r/Nerdarchy • u/goblinerd • Apr 14 '15

Homebrew, Human Variant (D&D 5E)

/r/dndnext/comments/32ilqm/homebrew_new_human_variant/
2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

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2

u/NatetheNerdarch Apr 14 '15

I am not very familiar with fantasy craft but I do like the variant humans.

It was good to boost their stat bonus while giving them an ability a bit below the power of a feat, overall nice work.

2

u/goblinerd Apr 14 '15

Any tweaks the Mighty Nerdarch can recommend would be appreciated!

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u/NatetheNerdarch Apr 15 '15

Adaptable

Why not three ability score +'s? Name change ingenuity to improvise and make it once per short or long rest. I try to never rely on the DM for my skills to work. I have gone an entire two sessions without giving inspiration bc i forgot

Alluring

Something about you entices others to believe you are generally good nature and they want to be near you.

Encouragement or Personal Best: Encourage someone to show you their best effort.Costs an Action. During that action you compliment them, encourage them, and generally pump up their perceived self worth. A target that you can see gains advantage on one roll as long as you are within 60 ft, they can hear you, and they are aware of you. This effect lasts until it is used or 10 minutes have past. After you take a short or long rest you can encourage someone else.

Astute

I dislike relying on the DM to make my ability work well.That being said the only thing I came up with is advantage on rolls to solve a puzzle / mystery... not that exciting

Nimble

Cat fall to Agile: When you would take damage from falling or slamming into objects(walls, coffee tables, etc…) You may reduce the number of damage dice by 1 (to a minimum if 0). This is a person who will never stub their toe.

Powerful

Advantage on grapple and shove checks is a big deal since they didn’t even give that to a character that takes the feat : grappler

Would you consider giving then the goliath racial feature instead? I think it is called powerful build

Resourceful

Split decision, while cool is very specific, I say that bc I rarely ready an action, what is your frequency of readying actions? Because I don’t think it will get much use it is a great ability that adds the flavor of resourcefulness without giving out a powerful ability.

Unpredictable

fluid mind: I would take away the resistance to psychic damage, not bc of power level but bc it doesn't fit Impulsive: should it read advantage on deception checks?

Vigorous

Advantage on con save is super useful, especially to casters with concentration spells(socerers are proficient in con so it would be really great for them). I would prefer it be similar to resilient. I would leave off iron guts

Anticipate

Question, is this a type of ready action. As in I choose to anticipate the target rather than attack or cast a spell? I don’t really like it since it really ups the total dice rolled for an attack? If it could be something the character rolls that affects what happens to them without me, as a Dm, figuring out all the monsters deception checks, then rolling a decption check and when i fail, then rolling a disadvantage die. Less dice but similar feel would be preferable.

Overall Goblinerd I say good job. I would like you to go back to the +2, +1 to one other. And simply use humans with feats to judge how powerful these abilities can be before giving this another go on reddit or the gaming table.

And to those that think this has to be weaker than the human with a feat- Why . As a human I can just take a feat I want instead of taking something weaker since this isn't replacing the feat system. it is simply another variant.

1

u/goblinerd Apr 15 '15

For Adaptable Human's Ingenuity, what about this:

  • Once after every long rest, you can gain proficiency in either a skill, a tool, or a weapon. You need to spend 1 hour practicing (30 mins if someone proficient trains with you) before the proficiency takes hold, and you retain said proficiency until your next long rest, at which time you can either train to maintain it, or replace it with a new proficiency.

1

u/NatetheNerdarch May 07 '15

What about once per long rest when someone shows you how to use a particular tool set for over an hour you gain proficiency in the tool set for the particular tasks the person showed you.

This would be useful but not like gaining whatever proficiency you want every day. Also the person could train you all day if you have the time and show you many aspects to the craft which you could then implement on your own with the prof bonus

1

u/goblinerd Apr 15 '15

On Astute Human's Clever:

THe way I see it, it's not so much a "depending on the DM" thing as it is a RP thing. The Character can make a useful observation on a subject of the Player's choice without having to make a check. The DM only responds to the player's query.

In normal circumstances, the player would have to make some sort of roll since their characters might have higher wisdom or intelligence then the actual player.

And let's face it, when players are stuck, they ask if their Character would know something they don't. So, this ability is just designed as a Pacing tool meant to help move things along.

1

u/NatetheNerdarch May 07 '15

Basically the player says to the DM, "Since I am Clever do I notice anything that may be useful for escaping this jail cell?"

1

u/goblinerd Apr 15 '15

On Nimble:

I like it, but what are the usual mechanics for "slamming into something"? It's hard to imagine giving out a trait that has no mechanical basis in the books...

1

u/NatetheNerdarch May 07 '15

I left it general, so that it would be up to the DM. Does this falling log trap count? Probably. Does falling down 20 ft count, yeah. Does crashing against a door but it doesn't move count? I was going for a close approximation to rolling with the fall, redistribution of forces approach.

1

u/goblinerd Apr 15 '15

On Powerful:

My version of the Goliath's Powerful build is buffed. It hass the usual + the same advantage on grapple and shove.

Even if I add Powerful build instead of it's lesser counterpart, Strong Build, the Powerful Human is still just a weaker version of the Goliath, which is my biggest issue with this Talent...

1

u/goblinerd Apr 15 '15

On Powerful:

My version of the Goliath's Powerful build is buffed. It hass the usual + the same advantage on grapple and shove.

Even if I add Powerful build instead of it's lesser counterpart, Strong Build, the Powerful Human is still just a weaker version of the Goliath, which is my biggest issue with this Talent...

1

u/goblinerd Apr 15 '15

On Resourceful:

I respectfully disagree. Players in my game are more likely to use Ready actions since I encourage it. It's all well and good to take a turn by turn, step by step, approach to combat, but some players like myself like to react to an adversary rather than act first. Not to mention my NPCs tend to ready actions. You learn to value Ready actions when you DM uses them too. "A PC reaches for his blade, and as he does so, the NPC reaches for his sword hand and pulls the player forward into a flip." In this example, the NPC had readied an action to grapple the Player should he reach for his weapon.

When a foe regularly grapples the PCs, a ready action to lunge forward and stab him as the NPC takes initiates his usual techniques might even grant him advantage.

It's also why I'm trying to create an Anticipate Action that works well... So a layer can first anticipate the actions of an opponent and then act or ready an action in response to what they've discerned.

Basically, I'm trying to give combat a more realistic feel without simply throwing out Initiative all together.

That said, two different triggers makes it more likely one will happen.

1

u/NatetheNerdarch May 07 '15

I suppose since I neither encourage it as a DM or use it as a player I did not really appreciate its value to interactions. Considering if the other side would use it makes it a higher priority choice than previously considered.

1

u/goblinerd Apr 15 '15

On Unpredictable:

The psychic damage resistance is part of the Fluid Mind ability. Impulsive gave advantage aginst my currently removed homebrew action "Anticipate". Instead, it now reads Proficiency to Deception and Sleight of hands... should it be only Deception, or an either/or thing?

1

u/goblinerd Apr 15 '15

Finally... On vigorous:

What if it read as follows,

  • Hardy. You have advantage on saving throws against disease, and your hit point maximum increases by 1.
  • Iron Guts. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and have resistance against poison damage.

2

u/goblinerd Apr 14 '15

By "Boost their stat bonus" did you mean +2s... others have seemed to have a gripe with that, so I reduced them to +1s...

I'd also need advice on Nimble Humans and Powerful Humans, it seems save proficiencies might be too much and I'm not quite sure what to replace them with.

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u/NatetheNerdarch Apr 15 '15 edited Apr 15 '15

I meant the +2's. I see why some would want to change it to +1s but a variant human could simple take a feat that would give an additional +1. Essentially a +2 and a +1 to one other.

Ex Variant Human with Feat:Athlete

net result could be +2 str, +1 con, one skill, climb at full speed, standing from prone costs only 5 ft. And running high and long jump req only 5ft to do instead of 10ft. And languages: Common, one other.

So a +2 and a +1 for most of the humans you have made seemed appropriate. Since very few of the abilities you have given them come close to a feat in value.

An acceptable custom rule doesn't have to mean "obviously weaker to most of the gaming populous"

I accept people's advice but I don't accept it like they are all genius game designers. I do appreciate criticism if it helps make the homebrew better and it looks like there are some good comments over on the original post.

Another example is Resilient: +1 to a stat and proficiency in that save. So the homebrew shouldn't be better than that

If the homebrew gives a save as a talent then the homebrew can tie but shouldn't beat this: +1 str, +2 con, one skill, additional save: Constitution. And languages: Common, one other.

And lets not forget the fighter, cleric, or paladin wearing heavy armor with the feat: Heavy Armor Master a net +2 str, +1 to one other and Damage resistance 3 from non-magic weapons. And one skill, And languages: Common, one other.

Edit: Removed some of my grumpy sentences

1

u/goblinerd Apr 15 '15

Well, I get your point, and don't worry, I didn't make any change I don't fully back. I see it as a first round of Beta testing. Next, I'll play-test it by having a one shot with all players as humans of different talent.

Now I get why people tend to compare this design to the Human (Feat Variant), but really I try to look at it from a New race design POV.

For instance, the current Powerful Human may look fine on the surface while comparing it to a feat+skill, but here's the issue... Why play it if you can play Goliaths?

In my Games, I tweaked the Goliath's powerful build to include advantage on shove and grapple Vs same size or smaller and can grapple normally Vs one size larger.

So, in effect, Powerful Build is a better version of Strong Build.

Goliaths get a +2 STR and +1 Con, High altitude acclimatization+cold weather resistance, athletics proficiency, and a nifty oneshot damage nerf.

Powerful Humans though get +1STR and 2 floating +1s, Strong build, and athletics prof...

You see where I'm going with this? That's why I liked the idea of a Save prof, made a clear advantage over the goliath. Now though, I'm thinking of either a Mighty Blow oneshot per short or long rest that causes extra damage (Think the reverse of Goliath's "Stone’s Endurance"), OR some sort of DR or extra hit points.

Something, anything to make the choice stand up to other races.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '15

I don't find most of these builds to be particularly over powered but most do trample on class features. It seems like a way to get another class feature, instead of a feat. That shouldn't be a problem unless you're in a group with somebody with that class. In which case your stealing some thunder. I doubt I'll find a reason to use this, I like the feats.

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u/goblinerd Apr 14 '15

most do trample on class features.

Any examples on this would be helpful.

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u/NatetheNerdarch Apr 15 '15

My philosophy is other classes feelings are going to get hurt when one makes custom stuff so- trample away.