Okay. Nobody likes the Diplomat feat choice for humans. Can’t blame you: I’m not a huge fan, either.
So here’s your challenge, should you choose to accept it: Pick a different feat and make your case .
A few thoughts to keep in mind:
- Try to avoid adding an extra decision point to character creation. A generic Skill Focus, for example, would require players to choose the skill to which the Skill Focus applies. The human already has one such decision (picking their Bonus Skill) and I actually thought long and hard about pre-picking that skill for them. A major design goal of character creation in L&L was to strip down the decision tree to a bare minimum.
- Try to avoid anything that would necessitate a special entry in every human’s stat block. Taking Skill Focus as an example again, a DM not only needs to make a decision about Skill Focus for every single human NPC, but they also need to note that in their stat block. L&L also tries to minimize this “stat block clutter” in order to make NPCs and monsters easier to run on the fly.
- It doesn’t necessarily need to be equally valuable to all classes, but it shouldn’t be completely worthless to any given class, either.
- Similarly, it shouldn’t duplicate any feat which has been given as a class ability to one of the classes. This would either render it worthless to that class (see #3) or it would require special rules explaining what happens with humans who take that class and gain that ability (adding complexity).
Hit me up, people. Let’s make the game better.
I’ll throw a few out there:
1. Humans adapt to routine tasks very well. When “taking 10” during the use of any skill, a human gains a +2 bonus.
2. Humans are adept at adapting their skills to unusual tasks. They gain a +2 racial bonus to any skill check made as part of a stunt.
3. Humans are adept at affecting others with their skills. The DC to resist a stunt performed by a human is increased by +1.
4. Humans react quickly to changing situations. Improved Initiative.
I feel like the fourth one fits the ‘adaptable and skilled’ flavor of humans the least, but it’s easy to account for, has a direct feat analogue, and is useful to everyone.
How about a 10% bonus too experience for being a young and adaptable race that has shorter life spans.
Sorry if this is in the wrong space. But, having no other contact I could find:
I am having trouble receiving the download of the Beta pdf.
I also recommend Exotic Weapon Proficiency as a candidate for a feat. May violate number 2, but hey, you’re already writing what weapon you bought.
I like being able to observe design process like this! I have no idea what the right way to go is, but I do like Lee’s idea of the stunt bonus.
Self-sufficient: +2 heal and survival. Ranger-esque; seems to suit humans and would compliment the other racial skills.
There is always toughness. 🙂
Iron Will is another possibility.
There is also modeling the lucky trait, whereby human PCs and important PCs (or maybe only destined humans, like the PCs) get to reroll one roll per session after they roll it but before they find out whether it succeeded.
Improved Initiative. Good feat, almost all 3e humans have it eventually, IME.
I second Improved Initiative. Every PC rolls initiative, so it should satisfy all 4 points.
Inaki: I feel like Toughness starts to tread on the Dwarf’s +Con toes… I actually really like Iron Will, though. Humans are headstrong, stubborn, and willful like that.
I don’t think giving Humans any existing feat would really be a good solution. The power of the bonus feat in 3E is precisely in being to pick whatever is best for your specific character. Without that versatility some other race is going to be mechanically better for any non-spellcaster class. (Most races make about equally good spellcasters since none of them get a bonus to any mental ability score.)
Whatever bonus Humans are given, it has to be something that would give players a reason to make a Human Barbarian instead of a Half-Orcish one.
In that senske I quite like Lee’s second suggestion, the +2 bonus to skillchecks made during stunts. Although perhaps this could be expanded to a generic +2 bonus to all stunt action checks (so it would also include attack rolls and ability checks).
This might violate your ideas about complexity, but make the human feat dependent on class.
If you pick Fighter, make it Weapon Focus.
If you pick Wizard, make it Skill Focus (Spellcraft)
If you pick Ranger, make it Toughness.
etc.
I leave the actual feats chosen as an exercise to the audience… 😉
p.s. My idea being: you still have the flexibility of picking a feat that’s right for you, but without the overhead of extra decision-making at chargen. Pick your class and your bonus feat choice is done for you.
Improved Initiative – humans are prone to acting/reacting in an impulsive manner due to them being judgemental and self-righteous.
Improved Initiative is probably the only feat that would be beneficial to most every class and doesn’t also step on the toes of the other races (+2 to Will saves via Iron Will infringes on Elf territory a bit).
That being said, it feels kind of odd for humans, but then, so does Negotiator.
I like 1 and 2 from the first post. I like the lucky trait even more. I don’t like the other suggestions. I think giving Improved Ini would devaluate this feat somehow. And it’s one of my favorite ones. Can’t come up with my own suggestion due to being tired.
There are no feat selections. The feats you need are engineered into the classes.
This means Improved Initiative isn’t a possibility as a racial. It is such a powerful feat that it would turn humans into a must-be race, considering the only way to get it would be to roll a human.
Humans, being the sociable species we are, have the ability to size up those they encounter and BS accordingly to avoid getting eaten. We are the tellers of tall tales, crafty when we need to outwit the opposition, or flirt with the Troll maiden to buy some time.
So maybe they get +2 to Bluff to go with their Sense Motive.