D&D Next: Gnome Homebrew

Here is a homebrew gnome, based largely on the 3rd Edition version. Alternatively I could see a bonus to Intelligence or Charisma.

Traits

As a gnome, you have all the following racial traits.

      Size: Small.

      Speed: 25 feet.

Low-Light Vision: If there is no light within 30 feet of you, you treat shadows in that radius as normal light, and you treat darkness in that radius as shadows.

Gnome Weapon Training: When you attack with a pick with which you have proficiency, the damage die for that weapon increases by one step: from d6 to d8, or d8 to d10.

Illusion Mastery: You have advantage on checks and saving throws made to detect and resist illusion spells.

Languages:You can speak, read, and write Common and Gnome.

Ability Score Adjustment: Your starting Constitution increases by 1.

Cantrip: You know and cast the minor spells dancing lights and ghost sound.

Dancing Lights

Minor illusion

You conjure one to four glowing spheres of light, or a faintly glowing humanoid shape.

Effect: You create one to four lights that resemble lanterns or torches (and radiate light as such), glowing spheres of light (that look like will-o’-wisps), or one faintly glowing, vaguely humanoid shape within 50 feet. The lights must stay within a 10-foot-radius area in relation to each other, but otherwise can move as you desire. You can move then 50 feet as an action, but wink out if they move further than 50 feet from you. The spell lasts for 1 minute or until you cast it again.

The Wee Folk

Pixie stats are up, ready for you to use under the assumption that you are not entirely reliant on Character Builder. The ability score spread came out as expected–though I could also have seen Wisdom instead of Intelligence, if for no other reason than to make them good at primal classes–but I had assumed that since 3rd Edition pixies were Small that they would follow suit, but these guys are literally Tiny. As we had been told, they can fly but have an altitude limit of 1, get a racial bonus to Nature and Stealth, can “communicate with natural and fey beasts”, have a reach of 1 instead of 0, take a -5 to break things, and get two racial powers; pixie dust and shrink.

Pixie dust lets them channel some Peter Pan, allowing one ally within 5 squares to fly as a free action (happy thoughts are optional). It is a nice little leader-type ability, though it takes a Move action to use. On the other hand, shrink seems to be best suited for allowing a pixie to arm herself with whatever loot the party finds, without having to fallback to a ritual in order to get it properly sized…or have the DM start populating dungeons with Tiny magic items. However, since it works on any unattended object “sized for a Medium or Small creature”, it will be fun to see what types of creative uses the players will come up with. If the pixie is not carrying it around, the effect wears off during the next extended rest, but that is plenty of time for a pixie to sneak around and shrink the bad guy’s weapons, armor, and/or plot devices.

This is a nifty looking experimental race in that it is both Tiny and can fly right out of the gate. There is a 30+ thread on the forums where people are “discussing” whether or not it is too good, and while the pixie can simply fly over difficult terrain, and avoid some traps and hazards, I really do not see how it would be game breaking. Unless of course none of your encounters feature monsters with ranged attacks, and there are lots of terrain features that they can safely perch on. However looking back on my rendition of Keep on the Shadowfell, the pixie’s flight would not have kept in safe in any encounter, even the ones without artillery. At best it would have been able to avoid the difficult terrain (not that other characters cannot simply walk around).

My Friday grouped joked about trying out an all pixie party for a delve-night, and if we do go through with it I somehow doubt that it is going to be remarkably easier.