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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Estlor" data-source="post: 5991560" data-attributes="member: 7261">Frame your analysis in the form of DDN's stated goal: To create an experience that unifies the editions.Okay, check, then what can we say historically about humans throughout D&D's editions?BECMI: You're either human because you want to be a Fighter/Thief/Magic-User/Cleric or you are the race specified by your class name.  For this edition, there are no racial abilities; everything is a class ability.  Ergo, the implied benefit of being human is versatility.  A human can be an armored swordsman, a pious templar, a sneaky guy in leather than jumps out of the shadows, or a robed wizard channeling the elements.  Elves are just... elves.1e/2e: Each race has certain benefits called out.  Humans have no specified benefits, but their benefit is they also have no limits.  As a human, you can play any class and advance to any level.  So the implied benefit of humans is their ability to do whatever they put their minds to and improve to a level the other races cannot hope to achieve.3e: Bonus skill, bonus feat, no preferred class.  Since the class/level limits by race have been taken away, the human versatility is instead expressed by having access to more goodies and unlimited multiclass potential.  But, again, the story is humans can succeed at anything they choose, just with the "and reach heights no other race can" replaced by "and do it all at once if they want."4e: Bonus skill and feat remain.  Floating +2 to an ability score is added because the math of the system is inherently dependent on your primary ability score being 17-18 out of the gate to be effective.  Since multiclassing is entirely tied to feats, getting another one makes humans a go-to race because the investment is less.  Once hybrids appear, being able to take Hybrid Talent and another feat at 1st level makes them very useful for that brand of multiclassing as well.  So, again the narrative is humans dabble in a bit of everything and manage to be good at all of it at once.  Then add in the bonus at-will or Heroic Effort and the +1 to all NADs to say "and better at it than everyone else."So the consistent human narrative seems to be:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Humans don't have a traditional racial archetype they follow.  Humans can be whatever they want.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Humans have a broad, diverse skill set that often includes things counter to their chosen class.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Humans have a knack for multiclassing or dipping their toes into a lot of different things.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Humans are survivors and hard to kill.</li> </ul>Now, because you can't use feats or skill training to express these things (because a portion of your base may not use those modules), what's left that lets a human be whatever they want to be, have skills outside their profession, multiclass easily, and hard to take down because of good saves?+2 to one ability score, +1 to the other five.  It's actually the simplest, most basic, and elegant way to mechanically represent the narrative fluff of the D&D human throughout every edition of the game.</blockquote>

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