PDA

View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Need brainstorm for some homebrewed races



DualShadow
2015-06-19, 08:15 PM
Greetings good folks of the playground.

I am starting to write up my own setting and game to go with it but as I was expecting I am encountering a few difficulties and right now the problem I want to tackle is the Human race.

Me and my group don't really like the standard human and outright don't allow the variant one because of the feat it gives. So we are stuck without any real human race for PC use which so far haven't really been a problem since all the players started playing other races since the default Human doesn't give a feat (in all our 3.X games we had parties of almost all Human because of the feat). The 5th edition Human is for us a little bland and traded the “versatile” part of the race for something we can classify as “a little bit good at everything” with those +1 at every stats.

I thought about what I wanted my Human race to look like and pretty much the same usual keywords came around: adaptable and versatile. Two other things came up quite a few times too: ambitious and driven. With those I came up with a basic version of what a human could look like:


- +1 to two ability scores: Quite simple and a bit inspired of the variant Humans
- Great Versatility: A Human chooses two proficiencies may they be skills, tools or specific weapons.
- Driven: The only quality that every Human share is that they are driven, they gain advantage on opposed Charisma checks made against them.
- Subrace: See somewhere further down the post


For the first part of the race there is only the Driven part of it that is fancy and implemented that way I think it makes the Human race more “incorruptible” than ambitious/driven really. Maybe it should be narrowed in it use but I am not sure how to reflect that mechanically. The handbook have that line of text that greatly inspires me to really make it more than just fluff:

“More than other people, humans champion causes rather than territories or groups.”

So maybe I should have it applied to any roll related to the character's ideal, advantage on any roll made to progress or defend the character's ideal? I'm open to suggestion on this. I'm also open to suggestion on the stats and proficiencies.



Now getting to the subrace part of all this. I am still unsure on how I want to do those. Should I just do some based on their geographical location? Sand-dwellers, north-dwellers, coast-dwellers and so on and so forth. Or maybe I should do them in a more cultural way? Think a bit like the clans from 3rd edition Oriental Adventures. Humans from Empire/Kingdom X have Y bonuses. There is always the possibility of doing both, People from place X who have Y bonuses, but the simple fishermen from the village on the border of the Kindom gets to havea more generic coast-dwellers subrace?

One bigger question, do I really have something interesting to put in all those “generic” subraces?

The subrace that I have in mind right is one that is from the Empire of Mirrodin as they will be quite relevant in my future game. They would go as follow right now:


Mirrodian: The easiest way of describing them would be to compare them to the Imperials from The Elder Scrolls. Quite lawful people that well-educated and well-spoken.
- +1 to Charisma
- Gift of Words: The Humans from Mirrodin have advantage on persuasion checks.

For now, they way things are I think that the race + subrace is a little bit underwhelming when compared to just about any other race out there.


So yeah, all this long post to show my thought process in the creation of my custom Human race and to get fresh ideas from any suggestions you guys might offer.

On the to-do list is:
-Remake the Half-elf so that they have subraces representing the other half of the Elf part. Same with Half-orcs.
-Creating races of anthropomorphic animals, taking into account that the Human race could very well be the anthropomorphic monkey race. Or ... maybe they could be Human subraces if I decide that the term Human is for any people that are evolved animals ... hmm food for thought

eleazzaar
2015-06-19, 10:46 PM
I have the same issues with the 5e humans-- I don't think they are horrible, but they have issues.

I created an alternate human with some of the same goals in mind. See the link in my signature...

DualShadow
2015-06-22, 08:03 PM
Proficiencies in two skills, three others to be picked among tools, vehicule and languages. Reflects the versatility quite well.

I have less love for the expertise though. Expertise makes someone quite good at a thing which, at least for me, isn't a human thing as their adaptability and versatily would make them Jacks-of-all-trades. Doubling the expertise in 5th edition is what can make a character the world's greatest expert in that field.


On another note, this got a few views but looks like it isn't inspiring anyone.

eleazzaar
2015-06-22, 09:31 PM
On another note, this got a few views but looks like it isn't inspiring anyone.

To be little commented on is the fate of most homebrew threads.

Personally I don't really like the idea of human subraces. Putting non-humans in neat little boxes might be just as silly, be we don't have the instinctive experience with elves and hobbits that makes it seem off.

I sorta wish instead of race and background they had added a third item: "culture"-- though it would probably be setting specific.

Thus you could build your human raised by wood elves or build a dwarf or tiefling from neverwinter, etc. As it is, racial and cultural features are jumbled together in the "race" item.

DualShadow
2015-06-23, 10:44 PM
I sorta wish instead of race and background they had added a third item: "culture"-- though it would probably be setting specific.

Thus you could build your human raised by wood elves or build a dwarf or tiefling from neverwinter, etc. As it is, racial and cultural features are jumbled together in the "race" item.

Since I don't think that I will start my game for quite a while I will probably see what I can do with that idea of cultural features. Sure would make lots of sense.

CantigThimble
2015-06-24, 04:39 PM
Alternatively, use variant human but limit them to the half-feats, the ones that also give a stat point. That's just ready made cultural diversity and none of those feats are really strong. Not like polearm master or warcaster.

Dornith
2015-06-25, 01:02 PM
Since I don't think that I will start my game for quite a while I will probably see what I can do with that idea of cultural features.

If you're going to do cultural features anyway, you could just make humans have weak or no racial abilities and let humans pick some cultural abilities from the other races.

Gr7mm Bobb
2015-07-07, 06:39 AM
If you're going to do cultural features anyway, you could just make humans have weak or no racial abilities and let humans pick some cultural abilities from the other races.

That's not a bad idea. From the other end, you could make a list of features from other races that are 'ok' and let the human grab them. Like maybe the 1/2 orc relentless or the wood elf mask of the wild. I imagine that this would be simple enough and if you offer a limited set of to choose from that can offer versatility without overshadowing the others races.