D&D 5E Human Standard vs Variant

[MoonSong]

There is no way I'm ever playing "standard" human. It is a bland bag of pluses which doesn't feel at all good. If feats aren't available I'll play a half-elf and call it a human. It worked for Aragorn, it works for me.

 

[MoonSong]

The first one was for one of my first 5e games so going through race, class, skills, backgrounds, and bardic spells known was enough things to flip through for the new mechanics to choose, I didn't want to read through the feats section as well when there was an easy 'add straightforward bonuses across the board' option.

I have it way easier, I just choose the feat that augments my class (like the one that lets me play a real sorcerer from first level) or the one that lets me pick an unusual weapon to customize or expertise in a skill. It isn't as if there were tons of them.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

boooh !

I mean, you can say "boo" all you like, it doesn't change the fact that these things are unpopular, nor that you can achieve many of the same goals with different methods.

Besides, if we make each race have a distinct pair of attribute bonus options, you're still getting 15 distinct races, same as the number of subraces in the 5e PHB (counting human and variant human as two subraces). Humans in 13A get a +2 to any stat of their choice, so that adds a 16th option.

So, maybe 1 in 4 humans might be the standard human, most I play are variant.

Believe it or not, your estimate is actually really really close to the theoretical expected value! Up to three significant figures, the probability estimate I have for rolling "more odd than even" (assuming every roll is at least 9) is 0.272, meaning one-in-four is definitely the closest small fraction approximation. (If you allow 7s it bumps up to 0.324, damn close to one in three; if you allow any odd value all the way down to 3s, it very slightly overshoots one in three, at 0.339).

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I have it way easier, I just choose the feat that augments my class (like the one that lets me play a real sorcerer from first level) or the one that lets me pick an unusual weapon to customize or expertise in a skill. It isn't as if there were tons of them.

Yeah, there really aren't a ton of "must-have" early feats, and the few that exist REALLY stand out. Elven Accuracy, for instance, is stupidly good.

For my part, since I really would like to test the silver pyromancer PrC that I wrote up, I've previously looked for games that permit an early feat so I could check that one I wrote is not too weak or too powerful. To whit:

Devoted Student
Prerequisite: Proficiency in Arcana or Religion
You have graduated from a selective school that stresses
academic rigor in both the arcane arts and the seminary.
Gain +1 to any one mental stat of your choice (Intelligence,
Wisdom, or Charisma). Further, because of the higher
education you received there, choose one of these benefits:

• Proficiency in Arcana, or expertise in Arcana if you
  already have proficiency in both Arcana and Religion.
• Proficiency in Religion, or expertise in Religion if you
  already have proficiency in both Arcana and Religion.

Finally, you receive a diploma, certifying your education in
arcana and religion. It shows your connection to the wider
culture of the faith, or a specific branch or order of your
religion. This official document may help you find aid or allies
from those who share your religion or overall beliefs, and
other academics may recognize you as an equal or colleague.

It's a solid half-feat, nothing crazy--a semi-flexible stat bonus (since this PrC is primarily meant for Bard, Sorcerer, or Wizard, and requires Wis 13), one bump in proficiency (untrained to prof, prof to expert) in a narrow set of skills, and a fluffy RP benefit that may or may not ever actually matter.

 

[DeviousQuail]

I've used the standard human before but most of the time I'm going with the variant. There are very few feats that I wouldn't take over four additional +1s and they are all more interesting.

I hope the choose any +2/+1 and background feats become the norm for character creation if only to force WOTC to come up with a better human. I've seen a decent number of homebrew and 3rd party ones to know it's possible to do better.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Believe it or not, your estimate is actually really really close to the theoretical expected value!

Not surprisingly to me, I certainly believe it.

For example, if I am playing a MAD class and use point buy, I might use this array: 15, 13, 13, 12, 11, 9 and with the standard human this becomes: 16, 14, 14, 13, 12, 10. Add in a half-feat (house-rule for us at 1st level) and I can even make the remaining 13 a 14 as well.

Or, (with our house rule), I might roll for scores, use the variant human for two feats, and have a powerful combo such as PAM and Sentinel using a reach weapon.

So, it really depends on the PC I hope to play and if the human race fits the concept or not.

 

[GreyLord]

Point buy makes humans really useful in generating a PC.

 

[JEB]

We had variant human available in our campaign, but I don't think anyone ever picked it. Players in our group (including myself) always picked standard human. Maybe we were just lazy.

 

[iserith]

It depends on the campaign for our group, specifically what ability score generation method will be used and whether feats are even on the table. Not every campaign is going to handle these matters the same way for us.

 

[the Jester]

Ability score penalties are generally unpopular. Even when the game only has racial bonuses and no racial penalties, many folks feel "punished" for not playing to type. Penalties are openly "you should not do X."

Part of the changes with 5e going from "races" to "ancestries" is stepping away from telling players what they are and aren't "supposed" to play. You want to play an orc wizard? Awesome, have at it. You want to be a kobold barbarian? Cool, show us what you can do.

Just because you don't get a +2 Str doesn't mean you can't be a barbarian of a certain race. I hate this argument, because it's rooted in optimization, and I am very strongly setting-first rather than player's-convenience-first. That said, I recognize that I am an outlier on this one.