To feat or not to feat. That is the question

[Whit]

Human V. Gets a bonus feat. Other races do not. Is that bonus feat why you choose H.V
What is more important to you.
Racial mods or feats. How many feats do you get and at what lvl if any. Do you think the feat is more important low lvl 1-4 5-8 9-12 13-16 or 17-20

[Man_Over_Game]

Human V. Gets a bonus feat. Other races do not. Is that bonus feat why you choose H.V
What is more important to you.
Racial mods or feats. How many feats do you get and at what lvl if any. Do you think the feat is more important low lvl 1-4 5-8 9-12 13-16 or 17-20

The bonus feat is definitely why you take the VHuman. If they didn't care about the feat, then why not pick the normal human with better stats?

As to why I'd pick Feats over the stats, it's to make it interesting. Fighters are incredibly boring to me, and sometimes the only way to make them palatable is if I have a ton of feats to spice things up. Ritual Caster, Sentinel, Polearm Master, Magic Initiate, all of these add some kind of change to what my options are. I am no longer JUST a Fighter that hits things, I'm now a PAM Fighter, which is fundamentally different! Now things like positioning, Bonus Actions, Reactions, stickiness all matter in ways they didn't before!

Racial bonuses are hard to gauge, because they often have a similar effect to a Feat (if a bit more passive sometimes), but are rarely duplicated (like the fact that some races can fly). I generally avoid Darkvision characters, because I feel that the whole Vision/Light dynamic is a cool party dynamic that doesn't get enough attention. Assuming all races are balanced against one another, a Race with Darkvision has fewer benefits than one without Darkvision. So either I pick a race that has more benefits and an occasionally interesting vision/party dynamic (that just happens to work against me), or my DM ignores lighting and I'm just straight up better than an other race with Darkvision. Win/Win.

I'd probably say that, in most mechanically focused builds, the stat increases are generally more powerful than the Feats, but I'd only ever pick a stat increase if I feel that my character is interesting/diverse/fun enough as it is. A Samurai Fighter, to me, is never going to satisfy me in complexity, even if it had every Feat in the game. However, a Battlemaster Fighter isn't going to need much to be complex and interesting, and so I'd probably opt to taking an ASI for it (which, coincidentally, increases the potency of his maneuvers, effectively making his existing complexity more rewarding).


Are you boring? If Yes, Feat! If No, Stats!

[strangebloke]

Vhuman is never a bad choice, but usually isn't the best unless there's a feat that you must take for your build to work. Fighter tend to get enough ASIs as the game progresses that it really doesn't matter whether you start as a vhuman or not.

Overall, I think that vhumans are the most generally effective race in the game followed by elves. Dwarves have a pretty broad range of characters that they're arguably the best for, with most of the others (half-orcs, dragonborn, etc.) being pretty good in specific classes but not generally. Others, like gnomes or yuan-ti are powerful by honestly too silly for me to actually play.

[stoutstien]

I'm with man over game. VH maybe the optimized pick for feat heavy ideas but its also a way to add a ton of flavor to a character right off the bat.
Magic initiate, ritual caster, Athletes, and prodigy are all ways to have a complete concept to come online Right away.

[Misterwhisper]

I very rarely ever play a human, more of having no darkvision than anything else.

It is not so much that V. human is so much better but some classes only need like 1 feat and need stats for everything else, like Druid or Monk. Others need many to make it all work and not having one til minimum level 4 is very annoying.

Also there is that a normal human is very crappy.
No darkvision.
No bonus skills.
No proficiencies.
No +2 to any stat.

I can honestly not think of much of any build in the game where a base human would be a top choice.

[Chronos]

My rule of thumb is that most characters have one feat that they want to get as a priority, then max out their main ability score. After that, it might be their secondary ability scores or more feats, depending on the character.

If that's the case, then variant human is a very strong choice, as it lets you take that first feat right away, and start pumping your mainstat at level 4. Which means that until level 12ish, the human will actually have better ability scores than any other race, even races that get a +2.

[CTurbo]

Yes the only reason to consider variant human is for the free feat. I usually like to take a half feat with my free feat. That way you can get +1 to whatever 3 stats you want or get that coveted +2 to one stat, and +1 to another. I normally like to get my main stat to 18 before I take another feat.

So.... if I want a feat early on for character concept, I usually choose vhuman. If I don't need a feat to do what I want, I choose a superior race.

Some feats like Heavy Armor Master and Warcaster are better at lower levels. Some feats like Defensive Duelist and Resilient are better at higher levels.

[Damon_Tor]

My rule of thumb is that most characters have one feat that they want to get as a priority, then max out their main ability score. After that, it might be their secondary ability scores or more feats, depending on the character.

If that's the case, then variant human is a very strong choice, as it lets you take that first feat right away, and start pumping your mainstat at level 4. Which means that until level 12ish, the human will actually have better ability scores than any other race, even races that get a +2.

This depends entirely on whether the feat in question is a half-feat or not. An elf or half-elf, for example, can wind up with a +4 dexterity or charisma modifier at level 4 by selecting Elven Accuracy because it comes with +1 to a stat. This is the same as a human who takes, for example, pole-arm mastery at level 1 then +2 to his main stat at level 4.

[Yuroch Kern]

When we converted to 5e, my explanation was humans are so diverse, and nuts according to the other races, that they don't have a defining racial bonus. Rather, the base human was just focused on everything as their benefit, and the Vuman had a variable racial bonus. The Vuman would be more focused, and get 2 or 3 stat buffs in their chosen field. The base human I think is best if rolls/points generate a lot of odd scores, or they are already high to begin with.

[Damon_Tor]

When we converted to 5e, my explanation was humans are so diverse, and nuts according to the other races, that they don't have a defining racial bonus. Rather, the base human was just focused on everything as their benefit, and the Vuman had a variable racial bonus. The Vuman would be more focused, and get 2 or 3 stat buffs in their chosen field. The base human I think is best if rolls/points generate a lot of odd scores, or they are already high to begin with.

I encourage my players to think of the human bonus feat as an element of whatever culture that human hails from, rather than a personal aptitude. A Human with Polearm Mastery might come from a culture where the glaive is a weapon of particular cultural importance, and mastery with the weapon and weapons like it is required for completion of an adulthood ritual. A Human with Tough might come from a culture that values pain tolerance, and practices extreme scarification.

[Yuroch Kern]

I encourage my players to think of the human bonus feat as an element of whatever culture that human hails from, rather than a personal aptitude. A Human with Polearm Mastery might come from a culture where the glaive is a weapon of particular cultural importance, and mastery with the weapon and weapons like it is required for completion of an adulthood ritual. A Human with Tough might come from a culture that values pain tolerance, and practices extreme scarification.

That's a good explanation too, similar to the Iron Kingdoms and Wheel of Time d20 RPGs. Humans of DnD/d20 games have always been presented as no two quite the same even with similar abilities. The other races have specific subraces, humans are potentially, literally all over the map.

[darknite]

It's just a tool in the box for character creation and persona construction. No one forces you to take Variant Human so getting the starting Feat is cool if you have a good idea for the character.