Curiosity and cunning, learn how to optimise a Forest Gnome with our guide.
What are Forest Gnomes?
Gnomes are short, inquisitive folk that are native to the Feywild. They’re often bearded but slimmer than dwarves and much more excitable. Forest Gnomes are a little less hardy than their Rock Gnome cousins and more fond of nature and magic than the technology the Rock Gnomes are obsessed with.
Forest Gnomes often find their homes in forests (surprisingly) though they’re versatile enough to make their home wherever they like but prefer to be among nature. As students of magic and especially illusion, Forest Gnomes will typically protect their homes from intruders through the use of illusory spells making them very difficult to find.
Forest Gnomes have been a playable race in D&D 5e since its inception and are featured in the Player’s Handbook. Our guide will tell you everything you need to know so you can play as a Forest Gnome of your own.
Is a Forest Gnome right for you?
Dungeons and Dragons lets you take a flexible approach to building a character, but if you’re going to stick to typical culture and the best-optimised build for a Forest Gnome you might consider the following:
Choose a Forest Gnome if you like…
- Having magical resilience
- Using illusions
- Are innately curious about the world
- Love animals and speaking with them
A Forest Gnome might not be for you if…
- You don’t like being slower than everyone else
- You don’t like being smaller than everyone else
- You don’t care about illusions
If you think a Forest Gnome isn’t for you, not to worry, there are dozens of playable races for you to pick from, just check out our races guide to find out about all of them. For a different Gnomish subrace, you could consider an Autognome or a Rock Gnome.
Forest gnome racial traits
| Ability Scores | +2 Intelligence; +1 Dexterity |
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Size | Small |
| Speed | 25ft |
| Languages | Common and Gnomish |
| Traits | Small, Darkvision, Gnome Cunning, Natural Illusionist, Speak with Small Beasts |
| Proficiencies | None |
| Resistances | intelligence, wisdom and charisma saving throws against magic |
| Darkvision | Yes |
| Innate Spellcasting | Minor Illusion |
| Book found in | Player’s Handbook |
If you want to play as a Forest Gnome, your character will have the following traits and abilities (as found in the SRD for D&D 5e):
Darkvision – 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.
Gnome Cunning – You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saves against magic.
Natural Illusionist – You know the Minor Illusion cantrip. Intelligence is your spellcasting modifier for it.
Speak with Small Beasts – Through sound and gestures, you may communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller beasts.
Tactics
Mage Hunter: Forest Gnomes have advantage on saving throws against most spells making them great for throwing at spellcasters. Wisdom and then charisma are the most common saving throws from spells so bumping these up where possible will help you out too. Sadly, intelligence is your main ability score increase which is rarely needed against spells. Still, taking a class that can mix these elements can help.
Illusions: Minor illusion is a super versatile little ability and as a cantrip, can be cast as much as you like. If you’re creative, it has many uses. Make a sound to distract a guard then sneak past (or clobber him on the head), create an image that distracts an enemy or create a fake image of an priceless item while you walk away with the real treasure. You’ll be at your best doing this with a high intelligence (you already get a racial boost here) but it can be effective without a high intelligence.
Gnome’s best friend: If you’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll know just how handy it is to be able to speak to animals and how much you can get out of them. They may not have the knowledge or understanding of more intelligent beings, but there can be handy morsels of information you can get out of creatures that might just help you out in all sorts of situations.
Which classes work well for Forest Gnomes?
The big challenge for Forest Gnomes is that intelligence increase is quite restrictive and really pigeon holes them to certain classes, especially when minor illusion is most effective with a high intelligence. Having said that, advantage on spell saving throws is universally useful, and more so for martials. Dexterity is generally a good ability score too while speak with animals can be used by anyone, but will be at its best with high charisma characters.
Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Forest Gnome based on how well the ability score increases and racial traits work with each class:
Artificer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Barbarian ⭐⭐
Bard ⭐⭐⭐
Cleric ⭐⭐
Druid ⭐⭐
Fighter ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Monk ⭐⭐
Paladin ⭐⭐
Ranger ⭐⭐
Rogue ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sorcerer ⭐⭐
Warlock ⭐⭐
Wizard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best Forest Gnome classes
The 2 intelligence based classes of artificer and wizard are your best options here. Artificers slightly edge it between these 2 classes though as the extra hardiness from Gnome cunning will come in especially useful for frontline artificers like battle smiths and armorers.
Forest Gnomes do fairly well as rogues. You get a great stealth cantrip at 1st level and intelligence is generally handy on rogues for the likes of investigation and insight checks. Dexterity is obviously useful too. On top of this, arcane tricksters will want to invest even more heavily in intelligence making the increase extra useful for them.
A dexterity based fighter can work well too. The best subclass for a Forest Gnome though is an eldritch knight for that intelligence based spellcasting ability.
Worst classes for a Forest Gnome
Dexterity and gnome cunning are enough to ensure that no class is terrible for a Forest Gnome, but some stand to gain much less than others from a Forest Gnomes abilities. In fact, most other classes will struggle to use a Forest Gnome’s traits to their full effect including the likes of clerics, druids, monks, paladins, rangers and sorcerers who tend to have little to do with intelligence.
About Forest Gnomes
Forest Gnomes originally came from the Feywild but have since spread out across the Forgotten Realms and far beyond and are common throughout all settings in D&D. You’re most likely to find Forest Gnomes living among nature, particularly in forests. Their small sense and natural affinity towards illusions often makes them difficult to find if they don’t want to be. Having said this, Forest Gnomes are sociable creatures and are just as likely to talk your ear off as they are to hide in their burrow home.
Forest Gnomes typically live in small towns of about 500 other Forest Gnomes, often making their homes in burrows underground. An insatiable curiosity though, means that Forest Gnomes are common (or at least not unusual) in most places throughout the multiverse.
Other Gnome sub-species
Appearance
Forest Gnomes tend to be short, about 3-3.5 ft tall so tend to be about the height of a child and similar to a Halfling or a Kender. Unlike Halflings or Kender though, Gnomes have more mature looking features with beards and wrinkles marking their faces.
What they do share with Halflings, Kender and even children, is a natural curiosity and energy. This tends to be channeled into magic, especially illusions which fascinate Forest Gnomes and they enjoy using this to their advantage. Forest Gnomes live longer than humans, though not as long as a lot of other fey creatures like elves. A typical Forest Gnome will live for several hundred years, which is not nearly long enough to discover everything they want to discover.
Forest Gnomes are generally appreciated by other races who tend to see them as useful people, whether that be as a tutor for a wealthy family, a wizard to protect a family home or just a willing worker. This is mainly due to their enthusiasm for even the most menial of tasks. The main challenge is keeping a Forest Gnome focused on the task at hand.
How to roleplay as a Forest Gnome
Most Forest Gnomes are curious and excitable while also being wary of danger. Consider the following ideas when roleplaying a Forest Gnome:
- What are you curious about? – While most Forest Gnomes are curious fellows, they’re often curious about different things. Are you curious about nature, magic or human behaviour? Maybe all of it or something else entirely. What you’re curious about may determine how you act when you encounter different things.
- Social creatures – Forest Gnomes are highly sociable and want to find out everything they can, including about people. While this does make them friendly (normally), other races can find their behaviour to be incessant. How does this manifest though? Do you ask a lot of questions for example? Be careful though that you don’t irritate the other players when manifesting these traits.
- Small creatures in a big world – While Forest Gnomes are very curious, they’re not idiots and know their limitations. Forest Gnomes are aware that they are smaller than most other races and must take precautions to protect themselves (such as using illusions to hide where they live). How does your Forest Gnome protect themself against the dangers of the world?
