>>96279866
No, it doesnt. Pathfinder gnomes work perfectly fine in the vaguely Renaissance era setting that is Golarion. All you have to do is tone down how mechanically inclined they are. There are tons of other things "tinkering" can refer to besides machines.
Gnomes are based on tales of the brownie, the nisse, the tomte, the small fey man who comes into your home at night and fixes things. Gnomes as renowned fixers and crafters of intricate things is easy enough to keep in your "medieval" fantasy setting. They don't need to be mechanically inclined. You could add alchemy to their purview too, and it would fit perfectly fine.
Hell, you can still keep them innovators too, but their innovations are around specific things. Besides that, innovation takes a long time and comes with many pitfalls and accidents. Especially in a medieval world with limited data keeping and a lack of an established scientific community. It is remarkably easy to lose an innovation when its inventor dies from an accident and his papers go up in flames, or are buried under tons of earth, or blown to bits, or covered in acid, etc, etc.
The problem is that too many people here on this board are literally too stupid and unimaginative to make these races work. They latch onto idiotic stereotypes of things and cant see beyond those to make these races work for them.
