# Race: Gnome > [!info] Quick Facts > | | | > |---|---| > | **Rarity** | Common | > | **Perception in Gryth** | Positive. Widely liked, and widely underestimated. | > | **Subraces** | [[#Forest Gnomes\|Forest Gnomes]], [[#Rock Gnomes\|Rock Gnomes]], [[#Deep Gnomes\|Deep Gnomes]], [[#Cloud Gnomes\|Cloud Gnomes]] | > | **Guide Section** | Common Races | ## Overview Gnomes are natives of [[Continent - Auken|Auken]], at home in its forests, its rugged uplands and the tunnel networks beneath its tundra. They are small, bright and relentlessly curious, and the three settled gnomish lineages have each turned that curiosity in a different direction: illusion, invention, and survival in the dark. They are also a people who have lost a great deal more than most of the continent remembers. ## The Gannat Valley Three hundred years ago the Gannat Valley was a fertile basin between two mountain ranges, prosperous, well farmed, and populated principally by gnomes. Two hundred and eighty years ago something happened there that no surviving record names, and a spiritual rot spread through the valley so quickly that it was dead within five years. Archmages were summoned from across Gryth to seal the basin and contain what was in it, and they succeeded. The valley is now the [[Region - The Deadmoors|Deadmoors]], a grey expanse of ghost-grass and wandering undead, sealed at both roads and declared one of the Eight Blights. Gnomish families across Auken can still name which part of it their line came from. Nobody has been permitted to go and look, and those who have tried to find out what caused it have generally not come back. ## Malos, the Last Free Holding Centuries of war and subjugation drove the wild gnomes of Auken steadily westward until what remained of them held a single island in the middle of [[Location - Lake Fern|Lake Fern]]. That island is [[Region - Malos|Malos]], a sovereign microstate protected by iron-clad treaties with every surrounding power, and closed absolutely to foreign excursion. The gnomes there kept the old ways rather than the industrial life their mainland kin took up. They worship raw fey energies and the movements of the stars, they live in star-gazing spires and hidden burrows that shimmer on nights when the celestial bodies align, and they are whispered to be masters of illusion beyond anything taught in a college. What their culture actually looks like from the inside is unknown, because nobody who is not a gnome of Malos has seen it. ## Gnomes in Other People’s Cities Most gnomes now live in somebody else’s country and do very well there. They form a thriving community in [[City - Silverwall|Silverwall]], where Loremaster Pynn sits on [[NPC - King Thomas Garrik|King Thomas’s]] royal council and has outmanoeuvred every rival she has had in ten years. They crew the flat-bottomed barges that work the [[City - Treston|Treston]] docks and the engineering yards behind them. They went into the black stone mountains of [[Region - Eldvale|Eldvale]] alongside the dwarves after the snow elf empire there collapsed, and their work is still cut into the rock. This is the ordinary condition of gnomes in the modern age: welcome, useful, liked, and landless. ## The Fourth Lineage A fourth lineage is said to exist above all of them, in cities that float and cannot be seen. Whether it does is a matter on which reasonable gnomes disagree. ## Gnome Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Intelligence score increases by 2. **Age.** Gnomes mature at the same rate humans do, and most are expected to settle into adult life around the age of 40. They can live 350 to almost 500 years. **Creature Type.** You are a Humanoid. **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 cannot discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey. **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. ## Subraces ### Forest Gnomes Forest gnomes keep to Auken’s woodland, where they are far more often heard than seen, and more often neither. Theirs is the lineage that held on to the old ways longest, and the gnomes of Malos are forest gnomes to a one, which is why the illusions of that island are spoken of in the same breath as its star-worship. A forest gnome met on the mainland is usually several generations away from any such thing and would rather talk about mushrooms. **Rarity:** Common **Perception in Gryth.** Positive. As gnomes generally. #### Forest Gnome Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Dexterity score increases by 1. **Natural Illusionist.** You know the *minor illusion* cantrip. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it. **Speak with Small Beasts.** Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller beasts. ### Rock Gnomes Rock gnomes hold the rugged mountains and moorlands of Auken, and rather more of the continent’s workshops than that suggests. They are the tinkers and engineers of their people and the hardiest of them, and they took to the industrial age with an enthusiasm that the gnomes of Malos regard as a betrayal and everybody else regards as a convenience. **Rarity:** Uncommon **Perception in Gryth.** Positive. As gnomes generally. #### Rock Gnome Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Constitution score increases by 1. **Artificer’s Lore.** Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to magical, alchemical, or technological items, you can add twice your proficiency bonus, instead of any proficiency bonus you normally apply. **Tinker.** You have proficiency with tinker’s tools. Using those tools, you can spend 1 hour and 10 gp worth of materials to build a Tiny clockwork device (AC 5, 1 hp). The device stops working after 24 hours unless you spend 1 hour repairing it to keep it running. You can use an action to take a device apart and recover the materials used to make it. You can have up to three devices working at once. When you build a device, choose one of the following: - *Clockwork Toy.* A wind-up animal, monster, or person that moves 5 feet in a random direction on each of your turns and makes noises suited to what it depicts. - *Fire Starter.* As an action, the device produces a small flame that can light a candle, torch, or campfire. - *Music Box.* When opened, it plays a single song at a moderate volume until the song ends or the box is closed. ### Deep Gnomes Deep gnomes live in the sunless networks beneath Auken’s tundra and mountains, in a world where being noticed is usually fatal. They went down during the long centuries of war that pushed the rest of their people west, and where the wild gnomes ended on an island in a lake, the svirfneblin ended somewhere no army was willing to follow. They have been down there long enough that the surface is no longer home. A deep gnome who comes up has a reason, and rarely shares it. **Rarity:** Very rare **Perception in Gryth.** Negative. Generations in the sunless deep have made them secretive and hard to place, and their surfacing is rarely taken as good news. #### Deep Gnome Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Dexterity score increases by 1. **Superior Darkvision.** Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet. **Stone Camouflage.** You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide in rocky terrain. **Svirfneblin Magic.** When you reach 3rd level, you can cast *disguise self* once with this trait. When you reach 5th level, you can cast *nondetection* on yourself once with this trait, without needing a material component. You regain the ability to cast these spells when you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for them. ### Cloud Gnomes The Ilifin are invisible flying cities of extraordinary technological advancement. Legend places two in the skies of Auken, one over [[Continent - Norn|Norn]], and one over [[Continent - Ganath|Ganath]]. None has been confirmed, and most scholars treat the whole business as a story. Cloud gnomes are their inhabitants. They are slightly taller and broader than their terrestrial kin, with wild hair in white, blue, or grey, and they build things nobody on the ground can explain. **Rarity:** Extremely rare **Perception in Gryth.** Neutral. Widely believed not to exist. A cloud gnome’s chief social difficulty is being disbelieved rather than disliked. #### Cloud Gnome Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Dexterity score increases by 1. **Aeronautic Adaptation.** You are naturally acclimatised to high altitudes, including elevations above 20,000 feet, and to extreme winds. **Ilifin Technologist.** You have proficiency with tinker’s tools. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) or Intelligence (Arcana) check related to magical, alchemical, or advanced technological items, you can add twice your proficiency bonus, instead of any proficiency bonus you normally apply. **Calculated Precision.** Your people rely on targeting apparatus, complex sights, and calculated trajectories rather than reflex. Whenever you make an attack roll with a ranged weapon with which you are proficient, you can use your Intelligence modifier for the attack and damage rolls, instead of Dexterity. ## Connections - [[Continent - Auken]] — Native continent of the gnomes - [[Region - The Deadmoors]] — Formerly the Gannat Valley, populated principally by gnomes - [[Region - Malos]] — The last free gnomish holding; forest gnomes of the old ways - [[Location - Lake Fern]] — Lake in which Malos stands - [[City - Silverwall]] — Thriving gnome community; Loremaster Pynn on the royal council - [[NPC - King Thomas Garrik]] — Loremaster Pynn sits on his royal council - [[City - Treston]] — Gnomes crew the docks’ barges and work the engineering yards - [[Region - Eldvale]] — Gnomes settled the black stone mountains alongside the dwarves - [[Continent - Norn]] — Legendary site of a cloud gnome city - [[Continent - Ganath]] — Legendary site of a cloud gnome city --- ## Gallery ![[Race - Gnome.jpg]] --- *See also: [[Races]]*