D&D 5E Human racial abilty modifiers

[Nikosandros]

This has been discussed back when the "new" racial rules came out, but AFAIK, not recently and I'm curious about what the community currently thinks about them.

I'm also wondering if the devs have mentioned anything related to the races recently. For example, if they said that they are pleased with the current iteration or if it is something that they are not testing at the moment, because they are concentrating on something else.

For what is worth, I strongly dislike the racial modifiers for humans. I don't think that they are balanced, but I must admit that the testing in my group was limited. However, my strong dislike is primarily from the standpoint of flavor. If racial modifiers are needed in the game (and I'm not completely sure about this) than, for example, dwarves must have a tangible bonus with constitution instead of being the only race that is on par with humans.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I don't dislike racial modifiers for humans per se. I do dislike the Next implementation of it so far, where the humans mods are substitutes for more interesting racial abilities, and thus boosted to compensate.

I'd be fine, for example, with there being several stock human cultures (which is "sub race" in Next terms so far--a terribly misnamed and abused idea). So you'd get some modest, common thing as "human" and then get other abilities and modest racial mods (similar to what the other races get) for the sub category. Then one of the "human" advantages for adaptation and breadth in the mechanics can be that they have more and more varied stock cultures to use as a starting point.

 

[Manbearcat]

@Crazy Jerome 100 % agree. In fact, that was my first proposal in that initial thread when the races came out. That would make humans balanced, compelling, diversified and not screw up the implied setting.

 

[Nikosandros]

I realize that I wrote the OP rather poorly. I meant to ask about the racial modifiers for humans as they appear in the current iteration of Next, not in general.

 

[KidSnide]

I'm hardly stoked about the current implementation of humans, but I do like the simplicity of the rule. The game world implications are a little wonky if you think the +1 ability bonus is applied to all humans, but I don't find to objectionable with the assumption that the +1 ability bonus applies just to PCs and other notable human characters.

And, at the same time, I really like the idea of giving humans +1 to many of their ability checks and saving throws through the simple expedient of increasing the ability scores, rather than having to track an extra bonus. In comparison to 4e, I liked the idea of giving humans a bonus to non-AC defenses, but it was one more thing to remember during character creation.

-KS

 

[Sadrik]

Human sub-races should be half-orc and half-elf.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Human sub-races should be half-orc and half-elf.

Ugh, yuck.

Why are they Human subraces? Why aren't they elf and orc subraces? And what if both of those races breed true over generations? Aren't they no longer subraces at all? And what about Muls? Are they a human subrace?

If we have to have them both in the game, then they're races. They're not sub anything.

 

[the Jester]

IMHO humans should get +1 to their highest and lowest stats.

Giving them +1 to everything (and +2 to one) is ridiculous. Basically, that says that humans are genetically superior to the other races, and (for instance) the supposedly ultra-sturdy dwarves are so sturdy that they can match Con scores with most humans (and not even with a human of superior health).

The human ability mods, as they stand, are awful. In fact, I'll go so far as to call them the worst thing in the current iteration of the playtest.

 

[Rune]

IMHO humans should get +1 to their highest and lowest stats.

Giving them +1 to everything (and +2 to one) is ridiculous. Basically, that says that humans are genetically superior to the other races, and (for instance) the supposedly ultra-sturdy dwarves are so sturdy that they can match Con scores with most humans (and not even with a human of superior health).

The human ability mods, as they stand, are awful. In fact, I'll go so far as to call them the worst thing in the current iteration of the playtest.

This. Add in a +1 bonus to saves (something about being a race of destiny, or somesuch) and it might even be balanced with the other races.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Humans shouldn't have "modifiers". They're (we're?) the starting point for the whole system. They should have average ability scores, and the meaning of said scores should be defined by what an average human can do.

One of the mistakes PF made was deciding that everyone had to have a net bonus and giving humans the +2. This is the same problem, only worse.