D&D 5E Does the Variant Human need a boost now after Tasha's changes

[tetrasodium]

Giving the V human the bonus feat was to compensate for the other races getting bonus weapons, abilities, spells with the restrictions of where points are distributed. With that eliminated and the other benefits of gaining more skills/tools, it’s very apparent the gap has dramatically widened

weapon proficiencies made a big difference in 3.5 when it meant access to different (meaningful) damage types, different crit ranges, & different crit modifiers. in 5e you either use weapons 7 after picking heavy/finesse/ranged you pick a die size and either deal nonmagical b/p/s or magical b/p/s... alternately you never use a weapon as much more than a shovel because you use cantrips. The weapon proficiencies don't change any of the meaningful values in 5e. Changing a simple/martial weapon for a different simple/martial weapon is a virtually meaningless distinction because every weapon using class with specific weapons proficiencies rather than "simple weapons" "martial weapons" is limited in weapon choice by a feature like sneak attack or martial arts. Even switching them for tool proficiencies under tcoe changes is of extremely minimal benefit

Giving variant human a feat was justified back when those weapon proficiencies were a significant benefit & you still had feat chains, when they overly simplified the weapons to "pick your damage die" and condensed the feat chains it threw off the math. Variant human does not need anything until wotc brings up the losing races to be on par with winning ones like variant human & mountain dwarf.

 

[ScuroNotte]

weapon proficiencies made a big difference in 3.5 when it meant access to different (meaningful) damage types, different crit ranges, & different crit modifiers. in 5e you either use weapons 7 after picking heavy/finesse/ranged you pick a die size and either deal nonmagical b/p/s or magical b/p/s... alternately you never use a weapon as much more than a shovel because you use cantrips. The weapon proficiencies don't change any of the meaningful values in 5e. Changing a simple/martial weapon for a different simple/martial weapon is a virtually meaningless distinction because every weapon using class with specific weapons proficiencies rather than "simple weapons" "martial weapons" is limited in weapon choice by a feature like sneak attack or martial arts. Even switching them for tool proficiencies under tcoe changes is of extremely minimal benefit

Giving variant human a feat was justified back when those weapon proficiencies were a significant benefit & you still had feat chains, when they overly simplified the weapons to "pick your damage die" and condensed the feat chains it threw off the math. Variant human does not need anything until wotc brings up the losing races to be on par with winning ones like variant human & mountain dwarf.

Exactly. Every weapon using class has weapons, so a race could exchange 4 weapons for 4 skills, or 4 tools which are very strong.
Your argument makes it seem that WoTC never makes a mistake which is far from the truth.

 

[Krachek]

Whether array or rolled, the imbalance will
still remain

Indeed but everyone will focus on the one who roll a 18 and a 17 and won’t care about the race he choose.

 

[ScuroNotte]

I would suggest proficiency in a third saving throw. That would be a half-feat (like Resilient, but no ASI bump).

IMO that would be good but not OP. shrug

Or take it reversed.
1. If a race wants to be able to move their scores elsewhere, it becomes a +1/+1.

2. Rip those pages out

 

[tetrasodium]

Exactly. Every weapon using class has weapons, so a race could exchange 4 weapons for 4 skills, or 4 tools which are very strong.
Your argument makes it seem that WoTC never makes a mistake which is far from the truth.

No. My argument is almost the opposite of that. varant human was a mistake of such a degree that it probably doesn't need anything until wotc is bringing up the bulk of the races that fall in the loser box

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Don't add floating bonuses. Don't add variant human. Problem solved.

 

[DND_Reborn]

1. If a race wants to be able to move their scores elsewhere, it becomes a +1/+1.

Yeah, I suggested a long time ago that a fixed +2 ASI could become a floating +1 instead.

It represents your PC's deviation from the norm of your race, but allows you to place a bonus more appealing to your class. With the standard array and point-buy, it still allows you to have a 16 in your primary score, but not a 17 (either way, your modifier is +3). shrug

 

[ScuroNotte]

No. My argument is almost the opposite of that. varant human was a mistake of such a degree that it probably doesn't need anything until wotc is bringing up the bulk of the races that fall in the loser box

Variant human was not a mistake at all. A feat to compete with races that offer multiple variations of darkvision, weapons, armor, poison/sleep/charm resistance, and spells.

 

[Shiroiken]

2. Rip those pages out

Everything in Tasha's is optional. Both me and our other regular DM have decided that while we may consider occasional adjustments (which he already did), this isn't going to be used regularly in our games. We have other DMs, however, who may choose to do so when they run. Personally I feel that if they'd just left a +1 to your starting class that was appropriate for the class (reducing your +2 to +1), none of this would have come about.

 

[Krachek]

In need of absolute balance use the new Custom lineage for every PC.