Before I go anywhere with this, let's first compare gnome characters to svirfnebli characters. This info is taken from both the CF site and Dio's.

Gnomes (300xp penalty) -
Max stats: Str: Strong (18) Int: Super-genius (23) Wis: Profound (25) Dex: Dextrous (20) Con: Healthy (18) Cha: Charismatic (19)
100% skill: Lore
Vulnerable: Bash
Resistance: Poison
Special: Infravision

Svirfnebli (250xp penalty) -
Max stats: Str: Herculean (22) Int: Genius (18) Wis: Sagacious (22) Dex: Dextrous (20) Con: Hearty (22) Cha: Charismatic (19)
100% skill: Lore
Vulnerable: Bash
Resistance: Poison, Disease, Magic
Special: Detect Invis, Infravision, Underdark Scanning
Inherent: Stone Skin

It seems to me, from my perception, that overall playing a svirf character is better than playing a gnome character. Unless you really want to play a gnome over a svirf for RP reasons. Svirf are stronger, almost as wise, equally dexterous, and healthier than gnomes. Sure they're lacking in the Intelligence department but 18 intelligence still means you can learn a skill with two practices. And with 22 Wisdom you're gaining 4 practices per level. Not only that but svirf have three(3) resistances to their one(1) vulnerability in contrast to gnomes one for one. Toss in the detect invis, infravision, the ability to scan in the Underdark (which means reduced surface scanning), along with the inherent stone skin and it leaves me wondering why it is that gnomes have a 300xp penalty while svirfnebli only have a 250xp penalty?

Now don't get me wrong. The point of this post isn't to tell the staff that they should make changes to the xp penalties of the races but more of academic purposes. I really do just want to know why the lower penalty for a race that seems to have more going for it. It's only a 50xp difference anyways. I just found it odd that playing a gnome 'costs' more than playing a svirf. The latter of which has a lot more benefits and I merely wish to know why. Curiousity and all.

Roleplay aside, I'd personally choose gnome over svirf for just about any non-fighter class (where str doesn't matter as much). The extra pracs from gnomewis will easily make up for the 1-3 hp/level that a svirf would have over a gnome (again, for a non-fighter class).

One thing about resist magic is it really only helps against magic *damage* - that is, you take less damage from say...fireball. It doesn't help your saves (unless I'm mistaken) so in reality a gnome (with far better int and wis) will be better off fighting PCs with magic (a lot of invoker spells are stuff like "save vs. lighting bolt to take half damage").

Add in the fact that you'll learn stuff much faster and you'll see why I'd go gnome.

That being said, I could equally make a case for why svirfs kick gnomish ass for fighter classes. It depends more on what you want to do with the char.

I may be completely off on this one, but through normal gameplay I found that resist-magic races do tend to save against spells better.

One of the easiest comparisons I have is ranking invokers and necros in Akan. Invoker damage and necro maledict success rate all seem lower in scale than on non-resistant mobs.

Duergarfan that I am, I hardly had trouble with mage or shaman classes (even without focusing on -svs gear).

If someone could let me know if I've been completely wrong for the last 8 years, that would be swell.

-U.

But I think you are dead on. Resist magic doesn't help much (read at all) vs. magicky weapons (fiery/icy/shocky whatever) but it certainly does help against saves, and some other damage types (chaotic blast) which are actually magic type. In fact, I would say that nearly the opposite of what Twist said is true. Resist magic isn't going to lower the damage you take from a lightning bolt directly, but will help you make the save. Meaning that if we both fail the save, damage is equivalent, but my resist magic race has a greater chance of making the save.

I can't think of any save that resist magic helps you make.

Complicating the issue is the fact that resist magic races also tend to resist poison and disease. Resist poison will help you make poison saves and resist disease will help you make disease saves.

If Resist Poison/Disease helps with Poison/Disease saves, why does resist magic not work this way as well? Just curious. I'm going to assume game balance if I don't get an answer.

There are more reasons then just paying a price for the benefits though. Demographics come into play to a degree, giving a race a high penalty does to an extent lower the number of people playing said race and helps create races that constantly have a below average number of people choosing them.

But, since I think you are more concerned about the direct benefits and drawbacks. I would venture that you are underestimating the value of 23 int and 25 wis. The gnome has a tremendous advantage in terms of learning rates, over all skill selection, mana gains, and at hero the extra hp trains should in fact more then make up for your svi's higher con. Now just based on statistics I would take a svi generally if playing a warrior or more melee oriented class because of the higher str but for pretty much everything else I would choose a gnome.

If you consider the shifter class, two of the svirfs advantages (detect invis and stoneskin) vanish, and their disadvantage (low int) is somewhat magnified. Or consider invoker. Stoneskin still counts for something, but detect invis is worthless. And that svirf int is going to kill you. Sure they get the earth focus bonus, but at best that just puts you at break even.

When it comes to warriors, yeah, I'd say svirfs have the advantage, unless you plan on taking a legacy that keys off high int/wis.

Another point- the extra pracs from the gnome's higher wisdom will pretty much nullify the svirf's greater hp gains.