How would you make Humans that aren't all around

[Teaguethebean]

I have just been thinking what would a human race give if the human wasn't an all around. I understand most racial bonuses are based on the race relative to humans but just a thought on what bonuses they would give if not generalists.

[JackPhoenix]

That depends on what you set up as a baseline without humans, doesn't it?

RL human advantages over other animals are intelligence, endurance and the ability to throw stuff with power and accuracy. No, it's not opposable thumbs... many animals use tools just fine without them.

[LudicSavant]

Regarding taking inspiration from what makes humans unique in real life, here's a helpful video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImYu9dJM4kQ

and here's another:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCUNQYsgctY&feature=youtu.be&t=6m40s

[Draz74]

A talent for building relationships with horses and dogs seems to be a human specialty in a lot of fantasy settings, compared to the other typical races.

[Rebonack]

If we're comparing humans to other critters? Humans are hilariously tenacious and resilient. Injuries that would make other animals die of shock a human will just walk of. I don't allow the VHuman in my games since everyone gets a feat at first level. So humans instead get-

Flexible: You gain +1 to two ability scores of your choice.
Skilled: You gain one skill proficiency and one tool proficiency of your choice.
True Grit: You have advantage on saving throws against Exhaustion
Walk it Off: Add your Proficiency Modifier to health recovered from spending hit dice
Determination: Once per short rest you may spend a Hit Die as a bonus action. Additionally, you may spend a Hit Die when you succeed on a Death Saving Throw.

It's also worth noting that I require Con saves when someone gets knocked to zero (DC 10 or half the damage taken, whichever is more) or gain a level of Exhaustion to discourage yo-yoing.

[Sigreid]

I would probably go the route of making different human cultures have different advantages.

[VoxRationis]

Evaluating real-life human advantages is misleading, since in RPGs, you're usually trying to compare humans to other species with similar body plans. In real life, we're the only extant species with our general shape and proportions, but in D&D, most of the biomechanical considerations associated with our bipedalism, thumbs, body proportions, etc. apply equally to humans, elves, orcs, and almost as well to halflings and gnomes.

I'd go for a charisma bonus and say that humans are better at building large, functional assemblies of people.

[Nifft]

All race stat perks are relative.

So, I'd look at what other races I wanted, and give humans perks based on what those other races are relatively bad at.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I would probably go the route of making different human cultures have different advantages.

If I did it, this would be my preferred approach as well.

Thinking about the main human cultures of my setting:

Wall-builders would have +WIS/(CON or STR)(being a very religious-oriented culture that's a melange of many different cultures), and something about tools/skills (being a very workman-oriented culture as well).

Night's Children would have darkvision (as they are descended from the people claimed by the now-dead goddess of night) and probably +DEX/(INT or WIS). Plus something tree or animal related due to their current druid-and-elemental-worship heavy culture.

Serpent-kin would have +DEX/(INT or CHA). Probably a social-related proficiency and maybe poison resistance (since their ancestors were magically mixed with snakes, sort of like not-quite yuan ti).

But I'd have to think about it in more detail before I committed to anything.

[CantigThimble]

If I were designing races from the ground up I'd give humans something like +2 Con +1 Cha and proficiency in animal handling. Humans are well known for their exceptional resilience, social nature and ability to domesticate animals. Other races have difficulty surviving in harsh biomes, form smaller or less tight-knit communities and use domaesticated animals for much less.

The only issue with this is that it just creates the need for a new baseline. We define dwarves as being 'tougher than humans', elves as being 'more dextrous than humans' and so on. So if we decide that humans have these traits then what does the new average race look like?

[Anonymouswizard]

A talent for building relationships with horses and dogs seems to be a human specialty in a lot of fantasy settings, compared to the other typical races.

I took this for a setting I'm building and am running as far as I can with it. Humans are the only race that has the capacity to domesticate anything. A lot of it is to do with their mindset, to the point where it's a joke among other races that humans will consider anything 'cute' (and it's not undeserved, multiple humans in-setting have died trying to tame monsters), other races will use animals but won't control their breeding.

This also means that humans effectively invented civilisation beyond the hunter-gather stage in-setting. While elves still resist the use of human-altered plants and animals the other races grudginly accept them as the only practical way.

Humans also have access to a unique kind of magic that makes them better with animals, but it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation as to whether it's responsible for domestication or a byproduct of it.

[Potato_Priest]

If we're comparing humans to other critters? Humans are hilariously tenacious and resilient. Injuries that would make other animals die of shock a human will just walk of. I don't allow the VHuman in my games since everyone gets a feat at first level. So humans instead get-

Flexible: You gain +1 to two ability scores of your choice.
Skilled: You gain one skill proficiency and one tool proficiency of your choice.
True Grit: You have advantage on saving throws against Exhaustion
Walk it Off: Add your Proficiency Modifier to health recovered from spending hit dice
Determination: Once per short rest you may spend a Hit Die as a bonus action. Additionally, you may spend a Hit Die when you succeed on a Death Saving Throw.

It's also worth noting that I require Con saves when someone gets knocked to zero (DC 10 or half the damage taken, whichever is more) or gain a level of Exhaustion to discourage yo-yoing.

I quite like this, it gives the human an actual useful specialty and something to feel proud of!

[ImproperJustice]

We had a GM in a homebrew campaign make humans have a faster healing rate, higher resitance to disease and a bonus to saving throws, especially death saves to represent the whole short-lived but ambitious before death angle.

[Lunali]

I would use half elves as a base and tweak them a bit to get rid of the darkvision, fey ancestry and elvish language, replacing those with a feat or something else.

[Rebonack]

I quite like this, it gives the human an actual useful specialty and something to feel proud of!

Thanks!

I feel like it keeps them suitably different from Dwarves and Half-Orcs in their focus. Dwarves and Half-Orcs are harder to knock down than humans, but once they're down they're down. Unless you make sure that human is dead dead, there's a solid chance they're going to get back up and shank you for thinking the fight is over.

[Townopolis]

I would use half elves as a base and tweak them a bit to get rid of the darkvision, fey ancestry and elvish language, replacing those with a feat or something else.

Depending on whether or not you agree that a background feature is roughly equal to Fey Ancestry, you could also try:

Humans get +2 CHA, +1 to two other scores, start with one language (common), and get to pick two backgrounds.

... and you lose darkvision as a conversion tax, I guess.

[Beelzebubba]

I'd make the Variant Human level 1 feat always be Prodigy, and make that the only Human race.

That would force differentiation and make them exceedingly capable specialists in their 'one thing'.

[Ritorix]

Humans have always been the measuring stick for the other races, but if you remove humans from that and look at what they are good at you can arrive at some stat changes...

Humans are fundamentally social. They stick together to survive whether in a family, tribe, gang or nation, and seek contact with others for trade or even conquest. This contrasts with insular dwarves or rarely-reproducing elves.
+2 Charisma.

Humans are practical tool users. Whether building pointy rocks for spears or making castles to secure territory, their work isn't meant to last like a dwarf or be artful like an elf, it's meant to do a job.
+1 Intelligence

[diabloblanco18]

In my games, I give humans a couple of generalized traits, and then the rest are based on their culture, which I treat like a subrace. Imperial humans get such-and-such traits, horse nomad humans get other ones, and hillfolk humans get still others.