If we look at it from a nutritional point of view, Gnomes don’t appear to have well developed muscles, and have enlarged heads due to presumbely well developed brains. This would make them quite an unconventional snack at best, with very little “meat” and mostly fatty tissues and brain matter, which would be an acquired taste at best. My only guess would be trolls.
Regarding your earlier points, I agree options for more mechanisation would have been good- or less, like one limb rather than two for example. I have suggested in another thread about limb customisations for the future- like wheels, jets etc. More ear adornments would be decent as well. I think the face has to be left largely alone as the principle point of playable MGS is they don’t go that far, so the guess is they leave their brains and hearts largely alone (maybe putting a few cognitive upgrades into their brains but that’s it, the Gnomes working on Mekkatorque during the questline mention such upgrades)
Regarding classes, like normal gnomes I think MGs rely on your perspective of what such a class “might” be for them, as in many cases they’re probably not a “general” representative of such a class.
Mages and warlocks are pretty standard fare. One could look at them as scientists interested in bridging the gap between magic and science. Warlocks a more unethical take on this. Warlocks are accustomed to sacrificing parts of themselves for powers, so for a MG actually the class fits extremely well, as “crossing that line” isn’t really as much of an issue for them as others.
Hunters are a good class for MGs, a simple sharpshooter or sniper works, or a bot commander, or tinker. It depends on your spec, but if using beasts using non mechanical ones is quite jarring.
Rogues are similarly a good fit. Rogues are about precision and calculated movement, which mechanisation can offer. Erazmin mentions when rogues address him about upgrades pertaining to sound-absorbant foot upgrades which suggests mechagnomes can utilise such tech. Stealth can be justified through cloaking tech, which makes the RP issue of “I disappear before your eyes” less jarring, as MGs actually have the technology potential to do this, and you can maintain it’s deviceless as they’ve simply mechanised themselves to allow it to occur. Allow it drawbacks obviously. Weapons can be trickier, it’d be cooler if we could mog the weapons AS our arms, but alas. On my rogue for example I use two Tia Tia the Scything star, and I’ve conceptualised it that when she has them equipped, the whirring blades are her actual arms - it’s a case of her simply equipping them.
Monks are frequently seen as a misnomer. A conventional monk could be a way for a MG to explore their inner Gnomanity, and embrace the “living” side of themselves. It could be an exploration into the curiosity of a subject which is quite un-gnomish- enlightenment, abstract principles etc. Gnomes are curious after all! My own, thus guy, I’ve envisioned as an Alchemist. He uses concotions he’s brewed up to behave as medicines and to soup up his own attributes, as they contain chemicals that work as fuel/battery for some of his internal augments (for example in the case of Ironskin Brew it’s a concoction that forces his pain recoginiton systems to delay their feedback loops, and instead divide the data into small subsections and feed it into his system over a longer window, resulting in him feeling the pain over a longer period but less intensely).
Regarding martial arts it could be seen as a way to embody the idea of “Transgnomism” or rather, becoming one’s best self, and shamelessly using technology to assist in this. Erazmin again tells us of considering stuff like below-the-skin metallic plating to assist in combat prowess.
Priests are a bit weirder. Gnomes don’t appear to have faith to speak of, and the Mechagon gnomes have been divorced enough from mainstream Gnomanity to make adoption of human-light culture less pronounced. Gnomish priests may worship the Watchers, but this is speculation. Given MG culture focuses quite firmly on imitation of the philosophy of Mimiron, it’s a plausible option. Another alternative is that their priests are essentially non-theistic and they represent a way of teaching and celebrating Gnomish culture and philosophy- that is to say in this case that one can always transform themselves if they have the imagination to envisage the challenge they need to overcome. In a way you could say this is an almost Nietzschean philosophy. Alternatively you could have a priest simply revere “science” a “tech priest” of sorts, and seeing technology as a manifestation of the divine, as it is the sentient race’s way of replicating the underlying processes of nature- be it destructive or otherwise. So using tech “connects them” to fundamental underlying orders of the universe.
Death knights are similar to warlocks. You could simply have a standard MG killed and raised as a DK. Alternatively you could have an MG who went a tad too far in their mechanisation and thus borders on being alive and dead. The fact Mg armour glows blue a lot works nicely with DK base eye colours to serve as being explained by simple “power” coursing through them rather than the DK undeath glow. Experimenting with necrotechnology (hey Frankenstein) would be a good way to have a MG character be written!
Apologies for wall of text!
Don’t eat Mechagnomes.
