Spitballing: Standard Human That Works With Origin Customization

[Edea]

Anyone want to throw out some ideas for an alternative "standard human" that would be able to co-exist with all of the new options being introduced with TCoE's race customization rules?

We should assume all other variants are out (so no feats (VHuman) or multiclassing (lol, what I tried before)).

I'm personally not sure how to manage their ASIs. Should they just get two floating +2s and skill versatility?

[Bunny Commando]

Humans could be able to stack their wildcard boni with the caveat that no characteristic could be raised over 18 this way.

[Dienekes]

Is the goal to make them roughly as bad as they were before instead of much much worse, or to make them viable against the new crop of top tier races?

[Xanatos]

I would love to participate in this, but I'm afraid I'm a bit out of the loop on latest news so I'm unsure how to apply my own thoughts to the exercise.

I've always appreciated the idea of adaptability for Humans, so perhaps something that applies directly to them could be a passive that lets Human characters mitigate environmental effects after an amount of time spent in a specific climate.

[Edea]

Is the goal to make them roughly as bad as they were before instead of much much worse, or to make them viable against the new crop of top tier races?

The latter (bolded).

I mean there's also just the possibility of having standard humans be entirely dependant on a massive swath of 'regional variants' (like Chondathan, Thayan, etc. for FR, Aundairian, Brelish, etc. for Eberron, on and on), but holy crap that's a lot of work.

I'm wary about letting them reorganize the +1s they have at default, that's still a total of +6 and the only real reason that's tolerable is due to them being spread out to uselessness. Even a +2/+1/+1/+1/+1 is overboard, TBH.

[Dienekes]

The latter (bolded).

I mean there's also just the possibility of having standard humans be entirely dependant on a massive swath of 'regional variants' (like Chondathan, Thayan, etc. for FR, Aundairian, Brelish, etc. for Eberron, on and on), but holy crap that's a lot of work.

I'm wary about letting them reorganize the +1s they have at default, that's still a total of +6 and the only real reason that's tolerable is due to them being spread out to uselessness. Even a +2/+1/+1/+1/+1 is overboard, TBH.

Easy solution is probably something like: +2 skills, languages, saving throws.

[Edea]

Lemme make some assumptions for now:


ASI: +2/+2 Float
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Skill Versatility (Gain proficiency in two skills, both Float)
Languages: Common + 1 Float


OK, when comparing this to a half-elf, we get:

Human - +1 more ASI total
Half-Elf - Darkvision, Fey Ancestry, additional Language (Float)

I think S-Human here could do with one more racial ability, and it's good. Darkvision's strong and Fey Ancestry's not exactly useless either, so IMO probably not a ribbon; it should be something relevant (NOT feat or multiclass benefit, those are variant rules).

A floating save proficiency's almost certainly too strong (though I love the idea personally). A floating weapon proficiency...ehhh, maybe? For some reason I don't like that one, can't put my finger on it...

[Dienekes]

Lemme make some assumptions for now:


ASI: +2/+2 Float
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Skill Versatility (Gain proficiency in two skills, both Float)
Languages: Common + 1 Float


OK, when comparing this to a half-elf, we get:

Human - +1 more ASI total
Half-Elf - Darkvision, Fey Ancestry, additional Language (Float)

I think S-Human here could do with one more racial ability, and it's good. Darkvision's strong and Fey Ancestry's not exactly useless either, so IMO probably not a ribbon; it should be something relevant (NOT feat or multiclass benefit, those are variant rules).

A floating save proficiency's almost certainly too strong (though I love the idea personally). A floating weapon proficiency...ehhh, maybe? For some reason I don't like that one, can't put my finger on it...

Disagree personally. Still weaker than Yuan-Ti Magical Resistance. And that’s not even touching their poison immunity. Darkvision. And natural spells.

But they’re admittedly my benchmark for new A tier races. Not half-elves.

[Edea]

Disagree personally. Still weaker than Yuan-Ti Magical Resistance. And that’s not even touching their poison immunity. Darkvision. And natural spells.

But they’re admittedly my benchmark for new A tier races. Not half-elves.

I mean, TBH I'm up for the floating save prof if there's no big objection to it. It's essentially the Resilient feat, except the +1 ASI and the save prof. don't necessarily have to match.

Usually you're going to aim one of your +2s at the primary stat of your base class, which has that save proficiency by default, so you're likely to just use the floater on one of the other big saves or the one you put your other +2 into, anyway.

[Xanatos]

So we're essentially building the racial traits for Humans from scratch?

Why not consolidate the ASI suite from base, since the object is to show the dynamic adaptabilty of them? Swap the flat +1 across the board for three +2.

If this is a question of making Humans to be mechanically comparable, would having some more unique features be a decent alternative?

[Edea]

So we're essentially building the racial traits for Humans from scratch?

Why not consolidate the ASI suite from base, since the object is to show the dynamic adaptabilty of them? Swap the flat +1 across the board for three +2.

If this is a question of making Humans to be mechanically comparable, would having some more unique features be a decent alternative?

Thinking additional features is a better idea than the three +2s (the latter would cause people to have a heart attack).

Atm we have the following:

ASI: +2/+2 (both Float, obvs.)
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Skill Versatility (Gain proficiency in two skills, both Float)
Human Flexibility (Gain proficiency in one type of saving throw, Float)
Languages: Common + 1 Float

[heavyfuel]

Is +2+2+2 really that strong?

Mountain Dwarf gets +2+2, but they also get medium armor, darkvision, FOUR weapon proficiencies (which can now be tools), a language, another tool, and both advantage and resistance against poison.

Surely that's about as equal as a +2 to a tertiary stat, right?

Letting humans have great ability scores but nothing else allows them to be the race of choice for those with a MAD build. Monks, Paladins, strength based Rangers/Rogues/Gishes all would be really thankful for the last +2

[Xanatos]

Thinking additional features is a better idea than the three +2s (the latter would cause people to have a heart attack).

Atm we have the following:

ASI: +2/+2 (both Float, obvs.)
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Skill Versatility (Gain proficiency in two skills, both Float)
Human Flexibility (Gain proficiency in one type of saving throw, Float)
Languages: Common + 1 Float

I'd be surprised if anybody who would take base Human wouldn't be doing it just to get a sweeping increase in modifiers anyway. Consolidating it into three specific increases doesn't seem like a big deal to me personally, but I'll defer the point.

What about something like "Tenacious", giving them a +1 bonus on Con checks against Exhaustion? I might be thinking the wrong angle on this, but people tend to just push through things pretty frequently.

[Unavenger]

My mind also went to +2/+2/+2, honestly. What are you doing with the third one that's so gamebreaking? I don't see "an extra point of AC or a hit point per level, and a +1 to a strong save, assuming that dex wasn't already your primary stat in which case you get just +1 wis saves, probably" as being awesomely powerful - nice, but not amazing. And the point of Suman is that it's sorta meant to be relatively simple and just be +stats, so I don't like giving it a bunch of other stuff that much.

[clash]

I would just bake in the prodigy feat as part of the race. I feel like the free expertise would give them something unique and powerful that no other race gets.