D&D General what is a hill dwarf?

[Staffan]

Why aren’t humans also offered in a variety of ethnic/cultural/geographical variations? Boy would I ever wish they were, but I’m in a minority it seems.

A couple of reasons:

• Humans are the default, the ones against which the other races are measured.
• Humans tend to get very flexible features. Variant humans get +1 to any two stats as well as their choice of both a skill and a feat. This represents human overall flexibility.
• Any attempt to say "humans from X are Y" comes close to some really ugly real-world implications.

That said, I liked the ideas behind the setup of regional feats in 3.5e Forgotten Realms. Basically, your region of origin would give you access to some additional feats to represent overall cultural tendencies. At least to my privileged eyes, I think they avoided the brunt of the third point above by:

• Offering multiple feats per region, usually 3-5. So it's not "Everyone from Sembia has the Silver Palm feat making them good at dealmaking", it's "some people from Sembia have Silver Palm".
• Feats show up in multiple regions. Silver Palm, for example, can be taken by humans from Amn, the Dragon Coast, the Golden Water, Sembia, Tharsult, Thesk, the Vilhon Reach, and Waterdeep (as well as assorted dwarves and halflings). So you can't be sure someone's from Sembia because they have Silver Palm.
• Many (but not all) of the feats were kind of on the weak side and had to be taken at level 1, so they were often ignored.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I tend to go with the FR take, whereas mountain dwarves are a different ethnic group splintered from the hill dwarves “stock” that remained in the south.

In a more pragmatic way, hill dwarves and mountain dwarves are simply two variants on the same race, offering different options during character creation in a typical D&D way of selling races and classes as packages. Basically, do you want dwarf A or dwarf B? These are the two choices you have.

Why aren’t humans also offered in a variety of ethnic/cultural/geographical variations? Boy would I ever wish they were, but I’m in a minority it seems.

With floating ability score adjustments and “pick-a-feature” race design, the distinction becomes less and less relevant. I’m still trying to figure out whether it’s a good thing or not…

look giving stats to different groups of humans will inevitably end up in some dark places fast.

 

[Gradine]

Okay okay, Hill Dwarves are the dwarves that aren't the dwarves from Dwarf Fortress

 

[Mind of tempest]

Okay okay, Hill Dwarves are the dwarves that aren't the dwarves from Dwarf Fortress

okay so how are they different from mountain dwarfs as they need a gimmick even if is super dumb

 

[Gradine]

okay so how are they different from mountain dwarfs as they need a gimmick even if is super dumb

They can get through the working day without alcohol

 

[Laurefindel]

look giving stats to different groups of humans will inevitably end up in some dark places fast.

Which is a real shame.

 

[cbwjm]

What you need to do for different groups of humans (and other races) is have a culture overlay, I've seen some on these forums. It doesn't even have to be that complicated, you can go with some basic cultures based on environment like: seafaring, plainsfolk, forest dwellers, mountain folk, etc. Or you could even create something like Sembian, Dalesfolk, Cormyrean, Thayan, etc to give a few additional traits to a race based on where they are from. Otherwise, racial stats stay they same.

 

[Zardnaar]

What you need to do for different groups of humans (and other races) is have a culture overlay, I've seen some on these forums. It doesn't even have to be that complicated, you can go with some basic cultures based on environment like: seafaring, plainsfolk, forest dwellers, mountain folk, etc. Or you could even create something like Sembian, Dalesfolk, Cormyrean, Thayan, etc to give a few additional traits to a race based on where they are from. Otherwise, racial stats stay they same.

Probably best done with backgrounds don't reference any in game culture.

Or floating racial traits pick one.

Was it birthright that had human racial traits for subraces?

 

[Micah Sweet]

What you need to do for different groups of humans (and other races) is have a culture overlay, I've seen some on these forums. It doesn't even have to be that complicated, you can go with some basic cultures based on environment like: seafaring, plainsfolk, forest dwellers, mountain folk, etc. Or you could even create something like Sembian, Dalesfolk, Cormyrean, Thayan, etc to give a few additional traits to a race based on where they are from. Otherwise, racial stats stay they same.

Level Up does exactly this, and the problem has gone away.

 

[cbwjm]

Probably best done with backgrounds don't reference any in game culture.

Or floating racial traits pick one.

Was it birthright that had human racial traits for subraces?

Birthright did alter ability scores. What I'm suggesting wouldn't alter any ability scores, it would rather be some small features, maybe a skill, that helps represent that culture.