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Sgt. Cookie
2012-07-23, 09:32 AM
Humans

There are hundreds of different races, each with their own cultures, features, and identifying characteristics. Some races even wed one another, producing halfbreeds and other such things. Some creatures, such as Dragons, can leave traces of thier passing for generations.

Often, these halfbreeds and mixed bloods mate with one another, creating even more diluted offspring. Over time, this produces creatures who's racial heratige is so diverse, though some would say "polluted", that it is impossible to tell what they are from a single glance.

These creatures are refered to as "Humans". "Human" comes from the old Draconic "Huu Manis", which is a derogotory term that refers to Dragons of mixed parentage.

There is no singular trait that defines Humans, apart from the fact that they posses traits of everyone else.

Humans have no lands to call their own, but are found in the lands of all other races, often, but not always, possesing traits of the core racial demographic.




Human racial traits (These traits replace those in the PHB):


Size: Medium

Speed: 30ft

Dominant trait (Ex): Because of their mixed and diluted blood, Humans posses physical traits of many different races, and some from other things, like Dragons or Outsiders.

A dominant trait provides two things to a Human: An ability (Be it Active or Passive), and a physical trait, DC: 10 to spot. Upon selecting a (sub)type, the Human gains the associated ability and COUNTS as that (sub)type for all purposes, magic items, prerequisites, spells that only effect certain creatures, anything really, except for Favoured Enemy and Racial Paragon.

A list of (sub)types is listed below in alphabetical order. This list is by no means exhaustive, and DMs are free to work with players to add other (sub)types and abilities to the list. Unless otherwise stated, all active abilities are 1/day.

(Sub)types:

Aberration:
Ability: Fortification: Because of the touch of Abberent blood, a Human's internal organs aren't in exactly the right place, but they're not far off. A Human with this type gains 10% fortification, this stacks with any other fortification he would gain.
Physical trait: The Human's features just appear bizzare.

Angel:
Ability: Protective shield against evil (Su): A Human with this ability gains a +2 Deflection bonus against evil creatures and a +2 bonus to will saves.
Physical Trait: A Human with this trait appears to be more attractive than their actual features would suggest.

Archon:
Ability: Trace of menace (Su): When fighting, a Human with this ability selects one hostile creature within 20ft. Unless the enemy succeeds on a will save (DC 10 + the Human's Hd + cha mod), he takes a -2 penalty on Attacks, AC and Saves for 1d6+2 rounds.
Physical trait: A Human with this trait appears trustworthy, even when there is overwhelming evidence that states otherwise.

Baatezu:
Ability: Protective shield against good (Su): A Human with this ability gains a +2 Deflection bonus against good creatures and a +2 bonus to will saves.
Physical trait: A Human with this trait always appears a little chilling to look at.

Dragon:
Ability: Sorcerer casting A Human's Draconic blood grants them a small measure of arcane ability. A Human with this ability gains the casting ability of a 1st level Sorcerer, however your caster level is equal to your HD OR your Sorcerer level, whichever is higher. If the Human takes Sorcerer as his 1st level, he instead gains any Draconic heritage feat for which he meets the prerequisites. If he takes any other class at 1st level, this casting stacks with any actual Sorcerer levels.
Physical trait: A Human with this trait appears to have small scales, instead of skin. However, this is only visible up close.
Note: You count as the Dragonblood subtype, as well as Dragon. You may also select Draconic Heratige feats as though you were a Sorcerer of your HD.


Dwarf:
Ability: Armoured movement: Humans with a Dwarf ancestor may wear Medium armour or carry a medium load and move at his full speed.
Physical trait: A Human with this trait looks smaller than their strength would suggest.

Eldarin:
Ability: No idea
Physical trait No idea

Elf:
Ability: Metamagic apditude (Su): A Human's Elven heratige manifests itself as a strange apditude for applying metamagic without much difficulty at all. A Human with Elven blood may, at the start of each day, select one metamagic feat he has, with a base spell level adjustment of 1. A number of times per day, equal to the Human's primary casting stat, he may apply this metamagic to any of his spells without increasing casting time or spell level.
Physical trait: A Human with this trait has strangely pointed ears and elven eyes that look out of place.

Fey:
Ability: Woodland stride (Ex): Nature never forgets its protectors, nor does it ignore the descendents of those that did. Humans with a fey heritage gains the ability to pass through any sort of undergrowth at his normal speed and without taking damage. Undergrowth magically manipulated to impede movement still slows him down.
Physical trait: A Human with this trait just seems to have the look of nature about him.

Giant:
Ability: Powerful build: A Human with Giant blood gains the Powerful Build ability. Additionaly, you count as Large for prerequisites.
Physical trait: A Human with this trait is taller and stockier than other Humans.

Gnome:
Ability: Spell Like abilities: Like his Gnomish ancestors, a Human gains the ability to use ONE of the following SLAs (Player's choice) at will: Dancing lights, Ghost sound or Prestidigitation. Caster level 1st.
Physical trait: A Human with this trait appears to have an earthly tone about him.

Guardinal:
Ability: Speak with animals (Su): A Human's Guardinal heratige grants him the ability to speak with animals once per hour, this is a free action that DOES require sound. This is the equilent to a Speak with Animals spell, with a caster level equal to the Human's hit dice, with a maximum caster level of 8.
Physical trait: A Human with Guardinal blood always seems very proud, and often have lush hair.

Halfling:
Ability: Slight build: A Human with a Halfling ancestor gains the slight build ability.
Trait: A Human with this trait is smaller and more wirey than normal.

Lycanthrope:
Ability: Alternate form (Su) Like your ancestor, you possess an ability to assume the form of an animal. Unlike your ancestor, your ability is more limited. You gain the alternate form special ability that functions like the Lycanblood's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253875). This ability is NOT 1/day.
Physical trait: You appear to have a small change that corrisponds to your chosen animal, fang-like teeth, claw-like nails, etc.
Note: You also count as the Shape Changer subtype.

Orc:
Ability: Hard strikes (Ex): A Human with Orc blood strikes harder than other Humans in the same combat situations. When using melee weapons, a Human adds half again his strength modifer to damage (One handed attacks deal 1.5x strength mod in damage, two handed attacks deal double.). This stacks with any similar ability.
Physical trait: A Human's skin possess a very greyish tone.

Tanar’ri:
Ability: Telepathy (Su) A Human's Tanar'ri blood reveals itself as the ability to mentaly hold conversations. The Human gains Telepathy out to 20 feet + 5 feet per HD, to a maximum of 100ft. This ability is useable at will.
Physcial trait: A small part of the Human, such as his iris' or a lock of hair, changes colour randomly every now and again. This is not dependent on the Human's emotional state.

Passive traits (Ex): In addition to their obvious trait, a Human also posses a few smaller traits, remenents of other bloodlines. A Human selects four of the (sub)types listed above and, like the previous ability, the Human counts as that (sub)type for all purposes, magic items, prerequisites, spells that only effect certain creatures, anything, except for Favoured Enemy and Racial Paragon.

Like the above ability, a Human gains some smaller, less pronounced traits, DC 15 to spot, that corresponds to the passive traits he has chosen. Use the list above, but the actual physical trait is less powerful.

Morph Bark
2012-07-23, 09:55 AM
Ha! In a way, that's pretty close to my take on humans, though you put a heavier and thus more unique spin on it.

Are subtypes all they get? Because then they'd be incredibly weak. And why would a player, if they'd play a human even, NOT choose less than 5 subtypes? Subtypes grant very less, but they grant a few incredibly minor things anyway.

Possible subtypes: aquatic, dragonblood, dwarf, elf, goblinoid, gnome, halfling, incarnum, orc, planetouched, psionic, reptilian.

Sgt. Cookie
2012-07-23, 10:04 AM
Like I said, I really don't know what to add. What would you suggest I put in, while keeping the whole cocktail flavour?

The bad stuff that effects one particular race?

The list wasn't exaustive, just examples. So if you, as a DM, would be fine with those, then Humans can choose them.

TheWombatOfDoom
2012-07-23, 10:07 AM
As with Morph, this is how humans are with me to a degree in my world, though technically not a mixture of ALL the races.

So in this, there is no such thing as Half-somethings, because they're lumped in with human. Maybe add a few more core races to the list so that there's a variety of races, since you're making 3 into 1. Are Halflings technically a half breed?

So if I'm 5 racial subtypes, I get ALL the qualities of each type? or some? Maybe you should have a drawback in there as well? What's the ability modifier like?

toapat
2012-07-23, 10:17 AM
I say just give Darkvission.

Merchant
2012-07-23, 10:32 AM
If this are what humans are seen as, then what do you see mongrelfolk as?

Kholai
2012-07-23, 10:32 AM
Rename original ability "Recessive Traits" or something.

Dominant Trait (Ex): Each human chooses one of the following traits from their mixed heritage to be dominant:

Low Light Vision (Ex)
+1 to saves against magical enchantment effects.
+1 Racial bonus to listen, spot and search checks.
+1 Racial bonus to listen, craft (alchemy) and bluff checks.
Small build: May count as a size smaller for wielding weapons or fitting into small spaces if it benefits them.
Large build: May count as a size larger for wielding weapons or fitting into small spaces if it benefits them.
+1 Dodge bonus to AC.
+1 bonus to saves against diseases and poisons.
+1 bonus to saves against spells and spell-like effects.

Wyntonian
2012-07-23, 10:36 AM
If this are what humans are seen as, then what do you see mongrelfolk as?

My guess would be that he just doesn't. Nothing says that you have to account for every last goddamn race in every last splatbook under the sun.

Answerer
2012-07-23, 11:15 AM
I feel that there just has to be some subtype out there that will be totally broken with this.

And without digging for one, I feel like it's very underpowered. Most subtypes do very little.

Maybe give them a free [Racial] feat?

Garryl
2012-07-23, 01:38 PM
There aren't many racial subtypes with significant mechanical effects, but most that do are whoppers.

Living Construct (a whole host of immunities), Angel, Demon, Devil, Archon... most of the outsider-related subtypes, actually. I doubt that Living Construct could get into the Human gene pool (Warforged don't breed and Half-Golem doesn't count), but given the Half-fiend and Half-celestial templates, along with the Tiefling and Aasimar races, those outsider subtypes are certainly present.

Amechra
2012-07-23, 09:18 PM
Huh, in my personal setting, Humans are the precursor race who have degenerated to their current state due to a curse of ADD from the gods.

So I always find it kinda neat when people take the opposite tact.

Waker
2012-07-23, 09:38 PM
The history for humans that I made up years ago was that humans were the intentional creation of a particular god (unnamed and later locked up on account of him being a jerk). Humans were created by mixing together many of the races in order to create the perfect soldier race. The aggression of an orc, the magical aptitude of an elf, stubbornness of a dwarf, the wanderlust of a halfling and the insatiable desire to for knowledge of a gnome. The unusual bloodline helps explain why humans are able to mix with so many races. When the unnamed god and his human servants were defeated by a coalition of the gods, it was decided that the humans should be prevented from ever raising another empire. Those surviving humans were driven from their land of origin and forced to live amongst the other races as a second class citizen.
When creating a human, the player must decide which racial trait they adopt. This racial traits determines their starting region as well as the bonuses granted. The race traits available are: Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Hafling, Orc, Purist (Human).
Sadly I never sat down to determine what the traits were, but they were meant to be a humans attempt at "being" a member of another race. For example, a human with the elf trait would be talented in the use of magic and certain weaponry while a human with the dwarf trait would be a skilled craftsman and trained in the use of heavy armor. You wouldn't get any ability modifiers like bonus dexterity, but rather a small bonus to certain skills as well as some trait like ignoring movement penalties from armor.

bobthe6th
2012-07-23, 10:24 PM
suggestion:
hybrid vigor(Ex): pick one
+2 to one physical score, -1 to all mental scores.
+2 to one mental score, -1 to all physical scores
+1 to all ability scores

Sgt. Cookie
2012-07-25, 02:35 PM
After looking over the replies, I've made a, rather large, change to the Human. More subtypes are to come, however.

The original ability will still be readded to the Human. Though only four subtypes can be taken.

bobthe6th
2012-07-25, 02:49 PM
Bazetsu... I don't like it... not one bit. a 1 day fear is really good at low levels, and useless after like 6. all the other abilaties are farily strong... I think perhapce an inverse protective shield? +2 to hit and +2 to will save DCs against good creatures?

super dark33
2012-07-25, 04:58 PM
I like 'humens are the origin' more.
buy this is still cool!

Sgt. Cookie
2012-07-26, 10:19 AM
Added a couple more.

Sgt. Cookie
2012-08-10, 05:35 PM
EDIT 10/08/2012

Added some more.

Sgt. Cookie
2012-09-07, 05:54 PM
EDIT: 07/09/2012

Edited the Elf ability, added to the Giant ability.

Added Lycanthrope, Orc and Tanar'ri.

I know Lycanthrope isn't a type, but it was far too cool not to add.

ArkenBrony
2012-09-07, 08:31 PM
i like what this is doing, the one difficulty i have is that the power of each ability is variable. for the most part, they are equal, but the gnome is very underpowered i think, and the dragon seems very powerful. though i would definitely use this race in a campaign. i would be happy to continue to give input on the abilities, cause i love this, and i already have ideas for a racial paragon class for this

Sgt. Cookie
2012-09-07, 09:23 PM
What do you think should be altered about it to bring it up to speed with the rest? And likewise for the Sorc casting.

Fire away, no such thing as unwanted advice on the homebrew boards.

What are your ideas for this human's racial paragon? I assume it would have something to do with "unlockng the latent power of your blood" or something like that.

ArkenBrony
2012-09-07, 09:57 PM
What do you think should be altered about it to bring it up to speed with the rest? And likewise for the Sorc casting.
i think you should get all of the SLA's, that seems a bit under par, but is workable, and the sorc could give a caster level of 1/2 HD, meaning at 1st level you get only cantrips, that should work


What are your ideas for this human's racial paragon? I assume it would have something to do with "unlockng the latent power of your blood" or something like that.
yeah basically, fore the most part it would improve your dominant traits ability, make your passive trait give their regular ability, and maybe make the small trait become a passive trait. and then it could allow you to take the racial paragon in their dominant traits racial paragon

Sgt. Cookie
2012-09-07, 10:12 PM
Hmm. Perhaps if the cantrip was at wil? Would that be better?

Alright, half Hd sounds about right.


Sounds like it would be perfect. The "small trait" you mentioned is a part of passive traits. I'll clean it up tomorrow.

ArkenBrony
2012-09-07, 10:23 PM
the cantrip at-will would almost definitely work, i like that