Gnome, Wyrd (TP)

A constant hum of busy activity pervades the warrens and neighborhoods where gnomes form their close-knit communities. Louder sounds punctuate the hum: a crunch of grinding gears here, a minor explosion there, a yelp of surprise or triumph, and especially bursts of laughter. Gnomes take delight in life, enjoying every moment of invention, exploration, investigation, creation, and play.

Wyrd gnomes are accomplished arcanists and have a preferred status as servitors to shadow fey, having come with them to the Shadow Realm. Wyrd gnomes possess physical traits typical to the type of gnomes to which they are born, but they are born with two different colored eyes: the right one always blue, the left one always green. Wyrd gnomes possess an innate prescient ability that grows stronger in proximity to other wyrd gnomes. Some gnome communities find their powers a blessing while others find it disturbing. Over generations, wyrd gnomes have gathered together in small communities of their own kind. However, wyrd gnomes don't always birth more wyrd gnomes, and their communities and families have gnomes of other varieties within them. Given the collective prescient power of wyrd gnome communities, they can be fascinating places to visit. Travelers may enter an inn to find the food and drink they wished to order already in place on a table. Conversations may start with wyrd gnomes giving answers before the questions are asked.

A gnome's energy and enthusiasm for living shines through every inch his or her tiny body. Gnomes average slightly over 3 feet tall and weigh 40 to 45 pounds. Their tan or brown faces are usually adorned with broad smiles (beneath their prodigious noses), and their bright eyes shine with excitement. Their fair hair has a tendency to stick out in every direction, as if expressing the gnome's insatiable interest in everything around. A gnome's personality is writ large in his or her appearance. A male gnome's beard, in contrast to his wild hair, is kept carefully trimmed but often styled into curious forks or neat points. A gnome's clothing, though usually made in modest earth tones, is elaborately decorated with embroidery, embossing, or gleaming jewels.

As far as gnomes are concerned, being alive is a wonderful thing, and they squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of their three to five centuries of life. Humans might wonder about getting bored over the course of such a long life, and elves take plenty of time to savor the beauties of the world in their long years, but gnomes seem to worry that even with all that time, they can't get in enough of the things they want to do and see. Gnomes speak as if they can't get the thoughts out of their heads fast enough. Even as they offer ideas and opinions on a range of subjects, they manage to listen carefully to others, adding the appropriate exclamations of surprise and appreciation along the way. Though gnomes love jokes of all kinds, particularly puns and pranks, they're just as dedicated to the more serious tasks they undertake. Many gnomes are skilled engineers, alchemists, tinkerers, and inventors. They're willing to make mistakes and laugh at themselves in the process of perfecting what they do, taking bold (sometimes foolhardy) risks and dreaming large.

Gnomes makes their homes in hilly, wooded lands. They live underground but get more fresh air than dwarves do, enjoying the natural, living world on the surface where ever they can. Their homes are well hidden by both clever construction and simple illusions. Welcome visitors are quickly ushered into the bright, warm burrows. Those who are not welcome are unlikely to find the burrows in the first place. Gnomes who settle in human lands are commonly gemcutters, engineers, sages, or tinkerers. Some human families retained gnome tutors, ensuring that their pupils enjoy a mix of serious learning and delighted enjoyment. A gnome might tutor several generations of a single human family over the course of his or her long life.

Naming conventions among wyrd gnomes are standard for their parent community, except where clan names are concerned. When an individual moves to a wyrd gnome community, they take the clan's name of the household that adopts them, or they create a new one if they relocate as an adult.

Example Clan Names: Alkuper, Begynn, Gingercrick, Goldenlock, Istovash, Kunnian, Murena, Muliget, Sadrienn, Turvalis.

Curious and impulsive, gnomes might take up adventuring as a way to see the world or for the love of exploring. As lovers of gems and other fine items, some gnomes take to adventuring as s quick, if dangerous, path to wealth. Regardless of what spurs them to adventure, gnomes who adopt this way of life eke as much enjoyment out of it as they do out of any other activity they undertake, sometimes to the great annoyance of their adventuring companions.

Gnomes mature at the same rate humans do, and most are expected to settle down into an adult life by around age 40. They can live 350 to almost 500 years.

Gnomes are most often good. Those who tend toward law are sages, engineers, researchers, scholars, investigators, or inventors. Those who tend toward chaos are minstrels, tricksters, wanderers, or fanciful jewelers. Gnomes are good-hearted, and even the tricksters among them are more playful than vicious.

Gnomes are between 3 and 4 feet tall and average about 40 pounds. Your size is Small.

To set your height and weight randomly, start with rolling a size modifier:

Size modifier = 2d4 Height = 2 feet + 11 inches + your size modifier in inches Weight in pounds = 35 + your size modifier

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 can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.

You have an innate knack for understanding the world and can catch glimpses of the mysteries of the universe. You know the guidance cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the identify spell with this trait, requiring no material components, and starting at 5th level, you can cast the augury spell with it. Once you cast a non-cantrip spell with this trait, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

When you finish a long rest, roll a d20 and record the number rolled. Before your next long rest, you can replace one attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with this prescience roll. You must choose to do so before the roll. If 20 wyrd gnomes are present within a half mile of you when you make the prescience roll, you can add 1 to the result. Every time the number of nearby wyrd gnomes is doubled, you gain an additional bonus of 1 to the roll (+2 for 40 gnomes, +3 for 80, and so on) to a maximum bonus of +5.

You can speak, read, and write Common and Gnomish. The Gnomish language, which uses the Dwarvish script, is renowned for its technical treatises and its catalogs of knowledge about the natural world.