What made gnomes so special that they needed to be a core race for so long? they were only introduced shortly after the original races buts still stick around to this day. they are never really popular player races, and don't really fulfill the same fantasy tropes as the other races didSo why stick around as a core and not just be a later supplement?
>>96459538gary said "halflings cannot be mages"one of his players says "but I want to play a halfling mage"gary introduces gnomes, who can be (specifically only) illusionists and are somehow a separate entity from halflings to not taint his specific idea of halflings
>>96459557Just goes the highlight the strange ideas on how the different fantasy races were handled.I don't see why most small races couldn't be some distant offshoot of dwarves the same way half of the PC'able character races tend to be some kind of elf.
>>96459557that makes sense why they were introduced but why keep them around when the rule was long forgotten
>>96459601around as specifically a core race i mean
>>96459609NTA but like many aspects of D&D it's mostly a sacred cow thing that gets mindlessly aped forward.
>>96459538Who hurt you?What made you gnomeaphobic?
>>96459538Why are elves special? They're literally the same size as humans. Why do we need so many human sized races?
>>96459765Because elves can go up and down on the ladder of their connection to other races. If they arn't the super primordial progenitor elves (Le'shay or whatever they were called in Epic Handbook) they are the progenitor of 90% of most races.
>>96459538gnomes have some mythological/folklore weight working for them. The real question is why do halflings still exist? They're just knock-off hobbits, anything worthwhile should be rolled into gnomes.
>>96459538Relevanthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UqFPujRZWo
>>96459538D&D/Pathfinder Gnomes are just halflings but less charming, more magical and with a pinch of dwarven technology.Never cared for them and feel like an extra, they don't contribute in anything.
>>96459538Someone at Wizards is obsessed with guh noams, and keeps forcing them to be a thing even though no one likes them and no one plays them.
>>96459601Because D&D has a lot of sacred cows that it keeps around despite not really making much sense anymore. 4e tried to break away from it, both by having Gnomes not be core and be more tied to fey, but people get really upset about sacred cows getting slaughtered.
>>96459557>>96459597Gnomes have a pedigree in real-world myth and legend at least as established as faeries and elves. The distinction between gnomes and dwarves is a relatively recent development in specifically Anglophone literature, in the sense that in original tales the characterization of the creatures depended upon the culture. In some regions, they were definitely what we today would call "gnomes". In others, they were more definitely like "dwarves". Making matters more complicated of course is that there isn't a consistent terminology used for either description.But "short, inhuman folk of a semi-magical nature who live underground and create magical crafts" have been around for at least as long elves and faeries have.
>>96459799>They're just knock-off hobbits,You answered your own question. Knock-off LotR is seen as 'generic fantasy'.
>>96459609They probably just didn't want to remove any core races, I don't think that had ever been done until 4e.
>>96459601>but why keep them around when the rule was long forgottenBecause despite the many retards here who seem to think halflings and gnomes are the same thing, they arent. They occupy their own niche of being a short magical pseudofey with an interest in innovative technology. The details of each race are fucking important to why they still exist and are separate concepts. That you lot of retards cant remember them or keep them straight in your heads doesn't give you an excuse to remove races.As time has gone on each of these races has been given a specific niche, and expanded lore that makes them very different creatures. Thats why they stick around, they occupy a niche not covered by another race.>>96460073>both by having Gnomes not be coreGnomes werent "core" in 4e because there was limited space in the first PHB and they wanted to include dragonborn and tieflings over the "standard" set of races. Beyond that the concept of the core race is something very stupid in 4e because they were released in the PHB 2, which is considered a core product for 4e alongside the PHB 3 and all DMGs.
