But I must say I feel for the little guys when I see them do so well in fights, only to be killed by horrid cheap shots, or cranials.

Given how many gnomes there are (a lot), why should we go out of the way to create a change that can negate their largest drawback? Your proposed change creates a number of balance problems (Enlarge/Reduce need to be rethought, gnomes get a huge edge for a small investment in lightweight prep items, mace specs need to be reconsidered...), which means readjusting other variables to attempt to compensate. Once that is the case, you need a compelling reason for the change to occur, which you aren't spelling out. Otherwise, we're just shuffling code around.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com