Gnomes

Gnomes are welcome everywhere as technicians, alchemists, and inventors. Despite the demand for their skills, most gnomes prefer to remain among their own kind, living in comfortable burrows beneath rolling, wooded hills where animals abound.

Gnomes are inquisitive. They love to find things out by personal experience. At times they're even reckless, always trying out new ways to do something. They also have a great sense of humor, and while they love puns, jokes, and games, they also relish tricks - the more intricate the better. Sometimes a gnome pulls a prank just to see how the people involved will react.

Gnomes are most often good. Those who tend toward law are sages, engineers, researchers, scholars, investigators, or consultants. Those who tend toward chaos are minstrels, tricksters, wanderers, or fanciful jewelers. Gnomes are goodhearted, and even the tricksters among them are more playful than vicious. Evil gnomes are as rare as they are frightening.

Forest Gnomes, Faerun

Whereas the rock gnomes are friendly and loquacious, the forest gnomes are practically invisible to outsiders. They have a great love for nature, particularly deep and quiet forests far from civilization or even anyone else's homes. Most of them are extremely private, preferring to simply be left alone by other people. Life as a forest gnome is idyllc. They eat only that which they can gather - mostly fruits, nuts, and berries. Forest gnome children are allowed to do as they like, spending their days plaing within arm's read of their parents, watching their elders. They learn how to behave by way of example, and this results in a quiet and near religious reverence for the teeming life of the forests that surround them.

Forest gnomes are the smallest of all gnomes, averaging only 2 to 2'6" tall. Even the tallest forest gnome is less than 3'0". They usually weigh around 25 to 30lbs. Unlike other gnomes, they wear their hair and beards long, often almost to their feet when unbound. The males often trim their beards to a fine point or curl them into hornlike spikes extending to either side of their faces. Their skin is the color of bark and their eyes are usually brown or blue. Their hair is brown or black, becoming gray or white with age.

Racial Traits

• +2 Constitution, -2 Strength
• Small Size: +1 size modifier to attack rolls and AC, +4 size bonus to hide and move silently skills.
• Hardiness vs. Illusions: +2 racial bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting spells
• Low-Light Vision: An forest gnome can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions
• Skill Affinity: A forest gnome receives a +2 racial bonus to the Listen and Concertration skills
• Spell Focus Illusion: Forest gnomes receive the feat Spell Focus (Illusion) for free at first level.
• Offensive Training vs. Reptilians: +1 racial bones on attack rolls against reptilian humanoids
• Offensive Training vs. Goblinoids: +1 racial bonus on attack roles against goblinoids (goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears)
• Defensive Training vs. Giants: +4 racial bonus to AC against giants