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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7025691" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Probably so. But that doesn't mean you have to give up the idea of different kinds of humans entirely.My preference is instead to use variant human as a chassis on which to define the subspecies of human. E.g. Valerians get +1 to Str and +1 to Con, and are Heavy Armor Masters (total +2 to Str). Machakans get +1 to Dex and +1 to Con and are Mobile. C'tissians get +1 to Int and +1 to Wis and are Skilled. Etc.This doesn't necessarily have to constrain players from allocating their variant human traits however they want, unless you want it to, but it does mean that when someone comes up with a unique combination (+1 to Str and +1 to Dex, Alert) they are encouraged to give it a name ("Cimmerian") and there is implicitly a tribe of people out there somewhere who are somewhat like them, even if no other Cimmerians ever come onscreen.Then you can just basically forget about the regular, non-variant human, because stat bonuses by themselves are boring to me as a DM, not something I'd want to use to define a culture. In fact, if I did want a civilized vs. barbarian divide, I'd be tempted to say that it's the civilized humans who get +1 to all stats but no feat, because proper nutrition/hygiene/education/etc. makes them overall healthier, but also leaves them without the evolutionary selective pressure that makes Machakans Mobile and Gordurans Tough, etc.</blockquote>