[3.5] Human Heritage

[Thurbane]

OK, so I love the Human Heritage feat (RoD p. 152).

It's "intended" for races like 1/2 Elves and 1/2 Orcs, presumably so they can qualify for Human-only feats and PrCs.

But I love it mainly because it sets your type to Humanoid (with the Human Subtype), while letting you keep the benefits of your original type.

...so what I'm wondering, what are some of the more "weird and wonderful" races that could take it?

Brood Monkey
Planetouched (Aasimar etc.)
Many Undead
Mind Flayer

[Rubik]

I do like undead, especially necropolitans. Turn/Rebuke/Command/Hide From Undead and the shirt of wraith stalking no longer work on you.

[Nifft]

OK, so I love the Human Heritage feat (RoD p. 152).

It's "intended" for races like 1/2 Elves and 1/2 Orcs, presumably so they can qualify for Human-only feats and PrCs.
I just want to note that it totally fails to allow access to Able Learner, one of the most fun Human-only feats, unless your DM allows Flaws.

Your (ab)use ideas are much more interesting than putting it on a half-elf or half-orc.

[Draconium]

I had an idea a while back for a gestalt game where I would take a changeling and apply several templates to it, then go into MoMF and possibly War Hulk, giving me a crap-ton of strength and attacks. The problem I was running into was that my type no longer would have been Humanoid by that point, so they couldn't disguise themself as a normal person. Then I found out that the fluff of changelings had them descended from humans and dopplegangers, meaning they did qualify for Human Heritage. So I could take it and disguise myself as a normal person until I was in a battle, then transform into a hulking monstrosity. Who then became even more monstrous as he began growing tentacles and spines.

... I still want to do that, but I've since learned Disguise Self doesn't quite work like that. Oh well. :smalltongue:

[Necroticplague]

I'm a giant fan of Ghosts with Human Heritage. Especially because you still look like a ghost, and keep pretty much all the upsides (since you still have undead traits), so people still expect (and the DM often forgets you aren't) vulnerable to normal things that effect undead. Like Holy Water, Turning, or Commanding. The main weakness of Humanoid that taking the Heritage involves (being weak to lower level enchantments), you're immune to (thank you, undead traits!)!

On a similar note, one that isn't quite as useful, but funny because it comes so far out of left field its hard to believe its in the park: most outsiders, especially evil ones. Being made from the souls of the dead, a fiend (or angel, technically) whose soul was human would be human-descendant, thus qualifying. Thus getting around wards against most Fiends (a Fiend being, by definition, an [Evil] Outsider, while these human heritage creatures are [evil] Humanoids with outsider traits)

[Rubik]

I had an idea a while back for a gestalt game where I would take a changeling and apply several templates to it, then go into MoMF and possibly War Hulk, giving me a crap-ton of strength and attacks. The problem I was running into was that my type no longer would have been Humanoid by that point, so they couldn't disguise themself as a normal person. Then I found out that the fluff of changelings had them descended from humans and dopplegangers, meaning they did qualify for Human Heritage. So I could take it and disguise myself as a normal person until I was in a battle, then transform into a hulking monstrosity. Who then became even more monstrous as he began growing tentacles and spines.

... I still want to do that, but I've since learned Disguise Self doesn't quite work like that. Oh well. :smalltongue:The changeling's transformative ability explicitly says you turn into other humanoids. Changing your type won't change that.

[Draconium]

The changeling's transformative ability explicitly says you turn into other humanoids. Changing your type won't change that.

That's what I meant by the end part - I now know I don't actually need Human Heritage, it was just a funny anecdote about how I thought I needed it, and how I was gonna use it. Besides, if I ever do it, I might take that anyways so I can use Enlarge Person and stuff like that, and end up as an even bigger monster. :smallbiggrin:

[DrMotives]

That fluff is why I hate changelings. Maybe it's the old timer from previous editions in me, but I still run with the old fluff on doppelgangers. Doppelgangers are genderless & sexless in their natural form, and sterile if they both become something else and try to breed. They can only reproduce with a non-doppelganger humanoid race, and the child appears to be the non-doppelganger parent race until puberty, at which point they change, and often shed their childhood identity. The changeling fluff ruins that, and if Doppelgangers don't need to infiltrate humanoid society to further themselves as a species, they don't need to be secretive or have a default evil alignment. Changelings wreck a classic gothic horror monster, and replace it with a gimicky PC race instead. I have to ban them for that.

[daremetoidareyo]

That fluff is why I hate changelings. Maybe it's the old timer from previous editions in me, but I still run with the old fluff on doppelgangers. Doppelgangers are genderless & sexless in their natural form, and sterile if they both become something else and try to breed. They can only reproduce with a non-doppelganger humanoid race, and the child appears to be the non-doppelganger parent race until puberty, at which point they change, and often shed their childhood identity. The changeling fluff ruins that, and if Doppelgangers don't need to infiltrate humanoid society to further themselves as a species, they don't need to be secretive or have a default evil alignment. Changelings wreck a classic gothic horror monster, and replace it with a gimicky PC race instead. I have to ban them for that.

I respect your opinion. I even agree.

I also love changelings. They are a buttload of fun to play.

[Nifft]

I don't see a necessary conflict between the old Doppelganger fluff and the new Changeling race. I mean, it's easy enough to think of ways to allow both to exist while keeping the old fluff. Maybe something like...

1/ Doppelgangers need to use humans to breed. The child still changes at puberty.

2/ But sometimes, something goes wrong. Maybe the child's human spirit is too strong for the monstrous blood to overcome entirely. Maybe there's ancient wizard magic at work, partially protecting the child. Maybe the child has a heroic destiny, and the gods themselves intervened. Instead of a Doppelganger, the child is a Changeling.

3/ The child is not accepted by Doppelgangers, but also not fully trusted by Humans. Perhaps when there are enough Changelings for them to form a secret society, they discover that Changelings breed true, due to whatever jinxed their Doppelganger transformation being inherently stable.

[Solaris]

That fluff is why I hate changelings. Maybe it's the old timer from previous editions in me, but I still run with the old fluff on doppelgangers. Doppelgangers are genderless & sexless in their natural form, and sterile if they both become something else and try to breed. They can only reproduce with a non-doppelganger humanoid race, and the child appears to be the non-doppelganger parent race until puberty, at which point they change, and often shed their childhood identity. The changeling fluff ruins that, and if Doppelgangers don't need to infiltrate humanoid society to further themselves as a species, they don't need to be secretive or have a default evil alignment. Changelings wreck a classic gothic horror monster, and replace it with a gimicky PC race instead. I have to ban them for that.

They were always (inexplicably) Neutral, not Evil - even in AD&D.

I don't really get hung up on the biological ins and outs of a race that's heavily implied to be the result of the Wizard Who Did It rather than a natural occurrence... especially when they don't mention sex, gender, or sterility in their Monstrous Manual or Monster Manual entries.

[DrMotives]

They were always (inexplicably) Neutral, not Evil - even in AD&D.

I don't really get hung up on the biological ins and outs of a race that's heavily implied to be the result of the Wizard Who Did It rather than a natural occurrence... especially when they don't mention sex, gender, or sterility in their Monstrous Manual or Monster Manual entries.

Yeah, it's a bit of fluff that got left out of 3.x, but there was a published adventure called "Hour of the Knife" that was my group really liked that built a lot of the plot around that aspect of them. It was a Jack the Ripper inspired murder mystery, with rival doppelganger clan & jackelweres fighting it out in secret.

[Rubik]

The old school fluff on doppelgangers reminds me of a monster from S&S's Creature Collection II, the face stealer. It's a shaggy, gangly monstrous humanoid that literally steals people's faces to wear as its own, and it steals the identity, leaving its victim blind, deaf, and unable to speak. It has to keep its victim alive or the magic stops working, so it keeps it captive somewhere it can't escape.

I'd suggest warforged, since you keep the Living Construct subtype. It allows for Enlarge and Reduce Person, and it protects from both anti-construct weapon crystals and rods of construct control, from the A&EG. Oh, and you can qualify for things like the chameleon PrC, if you can nab more than one feat at first level.

[Thurbane]

There's going to be an end of level boss in my campaign that's a Spellwarped Human Archivist - he's an Aberration, but using the Human Heritage feat, he's going to pick up a bunch of Aberrant Feats, to be some kind of Lovecraftian horror in appearance (think Dr Edward Pretorius).

[Thurbane]

Sorry for the necro, but I didn't think this was worth a new thread: could a Hellbred who was once Human qualify for Human Heritage?

[Troacctid]

It depends on how you define "descended." It also depends on how hellbred are handled in your campaign's setting. Talk to your DM.

[ATHATH]

On the OP:
If you fluff the Glamer as coming from a Human god, you can take Human Heritage to qualify for Stoneblessed, which lets you qualify as a gnome, allowing you to enter Shadowcraft Mage.

[HunterOfJello]

@ original question

Let's see

Mongrelfolk
Feytouched
Flesh Golem?
Brain Golem?

Oh! Yuan-ti!

And Sharn!

This thing totally looks like a Humanoid (Human)
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/e/ee/Sharn2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20071213071342

[Necroticplague]

Flesh Golem?
Brain Golem?
Brain Golems aren't actually golems, nor are they made from brains in the sense that them being able to take it would imply. They're just little peices Elder Brains bud off to do some very secretive stuff.

Flesh golems are also mindless, so can't take feats.



And Sharn!

This thing totally looks like a Humanoid (Human)
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/e/ee/Sharn2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20071213071342

Hah! For all Sharn are one of my favorite races, that one hadn't occured to me.

[Nifft]

And Sharn!

This thing totally looks like a Humanoid (Human)
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/forgottenrealms/images/e/ee/Sharn2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20071213071342

G-grandma?!