Pathfinder 2nd edition Readthrough: Gnomes, not tiefling, so that 4th edition dnd debate was won



Disclaimer: I was not a fan of the PF 2e dev diaries, or of the play-test. This does not mean I'm going to do nothing but bash this book, and I legitimately hope to be pleasantly surprised, but keep in mind this read-through is likely to be very biased. A fair bit of it is also for comedic purposes. It is by no means a declaration that people should not play PF 2e, that people are wrong for enjoying it, or anything along those lines
The Gnome
The  artwork is of a blue-haired tinkerer examining a screw because gnomes are the most anime of them all. The fluff mostly focuses on their weird disease known as the Bleaching, where a lack of imagination slowly drains the color away from you and...wait a minute, is this the ending of character thing from Changeling where you lose all wonderment with the world and become a hopeless human?

Anyway, onto other fluff. The Gnomes have not had an ancient empire, unique for now, and with an interesting view on marriage. Outside that not much too unique. Onto the crunch

They get a bonus to Constitution and a penalty to Strength because that makes sense, a boost to Charisma, and a free boost. Natural Speed, 25 feet, which if this is also true of the Goblin and Halfling, take that Dwarves! For some reason. Size of small and HP of 8, and they get one additional base language than the Dwarf! (Kazoo noise). Also low-light vision, because apparently everyone but humans have eyes of cat. Guess that means everyone is Riddick. Anyway, time to the five sub-classes. Free +1 for not actually including a Sonic Gnome to spite me.

Heritage (Not Ancestry)
-Chameleon Gnome: A fun and flavorful little ability that allows your skin and hair to constantly change colors, but in practice is just a simple +2 to Stealth. Simple if not really playing with the concept a whole lot.
-Fey-Touched Gnome: You get a free Innate Cantrip, but is has to be primal, but once per day after a ten-minute activity you can change it to another Primal Cantrip, so it actually is rather nice.
-Sensate Gnome: A Gnome that has better senses, a neat concept that ties into the race's lore. However the text could use some work.
"You gain a special sense: imprecise scent with a range of 30 feet. This means you can use your sense of smell to determine the exact location of a creature"
After seeing this, I may send a Merriam-webster to Paizo's offices just to be on the safe side for future releases. Also a +2 to Perception checks to locate creatures within that 30' range. Neat even with contradictory text.
-Umbral Gnome: Literally the same as Cavern Elf. Trade your Low-Light for Darkvision. I honestly would have preferred it as a feat.
-Wellspring Gnome: A subrace that lets you pick any Cantrip....I'd think better of this if it didn't mean 2/5ths of the Gnome sub-races were literally just grab a cantrip subraces.

Feats

At 1st level
-Animal Accomplice: You get a free familiar, but it must have a Burrow speed. Familiars can always be useful little scouting buggers, although the restriction might limit the usefulness a tad.
-Burrowing Elocutionist: Speak with animals with burrowing creatures. Usefulness is DM dependent, so hope the animals actually know something useful and not "My name is gary, I follow you because you smell like fish!"
-Fey Fellowship: +2 to Perception and to saving throws vs the Fey. Solid. There's the bit about immediately making Diplo checks against Fey at -5 instead of spending a minute in conversation first which...alright, I suppose if they will attack you if you don't calm them down first that might be useful. Either way take it for the other bits.
-You get a free Primal Cantrip. That you cannot change. Looks at Fey-Touched Gnome and back again. Then at Wellspring Gnome and back again.
-Gnome Obsession: Free scaling proficiency in a Lore Skill. Don't know what that does yet, so it really depends. Especially if the Bestiary is filled with 4e style lore.
-Gnome Weapon Familiarity: See the Dwarven and Elven ones. The specific non-racial weapons for this are the Kurki and Glaive, a weird combo that leaves a lot of gaps, as to be expected.
-Illusion Sense: +1 Perception and Saving Throw vs Illusions, and you don't need to interact to disbelieve them. This one I rank as dependent on how often your DM uses them and how well the Illusion rules stack up.

5th level
-Animal Elocutionist: Keep on mistaking this for Electrocutionist. Which would also be nice. No longer is your speak to animals limited to burrowing ones, and you get a +1 on the checks. Still has the same issue as the level one version. "No I don't have anything useful to say, now can I eat you giant fish?"
-Energized Font: If you took one of the many previous racial ways to get a cantrip, once per day you can get a Focus point! Whatever that is!
-Gnome Weapon Innovater: See Dwarf and Elf

9th Level
-First World Adept: If you have an innate Primal spell this gives you free Invisibility and Faerie Fire as second level spells once per day. If they resemble their 1e counterparts this is likely worth it.
-Vivacious Conduct: You regain HP faster when resting. If they actually did successfully kill the CLW wands, this might be useful.

13th Level
-Gnome Weapon Expertise: You know what it is, you know what it does. Instead let's discuss the fact that the gnome artwork on this page has purple hair with eyebrows that go well beyond the sides of her head. Strange.

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