in any way are often fined or even psionically reeducated. Gnomes learn at a young age how to weaponize their wits and natural psionic abilities, and every gnome trains with the demiplane’s militia; while generally peaceful, the gnomes of Dorrock know that the outside world is very dangerous, and they are never going to risk extinction again.

Gnome PC Stats

2ed

Ability Score Requirements: STR 3/18, DEX 10/20, CON 7/20, INT 12/20,WIS 5/20, CHA 10/20.
Ability Score Adjustments: -2 STR, +2 DEX, -1 WIS, +2 CHA.
Size: Small
Speed: 6
Racial HP Adjustment: +0
Natural AC: 10
Classes & Level Caps: Cleric 10, Fighter 9, Thief 15, Bard 10, Illusionist 10, Psionicist 15, Wizard 15.
Class Combinations: Wizard/Thief
Language Choices: Any non secret.
Vision: Infravision
Advantages: Saving throws bonus

Speak with Animals: At will but only with insects.
Natural Psionics: Charm 1/day.
Disadvantage: Pacifist, -1 to Attack rolls, -1 Saving Throws against fear.

3.5e

Small Size: Gnomes are Small size, and have a +1 size bonus to Attack, a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +4 size bonus to Hide checks, and a -4 penalty to Grapple checks. They can lift or carry 3/4 of what a Medium-sized creature can.
Ability Score Adjustments: -2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma. Gnomes are smart and silver tongued, but their small size makes them weaker than other races.
Base Land Speed: 20ft.
Low-Light Vision: Gnomes can see twice as far as humans in low light conditions.
Illusionist: Gnomes have a +2 bonus on Saving Throws against illusions, and any illusion cast by them has a +1 on the save DC.
Speak with Animals: Gnomes can speak with animals at will, but it only works on insects.
Pacifism: +2 AC, +2 Diplomacy, -1 Attack and Damage rolls when making lethal attacks. Gnomes suffer no penalties when they inflict non-lethal damage with lethal weapons.
Naturally Psionic: Gnomes gain 2 bonus power points at 1st level. This benefit does not grant them the ability to manifest powers unless they gain that ability through another source, such as levels in a psionic class.
Psi-Like Ability: 1/day - psionic charm. Manifester level is equal to ½ Hit Dice (minimum 1st). The save DC is Charisma-based.
Languages: Gnomes can speak Common and Gnomish. They also have access to any non secret language.
Favored Class: Psion. Their natural talent for psionics and the psionic resonance that permeates the demiplane in which they live allows gnomes to easily develop psionic abilities.

4e

Abilities: +2 Intelligence, and either +2 Dexterity or +2 Charisma
Skills: +2 Arcana, +2 Persuasion
Size: Small
Speed: Low average (20 feet)
Vision: low-light
Languages: Common, Gnomish, any non-secret.
Traits: Fey Origin, Master Trickster, Reactive Stealth, Trickster’s Cunning, Fade Away, Telepathy 30 feet.

5e

Ability Score Increase. You are smart, and you are charming and more aware than many gave you credit for. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Wisdom and Charisma score increases by 1 each.
Age. Gnomes mature at the same rate as humans, but they’re considered young until the reach of age of 40. On average, they live about 200 years, but can live to see their sixth century.
Size. Athasian gnomes are short and slight of build. They average 3 to 3 1/2 feet in height and tend to weigh around 50 pounds. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Darkvision. 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.

Gnomish Humour. You gain proficiency in Perform and you add double of your proficiency bonus when performing comedy.

Gnomish Optimistic Caution. You have advantage on saving throws against fear, illusions, despair, and mental influence. You also have advantage on Insight checks.

Gnomish Psionics. You know the vicious mockery cantrip. You also cast the Tasha’s hideous laughter spell once with this trait, regaining the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. At 3rd level, you can cast Tasha’s hideous laughter or the invisibility spell with this trait, and at 5th level, you can cast Tasha’s hideous laughter or invisibility or the major image spell with this trait. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells, and your DC is 8+Charisma modifier+proficiency.

Vanish in the Wind. You can use your bonus action to instantly become ethereal, effectively disappearing until the beginning of your next turn and reappearing in any free space within 50 feet, even behind solid obstacles. If your movement ends in solid matter, you are expelled into the nearest free space and take 1d6 bludgeoning damage. You can’t pass through force obstacles. You regain the ability to do so again after you take a short or long rest.

Languages. You can speak Common and Gnomish. Gnomish is a fluid and rhythmic language, and a gnome speaks any other language with the same rhythm.

4th Edition and the Lands with the Wind

DMs might choose to change Dorrock from its own self-contained demiplane to a portion of the Lands Within the Wind (the Athasian name for the Feywild in the 4th edition Athasian cosmology). If a DM chooses to do so, the reason the gnomes of Dorrock are now returning to Athas might be tied to the fact that the Lands Within the Wind have - like Athas - been ravaged by the effects of defiling, and have been wasting away for King’s Ages; perhaps now the gnomes’ last refuge is wasting away, and they must return to Athas if they are to survive.