Why are there so many gnomish dragon disciple portraits available?

[WiseGrimwald]

I mainly play Baldur's Gate and in that game dragon disciples are restricted to humans, elves and half elves, yet a large proportion of the dragon disciple portraits that I found are gnomes. I am wondering why. Are there games where they can be rolled legally? Are there legends in which there is a famous gnomish dragon disciple? Or is it just that a particular artist likes gnomish dragon disciples?

I have come up with this which has given me some insight. I now understand the difference between dragon disciple and dragonborn. Found nothing about gnomish dragon disciples though and what it says in-game is confusing. It gives the impression that dragon's disciples are dragonborn.

Can gnomes become dragon's disciples? I can make it so with EE Keeper, but is it possible in the dnd rulebook?

 

[Antimatter]

Do you have a few links where we could check the art?

As for the Baldur's Gate DD implementation, I guess you can check out the old thread here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/45080/dragon-disciple where people shared their impressions about 3e interpretation and how the class was used generally in NWN.

This is how the class was implemented in NWN: https://nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Red_dragon_disciple

So there, any non-undead race can become a Dragon Disciple, but Sorcs and Bards are the required base classes. Maybe that's why you see gnomes in particular?

 

[WarChiefZeke]

I remember the old official Bioware website when it still had NWN stuff featured a list of interesting epic level builds, complete with in-game models and storylines and all that.

I distinctly remember the dragon disciple/bard build on that site being a gnome.

The connection between dragons and gnomes is one for scholars to debate.

 

[WiseGrimwald]

Though not strictly allowed in the unmodded game, there is a mod that allows you to play any class with any race. To do that dwarves were allowed an extra point of charisma otherwise they couldn't get the 17 points insisted on for paladins.
The mod is called

No Race Restrictions Mod​

I am currently playing a drow dragon disciple and intend to play a dwarven one at some time.