After looking at WebShaman's melee mage guide, I wanted to make a strength based gnome one. I am a bit unsure of how I should set up the starting stats, primarily due to the -2 to strength and my wanting to keep 18 intelligence.

What do you think would be the best way to set up a gnome melee wizard's stats? Simplest thing is to drop STR to 13, and keep everything else the same. You'll still qualify for cleave. Given that you'll be using BS ASAP, and constantly, an odd number doesn't seem that unfortunate.

Wait a sec... actually, can't you keep the same stats? Bah, now you're making me count. Yah, same stats. What do you mean by "same stats"? if I dropped strength to 13 then I could get either con:16 and int:17, or con:14 and int 18. Neither of witch are on WebShaman's thread. Eh, it doesn't matter. Thanks for the help, I think i'm going with
str:13
dex:10
con:14
wis:8
int:18
cha:8 Yah, my counting was off.

How about

STR 13
DEX 8
CON 16
INT 18
WIS 8
CHA 8

Or, what you have. Assuming you're gonna strap on full plate, I'd be willing to deal w/ the lower DEX. Either way though. Aint a huge difference. I prefer to not have a negative than to have 1 more hp per level. But like you said, it doesn't make that much of a difference. Also, the full plate doesn't get added until epic levels, and during the early levels that one extra AC seems important.