CapnZapp
Legend
Doesn't this nerf the halfling rogue considerably?
-
NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
D&D 5E Custom Race ability - Proficiency in a skill, Expertise, or advantage?
- Thread starter Dragonsbane
- Start date
One point I'd make would be that since these are all Humans, but are just from different regions... I personally would make it such that no "physical" skills would be allowed to taken as proficiencies/expertise. So no Athletics, no Stealth, no Sleight of Hand, no Perception, no Acrobatics. Only "knowledge" or "communication" type skills would be allowed.
Reason being that all Humans should physically remain pretty close to each other-- especially when compared to the other races in the game. If the entirety of the Elves in the game world have Keen Senses (which is in comparison to the Human baseline)... then no specific sub-set of Human should also get it. And that same things holds true for any other physical trait or anything a Human is born with.
Whereas anything involving knowledge or communication is a cultural thing, and that makes sense that everyone in a certain region might be taught or just grew up constantly using. A Human sub-culture that lives high in the mountains might all know Survival because they had to in order to actually survive. A Human sub-culture in a theocracy (like for instance Thrane in the Eberron setting) might have everyone knowing Religion because their entire lives are spent getting hammered on its laws and practices. And a Human sub-culture that is warrior-based / the strongest shall lead, and you only gain power by taking it from others might for instance all be proficient in Intimidation, as that's the baseline action you hold towards others of your culture.
Those kinds of things I could see... but anything physical? To me it makes the disparity and differences between Humans to other Humans seem much greater than between Humans and Dwarves, or Humans and Elves. And I'm not so sure that's the kind of differences Human sub-cultures should necessarily have.
Reason being that all Humans should physically remain pretty close to each other-- especially when compared to the other races in the game. If the entirety of the Elves in the game world have Keen Senses (which is in comparison to the Human baseline)... then no specific sub-set of Human should also get it. And that same things holds true for any other physical trait or anything a Human is born with.
Whereas anything involving knowledge or communication is a cultural thing, and that makes sense that everyone in a certain region might be taught or just grew up constantly using. A Human sub-culture that lives high in the mountains might all know Survival because they had to in order to actually survive. A Human sub-culture in a theocracy (like for instance Thrane in the Eberron setting) might have everyone knowing Religion because their entire lives are spent getting hammered on its laws and practices. And a Human sub-culture that is warrior-based / the strongest shall lead, and you only gain power by taking it from others might for instance all be proficient in Intimidation, as that's the baseline action you hold towards others of your culture.
Those kinds of things I could see... but anything physical? To me it makes the disparity and differences between Humans to other Humans seem much greater than between Humans and Dwarves, or Humans and Elves. And I'm not so sure that's the kind of differences Human sub-cultures should necessarily have.
Dragonsbane
Proud Grognard
Damn, good point DEFCON. I am always looking for realism . . well, in a fantastic way lol. My setting assumed that deities are just powerful sentients and that they live in the universe, and certainly didn't create it (and can't even come close to wiping out a planet or anything grandiose). I also don't allow half-elves or half-orcs because I have that the races "evolved", hence no real hybrids without magic . . . your suggestion nails what I am looking for, bam!
S_Dalsgaard
First Post
I don't really see a problem with a culture based on Norse vikings having expertise in Athletics, while one based on the Italian city states have expertise in for example Religion. There are of course other options for the vikings (like Intimidation), but even among humans there can be a lot of physical differences between cultures. To put it in FR terms, a human from Icewind Dale will probably (generally) be in a lot better physical shape than one from Waterdeep.
AverageCitizen
Explorer
You could also introduce expertise with tools, if you wanted. Naturally, if your leery of stealth expertise, then watch out for thieves tools.
If the only races you had in the world were Humans, I'd agree with you. However... I didn't get from Dragonsbane777 that that was the case. It seemed like not only would there be Human sub-cultures... but there would also still be all the other races.
Now what is the biggest differences between the Races in the game? It's physical traits. Elves get +2 to DEX while Humans only get +1 because it's to illustrate that Elves on the whole are usually more dexterous as a race (a +1 higher DEX on average). But what happens if you decide that a Human sub-culture you create are a seafaring race, and thus give them free proficiency in Acrobatics (or even further, Expertise in Acrobatics if you also took the skill with your class or background?) You're saying that this human sub-culture on the whole is more agile in a certain physical way that elves are. Now sure... elves as a race on average are slightly better are using Finesse weapons and dodging fireballs... but any physical dexterity they are worse than this human sub-culture.
To me... that kind of ruins the differences I feel there should be between the Races. When two Humans could be that different physically compared to a Human and a Dwarf... then what's the point in having dwarves? Maybe that doesn't bother other people... but I just feel that the differences between two Humans (regardless of sub-culture) shouldn't ever feel as big as the difference between a Human and another Race entirely, because it just makes that other race lose what is special about them compared to the humans. That's my feeling at least.
Psikerlord#
Explorer
How so?
Dragonsbane
Proud Grognard
Here is the full list so people can see while making suggestions
(20 min of trying to get a excel in the forum . . . I am a noob or its just very hard)
(20 min of trying to get a excel in the forum . . . I am a noob or its just very hard)
(Disclaimer: These assessments are based on my personal experience; YMMV.)
Some of those skills are much better than others. I feel sorry for the Azala, who get Nature or Medicine, two of the least used and least useful skills; Laveri don't fare much better (I've seen Religion checks slightly more often than Nature or Medicine). Nond gets a nice +2 Str, but Vehicles (water) is weak and unless you are in a seafaring campaign it probably won't see much use. I'd give it to them as a freebie. Actually you could give all of these subraces a free tool/language proficiency in addition to a skill proficiency.
Meanwhile, the Ejiin get +2 Wis AND pick from two fairly good Wisdom skills; they seem like the big winners here. I'd change either their stat bonus or change their skills to non-Wisdom skills.
The rest of the subraces seem better balanced with each other. Madronian will make excellent wizards, but that's about it. Int is not super useful for most characters, and Arcana and History are decent. Varkonan are in the same boat; Cha doesn't stack with those skill but is a bit more generally useful. Chak'ti seem fine too. Sabonaar is a great combo: +2 Dex is really useful for a lot of builds, and those skills are good and interesting too, but in a way that has nothing to do with Dex.
Some of those skills are much better than others. I feel sorry for the Azala, who get Nature or Medicine, two of the least used and least useful skills; Laveri don't fare much better (I've seen Religion checks slightly more often than Nature or Medicine). Nond gets a nice +2 Str, but Vehicles (water) is weak and unless you are in a seafaring campaign it probably won't see much use. I'd give it to them as a freebie. Actually you could give all of these subraces a free tool/language proficiency in addition to a skill proficiency.
Meanwhile, the Ejiin get +2 Wis AND pick from two fairly good Wisdom skills; they seem like the big winners here. I'd change either their stat bonus or change their skills to non-Wisdom skills.
The rest of the subraces seem better balanced with each other. Madronian will make excellent wizards, but that's about it. Int is not super useful for most characters, and Arcana and History are decent. Varkonan are in the same boat; Cha doesn't stack with those skill but is a bit more generally useful. Chak'ti seem fine too. Sabonaar is a great combo: +2 Dex is really useful for a lot of builds, and those skills are good and interesting too, but in a way that has nothing to do with Dex.
