Abilities

Because of their pride and the importance gnomic culture¹ gives to science, Gnomes naturally reject the very existence of unexplainable forces such as magic. This makes it so that Gnomes will avoid anything that relies on magic unless it is to try and explain it or using it as a simple source of energy, as doing otherwise would be acknowledging magic as a force that disregards all the fundamental rules of the universe discovered scientifically.

Gnomic Literacy

Unlock : Level 1

Being a Gnome², you are able to read and learn from blueprints made by other Gnomes. You can learn to create items in the list associated with the “Gnomic Craftsmanship” skill by reading their blueprint while meeting its statistical requirements. This skill also allows you to create your own contraptions or blueprints³.

Resourcefulness

Unlock : Level 1

Your numerous experiments⁴ have lead you to become extremely resourceful, allowing you to substitute most professional parts found in real blueprints⁵ with parts made of random scraps⁶ you find lying around. This skill allows you to create items from the “Gnomic Craftsmanship” list.

Multitasker

Unlock : Level 5

Having spent your whole life inventing, creating, and assembling small contraptions, doing so has become a mindless task. You can now craft items from the “Gnomic Craftsmanship” list while doing other actions that don’t require the use of your hands like walking or talking.

Bookworm

Unlock : Level 10

Being a Gnome, you have an abnormally high intellect, allowing you to read and finish books about twice as fast as most people.

Unhinged

Unlock : Level 25

Over time, your hate for magic has just grown stronger and stronger, making it so that you now are unable to feel any sort of empathy for a pure magic user⁷. This indifference towards the treatment of mages allows you to create “reactors” out of them by imprisoning them and continuously pumping their mana out of their bodies.

Fast Hands

Unlock : Level 50

Yours hands have gotten so dexterous at this point that you don’t even need to use both hands to create items (or interact with most things in general). You can now only need to use one hand for complex actions (such as crafting), allowing you to do two per turn.

Deranged Ideals

Unlock : Level 75

Because of how powerful you have become and your strong sense of pride, your ideals have become so deformed and out of control that it has become debatable if you even have any humanity left. You can now enslave, torture, abuse, blackmail, kill, etc. anyone or anything⁸ as long as it ends up being beneficial for you or science without any negative effect on your mental state.

Actives

Gnomic Craftsmanship ⁹ ¹⁰

Unlock : Level 1

This ability allows you to create items. Crafting any items form that list will increase your CRA while using these items increases your INT, however, this does not happen if you are mass-producing the same item continuously for no reason. Damage is always calculated upon use rather than upon crafting¹¹.

Magnetic Launcher

Unlock : Having more than 20 intelligence
Time to craft : 3 turn

This cannon-like contraption uses magnets to launch any metallic consumable item at high speeds at a target, making your throw accuracy become 100%. This item can be upgraded using 3 wind magic crystals, giving it the ability to shoot even non-metallic items. Every time it is used, throw a D12, if it falls on 1, the cannon breaks instead of throwing the item.

Designless Contraption

Unlock : Having more than 20 intelligence
Time to craft : 1 turn

A small ball of random sharp stuff with has highly random damage, dealing 1d100/25 * (CRA + INT) damage with 50% accuracy.

Shrapnel

Unlock : Having more than 40 intelligence
Time to craft : 1 turn

A small device which, after being thrown and passing close to something, explodes into smaller shards, dealing 1d4/2 * (CRA + INT + LVL * 20) with 50% accuracy.

Magic Prison

Unlock : Having more than 60 intelligence
Cost : A fresh (1 turn old at most) corpse
Time to craft : 1 turn

Using your intuition and some pseudo-scientific understanding of how “magic” works, you imprison the soul of a creature in a small chamber made of scrap that can fit in the palm of your hand. The resulting magic prison/crystals are used in crafting. However, because of your pride as a Gnome and your “high” standards, you cannot use the souls of an enemy more than 5 levels below you. The soul’s element depends on the type of creature whose soul was imprisoned. If left as is, breaking a magic crystals can have a wide variety of results depending on your luck, the element of the crystal and soul’s strength.

Magic Shell

Unlock : Having more than 80 intelligence
Cost : 1 magic prison
Time to craft : 1 turn

You add a small mechanism to a magic prison to carefully crack it once it gets close to or hits something, forcing it to release all its power in a controlled way, dealing 1d4/2 * (1.5 * (CRA + INT) + LVL * 20) damage of whatever element the prison you used was.

Shield Charge

Unlock : Having more than 100 intelligence
Cost : 1 soul prison and a scrap of metal
Time to craft : 2 turns

Using your mechanical knowledge, you are able to make a small contraption which forces a jailed soul to release its magic in your surroundings to protect the person who activated it, giving its user a supplementary health bar which has 5 * (CRA + INT) + LVL * 20 and takes damage before the user health is depleted while also offering 50% magic resistance against whatever element the magic prison you used was. This effect lasts 3 turns. Shield Charges cannot be stacked on top of each other and using a new one while on is already in effect will replace the original, but make the user take as much damage directly to his health as the health the original charge had left.

Magic Pump

Unlock : Having more than 140 intelligence
Time to craft : 1 turn

A small claw-like machine that allows you to turn someone’s mana into a renewable source of magic prisons. To start the process, you need to plant one of these, which can easily be removed¹², into a creature’s (or person’s) skin and give it enough time (5 turns) to anchor itself into its target. Once this is done, the machine will disable the target’s mana regeneration and start draining the target’s mana at a rate of 500 per turn, stealing their health once they are out of mana. After 5’000 mana¹³ has been pumped, 1 artificial magic prison will be created. Once anchored, even though the pumps become harder to remove than they originally are, they can still relatively easily be pulled out. Multiple pumps can be used at a time. Once a pump is removed or its target dies, it will stop working completely.

Life Pact

Unlock : Having more than 180 intelligence
Time to craft : 6 turns
Cost : 6 magic prisons of the same element

This spider thingamajig, which comes in a pair, can only be installed on immobile, currently conscious, and relaxed¹⁴ targets. Once it is installed, terms can be decided, and once both parties agree on the same terms, the device will start digging themselves into both parties’ bodies, constraining one or both parties to the aforementioned rules at the risk¹⁵ of instant death cause by the explosion of the device from inside of the rulebreaker’s body. The only way to remove the machine from one’s body is to start removing someone’s skin, flesh, muscles and/or organs while searching for it (the search’s success depends on the searcher and the target’s luck). Otherwise, this contraption will break after 5 days (100 turns) or once predetermined requirements are met. Once one machine from the pair breaks or gets unattached, the other will also break of get unattached.

Life Drainer

Unlock : Having more than 220 intelligence
Cost : 5 soul prisons of the same element
Time to craft : 5 turns

A chaotically shaped pair of machines which pushed itself into bodies of its users. The first of the pair is used for the receiver, while the second is the bank. Once this machine is installed and it was given 3 turns to push itself into the bodies of both parties, it disables all natural regen for them, and, from now on, whenever the receiver will take damage, the bank’s health will be drained instead. The bank will always take double the usual amount of damage. This machine isn’t very capable at hiding itself, and so, it is feasible to pull out for the average person, though it is quite small, so it cannot be done while fighting someone for instance.

Punishing Charge

Unlock : Having more than 260 intelligence
Cost : 1 magic prison
Time to craft : 2 turns

This small and flat, sticky tape look-alike contraption expands when it hits something, opening up and wrapping around it¹⁶. Once this is done, it is enabled and for the next 5 turns, whenever the thing is wrapped around uses magic¹⁷, it will take 1d4/2 * (2 * (CRA + INT) + LVL * 20) damage. Multiple of these can be slapped on the same target.

M.I.D. (Magic Interference Device)

Unlock : Having more than 300 intelligence
Time to setup : 2 turns
Cost to use : 3 magic crystals per turn.

This furnace looking device, which requires constant upkeep to function, disables all magic within its area of effectiveness, which is a sphere around 50-meter radius. It should be noted that this machine is quite enormous and only has CRA * 10 health.

N.U.K.E. (Negligent and Unsafe Kids Exterminator)

Unlock : Having more than 400 intelligence
Cost : N/A
Time to craft : N/A

This small and unassuming ball, also known as the N.U.K.E., is actually a weapon of mass destruction created by condensing unimaginable amounts of magical energy into a small container.

To make it, you need to compress at least a prison containing the soul of 1 boss tier monster (which is worth 10 normal prisons) or at least 20 normal magic prisons. Then, you can add as many additional magic prisons as you would like to it, though adding prisons (including the original 20), takes 1 turn.

The resulting item deals # of souls / 5 * (CRA + INT) damage in an infinitely small area on impact. Before this item can be used, it needs to be engaged, once this is done, it will start emitting a loud siren and will take 2 turns to arm, unless unengaged. At the start of the turn it is finally armed, if it touches anything with the slightest¹⁸ force, it will instantly explode, dealing its damage at that location.

Scientific Ascension

Unlock : Having more than 500 intelligence
Cost : 10 magic prisons
Time to craft : 5 turns

You are now able to create fully mechanical replacement body parts which are nearly identical in function to real ones, though, they are made of scrap instead, allowing you to replace organs and body parts completely.

Elixir of Life

Unlock : Having 600 intelligence
Cost : 1 boss soul prison
Time to craft : 10 turns

By liquifying the magic in the soul of a boss type creature, you can create a true elixir of life, which completely regenerates any missing limbs or organs, brings back youth, brings back all of the drinker’s forgotten memories, and refills their health, mana and racial points fully instantly. If it hasn’t been consumed after 3 days (60 turns), the potion will rot and become useless.

Manipulation

Unlock : Level 100

Intelligence can be a weapon in and of itself. Make up believable reasons for the actions you have taken over your entire lifespan to change the people’s perception of you. Once this skill is used, decide how to redistribute all your reputation points. Once the rumors about the “true” reasons behind your actions are done spreading, which takes three days (60 turns) from the point you stopped talking to the target¹⁹ of this skill, your reputation points will be redistributed in the way you desired on use. Once rumors start to spread, they cannot be stopped, but you can start new rumors (which will have a separate timer) to change your reputation while the first set of rumors is still also spreading. If this skill is used too often, it will eventually stop working.

This skill can be ignored if your backstory is able to work around your character growing up with Gnomes, but also that this skill can be forced on characters who aren’t Gnomes but did grow up with them. ↩
Similarly to Magic Denial, this skill can also be taken away from a Gnome or given to another race depending on a specific character’s backstory. ↩
Player-made contraptions have to be approved by a DM. An item without a complete description, similar to what can be found in pre-existing items from the “Gnomic Craftsmanship” list cannot be approved. If an item is invented, it won’t be added to the “Gnomic Craftsmanship” list until a blueprint of it is made. ↩
Similarly to Magic Denial, this skill can also be taken away from a Gnome or given to another race depending on a specific character’s backstory. ↩
It should be noted that real gnomic blueprints all ask for unrealistically high-quality materials and precise instructions, and that even an item’s inventor will never truly follow its blueprint. ↩
The word “random” here should be taken almost literally, as the scraps can be torn paper on the street, rocks, rubble, tree branches, moss, crushed herbs, manure, whatever you find in trash, broken weapons, etc. This is essentially your average gnome: “If I take these twigs, this small rock, my bubble gum…”. However, this does mean that you cannot create items if you aren’t moving around to find materials, unless you keep random garbage on you. ↩
A “pure” magic user would be mages and non-religious archers. Priests and paladins think their power comes from gods, who objectively exist, so they are not an issue (though scripts and enchantments can still be unacceptable depending on how extreme your character is). ↩
This even includes characters you might have been partying with since level 1. ↩
This skill is associated with “Resourcefulness”, thus if “Gnomic Craftsmanship” is disabled, so is “Resourcefulness”, and if “Resourcefulness” is disabled, so is “Gnomic Craftsmanship”. ↩
Items from this list have to be pulled out of your inventory to be used, so using them takes one turn. ↩
This is to reduce inventory clutter. ↩
Running around is enough to make it fall off someone. ↩
When health is drained, it doesn’t serve any purpose for the creation of magic crystals. ↩
If a target’s muscles are tense, the contraption won’t be able to stick itself to their body properly and will break. ↩
A strong or lucky enough person can survive this in some cases. ↩
Around the hit area, this can be around a rock, around an arm, around a neck, around a weapon, etc. ↩
This includes magic effects such as enchantments on items or even just existence for some magic items. ↩
This force can be as weak as being picked up. ↩
The skill doesn’t work if you have already used it on the target. The skill won’t work if the target is socially isolated. ↩

Nazarax