Revised Humans [3.5] PEACH

[The Underlord]

As any optimizer would tell you, humans are one of the best, most versatile races. Yet they lack flavor, or any feature but their bonus feat. So I will attempt to remedy that.

The Human
Personality: Most humans have an innate sense of curiosity. They desire to build and discover news things. They also have a desire to dominate. They wish to have power, either as a ruler, or as a rich noble or merchant. Humans can come off a greedy or power hungry to others.

Physical Description: Humans are immensely varied. But most of them tend to stand between 5ft and 6ft 6 inches. Their are few exceptions. Most humans tend towards more of a smaller, thinner side, but it is common to see big and strong humans, usually farmers or warriors.

Relations: They get along better with the shorter lived races, such as the halflings or orcs. The elves view humans as short-sighted due to the elves having a significantly larger life-span.

Alignment: Due to their natural curiosity, most of them lean towards chaotic, but depending on the culture, you may find lawful humans in abundance. Their is no set alignment standards for humans.

Human Lands: Humans tend to stick together in kingdoms or empires. Humans are also found in remote areas, usually as a result of exploration.

Religion: Humans worship a variety of gods. They tend to prefer gods of war, such a Kord, or gods of exploration that would guide them.

Language: All humans speak common and any native languages of where they are.

Human Racial Traits
See traits
Medium Size. As medium creatures, humans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size
Base land Speed of 30 ft
Humans gain a +2 racial bonus to one Craft or Profession skill of their choice. In addition, that skill in treated as a class skill for whatever class is his first class.
Racial Talent: All humans posses skills from their races talent. Humans gain one [Racial] [Human] feat from those listed below in addition to the one gained at first level.
Personality: Each human gains one of the trait listed below

-Curious: Your search for knowledge has lead to you learn many things, and allows you to pick up on things others may miss. Once per day, a human with this trait may attempt a bardic knowledge check as a bard of his HD. At 6 HD you gain another use of this ability. This ability does not qualify you for things that require the bardic knowledge ability.
You gain +2 Int -2 Constitution. A curious human knows much but is frailer than normal.

-Leader: You are a natural leader, either inspiring or feared. Choose one minor aura from the Marshall's list. Once per day you may project that aura until the end of the encounter. At 6 HD choose a major aura. You may choose to project that one instead of the aura you previously chose as a marshal of 1/2 your HD.
+2 charisma -2 dexterity. Leaders tend to be charismatic. leaders tend to think things out, and not act on impulses. Sadly you tend to have worse reflexes because of this.

-Dedicated: You can focus on the task at hand, zoning everthing else out. Once per day, as a swift action, you may focus yourself. While focused you gain a +2 to any one stat, chosen when you focused yourself. While focused you take a -4 to skills that do not use the stat you boosted. You may only make attacks if you boosted a physical stats. You can maintain your focus for 3+ 1/4 of your HD (minimum 3) rounds, although you may end it earlier as a swift action. Once you lose your focus, you are fatigued for the same number of rounds you maintained your focus. At 6 HD you gain one extra use of this ability and are no longer fatigued when you lose your focus.
+2 wisdom -2 charisma. You are better at noticing things, but your focused natures makes you seem a bit odd.
Language: Common. Bonus Language: Any
Favored Class: any

[The Underlord]

Reserved for racial feats.

Touched Ancestry
[Human] [Racial]
Your bloodline may have had an orc there, a changeling over here. Regardless, due to your ancestry, you gain a minor ability.
Prerequisite: Human, must not have more than 1 inherited template at character creation
Benefits: You gain a minor ability listed below based on your ancestry
Changleing: No one truly knew who Uncle Jim was. Once per encounter as a free action you can change your appearence as the disguise self spell. This is a supernatural ability.
Orc: Once per day you may enter a rage as a level one barbarian. This ability does not qualify you for anything that requires the rage abiliity.
Dragon: Dragons have spells that alter appearance, you know. Choose one true dragon. You gain a breath weapon that deals 1d6/4 HD of damage of the type the dragon you chose's breath weapon deals. it is also the same shape, although it is 1/2 of the distance. You may use this ability 1/ encounter.
Illumian Choose one illumian sigil. You gain the benefit of that sigil. You does not, however, count as having that sigil for the purpose of prerequisites.
Special: You may only take this feat at 1st level.

[Othesemo]

Depending on the feats available, this could either be much better or about on par with the normal human. Regardless, I don't see why any wizard wouldn't pick this race. Generally speaking, bonuses to mental stats with absolutely no drawbacks are a bad idea.

[The Underlord]

Depending on the feats available, this could either be much better or about on par with the normal human. Regardless, I don't see why any wizard wouldn't pick this race. Generally speaking, bonuses to mental stats with absolutely no drawbacks are a bad idea.
I'm not too wary of the intelligence bonus considering pathfinder humans get +2 to ANY stat. Plus the only stat that would make sense to have a penalty to in my mind, wisdom, wouldn't have any effect on a wizard.

[The Witch-King]

I like the idea of treating humans like any other race. If I were statting them out, as a starting point, I would tend to characterize the curiosity of humanity and the passion of the human race to pursue their own goals with zeal and energy as a -1 to Will saves and a +2 to Charisma.

I would also characterize them as less motivated by authority figures, more motivated by appeals to a cause and more inclined to trust their own judgement. A dwarf might follow a dwarven general because he's been entrusted by his race with command. A human obeys a human general because of his love for his country. Over time, he might decide to follow the general because he has become convinced of the personal worth of the man himself and his passion for defending humanity.

The dwarf follows the flag and if he receives an order that he thinks might be a bad idea, he follows it anyway because he assumes the King or the general knows more than he does--that's why he's the foot soldier and not the King or the general. The human might decide the general is an idiot and steps have to be taken to avoid disaster. Hence dwarven society is ruled by an unbroken dynasty going back thousands of years and the humans have a history rife with civil war and coup d'etats.

I might also give humans a +2 to Will saves (countering the -1 penalty for an overall +1) against taking any action counter to a single chosen cause. The nationalist fighter gets a +1 to avoid being mind-controlled into betraying his nation. The loyal priest gets a bonus to avoid betraying his faith. That sort of thing--representing the power of personal passion in their lives.

[NeoSeraphi]

I'm not too wary of the intelligence bonus considering pathfinder humans get +2 to ANY stat. Plus the only stat that would make sense to have a penalty to in my mind, wisdom, wouldn't have any effect on a wizard.

Yes, but this isn't Pathfinder. In 3.5, races generally have +2 to one score, -2 to another. Giving +2 to a score without a penalty makes a race arguably too strong for LA 0 (Lesser Aasimar is a very strong race for LA 0, probably one of the strongest).

If you plan to revise each race for 3.5, this is acceptable. If you're only revising humans, stick to the rules used for the other PHB races.

As for the racial traits-

Curious- You should state whether having 5 or more ranks in Know (History) gives you a +2 synergy bonus to the check or not (it does for bardic knowledge).

Leader- Heroes of Battle is a pretty rarely used sourcebook, in my experience. You might just want to choose a few auras that you think fit best and post them as part of the feat.

Dedicated- There is a reason that rage has exceptions on skills that you can't use. "Oh, I can't Balance? Crap, I guess that guy who threw marbles at me just knocked me prone and now I'm falling down this hill...". "I can't Sense Motive? Okay, this guy with no ranks in Bluff auto-succeeds his attempt to Feint me." "You can't Swim, huh? Okay, just let me bull rush you into the water..." "Hey, so you can't use your Escape Artist skill? Well, then you can't resist me as I pull out this rope and spend the next 10 rounds binding you! Now you're helpless!"

I could go on, but I won't. Absolutely removing the ability to make skill checks does not make sense and is incredibly dangerous and abusable.

You also need to state what the action cost is for ending the focus early.

[Amechra]

I like the idea of treating humans like any other race. If I were statting them out, as a starting point, I would tend to characterize the curiosity of humanity and the passion of the human race to pursue their own goals with zeal and energy as a -1 to Will saves and a +2 to Charisma.

I would also characterize them as less motivated by authority figures, more motivated by appeals to a cause and more inclined to trust their own judgement. A dwarf might follow a dwarven general because he's been entrusted by his race with command. A human obeys a human general because of his love for his country. Over time, he might decide to follow the general because he has become convinced of the personal worth of the man himself and his passion for defending humanity.

The dwarf follows the flag and if he receives an order that he thinks might be a bad idea, he follows it anyway because he assumes the King or the general knows more than he does--that's why he's the foot soldier and not the King or the general. The human might decide the general is an idiot and steps have to be taken to avoid disaster. Hence dwarven society is ruled by an unbroken dynasty going back thousands of years and the humans have a history rife with civil war and coup d'etats.

I might also give humans a +2 to Will saves (countering the -1 penalty for an overall +1) against taking any action counter to a single chosen cause. The nationalist fighter gets a +1 to avoid being mind-controlled into betraying his nation. The loyal priest gets a bonus to avoid betraying his faith. That sort of thing--representing the power of personal passion in their lives.

I like this, and might have to steal/develop it further.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

I've always been bothered by the standard Human in 3.5. And I like this a lot. Although considering RL Human stamina levels (ie; the terminator of the Animal Kingdom) I would suggest something that reflects our sheer toughness.

But curiosity fits well too, so take that as you will.

[The Underlord]

Made some changes, main change being how stats work, allowing for a bit more variety. My thought process was more or less
Curious: Well, the one stats wizards want is other than intelligence is con.
Leader:(had a bit of trouble with this one) Well sorcerers are the best blasters more or less. Ranged touch attacks are based of dex so that would be the best one to hit.
Dedicated: Clerics need charisma for turn attempts, so that would be the best penalty
Coming soon; A physical trait for the more martially inclined humans.
edit: finished my first racial feat.

[Reluctance]

The Changeling ancestry lacks parameters on the Change Self ability. Do you count as a first level caster? Equal to your HD? I'm going to ignore the bit where it's an illusion effect for now.

Racial Talent means that literally every human out there is a mutt. While D&D interbreeding is funky, I should be able to play a human who doesn't hark back to an ancestor who is a changeling/orc/dragon/illumian. Especially if you consider that by fluff, illumians descend from humans. After all, other races don't have to reflect their ancestry unless it's strong enough to be template-worthy.

Most importantly, though, humans are meant to be versatile precisely because human versatility is something we see in the real world. A race that can handle anything competently is the whole point. If you want to spin off a subrace for any eventuality, that's what elves are for.

[The Witch-King]

Most importantly, though, humans are meant to be versatile precisely because human versatility is something we see in the real world. A race that can handle anything competently is the whole point. If you want to spin off a subrace for any eventuality, that's what elves are for.

Okay. One--are we talking about redoing humans for general use or for one campaign world? Cause what we see in D&D as humans being the go to race for versatility is a game structure mechanism. What happens in the real world is besides the point in fantasy.

Two--if we're talking about a specific campaign world then someone else can do the versatility gig. Lots of fantasy worlds have humans as the "charisma/leadership" race. Elves as the smart race, dwarves as the stout and sturdy race and the humans bring everyone together. Hell, they served in that capacity even in Babylon 5--which of course you could argue was almost fantasy itself as heavily as it was based on Tolkien. Anyway--the point is a long standing game structure doesn't have to be repeated in every single campaign setting.

Three--the comment about the elves is funny and true. Elves need tightening and redefining too. You shouldn't be able to just create Garbage Elves and Hawaiian T-Shirt Elves and River Elves and Rainbow Elves all willy-nilly. Maybe that just points out that elves should really be the versatile race.

[Rogue Shadows]

I've always been bothered by the standard Human in 3.5. And I like this a lot. Although considering RL Human stamina levels (ie; the terminator of the Animal Kingdom) I would suggest something that reflects our sheer toughness.

We're more like the Energizer Bunny than the Terminator. We have a pretty high pain threshhold, sure, and we can keep going and going and going, but we're also pretty squishy and easy to injure compared to, say, a wolf, and we really aren't particularly strong or agile or fast for our size.

What we are good at is murderizing anything we don't like. We have accidentally driven species to extinction just by inhabiting the same land mass as them, never mind when we get determined and set out with the intent to wipe something from the face of the planet.

Humans are also the only species on the planet that can reliably hit a target again and again with thrown weapons.

I've given some thought to a "real" human build every now and then, and I came up with this:

HUMAN
- +2 Con, -2 Wisdom. Humans are tough, but their senses are poor compared to many species.
- Medium-size
- Human base land speed is 30 feet.
- +1 racial bonus on all attack rolls: Humans are exceptional at combat.
- +2 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown weapons: Humans are an exceptionally accurate species when it comes to hitting something at a distance. This bonus to attack rolls overlaps (does not stack with) the +1 human racial bonus to attack rolls in general.
- 1 bonus feat at 1st level. Humans are quick to master specialized tasks.
- Automatic Languages: Common plus any one other language. Bonus languages: Any. Most humans know at least two languges, and humans learn additional languages easily.
- Favored Class: Any.

However, it's worth noting that D&D humans are statted the way they are because it's assumed that as tough as humans are, dwarves are tougher; as good as we are with thrown weapons, halflings are better; as intelligent as we think we are, Sun elves are more intelligent.

[The Underlord]

The Changeling ancestry lacks parameters on the Change Self ability. Do you count as a first level caster? Equal to your HD? I'm going to ignore the bit where it's an illusion effect for now.

Racial Talent means that literally every human out there is a mutt. While D&D interbreeding is funky, I should be able to play a human who doesn't hark back to an ancestor who is a changeling/orc/dragon/illumian. Especially if you consider that by fluff, illumians descend from humans. After all, other races don't have to reflect their ancestry unless it's strong enough to be template-worthy.
Going to fix the change shape one. For the second point, don't worry, I plan on adding more racial feats, so there isn't just that one.