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View Full Version : The Men of Hu: a new human origin [PEACH]



Omnicrat
2012-08-20, 07:50 AM
I'm not completely sure if this should go in the world building sub forum or not.

In a lot of D&D mythologies, Humans are a young race. Humans have ambition and drive beyond any others. Humans have the best and the worst amongst there number. Humans are the dominant race of the world. But how did they get that way? What makes humans so special?

Most reasons give for exactly why humans are the way they are, if any reasons are given at all, is usually noble in some way. There was a wronged god, trying to make a superior race. The first human was born of the earth its self, and was a being of unparalleled superiority. Humans were breed from the best traits of the other races.

But what if the origin of Humanity was nothing so noble? What if Humanity's start was as a scourge upon the land? A blight placed on the other races by the gods? And so, I came up with the Men of Hu.


A Brief Overview

Humans were created as a plague upon the earth. A punishment to those whom the Gods first gave life, and in turn abandoned their creators. The “Human Plague” was unleashed 1000 years or so ago, followed by a terrible dark age (now called the Dawn Age by Human society) lasting centuries as the Humans tore down the civilizations of the Elder Races. Ever since, Human society has been advancing, learning, and building.

The original humans, the Men of Hu, were little more than animals. They raped and pillaged every land, slowly adding the biology of the Elder Races unto their own. Near the end of the Dawn Age, what we no consider the True Humans emerged, along with a smattering of distinct halfbreed races.

Humans have not reached the level of power the Elder Races once possessed. Some fear reaching this level of advancement will cause the ire of the Gods to be raised again, bringing an end to Human society in a similar way that the Humans brought an end to the Elder Races society.


The Men of Hu Unleashed

Hu was know as the Valley of the Gods to the Elder Races, and was the most fertile and beautiful place on Earth (or whatever the Earth parallel is called). For centuries, it went untouched out of respect for the Gods, but near the end of the Elder Age, after the Elder Races had abandoned the Gods, they sought to colonize it. They Elder Races believed Hu could one day hold dozens of cities, all able to sustain themselves in Hu's lushness. To access Hu, one had to traverse a dangerous mountain path, that had been sealed by a great Bronze Gate for centuries. It took the power of 1000 men to open the gate, as no magic could affect it. After the gate was open, a small band of colonists entered, the first people to set foot in Hu for millenia. The Colononists were to be totally self-sufficient for the next 100* years as a test for future efforts, to see how little land was required to sustain their number. In this time, they would have no contact with the outside world as (for reasons never totally understood) magical communication into and out of Hu was impossible.

When no one emerged from the valley after 100 had passed, a second expedition was sent in to investigate. What they found was terrifying beyond belief. Below is an exert from a transcription in Gnomish of an Elvish journal that survived the Dawn age.


The best news that I have is that The Colony has failed. From the moment we entered Hu, it was clear that The Colony has been long since destroyed. While I cannot be certain what exact fate befell the colonists themselves, it would seem they were all wiped out by a terrible and disgusting race, the likes of which we have never seen. They had no discernible language, only communicating through animalistic howls and primitive gestures. Their “tools” were rudimentary and crude or hundred-year-old artifacts being misused more often than not. They have open wounds that seem infected, and they seem to simply defecate where they stand. Most disturbingly, they seem rape and kill one another without a second thought. But by far, the worst thing of all is their number. Our party saw one of their women giving birth, and no fewer than 7 infants were had within the course of an hour. There appear to be hundreds of thousands of them, perhaps even millions. They appear to have almost run out of space to live and food to eat. They have run out of space and food in Hu! We must re-seal the Bronze Gate, lest these “men” of Hu find the Valley Pass and kill us all.


According to the rest of the ancient Gnome text, all of that gained from only one night of observation, before a group of Hu Men discovered them, killing all but the journal's writer, who barely managed to escape ahead of the Hu Men hoard. With no one standing at the ready to close it, the Bronze Gate was left open, allowing the millions of Hu Men to pour out, laying waste to all in their path. So began the Dawn Age.



Hu Men Racial Traits.

• -2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, 3 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma.
• Medium size: As Medium creatures, Hu Men have no special modifiers due to their size.
• Hu Man base land speed is 50 feet.
• 3 bonus skill points, 12 at first level (not subject to removal by intelligence penalty)
• 3 bonus feats
• Languageless: The Hu Man mind is so primitive, it cannot learn or comprehend language. This casues Hu Men to be immune to language dependant spells and effects.
• Class Restriction: Hu Men can only take classes with simple training
• Favoured Class: None. A Hu Man mind is too primitive to take more than one class without experience penalty


Conclusion

I also have vital statistics, but can't seem to format them properly.

And that is all that I have so far. Please tell me what you think and give any suggestions as to how I might expand upon exactly what happened during the Dawn Age.

Zale
2012-08-20, 10:14 AM
Hu Men Racial Traits.

• -2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, 3 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma.
• Medium size: As Medium creatures, Hu Men have no special modifiers due to their size.
• Hu Man base land speed is 50 feet.
• 3 bonus skill points, 12 at first level (not subject to removal by intelligence penalty)
• 3 bonus feats
• Languageless: The Hu Man mind is so primitive, it cannot learn or comprehend language. This casues Hu Men to be immune to language dependant spells and effects.
• Class Restriction: Hu Men can only take classes with simple training
• Favoured Class: None. A Hu Man mind is too primitive to take more than one class without experience penalty


Surely you don't intend for anyone to play these?

You'd end up slumping in a corner, communicating with others by means of grunts. Who wants to play something with the mind of a gerbal?

It seems very.. restrictive.

Absol197
2012-08-20, 10:42 AM
I agree. I love the idea, but I think this would be better off statted as a monster instead of a race that no one could ever possibly play.

Reluctance
2012-08-20, 10:57 AM
So Yahoos. (Or: Lemuel Gulliver met more than little people.)

Also doesn't work. On multiple levels. The 3 int, for a start. The fact that the only use for these things would be feat hax. -2 to casting stat might be worth it for two bonus feats over a base human, if you go Cha or Wis based. One starting plus two for flaws plus three for race is nearly as many as an average character gets over their whole 1-20 career.

Thematically, the point of humans in fantasy worlds is their self-determination. You can make humans as "the gods **** on us, but we made a place for ourself regardless". Calling them a race of savage idiots raises the question of how they became the race they are now. Your mixed-blood transition story doesn't explain how these bastard-mutts ended up being the civilized power players they are now.

Omnicrat
2012-08-20, 11:11 AM
Surely you don't intend for anyone to play these?

You'd end up slumping in a corner, communicating with others by means of grunts. Who wants to play something with the mind of a gerbal?

It seems very.. restrictive.

No, I don't actually expect Hu Men to be played. These are the states of the progenitor race of modern humans. They suck as individuals, but the fact that there were so many of them, they overwhelmed the other races. Hu Man "interbreeding" is why their stats rose, but also caused them to lose two of their bonus skill points, and two of their bonus feats.

Also, one can use sense motive to communicate non-verbally. Had to look that up when one of my players wanted to start the game not knowing any language anyone else could speak.

Zale
2012-08-20, 11:13 AM
No, I don't actually expect Hu Men to be played. These are the states of the progenitor race of modern humans. They suck as individuals, but the fact that there were so many of them, they overwhelmed the other races. Hu Man "interbreeding" is why their stats rose, but also caused them to lose two of their bonus skill points, and two of their bonus feats.

Also, one can use sense motive to communicate non-verbally. Had to look that up when one of my players wanted to start the game not knowing any language anyone else could speak.

I would suggest statting them out as monsters, in that case. It lowers the confusion somewhat.

Though I'm not sure how getting smarter gives you less skill points and bonus feats..

Omnicrat
2012-08-20, 11:27 AM
So Yahoos. (Or: Lemuel Gulliver met more than little people.)

Also doesn't work. On multiple levels. The 3 int, for a start. The fact that the only use for these things would be feat hax. -2 to casting stat might be worth it for two bonus feats over a base human, if you go Cha or Wis based. One starting plus two for flaws plus three for race is nearly as many as an average character gets over their whole 1-20 career.

Thematically, the point of humans in fantasy worlds is their self-determination. You can make humans as "the gods **** on us, but we made a place for ourself regardless". Calling them a race of savage idiots raises the question of how they became the race they are now. Your mixed-blood transition story doesn't explain how these bastard-mutts ended up being the civilized power players they are now.

I already addressed the fact that no one is really intended to play a Hu Man, so I don't think I need to go into that again.

And the point is that by the time true humans came into the world, Hu Men were virtually extinct (slowly breeding up, so to speak) and the civilizations that pre-dated the Dawn Age were torn down completely by the barbarians. Given human drive to expand (a hold over from their original purpose), their general aptitude for everything, and the fear the remaining races still felt they were the first to begin rebuilding.

I originally intended for this to be a campaign where all intelligent life left on the material plane was either human or a half-breed, because them Hu Men hoards killed everything that wasn't them, and a fair portion of what was. Since I figured pockets of other races could have survived, but they would be too weakened to do anything about this upstart race descended form their destroyers.

Omnicrat
2012-08-20, 11:33 AM
I would suggest statting them out as monsters, in that case. It lowers the confusion somewhat.

Though I'm not sure how getting smarter gives you less skill points and bonus feats..

I've always been terrible at stating things out as monsters, but it would probably help, yes. I'll work on that. Also, if anyone wants to donate Hu Men statted up as a monster, it would be greatly appreciated.

They get smarter by incorporating the biology of the other races into theirs. This dilution of the original Hu Men is why their racial skill bonus and feats are less, but also why they have no ability penalties and have minds complex enough to comprehend language.

Morph Bark
2012-08-20, 11:40 AM
Great bonuses at the cost of high penalties does not a good race make. If you'd play these, you'd play at the level of intelligence of a dog, except you can speak. The only benefit you get is 3 bonus feats and you still get as many skill points as someone with Int 8. They'd likely only end up playing SAD classes, largely meaning Wis- and Cha-based spellcasters (especially since multiclassing is disallowed). The class restriction means most Wis-based casters are dropped, since as far as I know all non-spontaneous casters are non-simple. Thus, you'd end up with a society of very dumb sorcerers, most likely evokers.

How these ever managed to tear down races more powerful than them is beyond me, especially since their Int is so incredibly low, unless they are highly aggressive and reproduce insanely fast, kind of like kobolds or goblins tend to be in standard DnD, except they are even stronger than this race.

Network
2012-08-20, 12:03 PM
• -2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, 3 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma.Wouldn't -6 Int be better than Int 3?
• Hu Man base land speed is 50 feet.
How do you justify this?
• Languageless: The Hu Man mind is so primitive, it cannot learn or comprehend language. This casues Hu Men to be immune to language dependant spells and effects.
Why does a barbarian orc with 3 in Int knows one language while the Hu Men know none? Make a race-specific language as the only automatic language, it's better.

• Class Restriction: Hu Men can only take classes with simple training
You could remove this. Due to their Int score, they are unlikely to become Wizards regardless.

• Favoured Class: None. A Hu Man mind is too primitive to take more than one class without experience penalty
Probably the only good thing with the class.

Edit : You could also add Illiteracy as a racial feature. They wouldn't automatically loose this trait if they take levels in a race other than barbarian, except Archivist and Wizard.

Omnicrat
2012-08-20, 12:22 PM
Note: these are not the humans in the theoretical campaign world, these are the proto-humans that have about 7 children per female every two weeks.


Wouldn't -6 Int be better than Int 3?
My point was to illustrate how they were just above an animal.


How do you justify this?
I figured they would run on their hands and not be fully upright. I just can't figure how to put that in there.


Why does a barbarian orc with 3 in Int knows one language while the Hu Men know none? Make a race-specific language as the only automatic language, it's better.
1) Because a very stupid Orc is still more evolved mentally than a Hu Man
2) Sense Motive can be used to communicate non-verbally.


You could remove this. Due to their Int score, they are unlikely to become Wizards regardless.
I created vital statisics for them (though couldn't get it in a good format for the post). They live to be about 25 at the absolute best. They don't have the mental capacity or time for a class with a complexity higher than simple.


Probably the only good thing with the class.
If you don't mind me asking, why exactly do you consider this feature good?


You could also add Illiteracy as a racial feature. They wouldn't automatically loose this trait if they take levels in a race other than barbarian, except Archivist and Wizard.
If I were giving them language and/or trying to make this playable, I would definitly add illiteracy as a racial feature. That is a very good idea and I will have to remember it for some other races I homebrew.

Network
2012-08-20, 12:40 PM
If I were giving them language and/or trying to make this playable, I would definitly add illiteracy as a racial feature. That is a very good idea and I will have to remember it for some other races I homebrew.
Pleased if I can help. The Neanderthal race from Frostburn had a similar feature and I though Hu Men were just as much primitive. But if they are more and doesn't even bother with language, then...

Omnicrat
2012-08-20, 12:48 PM
Pleased if I can help. The Neanderthal race from Frostburn had a similar feature and I though Hu Men were just as much primitive. But if they are more and doesn't even bother with language, then...

Yeah, Hu Men are supposed to be just above animals. Still curious why you though absence of a favored class is a good class feature, though.

Network
2012-08-20, 01:10 PM
Yeah, Hu Men are supposed to be just above animals. Still curious why you though absence of a favored class is a good class feature, though.
'Cause this sounds cool? They lack any form of culture and the like, and doesn't receive education from their parents.

Morph Bark
2012-08-20, 01:34 PM
If I were giving them language and/or trying to make this playable, I would definitly add illiteracy as a racial feature. That is a very good idea and I will have to remember it for some other races I homebrew.

Then why make it as a race and not as a monster? Making it as a monster is pretty easy. You could simply stat up a 2 HD creature with these as "racial traits". Creatures that have a racial traits entry are always meant as playable creatures. Always. Not that they are intended to always be played, but there are no official creatures with a racial traits entry that aren't meant to be played.

Omnicrat
2012-08-20, 02:14 PM
Then why make it as a race and not as a monster? Making it as a monster is pretty easy. You could simply stat up a 2 HD creature with these as "racial traits". Creatures that have a racial traits entry are always meant as playable creatures. Always. Not that they are intended to always be played, but there are no official creatures with a racial traits entry that aren't meant to be played.

1) I'm not good with building monsters. As I said, if someone wants to re-stat it as a monster, I would be fine with that.
2) My idea was that, in-universe, they always had a class. The first Sorcerers and Barbarians were Hu Men in one way I thought them up. It makes more sense, to me at least, that they would be represented in this way. They are technically a "race," just not one the players use.

Omnicrat
2012-08-20, 02:17 PM
'Cause this sounds cool? They lack any form of culture and the like, and doesn't receive education from their parents.

Huh. It never even occurred to me that one might be interested in playing a Hu Man. If you would like to help me draft a playable version of the Hu Man, I would be more than happy to do it. Probably have to make it a lot less animistic to start...

Analytica
2012-08-20, 02:36 PM
BoVD has something very similar in backstory, the Vasharans. They are Always Evil humans who must take a vile feat as their bonus feat, basically.

Network
2012-08-20, 05:02 PM
BoVD has something very similar in backstory, the Vasharans. They are Always Evil humans who must take a vile feat as their bonus feat, basically.
Vasharans were created by gods as the ''Ultimate Race'', but they failed and the first vasharan wanted to kill 'em all. They killed him and later created humans. The first vasharan was eventually resurrected.

Hu Men are punishments of gods, it is WAY different. :smalltongue: