D&D 5E Non Variant Super Humans

[Unwise]

I've just started playing at a local store and found that the houserule there is that normal humans get +1 to each stat that is odd and +2 to each stat that is even, up to a maximum of 16. In effect, they get a +1 real bonus to every stat. I'm not sure how I feel about that, so thought I would share.

I rather like the fact that the human variant made humans so common, as it fits in the human-centric worlds I tend to DM, I guess this is designed to have the same goal, without the abundance of feats in a starting party.

Both DMs at the tables use this rule, but both are fairly new. I kind of want to give them a heads up if its over the top, but I guess people are happy with it as is.

Using the standard array, 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 becomes 16,16,14,14,12,10. So compared to a +2/+1 race, they get an extra +1 ability bonus on their 4 lowest stats. Would you say that is fairly balanced against a feat + skill? Or other races abilities?

The standard array is one thing, but the group allows points buy, so if you know you are going human, you actually save points again as you know that your 14s will end up at 16s, netting you some spare points to play with. Rather than go a heavily specialized 15,15,15,8,8,8 you can take 14,14,14,10,10,10 and still end up with 16,16,16,12,12,12 which is both powerful and well-rounded.

The net effect of this, compared to a normal human, is +1 real bonus to your third stat and +2 to your three lowest ones. How would +2 to the three stats you don't really care about, and +1 to your tertiary one compete with other racial abilities in your mind? As I like well rounded characters, it seems exceptionally hard to pass up to me. What do you think?

 

[abirdcall]

Yeah, that is way too good.

I have been thinking about the human issue. I do want them to be the baseline race. My group likes to take humans and I don't want that to be a punishment.

My current thought is to give the regular human 2 skills, and remove the extra skill from the variant.

I already remove a +1 from the half-elf because it is also too good. SCAG variants are in though.

 

[EdL]

I, on the other hand, think its fine. But then, I prefer that characters not have any minus stats, and are better than the defaults generally. So is it broken if all the PCs are a little better than they are in most other games? I don't really think so.

 

[Yaarel]

The house rule of evens and odds is too powerful, especially in combination with point-buy.

But the real problem is moreso, the flavor is wrong.

D&D is a game of magic. The Nonhuman races are supernatural beings - and are supposed to feel superhuman. For example, the inhuman parentage of the Half Orc produces a being that is superhumanly strong. If the Human race is simply superior compared to all other races, the flavor becomes problematic.

On the other hand, the rules for the standard Human is grievously underpowered. Having +1s to everything is worthless, because only the two most important abilities matter, and are worth exponentially more than the other four abilities. A boost to the third ability can be handy. But the last three dont matter, because the player can min-max around them. Of them, the last ability can dumped entirely with negligible loss. Adding +1 to a dump ability is humorous. While eliminating a penalty can be aesthetic for some players, it is unimportant mathematically.

The Players Handbook should have made the Human variant with the feat the standard one. And the one with +1s all the variant.

But even the variant feat Human feels a little underpowered, compared to some subraces. Players who are skilled at character optimization can benefit much from synergizing with the extra feat. But casual players are left a little short.

Some time ago, someone on these forums suggested adding a tool proficiency to the feat Human. The flavor of making the Human a tool user is highly appropriate.

The races and their subraces feel way imbalanced compared to each other. But I am still in the process of quantifying this feeling. I prefer to balance them upward, so the extra abilities to some of them can help make all the races and subraces feel more distinct from each other. For now, adding tool proficiency to the feat Human seems like a small boost that might be just right.

Human
+1 to two ability scores
any qualifiable feat
proficiency with any two tool sets
proficiency with any two skills

Notice, +1 to the two most important abilities is worth a feat. So the Human gets two feats. In my opinion, the minor features - two skills plus two tools - are together worth approximately a feat. But I still need to quantify the values more precisely. A total equivalency is three feats.



The equivalent of three feats might be a good standard to define a race. But certain races and subraces seem like they might be more like four feats.