Talk:Gnome/@comment-176.22.108.156-20150809180815

I strongly disagree with the discouraged class section. The difference between 17 and 18 wisdom for cleric is one lvl 4 spell (Ring of holiness gives one extra spell on that level), while gnome is the only player race with shorty bonus that can be a mage too. The tradeoff can be countered with a tome of understanding. Cleric-illusionist is an extremely powerful character taking his shorty saving throws, specialist wizard bonus spells and ability to use robe of vecna and spell sequencers for priest spells.

If all 3 tomes are used, the difference will be 20 wisdom vs 21 wisdom loss of 3rd and 5th level spell - which does hurt, however the gain is still worth it and not game breaking. Especially taking the fact the combination of cleric-illusionist gains an extra spell on each and every level of wizard against a loss of (worst case) two cleric spells.

This can be further mitigated by beating baldurs gate 1 more than once (assuming someone is stubborn enough to do it)