D&D 5E Human racial bonus in 5E

[Jeff Carlsen]

There were essentially three complaints regarding humans getting +1 to all ability scores:

1. I feels unbalanced against the other races.
2. It makes humans equal to any other race's best ability score.
3. It removes the concept of the human default.

With a switch to demi-humans getting +2 to one ability score, and +1 to another, problems one and two are pretty well addressed, leaving only number three. And while I do care about number three, and would prefer racial penalties for demi-humans, I can live with this change now.

 

[doctorhook]

I'm happy with the above if that's the final decision. Really makes you wonder though what they have done with Half Orcs whether they get +2 Str +2 Con now ?

...

I can see a Dragonborn Paladin in my future +2 Str, +1 Cha....

...

I'm thinking that Elf will have +2 Dex.. especially if Drow becomes a sub-race of Elf with a +1 Cha. Then you'll have High Elf +1 Int and Wood Elf +1 Wis.

I wonder if for the optional races they'll give you a choice. For instance Tiefling gets +1 Int +1 Cha and the choice of whether to put an additional +1 in Int or Cha.

I'm with you on the Elf. Honestly I kinda hope we don't get much choice in ability scores--it cheapens choosing a race into optimizing for ability scores.

or if there is a Str based Sorcerer again.

Blech... I love dragonborn and I especially love dragon sorcerers, but strength-based magic (outside of a ki/DBZ context) really erodes my suspension of disbelief.

 

[JoeCrow]

There were essentially three complaints regarding humans getting +1 to all ability scores:

1. I feels unbalanced against the other races.
2. It makes humans equal to any other race's best ability score.
3. It removes the concept of the human default.

With a switch to demi-humans getting +2 to one ability score, and +1 to another, problems one and two are pretty well addressed, leaving only number three. And while I do care about number three, and would prefer racial penalties for demi-humans, I can live with this change now.

Yeah, I can live with that setup [+1 to all for humans, +2/+1 for demi-humans]. Still not super-happy about the overall human bump, just for thematic reasons, but I can live with it.

 

[Zatsuku]

I am really not a fan of the human racial bonus, it's probably my single biggest problem with 5E. It just doesn't feel thematically appropriate. Oh well, I can mostly accept it with the other races getting +2 to a stat, at least humans aren't attempting to out dex elves now.

 

[Agamon]

In a typical fantasy setting, human civilization is on the way up, demihuman on the way out. This is because humans are adaptable, giving them an across the board boost makes sense to me.

What human theme are others looking for?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

There were essentially three complaints regarding humans getting +1 to all ability scores:

1. I feels unbalanced against the other races.
2. It makes humans equal to any other race's best ability score.
3. It removes the concept of the human default.

With a switch to demi-humans getting +2 to one ability score, and +1 to another, problems one and two are pretty well addressed, leaving only number three. And while I do care about number three, and would prefer racial penalties for demi-humans, I can live with this change now.

Same here. I can live with it now. It's a little odd in an "if every stat's special, no stat is." kind of way, but makes the human a good multiclasser, which suits.

 

[MerricB]

I am really not a fan of the human racial bonus, it's probably my single biggest problem with 5E. It just doesn't feel thematically appropriate. Oh well, I can mostly accept it with the other races getting +2 to a stat, at least humans aren't attempting to out dex elves now.

From what I've heard, there will be other options in the full rules for the human racial bonus - it doesn't always have to be +1 to all stats.

Cheers!

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

In a typical fantasy setting, human civilization is on the way up, demihuman on the way out. This is because humans are adaptable, giving them an across the board boost makes sense to me.

What human theme are others looking for?

I can only speak for myself, but it's the human default against which all fantastical elements are compared. In AD&D, 3d6 represented the range of human capability, which we can map to ourselves. 18 was the pinnacle of human capacity. That lends context to a creature that can achieve a 19 or a 20.

When you look at another race, it it get's +1 STR, -1 DEX, you know that this race tends to be stronger and slower than humans.

I suspect that when someone says that it doesn't feel thematically appropriate, that person means that the fantastical theme doesn't come through as strongly without humans being the neutral context, and +1 to all ability scores removes that context.

As an interesting note, if we were to move all scores down to return to the human context, humans would have no adjustments, and demi-humans would be +1 to one ability score, and -1 to four.

 

[Agamon]

From what I've heard, there will be other options in the full rules for the human racial bonus - it doesn't always have to be +1 to all stats.

Yeah, I was going to add this point to my post and forgot.

So some human adventures are better than the average human, some are not and all human non-adventurers are average, as before.

Does this help make the "+1 to all" option more palatable, it not being true for all humans?

 

[Kobold Stew]

Yeah, I was going to add this point to my post and forgot.

So some human adventures are better than the average human, some are not and all human non-adventurers are average, as before.

Does this help make the "+1 to all" option more palatable, it not being true for all humans?

Doesn't this just beg the question? There is no corresponding differential between adventuring/non-adventuring elves, dwarves, and halflings.