Small race with human ascendancy

[Speezaker]

Hello,
I'm looking for a race that is small size and has a human ascendancy to be able to take human heritage + able learner.

The objective is to make a druid wolfrider with trap and scout skills.

I searched but was not able to find one, does someone would have a clue ?

It has to be from official books but Unearthed Arcana is not allowed.

Thanks in advance !

[Soranar]

I can't think of a small human race

but kobolds (or anyone really) can get search and disable trap by taking catalogues of the enlightment and picking the kobold domain

and kobolds always have trapmaking as a class skill

[loky1109]

Changeling.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Humans can breed with just about anything that's capable of reproducing. Dragons are, too. And dragons can breed with humans, and their offspring can go on to breed with anything, even things capable of not reproducing normally (see: the half-dragon gelatinous cube). Do note that most mechanical traits are bred out over time, only to resurface many generations later.

So between humans and dragons, any race can have human ancestry, so Human Heritage can be taken by any character due to backstory. Just say "My many-times great-grandfather was a human," and you're good to go.

[Gruftzwerg]

Here a list of Halfbreeds (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?100736-3-5-List-of-Half-Breeds)(imho not complete but still very big).

I think Half-halfling is missing as example.

[Speezaker]

Changeling.

I wanted small size as well.

[Thurbane]

I mean, there's Brood Monkey (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?597308-3-5-Brood-Monkeys), but I think that comes with more RHD and LA than most people want...

Link (https://web.archive.org/web/20150921/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20041126a) to the archived article.

[loky1109]

I wanted small size as well.
I don't see issue. Changeling could became humanoid of small size.

[Tzardok]

I don't see issue. Changeling could became humanoid of small size.

They can't, at least not without racial feats or something. Changling shapechange is based on disguise self.

[Inevitability]

Given that you're a druid, take a single level in the Master of Many Forms class to gain the ability to shift into any humanoid shape for hours at the time? It works from 6th-level on and it's actually not taking up any more feats than you'd normally be spending (in fact, you get able learner sooner, though riding your wolf happens later). Consider:

Your plan:
Level 1 feat: Human Heritage
Level 3 feat: Able Learner

This character:
Level 1 feat: Alertness
Level 1 human feat: Able Learner
Level 3 feat: Endurance



Alternatively... once you're a 7th-level druid you could just get a Dire Wolf companion and ride a wolf while being Medium. The Natural Bond feat might let you get one as a 4th-level druid (ask your DM) and druid 5 / beastmaster 1 unambiguously gets you there at level 6 at the cost of a feat.


If you need a lower-level solution... half-giant who's been afflicted with Return to Nature twice is human-descended and small-sized, with only +1 LA, but your DM might balk at including two pre-cast 7th-level spells in a build. On the plus side, you now qualify for the Primordial Giant template from Magic of Eberron!

[Soranar]

I guess there's always incarnate construct

Take a warforged scout

apply the incarnate construct template on it

claim the spellcaster that did it was human and that he gave you human like heritage while doing it

voila you're a humanoid small race

you could even be a smaller than that and play pinnochio

instead of a warforged scout, claim the spell was cast on a tiny animated object (shaped like a humanoid) that had a permanent version of animate objet (it's an option in the spell)

but that creature wouldn't roll most scores

you'd have

STR 8
DEX 14
CON roll 4d6 drop lowest
INT roll 4d6 drop lowest
WIS 3
CHA 3

which is all around weaker than just playing a muckdweller

[Tzardok]

Gloamlings, possibly. Gloamlings are small sized planetouched with ancestors from the Plane of Shadow that are described in the Forgotten Realms sourcebook Underdark. The book doesn't mention what the non-outsider parent of a gloamling is, so if your GM rules it as human descended...

Similiar, but less likely to be interpreted that way are the mephlings of the Planar Handbook. The book says something about mephlings having appeared from humanoids breeding with mephits, before swerving to "mephlings are sometimes born to mephits at random", so it depends on which origin your GM goes with.

[Bavarian itP]

Able Learner and Human Heritage are both 1st level only feats, so you'd need a small race with human ancestry and the human bonus feat.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Able Learner and Human Heritage are both 1st level only feats, so you'd need a small race with human ancestry and the human bonus feat.Flaws?[s t u f f]

[Inevitability]

Flaws?[s t u f f]

It does say UA is banned, so presumably not?

[Inevitability]

Also OP, if you want to play a small-sized character on a wolf with scouting and trapping skills... have you considered being a ranger?

Wild Cohort (https://web.archive.org/web/20180309131916/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) can get you an animal companion from level 1 on (in which case you might want to swap the actual ranger companion out for Distracting Attack), and there's a ranger ACF in dungeonscape that lets you swap out Track in exchange for Trapfinding and Disable Device as a class skill. You get Ride, all the scouting, trapfinding, and stealth skills and plenty of skill points to spend on them, trapfinding, the wolf you want, and still get a small amount of divine magic.

If you need Able Learner for more than fixing the skill issues of a druid (like if you want to enter chameleon), this won't help, but it might be worth considering otherwise.

[Wintermoot]

I guess there's always incarnate construct

Take a warforged scout

apply the incarnate construct template on it

claim the spellcaster that did it was human and that he gave you human like heritage while doing it

voila you're a humanoid small race

you could even be a smaller than that and play pinnochio

instead of a warforged scout, claim the spell was cast on a tiny animated object (shaped like a humanoid) that had a permanent version of animate objet (it's an option in the spell)

but that creature wouldn't roll most scores

you'd have

STR 8
DEX 14
CON roll 4d6 drop lowest
INT roll 4d6 drop lowest
WIS 3
CHA 3

which is all around weaker than just playing a muckdweller

In my mind, the construct is made out of the salvaged remains of a rusted out bear trap. So it's a trap trapsmith riding around on a wolf, dragging its chain behind it as it goes.


I wonder... as it's proving hard to find a small sized human-heritage option if it wouldn't be easier to find a way to get a large sized wolf to ride around on with your medium sized human-heritage option.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

What if you started as human, then found a way to possess the body of an animated object in the shape of a doll or a puppet? There are lots of ways to do this, from taking Otherworldly, having the [evil] subtype, and going fiend of possession, to taking the ghost template, to using magic or psionics to swap mind and soul with that of a construct -- a warforged scout (not the class), perhaps? Or just mind-swap with some other Small race.

[Thurbane]

You could also be a Human, and pay someone to cast a permanent Reduce Person on you. It would be vulnerable to Dispel Magic, though.

Alternatively, you could be a normal Human with a Dire Wolf mount.

I believe there's a feat called Mighty Mount in one of the Dragonlance books (Bestiary of Krynn?) - my understanding is that it lets a medium mount carry a medium rider. If UA is not considered an official book, though, I doubt BoK would be allowed.

[Akal Saris]

You could also be a Human, and pay someone to cast a permanent Reduce Person on you. It would be vulnerable to Dispel Magic, though.

Alternatively, you could be a normal Human with a Dire Wolf mount.

I believe there's a feat called Mighty Mount in one of the Dragonlance books (Bestiary of Krynn?) - my understanding is that it lets a medium mount carry a medium rider. If UA is not considered an official book, though, I doubt BoK would be allowed.

I think Thurbane has presented the best solution so far with permanent Reduce Person, perhaps eventually coupled with a Ring of Counterspells with a Dispel Magic stored in it. Of course, that option wouldn't be available until you could afford it.

Personally I find it really annoying that able learner is human-only, because it's such a useful feat for many builds.

[ShurikVch]

Probably not what OP would pick, but Fiendish Codex I have Small-sized Mane.
And Manes are Petitioners of the Abyss - thus were alive at some point.
The Exceptional Petitioners (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineMinions.htm#exceptionalPetitioners) mechanic allow to keep their in-life feats
Sure, DM may claim it was a Goblin (or any other "naturally Small" creature) in life - but there is no in-text proof (or counter-proof) for it

[sreservoir]

I think Thurbane has presented the best solution so far with permanent Reduce Person, perhaps eventually coupled with a Ring of Counterspells with a Dispel Magic stored in it. Of course, that option wouldn't be available until you could afford it.

Personally I find it really annoying that able learner is human-only, because it's such a useful feat for many builds.

There's also the shrink collar.

[ShurikVch]

If we talking about magic there, then how about Half-Ogre and the old Return to Nature trick?

[Speezaker]

Thank you everyone for these unexpected ideas.

I figured out i would stay simple and abandon the small part of the character.

I will create a Lesser Tiefling with human heritage and Able learner and first level will be factotum to simply count all skills as class skills and they will each cost 1 !!

Thanks again, see you around !

[Maat Mons]

How are you taking both Human Heritage and Able Learner without flaws?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

How are you taking both Human Heritage and Able Learner without flaws?If starting at a higher level, the OP could always purchase a feat using WBL and DCFS it into Human Heritage (or Able Learner). The game doesn't specify that you need to spend WBL on level appropriate stuff beyond whatever level you start out at, after all. A level 20 character could "spend" all of his WBL at 1st level and not gain any more until the game actually begins.

That, or DCFS a racial feat into it.