I've been making a new character for a campaign I'm starting, and as I was looking at the human, I thought, "How is this legal?" It lets you take two +1s to different abilities and a feat! At first level! What are your thoughts?
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"Halt your wagging and wag your halters, for I am mastercryomancer!"
Short answer, yes. I don't allow then in my games, not so much because of power levels, but because they are a bit of a min-maxer's wet dream (and that is not the sort out game I like to be involved in). I might allow them, but only if the list of feats available were severely restricted. Or better yet, the player describes the culture their variant human comes from then the DM decides what feat that culture grants you (and surprise! your barbarian great weapon based culture does not grant you the great weapon mastery feat you were hoping for).
I agree with Twooshort. Variant Humans getting +1 to two abilities plus a feat isn’t very different in power level from the racial bonuses and abilities that other races get. My personal opinion is that the official races are all balanced well enough that by 3rd or 4th level the minor differences in the base power level of the races doesn’t matter because the class abilities overshadow them.
I consider the variant human to be upper middle in terms of player race options. It could be used to min-max, though few builds will remain above average after level 4.
A few races I consider to have a mechanical edge over variant humans include: elves, half elves, tiefling variants, yuan-ti pureblood, githyanki (depending on build), changling, and warforged.
Sure the variant human's feat is a good trait, but it gives up 4-6 traits it could have had as another race.
I think what makes many people think the Variant Human is overpowered is its adaptability. While a lot of the other races are better for certain classes the variant human is a strong choice for any combination. But, that's sort of the role that humans in most fantasy games fill.
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"Richness, in the final measure, is not weighed in gold coins, but in the number of people you have touched, the tears of those who mourn your passing, and the fond rememberances of those who continue to celebrate your life. " -Drizzt Do'Urden
Variant Humans are definitely more powerful than "regular" humans, but I don't think they break the game where other races are concerned. It mostly has to do with the versatility of the feature; you can basically choose a feat that boosts the niche you want to be in or (though less likely) that solves a problem in an area you're weaker at.
It's a choose-your-ow-racial-ability, if you think about it. So yeah, it's good but not excessive.
Regular humans are pretty awesome too when you roll 4 or more odd numbers for your ability scores. +1 to every ability score gives a regular human four +1 bonuses to ability checks at first level! It's situational, but when it happens it's more powerful than an otherwise identical variant human.
Well I mean, Dragonborn get ability increases, an elemental resistance, and a race-specific power thats pretty good.
Hill Dwarves get extra constitution and wisdom, and a weak version of the Tough feat.
Aarocka get the ability to fly
All the Elf subclasses get something good- 35 movespeed is nice, an extra cantrip is pretty helpful, and Misty Step is also incredibly nice
Just about every race has something pretty good, and while the benefits the human variant gives are pretty good, humans also dont get Darkvision or other helpful powers granted to other races.
I think it's broken for the early levels. Once everyone else gets to level 4 and can pick a feat and the enemies are tougher, it balances out. Sharpshooter, Great Weapon Mastery, and Lucky are ridiculously broken at the early level. -5 to hit vs monsters with 8 or 10 AC. That's not so bad, considering a +10 damage severely outpaces most other damage outputs at level 1. Re-rolling damage or defense actions can be very powerful if used correctly. As monsters get tougher and AC goes up, that advantage becomes more balanced.
They're not even slightly overpowered at lower levels. Take the things that every race has in common such as a minimum +2 ability score increase and a minimum 2 languages, then group all similar features, such as whether or not you have a skill/tool proficiency or a bonus to a skill/tool, everything that is leftover can essentially be wrapped into a feat.
Compare a Variant Human with a Half-Orc. Their similar/shared features include:
+1 to two different ability scores
Medium size
Base walking speed 30 feet.
Bonus skill proficiency
Two languages
The differences above are only in that the Human has choice whereas the Half-Orc is the same as a Variant Human who "chose" +1 Strength, +1 Constitution, Intimidation as a skill and Orc as a language. The exact same thing applies to the rest of their features. Except here, the Human has a choice of a feat available to anyone at later levels, the Half-Orc gains a specific, though unique "feat" in the form of racial traits. You can even present it in the form of a feat like so:
Half-Orc Racial Traits
Prerequisite: Half-Orc, must be taken at level one.
You are a Half-Orc. You gain the following benefits:
Increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You have darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
Compare the Half-Orc Racial Traits "feat" to the Great Weapon Master feat and you have an equivalent, arguably better ability, which is just as useful at levels 1-3 as GWM. Again the only difference is choice and adaptability at level one for Variant Humans, but they are by no means overpowered compared to another race's traits, a few limited examples notwithstanding.
Variant humans go on the list of things that are always good. While they aren't usually the top pick for a given class or build, (unless the build relies on a specific feat to work) they will always rank fairly high. This means that they will show up in almost every optimization guide or the like even though there's usually something better.
Other things on the list of things that are always good include the lucky feat and the constitution stat.
Variant Human really isn't OP at all, and above-average in a few builds that require multiple feats before coming fully online.
More than anything, I think VH highlights just how underwhelming standard Human is.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
My short answer is no. Variant human is not OP in my experience in games I have played.
In terms of capability it probably ends up a bit above average in tier 1 depending on what feat you take but through tier 2 and into tier 3 and beyond the difference isn't really noticeable.
On the other hand, standard human is, in my opinion, significantly below the curve for most characters. This is mostly because, although +1 to every stat looks good on paper, usually every character has some stats that are much less significant and boosting these stats isn't really relevant so many of the the +1 often go to waste.
If most games you play are levels 1-4 and the DM doesn't use environmental factors like lighting, dark vision, and managing carrying torches/lanterns so humans can see, and bad guys hiding in the dark can see them, then the extra feat can provide a decent enhancement especially if it is used for something like PAM or X-bow expert. However, in a lot of dungeon delving type games, races without the ability to see in the dark can be at a significant disadvantage.
No, it's not. In fact, I think it's somewhat underpowered. Most non-human races get a total of +3 to various ability scores plus abilities that are at least equal to a feat.
Variant Humans are definitely more powerful than "regular" humans, but I don't think they break the game where other races are concerned. It mostly has to do with the versatility of the feature; you can basically choose a feat that boosts the niche you want to be in or (though less likely) that solves a problem in an area you're weaker at.
It's a choose-your-ow-racial-ability, if you think about it. So yeah, it's good but not excessive.
Regular humans are pretty damn good if you use the point buy system, since you can maximize the +1 in every ability by making sure you don't have any odd scores.
They're not even slightly overpowered at lower levels. Take the things that every race has in common such as a minimum +2 ability score increase and a minimum 2 languages, then group all similar features, such as whether or not you have a skill/tool proficiency or a bonus to a skill/tool, everything that is leftover can essentially be wrapped into a feat.
Compare a Variant Human with a Half-Orc. Their similar/shared features include:
+1 to two different ability scores
Medium size
Base walking speed 30 feet.
Bonus skill proficiency
Two languages
The differences above are only in that the Human has choice whereas the Half-Orc is the same as a Variant Human who "chose" +1 Strength, +1 Constitution, Intimidation as a skill and Orc as a language. The exact same thing applies to the rest of their features. Except here, the Human has a choice of a feat available to anyone at later levels, the Half-Orc gains a specific, though unique "feat" in the form of racial traits. You can even present it in the form of a feat like so:
Half-Orc Racial Traits
Prerequisite: Half-Orc, must be taken at level one.
You are a Half-Orc. You gain the following benefits:
Increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You have darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
Compare the Half-Orc Racial Traits "feat" to the Great Weapon Master feat and you have an equivalent, arguably better ability, which is just as useful at levels 1-3 as GWM. Again the only difference is choice and adaptability at level one for Variant Humans, but they are by no means overpowered compared to another race's traits, a few limited examples notwithstanding.
In my campaign, I let everyone take a free feat at first level, and I've actually thought about eliminating gensai, half-orc, half-elf, and tiefling as races and making them feats instead. That way, if you wanted to play a half dwarf/half elf, you could. Or an elf with an infernal bloodline. Or a tabaxi with with a djinni relative. Or whatever.
Half-Elf has always struck me as the "this can't be legal" race. The "feat" for half-elf (in other words, what it gets over the pre-feat variant human) would include:
+2 CHA
Fey Ancestry
Darkvision
One additional skill
Elven Language
So, on top of the "base" variant human, you get an entire ASI (equivalent to a feat), a skill and a language (50% of the Prodigy feat), AND Darkvision AND Fey Ancestry.
I'd disagree with you in that GWM is equivalent/worse than the Half-Org Racial "feat" in terms of optimization, GWM will get more DPS. Fully optimized STR at lvl 1 is a +3 on the Point buy system. with the -5 for GWM, that's a net -2. Most low level monsters have lower AC and -2 to hit for a +10 damage is ridiculously OP, especially since this happens with EVERY attack.
The Savage attack is nice, but ONLY happens on crits. Even for the highest damage roll for a common martial weapon, that's 1d12. Average of +6, only on crits vs a set +10 on a -2 to hit. I'd pick the latter any day. Yes, the not dying outright is nice, but that's 1/day and still leaves you at 1hp. That can help you run away to get healed. Darkvision is very nice, but is situational. In terms of filling the role of a fighter/DPS, Variant human shines in early levels. Again, as levels increase and monsters get higher AC and HP, this advantage falls off. But at level 1? It's stupid.
Also something to keep in mind. Most low level monsters have really low HP. Like, 5-15. Even with the lowest roll, DMG is 1rolled, +3 from STR, +10 GWM= 14 damage. So you're almost guaranteed to 1 shot all of the standard low-level monsters.
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I've been making a new character for a campaign I'm starting, and as I was looking at the human, I thought, "How is this legal?" It lets you take two +1s to different abilities and a feat! At first level! What are your thoughts?
"Halt your wagging and wag your halters, for I am mastercryomancer!"
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Short answer, yes. I don't allow then in my games, not so much because of power levels, but because they are a bit of a min-maxer's wet dream (and that is not the sort out game I like to be involved in). I might allow them, but only if the list of feats available were severely restricted. Or better yet, the player describes the culture their variant human comes from then the DM decides what feat that culture grants you (and surprise! your barbarian great weapon based culture does not grant you the great weapon mastery feat you were hoping for).
Nah, not compared to features like flying, darkvision, innate spellcasting, damage resistances, advantage or even immunity to certain spells.
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.
I agree with Twooshort. Variant Humans getting +1 to two abilities plus a feat isn’t very different in power level from the racial bonuses and abilities that other races get. My personal opinion is that the official races are all balanced well enough that by 3rd or 4th level the minor differences in the base power level of the races doesn’t matter because the class abilities overshadow them.
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The simple answer: no.
I consider the variant human to be upper middle in terms of player race options. It could be used to min-max, though few builds will remain above average after level 4.
A few races I consider to have a mechanical edge over variant humans include: elves, half elves, tiefling variants, yuan-ti pureblood, githyanki (depending on build), changling, and warforged.
Sure the variant human's feat is a good trait, but it gives up 4-6 traits it could have had as another race.
Agreed with many of the above.
I think what makes many people think the Variant Human is overpowered is its adaptability. While a lot of the other races are better for certain classes the variant human is a strong choice for any combination. But, that's sort of the role that humans in most fantasy games fill.
"Richness, in the final measure, is not weighed in gold coins, but in the number of people you have touched, the tears of those who mourn your passing, and the fond rememberances of those who continue to celebrate your life. "
-Drizzt Do'Urden
Variant Humans are definitely more powerful than "regular" humans, but I don't think they break the game where other races are concerned. It mostly has to do with the versatility of the feature; you can basically choose a feat that boosts the niche you want to be in or (though less likely) that solves a problem in an area you're weaker at.
It's a choose-your-ow-racial-ability, if you think about it. So yeah, it's good but not excessive.
Subclass: Dwarven Defender - Dragonborn Paragon
Feats: Artificer Apprentice
Monsters: Sheep - Spellbreaker Warforged Titan
Magic Items: Whipier - Ring of Secret Storage - Collar of the Guardian
Monster template: Skeletal Creature
Regular humans are pretty awesome too when you roll 4 or more odd numbers for your ability scores. +1 to every ability score gives a regular human four +1 bonuses to ability checks at first level! It's situational, but when it happens it's more powerful than an otherwise identical variant human.
Professional computer geek
Well I mean, Dragonborn get ability increases, an elemental resistance, and a race-specific power thats pretty good.
Hill Dwarves get extra constitution and wisdom, and a weak version of the Tough feat.
Aarocka get the ability to fly
All the Elf subclasses get something good- 35 movespeed is nice, an extra cantrip is pretty helpful, and Misty Step is also incredibly nice
Just about every race has something pretty good, and while the benefits the human variant gives are pretty good, humans also dont get Darkvision or other helpful powers granted to other races.
I think it's broken for the early levels. Once everyone else gets to level 4 and can pick a feat and the enemies are tougher, it balances out. Sharpshooter, Great Weapon Mastery, and Lucky are ridiculously broken at the early level. -5 to hit vs monsters with 8 or 10 AC. That's not so bad, considering a +10 damage severely outpaces most other damage outputs at level 1. Re-rolling damage or defense actions can be very powerful if used correctly. As monsters get tougher and AC goes up, that advantage becomes more balanced.
They're not even slightly overpowered at lower levels. Take the things that every race has in common such as a minimum +2 ability score increase and a minimum 2 languages, then group all similar features, such as whether or not you have a skill/tool proficiency or a bonus to a skill/tool, everything that is leftover can essentially be wrapped into a feat.
Compare a Variant Human with a Half-Orc. Their similar/shared features include:
The differences above are only in that the Human has choice whereas the Half-Orc is the same as a Variant Human who "chose" +1 Strength, +1 Constitution, Intimidation as a skill and Orc as a language. The exact same thing applies to the rest of their features. Except here, the Human has a choice of a feat available to anyone at later levels, the Half-Orc gains a specific, though unique "feat" in the form of racial traits. You can even present it in the form of a feat like so:
Compare the Half-Orc Racial Traits "feat" to the Great Weapon Master feat and you have an equivalent, arguably better ability, which is just as useful at levels 1-3 as GWM. Again the only difference is choice and adaptability at level one for Variant Humans, but they are by no means overpowered compared to another race's traits, a few limited examples notwithstanding.
Variant humans go on the list of things that are always good. While they aren't usually the top pick for a given class or build, (unless the build relies on a specific feat to work) they will always rank fairly high. This means that they will show up in almost every optimization guide or the like even though there's usually something better.
Other things on the list of things that are always good include the lucky feat and the constitution stat.
Variant Human really isn't OP at all, and above-average in a few builds that require multiple feats before coming fully online.
More than anything, I think VH highlights just how underwhelming standard Human is.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
My short answer is no. Variant human is not OP in my experience in games I have played.
In terms of capability it probably ends up a bit above average in tier 1 depending on what feat you take but through tier 2 and into tier 3 and beyond the difference isn't really noticeable.
On the other hand, standard human is, in my opinion, significantly below the curve for most characters. This is mostly because, although +1 to every stat looks good on paper, usually every character has some stats that are much less significant and boosting these stats isn't really relevant so many of the the +1 often go to waste.
If most games you play are levels 1-4 and the DM doesn't use environmental factors like lighting, dark vision, and managing carrying torches/lanterns so humans can see, and bad guys hiding in the dark can see them, then the extra feat can provide a decent enhancement especially if it is used for something like PAM or X-bow expert. However, in a lot of dungeon delving type games, races without the ability to see in the dark can be at a significant disadvantage.
No, it's not. In fact, I think it's somewhat underpowered. Most non-human races get a total of +3 to various ability scores plus abilities that are at least equal to a feat.
Regular humans are pretty damn good if you use the point buy system, since you can maximize the +1 in every ability by making sure you don't have any odd scores.
In my campaign, I let everyone take a free feat at first level, and I've actually thought about eliminating gensai, half-orc, half-elf, and tiefling as races and making them feats instead. That way, if you wanted to play a half dwarf/half elf, you could. Or an elf with an infernal bloodline. Or a tabaxi with with a djinni relative. Or whatever.
Half-Elf has always struck me as the "this can't be legal" race. The "feat" for half-elf (in other words, what it gets over the pre-feat variant human) would include:
So, on top of the "base" variant human, you get an entire ASI (equivalent to a feat), a skill and a language (50% of the Prodigy feat), AND Darkvision AND Fey Ancestry.
I'd disagree with you in that GWM is equivalent/worse than the Half-Org Racial "feat" in terms of optimization, GWM will get more DPS. Fully optimized STR at lvl 1 is a +3 on the Point buy system. with the -5 for GWM, that's a net -2. Most low level monsters have lower AC and -2 to hit for a +10 damage is ridiculously OP, especially since this happens with EVERY attack.
The Savage attack is nice, but ONLY happens on crits. Even for the highest damage roll for a common martial weapon, that's 1d12. Average of +6, only on crits vs a set +10 on a -2 to hit. I'd pick the latter any day. Yes, the not dying outright is nice, but that's 1/day and still leaves you at 1hp. That can help you run away to get healed. Darkvision is very nice, but is situational. In terms of filling the role of a fighter/DPS, Variant human shines in early levels. Again, as levels increase and monsters get higher AC and HP, this advantage falls off. But at level 1? It's stupid.
Also something to keep in mind. Most low level monsters have really low HP. Like, 5-15. Even with the lowest roll, DMG is 1rolled, +3 from STR, +10 GWM= 14 damage. So you're almost guaranteed to 1 shot all of the standard low-level monsters.