Redoing Humans in 5e (PEACH)

[ReturnOfTheKing]

I've always been annoyed by the fact that Humans always get special billing in D&D, and in fiction in general. I mean, there's a great variety of playable races in Dungeons and Dragons, but it seems as if Humans are considered to make up most of the populace, with other races being "those guys down the street."
Not to mention it creates a polarizing effect where some people choose exotic races to spice up their characters and get good ability scores but don't really acknowledge the culture of those races, except in stereotypes.

Others who wish to just make interesting characters without leaning on the fact they're a mystical Air Genasi with, I dunno, a +2 to Charisma and awesome wind powers, turn to Humans because they're the ordinary Joes and they can choose any ability score bonus or class they want. I just feel like this effect makes the other races seem shallow and pointless while making Humans seem way more important, because the basic premise behind many races could just be converted into Human cultures. Dwarves, for example, could just be hardy mountain-dwelling folk, and Orcs are brutal tribes from some distant land akin to European perceptions of Mongol tribes.

Anyway, I've ranted long enough, so what am I gonna do about it? Well, I say Humans finally get treated as they really are - another face in the crowd. No more special "choose whatever ability score you want," no more "average citizens," no more "non-Humans are the other." Humans get an ability score bonus, a size, a base speed, languages, a few neat racial traits and some sub-races, no more and no less than any other race. Furthermore, fluff-wise, they end up with a specific place in the world and a core premise. Just as the Dwarves have their mountains, the Gnomes have their tinkering and the Halflings have their cozy little cottages, Humans have something to call theirs, something that cries out "human." In other words, I want to sum up the Human race in a brief descriptive paragraph, then build their race around it.

So, what are Humans? Well, among millennia-old Elves, gruff and long-lived Dwarves and century-slumbering Dragons, they're short-lived, and perhaps as a direct result, they're ambitious. Humans are also extremely diverse and varied. However, Humans rarely identify as Humans like Dragonborn identify as Dragonborn or Dwarves identify as Dwarves. They're scattered and divided. Perhaps once, they had a sense of racial unity, even a kingdom, but now, they're just people. There isn't a Human homeland or Human legends or much of anything they can rally around, which means they're very often absorbed into the cultures of other races. Hence Half-Orcs, Half-Elves and the like being fairly common. It's not impossible to find a Human blacksmith forging weapons and armour in a Dwarven city or joining a congregation of Dragonborn in praying to Io. In a sense, they're still everymen, but they're also nobodies who have to earn their acceptance in the cultures they join,

So, now that I know what I'm doing, I can make a race out of that. Bear in mind that I'm a novice and this is only the first draft, so it's going to need a lot of work! Italics mean things I'm uncertain about. Here we go:

Spoiler: Humans

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Ability Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases by +2.

Size: Your size is Medium.

Speed: Your speed is 30 feet.

Languages: You can speak, read and write Common and one other language of your choice.

Spoiler: Subraces

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Spoiler: Common Men (Homo sapiens)

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Homo sapiens
Ability Score Increases: Your Charisma score increases by +1.

Skill Proficiencies: You can take one skill proficiency of your choice.

Switch It Up: When you fail on a check which requires an action, you can expend a bonus action to regain the failed action. This action cannot be used for the same purpose as it's original intention. This ability recharges at the end of a short rest

Extra Language: You gain one extra language of your choice.

Spoiler: Apemen

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Apemen
Ability Score Increases: Your Strength score increases by +1.

Skill Proficiencies: You gain proficiency in the Stealth and Intimidate skills.

Howl of Rage: You let loose a primal roar and your enemies are frightened until the end of your next turn.

Toolmaker: This should be something like the Rock Gnomes' tinker ability, allowing you to make crude tools out of relatively ordinary materials.. My previous version was waaaay too op, I'll have to fix that.

Spoiler: High Men (Homo superior)

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Ability Score Increase: Your Intelligence score increases by +1.

Skill Proficiencies: You gain proficiency in the Arcana and History skills.

Telepathic: You can telepathically communicate with other life-forms. Figure out how telepathy works in 5e. Should there be a range? Number of uses? Information limit?

Extra Language: You gain one extra language of your choice.

UPDATE: I've finished the second draft and removed the Apemen, as well as shuffled some sub-race stats. To my embarrassment, I realized the problems I was having originated from the fact I couldn't remember the 5e stats for Humans! I checked the PH and made some changes based on what I found. Still needs quite a bit of PEACHing, so let me know what you think!

UPDATE 2: Third draft now. I'm going to be completely altering much of the above, and I'm thinking about completely removing Homo superior.

UPDATE 3: Removed Homo superior and added what is doubtless an utterly op move to the main race. How can I figure this out?

UPDATE 4: Based on some very good ideas from Rogue Shadows, I'm pretty much totally overhauling the whole race. Brought back the Apemen, and I'm turning Homo superior into High Men. Might turn the Neanderthals/Cavemen into underground baddies, like the Morlocks, but I doubt I'll give them stats. Thoughts?

UPDATE 5: Kudos to DinoKing13 for several good tips!

UPDATE 6: Gonna be about a week before I can work on this again. Maybe I'll have some good ideas while I'm on vacation

[Ashtagon]

Speed: I can probbaly go about 200 feet in thirty seconds. 25 feet is a slow crawl.

A walking speed of 4 mph is equal to 176 feet per 30 seconds. This is a fairlybrisk pace.

A military slow march (60 x 30-inch steps per minute) works out as 75 feet per half-minute. According to wikipedia, this is used for funerals asnd for parading the colours.

A military quick march (120 x 30-inch steps per minute) is 150 feet per 30 seconds. Light infantry quick marches (140 x 30-inch steps per minute) would be 170 feet per half-minute.

Double march (180 x 36-inch steps per minute) is 270 feet per half-minute, a little over ten times your proposed speed. I would guess this is what 3.x considers to be a "hustle".

Basically, D&D speeds have little to do with reality.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Speed: I'd make it 25 feet, but I'm not too sure. Is that a good speed? Can you go 25 feet in under 30 seconds?

Double march (180 x 36-inch steps per minute) is 270 feet per half-minute, a little over ten times your proposed speed. I would guess this is what 3.x considers to be a "hustle".

Basically, D&D speeds have little to do with reality.

I'm not sure where you two are getting the idea that rounds are 30 seconds long, since in 5e, as in 3e and 4e, a round is 6 seconds (see PHB 181). Humans have a speed of 30 feet because 30 feet in 6 seconds is ~3.4 miles per hour, or slightly quicker than the natural human walking pace of 3.1 mph. A double move is thus ~6.8 mph, or a brisk jog, and is indeed what 3e considers to be a "hustle":

Hustle
A hustle is a jog at about 6 miles per hour for an unencumbered human. A character moving his or her speed twice in a single round, or moving that speed in the same round that he or she performs a standard action or another move action is hustling when he or she moves.

So D&D speeds are actually quite realistic, and reducing humans to a speed of 25 is in fact less accurate.

[ReturnOfTheKing]

Speed: I can probbaly go about 200 feet in thirty seconds. 25 feet is a slow crawl.

A walking speed of 4 mph is equal to 176 feet per 30 seconds. This is a fairlybrisk pace.

A military slow march (60 x 30-inch steps per minute) works out as 75 feet per half-minute. According to wikipedia, this is used for funerals asnd for parading the colours.

A military quick march (120 x 30-inch steps per minute) is 150 feet per 30 seconds. Light infantry quick marches (140 x 30-inch steps per minute) would be 170 feet per half-minute.

Double march (180 x 36-inch steps per minute) is 270 feet per half-minute, a little over ten times your proposed speed. I would guess this is what 3.x considers to be a "hustle".

Basically, D&D speeds have little to do with reality.

I'm not sure where you two are getting the idea that rounds are 30 seconds long, since in 5e, as in 3e and 4e, a round is 6 seconds (see PHB 181). Humans have a speed of 30 feet because 30 feet in 6 seconds is ~3.4 miles per hour, or slightly quicker than the natural human walking pace of 3.1 mph. A double move is thus ~6.8 mph, or a brisk jog, and is indeed what 3e considers to be a "hustle".

So D&D speeds are actually quite realistic, and reducing humans to a speed of 25 is in fact less accurate.

My bad, I thought rounds were 30 secs

I'll go and edit this…

[Ashtagon]

I'm not sure where you two are getting the idea that rounds are 30 seconds long, since in 5e, as in 3e and 4e, a round is 6 seconds (see PHB 181). Humans have a speed of 30 feet because 30 feet in 6 seconds is ~3.4 miles per hour, or slightly quicker than the natural human walking pace of 3.1 mph. A double move is thus ~6.8 mph, or a brisk jog, and is indeed what 3e considers to be a "hustle":



So D&D speeds are actually quite realistic, and reducing humans to a speed of 25 is in fact less accurate.

I haven't actually seen any 5e stuff. However, the question was "can you go 25 feet in 30 seconds"? I'm pretty sure anyone who isn't disabled can.

[Amnoriath]

Despite what you said feeling as if Humans were the ones of diversity and go to race these are far more powerful than anything the Human or other race has in 5e. On top of the basics each subrace gets a Skilled feat while having a few other abilities and a 2 1 attribute spread. While not complete your precedent exceeds the power of Humans in this edition and is counter intuitive to your lower human treatment.

[ReturnOfTheKing]

Despite what you said feeling as if Humans were the ones of diversity and go to race these are far more powerful than anything the Human or other race has in 5e. On top of the basics each subrace gets a Skilled feat while having a few other abilities and a 2 1 attribute spread. While not complete your precedent exceeds the power of Humans in this edition and is counter intuitive to your lower human treatment.

Thanks for letting me know. So, I guess I should remove several of the skills from the sub-races. Anything else I should trim?

EDIT: I realized, to my immense embarrassment, that I was not only ignoring, but forgetting, the stats for 5e Humans! I went back to check and edited accordingly. Is it still too op? Anything else to work on?

[Amnoriath]

Thanks for letting me know. So, I guess I should remove several of the skills from the sub-races. Anything else I should trim?

EDIT: I realized, to my immense embarrassment, that I was not only ignoring, but forgetting, the stats for 5e Humans! I went back to check and edited accordingly. Is it still too op? Anything else to work on?

1. In general you should think about which subraces are really necessary and keep bonus proficiencies down to 1. You should also consider whether they are more defined in the subraces or base race. It can go either way as of now because either your base is good and your subraces need 1 more or your base needs 1(good) more while the others are fine in precedent.
2. Not at all, a 2, 1 spread is a standard set up for races.
As for other abilities you could actually you are right in seeing that the Neanderthal's ability is too broad. I would look at the Natural Explorer features and pick out a couple benefits there and it makes more sense if there +1 is strength. Great Minds think a like is either too limited or powerful, in general something like this is almost better as a background. May be look at either some divination spells or feats like Keen Mind/Alert to give yourself a better idea. Cultural Absorption could technically be never utilized as it could very well be the case that the other race would have neither or not a choice at all. I would say outright you may treat yourself as both a Human and x race for items,..etc and others of that race do so as well.

[ReturnOfTheKing]

1. In general you should think about which subraces are really necessary and keep bonus proficiencies down to 1. You should also consider whether they are more defined in the subraces or base race. It can go either way as of now because either your base is good and your subraces need 1 more or your base needs 1(good) more while the others are fine in precedent.
2. Not at all, a 2, 1 spread is a standard set up for races.
As for other abilities you could actually you are right in seeing that the Neanderthal's ability is too broad. I would look at the Natural Explorer features and pick out a couple benefits there and it makes more sense if there +1 is strength. Great Minds think a like is either too limited or powerful, in general something like this is almost better as a background. May be look at either some divination spells or feats like Keen Mind/Alert to give yourself a better idea. Cultural Absorption could technically be never utilized as it could very well be the case that the other race would have neither or not a choice at all. I would say outright you may treat yourself as both a Human and x race for items,..etc and others of that race do so as well.

These are all good ideas. However, could you be a little more clear on the first point?

[Amnoriath]

These are all good ideas. However, could you be a little more clear on the first point?

Dwarves would be an example of subrace light. What constitutes a Dwarf is primarily under their section. The opposite is the latter.

[ReturnOfTheKing]

So, Dwarves are defined by their race, not their subrace? If you're saying what I think you're saying, Elves would be sort of be the opposite, a race defined by it's subraces. I'd say Humans are more the former than the latter, so I'll edit to reflect that.
Unless I misunderstand?

[Amnoriath]

So, Dwarves are defined by their race, not their subrace? If you're saying what I think you're saying, Elves would be sort of be the opposite, a race defined by it's subraces. I'd say Humans are more the former than the latter, so I'll edit to reflect that.
Unless I misunderstand?

You could say that. That being said you need to add more to the base then.

[Rogue Shadows]

I would like to disagree with the idea of using actual human species that have existed. That's not High Fantasy. That's just...meh.

No, if you're going to be doing human subraces in D&D, then go full Robert E. Howard or H.G. Welles.

Humans: The standard race

Ape-Men: Primitive subhumans from the far arctic north, dense jungles, lost mountain ranges, and so on. Some of them may be devolved humans, while others may be apes that are still evolving into human. Totally not racist caricatures (Howard had Ape-Men from the Black Kingdoms and stuff but he also had Ape-Men beyond the Arctic circle who eventually evolved into the Nords and Aryans, according to his Hyborian Gensis essay).

Morlocks: Subterranean humans who eat people.

Eloi: Isolated humans in soft areas where they need fear no predator and want for nothing, so they've become passive. Also often food for Morlocks.

High Men: The fallen race of proud Men in the distant past who built stuff like Atlantis and Acheron and Numenor and stuff. Live longer, but less adaptable and prone to sinking continents.

[ReturnOfTheKing]

I would like to disagree with the idea of using actual human species that have existed. That's not High Fantasy. That's just...meh.

D&D isn't necessarily high fantasy, but I can see your point.

Ape-Men: Primitive subhumans from the far arctic north, dense jungles, lost mountain ranges, and so on. Some of them may be devolved humans, while others may be apes that are still evolving into human. Totally not racist caricatures (Howard had Ape-Men from the Black Kingdoms and stuff but he also had Ape-Men beyond the Arctic circle who eventually evolved into the Nords and Aryans, according to his Hyborian Gensis essay).

Oh yeah, totally not racist!

I had ape-men before, but I felt they didn't really fit the vision I had for the overarching race, being more "primitive savages in a jungle" than "adaptable and ambitious pioneers" (though admittedly, the Drow don't exactly fit the picture painted by the Elf description either…) Still, based on your suggestions, I guess I could play up the "ancestors of mankind" angle.

Morlocks: Subterranean humans who eat people.

Eloi: Isolated humans in soft areas where they need fear no predator and want for nothing, so they've become passive. Also often food for Morlocks.

Nah, sorry, but not only are those roles taken by the Drow and the Halflings, respectively, I'm not gonna directly rip off H.G. Wells here.

High Men: The fallen race of proud Men in the distant past who built stuff like Atlantis and Acheron and Numenor and stuff. Live longer, but less adaptable and prone to sinking continents.

This, I like. It might be treading on the Elves' toes a bit, but it's unique enough to work.

[Rogue Shadows]

Oh yeah, totally not racist!

Well, I'm not going to say that Robert E. Howard wasn't infected by the same casual racism that infected most of the country in the '30s, and particularly the South - he was from Texas, after all. But in this particular incidence, it actually really wasn't. Humans evolving up from apes, or devolving down into apes, is just something that can happen in the Hyborian Age when a civilized people have their nations shatter and fall very suddenly, reducing them to barbarism. Of particular note, after Atlantis fell its survivors devolved into Ape-Men for a few thousand years before eventually evolving back up into the Cimmerians - Conan's people. Then after the end of the Hyborian Age and the cataclysm that birthed the modern age the Cimmerians again devolved into Ape-Men before eventually evolving back up into Celts, about which Howard had little bit good things to say.

I had ape-men before, but I felt they didn't really fit the vision I had for the overarching race, being more "primitive savages in a jungle" than "adaptable and ambitious pioneers" (though admittedly, the Drow don't exactly fit the picture painted by the Elf description either…) Still, based on your suggestions, I guess I could play up the "ancestors of mankind" angle.

It just feels more natural to D&D than having things like homo neanderthalis hanging around. Mostly it's the name; we don't refer to the different elven subraces as alba tenebris for drow, alba silvus for wood elves, etc.

Nah, sorry, but not only are those roles taken by the Drow and the Halflings, respectively, I'm not gonna directly rip off H.G. Wells here.

Eh, Morlocks are actually a bit more like orcs or grimlocks than drow. It was just a suggestion to give humans an "evil" subrace; another possibility is something like the Vashar from the Book of Vile Darkness.

Plus it's not just Welles that had subterranean cannibal humans; consider the horror film The Descent, for example.

[ReturnOfTheKing]

It just feels more natural to D&D than having things like homo neanderthalis hanging around. Mostly it's the name; we don't refer to the different elven subraces as alba tenebris for drow, alba silvus for wood elves, etc.

Good point regarding the names, and I wasn't crazy about it either, but it was either that, saying Humans were a subrace of Humans or referring to the race as a whole as Men while calling that subrace Human (though Men sounds a tad cooler than Humans, it is rather sexist…

Eh, Morlocks are actually a bit more like orcs or grimlocks than drow. It was just a suggestion to give humans an "evil" subrace; another possibility is something like the Vashar from the Book of Vile Darkness.

Plus it's not just Welles that had subterranean cannibal humans; consider the horror film The Descent, for example.

I can see that analogy working better, but I went for the Drow because neither Orcs nor Grimlocks are technically races, at least in the playable sense.

I like the idea of giving them an evil, underground subrace, but that's already been done with the Gnomes (Svirfneblin), the Dwarves (Duergar) and the Elves (Drow). I might use it, but as more of a sidebar mention like the first two of the above or the Draconians.

[DinoKing13]

Maybe instead of Never Say Quit, you could have something like this:

Switch It Up

When you fail on a check which requires an action, you can expend a bonus action to regain the failed action. This action cannot be used for the same purpose as it's original intention. This ability (switch it up) recharges at the end of a short rest.

Also, will no longer exists in 5e. Maybe you could replace it with charisma checks and saving throws?

[ReturnOfTheKing]

Oh hey, fellow king, didn't expect to see you here!

It's a bit unclearly worded, but I think it'll work. Thanks for the tips

[ReturnOfTheKing]

Gonna be about a week before I can work on this again. Maybe I'll have some good ideas while I'm on vacation

[ReturnOfTheKing]

Back. I doubt anyone's still here, so I'll move what I've got to a new thread.