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Wheetaye
2017-02-18, 12:22 PM
I decided to come up with alternate human racial traits. The problem that RPGs always have is that we have no one to compare ourselves to, so they just wind up being generic. I wasn't able to completely get away from that, but I made it more defined and unique, and added a bit of toughness as well. When compared to other animals, humans actually have unbelievable stamina, so I figured I'd make that a trait. For simplicity's sake, abilities that recharge on a long or short rest are written as "once per short/long rest". This is a work in progress, so feel free to make suggestions.

Humans

Speed, languages, etc, same as before.
+1 to one Ability (not subrace ability).
Stamina: Add proficiency bonus to Constitution checks (Not saves. Not considered proficient, so stacks with other proficiency bonuses).
Skilled: Gain a skill or tool proficiency.
Resolve: Once per long rest, re-roll a failed ability saving throw.

Subraces

Hardy
+2 Con
Defy Death: Advantage on death saving throws while you have no death marks. If you roll a 20 on a death save, instead of gaining one HP, can spend and roll a hid die and gain those hit points.
Improved Resolve: Gain advantage on the re-roll from the Resolve racial ability.
Take a Breather: Once per long rest, can remove one level of exhaustion after a short rest. (Possible alternate: once per long rest, can ignore up to two levels of exhaustion for a number of rounds equal to your Con modifier, minimum 1).


Clever
+2 Int
Great Skill: Double proficiency bonus on skill or tool gained from Skilled racial ability. Once per short rest, can re-roll a failed skill or tool check that you are proficient with.
No Distractions: Once per long rest, can negate disadvantage on a roll (that isn't already negated through also having advantage).

Sly
+2 Cha
Fortune: Gain a luck die, as per the Lucky feat. This luck die cannot be used on your Resolve re-roll.
Press the Advantage: Once per short rest, if you gained advantage on a roll and succeeded, you can gain advantage on the same type of roll (attack, save, skill,etc) in the next round (if in combat) or within five minutes (if out of combat). This advantage doesn't confer any other benefits that come with advantage, such as the ability to make sneak attacks.

Potato_Priest
2017-02-18, 01:32 PM
Humans

Speed, languages, etc, same as before.
+1 to one Ability (not subrace ability).
Stamina: Add proficiency bonus to Constitution checks (Not saves. Not considered proficient, so stacks with other proficiency bonuses).
Skilled: Gain a skill or tool proficiency.
Resolve: Once per long rest, re-roll a failed ability saving throw.

I like the way you're doing these ability scores.
According to PHB pg 12, your proficiency bonus can't be added to a roll more than once. Also, most exhaustion effects (since it seems like you're trying to give humans great endurance), even the environmental ones, are saving throws. Perhaps you'd prefer to give humans advantage against saving throws against exhaustion.
Resolve is a very boring ability.

Subraces

Hardy
+2 Con
Defy Death: Advantage on death saving throws while you have no death marks. If you roll a 20 on a death save, instead of gaining one HP, can spend and roll a hid die and gain those hit points.
Improved Resolve: Gain advantage on the re-roll from the Resolve racial ability.
Take a Breather: Once per long rest, can remove one level of exhaustion after a short rest. (Possible alternate: once per long rest, can ignore up to two levels of exhaustion for a number of rounds equal to your Con modifier, minimum 1).

Defy death is pretty poorly worded and too mild. Get advantage on your first death saving throw? That is one lame feature.
Improved resolve: meh. It's okay, but not vary interesting.


Clever
+2 Int
Great Skill: Double proficiency bonus on skill or tool gained from Skilled racial ability. Once per short rest, can re-roll a failed skill or tool check that you are proficient with.
No Distractions: Once per long rest, can negate disadvantage on a roll (that isn't already negated through also having advantage).

I do think that giving rebuilt humans expertise is a good idea. I'm not a big fan of No Distractions because it's super boring.


Sly
+2 Cha
Fortune: Gain a luck die, as per the Lucky feat. This luck die cannot be used on your Resolve re-roll.
Press the Advantage: Once per short rest, if you gained advantage on a roll and succeeded, you can gain advantage on the same type of roll (attack, save, skill,etc) in the next round (if in combat) or within five minutes (if out of combat). This advantage doesn't confer any other benefits that come with advantage, such as the ability to make sneak attacks.

Press the advantage needs to go. It's not too good by any sense of the word, but I don't like the way that it doesn't work like normal advantage. It's an extremely dubious distinction. If you're going to give this subrace a luck point, their other feature shouldn't be about re-rolling, there's far too much of that in here already.

Wheetaye
2017-02-18, 02:52 PM
I like the way you're doing these ability scores.
According to PHB pg 12, your proficiency bonus can't be added to a roll more than once. Also, most exhaustion effects (since it seems like you're trying to give humans great endurance), even the environmental ones, are saving throws. Perhaps you'd prefer to give humans advantage against saving throws against exhaustion.
Resolve is a very boring ability.
You may not be able to add your proficiency bonus twice, but it could be said that you can double your proficiency if you get it from another source. That might be too complicated, I think advantage on non-save Con checks and saves vs exhaustion might be better. Resolve is boring, sure, but it's a good ability, never know when you may really need to break out of hold person, or dodge a fireball. I do have a lot of re-roll abilities, probably would be best to cut down, the problem is thinking of what to replace them with. Like I said, it's hard to make humans anything but generic.


Defy death is pretty poorly worded and too mild. Get advantage on your first death saving throw? That is one lame feature.
Improved resolve: meh. It's okay, but not vary interesting.
I should have worded Defy Death better. I meant to distinguished between death marks and save marks. How it's supposed to work is that the human has advantage until they fail a save, or get stabbed while down.




I do think that giving rebuilt humans expertise is a good idea. I'm not a big fan of No Distractions because it's super boring.
How about something a little more powerful?
No Distractions: Once per long rest, you can enter a focused state as a free action, for one minute, you cannot suffer disadvantage on any roll.





Press the advantage needs to go. It's not too good by any sense of the word, but I don't like the way that it doesn't work like normal advantage. It's an extremely dubious distinction. If you're going to give this subrace a luck point, their other feature shouldn't be about re-rolling, there's far too much of that in here already.
I think I'll rework the entire Sly subrace, it's the one I had the least ideas for, but I felt humans needed a Charisma focused build.

Thanks for the input. My initial stats were more of a rough outline. I'm sure I can come up with something exiting and balanced, that won't make humans seem alien.

Wheetaye
2017-02-18, 06:52 PM
So here is the updated version.

Humans

Speed, languages, etc, same as before.
+1 to one Ability (not subrace ability).
Stamina: Advantage on Con checks and Saves vs. Exhaustion
Skilled: Gain a skill or tool proficiency.
Resolve: Once per long rest, re-roll a failed ability saving throw.

Subraces

Hardy
+2 Con
Defy Death: Advantage on death saving throws while you have no death marks. If you roll a 20 on a death save, instead of gaining one HP, can spend and roll a hid die and gain those hit points.
No Backing Down: Advantage on saves vs. forced movement and being knocked down. If they don't allow a save, can use your reaction to make a Con save vs DC 20 to avoid it, within reason (can't save vs. being teleported high into the air and falling)


Clever
+2 Int
Great Skill: Double proficiency bonus on skill or tool gained from Skilled racial ability.
No Distractions: Once per long rest, you can enter a focused state as a free action, for one minute, you cannot suffer disadvantage on any roll.

Sly
+2 Cha
Silver Tongue: When making a Charisma-based skill check, if you succeed on the roll, you have advantage on the same kind of rolls (Persuasion, Deception, etc.) against the same target until you fail one of those rolls against them.
Read the Room: As long as you are not surprised, initiative rolls you make that are less than 10 are treated as 10.