Not sure i'm in the right folder for this, i tend to be folder lost all the time, but here it is. When gnomes came out, I decided to try probalbly the hardest combo around, that is a gnome paladin. When I first made the decision, i looked at magic and at the courage spell as a way of making Stormtears playable. It did work. Was extremely, insanely hard but it did work. Was hoping that in time once i made the weight hindrance gone, I could rely on reflexes and agility to make that character work well. At 42 circle, i still need courage to bring my weight down to burden. Unfortunately, with time, mechanics changes made the situation worst. When GM's decided to gut magic for pallies, by placing soft cap, it really hurt stormtears. Stormtears two best skills are harnessing and magic, which means that two tertiary skills, are higher than his primary one such as shield and plate. That's a lot of work. I used to be able to smite a marauder, now i cant even dream of doing that. I"m going through ranks and ransk of magic and my magic stays stills all the time. At one time, in their attemt to helps gnomes, they did changer something about burden. It's easier now to move around with full plate, but when i started this i went with the old burdens rules. I was okay with that. Today i was reading about lowering reflexes to bring them in line with other skills. To my great disappointment this is also something that's gonna hurt my little pally, i build him around reflexes. From the perspective of a small character. we are really in an unfriendly world. Our prime ability are reflexes, but it's heavily hurt by combats mechanics, for example, if you're fighting an ogre, the first injuries you get are legs and and arms, legs injuries takes away your reflexes advantages. A gortog doesnt get worst at fighting cause his legs his hurting, it relies on strenght for success.
We need a powerful GM that actually likes small characters, there is so much that could be done, and it would enriched so much DR if you look at all the advantages of doing this. Make little character matters. Here are several examples of things that could be done. Create small opening that allows small character to go in. Create potions that allows character to change size. If a 2 feet tall gnome has to crawl to go under Theren's keep, a gor tog shouldnt be able to enter. If the gor tog can crawl, let us gnomes and hafling be able to walk. MAKE SIZE MATTER. Make combat size matters. A gnomes fighting an ogres shouldnt be able to hit him on it's head, although the ogres legs would get hit quite a lot. On the other hand head injuries should be happening a lot more for small character against ogres. It would be fun to be able to access the wagon and the gnomish full plate armor, why is it always lock. We little people have enough handicaps withouth creating more.
Well i hope, a key Gm will wake up, and think about making us matter. Right now , chosing to be a small character means having less possibility. well have a lot of fun every one. J.G.

>Alternately, the nerph to evasion and reflex should not have been applied equally to all races across the board. They should have factored in that some races are designed to rely on this more than others and allowed for that.

That would be a nightmare to balance. Just get rid of the burden penalty and everything is equal.

Removing encumbrance penalties would be nice, but to be honest, ill keep the penalty if you give me a bonus to something universal.

Farewell, remorse: all good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my good.
~Paradise Lost (bk. IX, l. 171)

Gnomes obey have the same mechanics in wolf spiders, or they did when I used to go there.


I'd like to bump a point that the original poster on this thread brought up because it's been bugging me forever!!! Why did they lock the back of the gnome wagon??? You know? The one that used to be in Shard and no sits just outside Arthe Dale. They sold some excellent gnome-sized armor back there including the holy grail of gnome paladins: gnome-size full plate armor.

Please unlock the back of the gnome wagon! Please!!!

>Let me assure you that those armors are NOT the holy grail of anything.

I did some comparisons with the compendium; gleaming silver white plate is cheaper, protects a category better, and has the same weight, or is within 20-50 stone lighter or heavier.

>Just get rid of the burden penalty and everything is equal.

True. The stats penalties/panalties are balanced, so why do some races have an additional panalty I never understood. My elothean has enough of a penalty on burden with +1/+2 str/sta.