What are your thoughts on gnome for a transmuter? How well did Sage Defense work? What about Wise Recovery?

Thanks man, I enjoyed the character and had tons of fun.

Gnomes are great for mages in general, I think. Transmuter race combos are something of a personal preference though, and mostly because different racial stats will make different aspects of the class shine more, which is a great place for a class to be. This being my first transmuter I don't have personal point of comparison between gnome and other races, but I think an elf/drow or svirf transmuter would fight a bit differently. I'd say that gnomes are the midpoint between those two playstyles (a human would be too with different advantages/limitations), so a great choice to get a feel for the class as the other options would lean more into finesse.

Sage defense was a noticeable bump in defensiveness (hard to parry weapons will still be hard to parry weapons though), and wise recovery was a quality-of-life thing (meaning good to have, but doesn't make or break the build, I think Calmed Mind has bigger impact).

Fleshtwister's Awareness I can see being useful for some more aggressive players, but even then, I think the benefits of it are marginal. Cheap edge though.

Grace Under Pressure is great, but I think that in 80% of the fights I was fighting against bleeding and even with repair flesh and stigmata I used accelerate only situationally.

Why the delete? GLWYN

Real life is kicking my butt, so it was right time to let Cedlimerick go. I'll be back once things settle down.