I created this stat block to add some flavor to the somewhat boring and overlooked deep gnomes. The Tinkerer may have some rock gnome blood running in them since they display a similar love for machinery. They are isolated loners, shunned by the rest of deep gnome society, neglecting their usual innate magical abilities to focus on creating fantastic devices. These Tinkerers often leave the underdark to search for new opportunities, or bend bands of their brethren to their will.
While they add a flavor of comedy, they can also be used to spice up a low level encounter. Their actions leave the weaker party members exposed to potentially being temporarily removed from combat and a Tinkerer uses their intelligence to seek these defenseless creatures out. Fighting from the back lines, they use their ranged attacks to their advantage, knocking those prone who come too close.
Sorovian Lore:
Originally, I used this stat block for a quirky inventor named Joff who could help the party with some strange inventions. His most proud of these inventions is his chair Living alone in the underdark, he had never before seen a chair and thought he was the first to think it up. He first met the party in Groblin the Goblin’s Tavern and joined them since he had nothing better to do.