Athasian Gnomes

Rules 5th Edition D&D
#1

“Gnomes? Those insane little rats have infested this world too much.” A Nibenayan Slave merchant survivor of a Gnomic raid.

“This world is harsh and brutal, but you are in no way forced to be the same.” A common Gnome saying.

“Of course I will help you, and no, I’m not going to take advantage on you, I’m not an Elf, nor I’m going to eat you I’m not an Halfling either” Shawn Whistligwind, Tyran Gnome Freedom-Fighter.

Gnomes are a curiosity in the harsh, brutal word of Athas. Many races which survived the end of the Green Age were heavily changed by it. Gnomes, instead clinged to their ways only bending them enought to survive. Gnomes lives in secluded communities hidden in the Land between the Wind, surprising wellcoming of any outsider lucky enought to found them. Gnomes combine kindness and a joyfull outlook with caution and cunning. Anyone fool enought to try and take advantage of gnomic kindness will soon realize that the joke is on him. Gnomes have an ongoing feud with Nibenay as the Shadow King tried to exterminate the race, and failed. Gnomes hate slavery and will always try to find a way to free a slave if they can, usually buying them and freeing them, unless the slaver is Nibenayan; those can thank the Shadow King if they escapes the gnomes with their lives.

Athasian Gnome Characters

Your gnome character has an assortment of inborn abilities, part and parcel of Athasian gnomic nature.

Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 2.

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.

Alignment. Most gnomes are neutral on the ethical side, if not outrightly chaotic,believing in flexibility and loving personal freedom, without repudiating, instead fully embracing, communal bonds. They tend toward good as well, showing kindness and generosity to anyone. Gnome adventurers are tendentially chaotic as they weaponize their humour against thiose who would like to crash their spirits

Size. Gnomes are short and light builded. Athasian gnomes are average 3 to 3 and 1/2 feet in height and tend to have little but definite muscle mass—a full-grown gnome weighs in the neighborhood of 50 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Gnomic Humour
You Gain Profiency in Perform and you add Double of your profiency bonus on comedy.

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

Gnome Psionics. You gain the Vicious Mockery Cantrip at will and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter spell once for Long Rest. At third level you gain Invisibility once for long Rest, At fifth level you gain Major Image. You can only use one of the three spells using this ability.(Eg, if you use Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, you can’t use any other spell with this ability until you take a long rest) Your spellcaster ability for these spells is Charisma, and your DC is 8+Charisma modifier+profiency.

Vanish in the Wind You can use your bonus action to istantly enter the Land beetwen the Wind, effectively disappearing until the beginning of your next turn reappearing in any free space in 50 feet range even behind solid hobstacles. If the movement ends in a solid matter block you will be expelled in the closest free space getting 1d6 bludgeoning damage. You can’t pass throught force hobstacles. Next the entrance of one of the Gnomes hidden community you can use this ability to enter it alongside any consenting creature. You need to take a short or long rest to use this ability again after using it. After entering an hidden community, you need a Long Rest before you can leave it.

Languages. You can speak Common and Gnomic.Gnomic is a fluid and rhythmic language and a gmome speaks any langueage with the same rhythm.

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Gnomes in Athas
#2

I believe sense motive is called insight in 5e
Also, Instead or in addition to the gnome psionic I would give them the ability to slip between the realms, like the dwarves in god of war.
In most places it would function like misty step, but in places where the lands between the wind is coterminous to Athas it transport them there instead.
This could work well with their hidden nature and connection to the feywild

#3

I can’t imagine that letting Gnomes slip into another dimension (similar to a permanent Ethereal Jaunt) would be balanced - its super flavorful, but a great method of escape.

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#4

Technically, it would be a one for rest ability, which would allow them true escape only in a few locations. I like the idea very much. I will edit, thank you.

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#5

Limitions are everything of course, and one misty step per short rest is balanced I believe. Also in areas where the land between the wind touches Athas the character might want to avoid using it so as to not get stuck there for 8 hours, especially if he and his none gnome friends were in the middle of combat.

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#6

I edited thank you again.

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#7

My pleasure, I would tone down the gnome psionic, leaving only the vicious mockery cantrip and Tasha’s hideous laughter, especially if safty of the wind is rechargeable on short rest, because right now it’s a bit overpowered

#8

Maybe I could specify that only one of the three spells can be used so after you used one of the three you won’t be able to use any of the three until a long rest.

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#9

I edited the Gnomic Psionics ability

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#10

I did a homebrew game once where I just made stuff up – I had ‘Black’ and ‘White’ subraces of Gnomes. The ‘Black’ or ‘Dark’ gnomes were created when a Lovecraftian horror ate the Feywild and turned it into the Black. They had shadow and darkness powers. The ‘White’ gnomes lived deep underground and were influenced by the locust of Gears of War. They worshipped enormous subterranean wyrms and were ruled by evil druids. They were sort of like a combination of svirneblin and derro, but also the technological and plague spreading element of skaven.

Whenever I ran Dark Sun, I generally made up a lot of stuff – it’d probably have frustrated players who were really attached to the published lore.

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#11

Same here, I feels the urge to personify the settings and make them more mine. Settings should be seen as tools not shakles.

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#12

I imagine the “shackles” largely come down to communication. I support anyone doing nearly anything in their home game, but I’m a giant stickler for “what DS is” in a larger sense. When people confuse those two categories, problems arise.

I can’t imagine 99% of folks caring about you adding living gnomes to your Athas, but i bet they’ll all freak out if you suggest there are/should be living gnomes on Athas as canon.

#13

Knowing the setting lore can be a deep source of satisfaction for many of us.

Riffing off of that can bw awesome too, IMO, as long you know that’s what’s happening.

#14

Of course canon Athas stays as it is I’m writing my take on it, not Canon.

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#15

I changed the ability from Safety of the Wind with Vanish in the Wind.