HUMAN
(art by Bob Kehl and, uh, from Pathfinder, I couldn't find a name)
Humans get +1 to all ability scores. (1)
Humans get +1 to all saves. (1)
Humans get +1 to all saves. (1)
1. Yes this is all pretty hefty, but it's for a reason. My players never want to play humans because they are "boring" and I get it. Other races have cool abilities or flavor and humans are just the generic default. So I beef them up. My philosophy is "if it ain't fun, break it 'til it is" (which not a particularly good or even logical philosophy but I can get away with dumb shit like this because I am the Dungeon Master not the Dungeon Unpaid Intern). It fits with our conception of humans in the game world too: humans are the ubiquitous majority because while they're not the best at anything, as a species they're at least sort of good at everything.
The secret perk that humans get during game play is what we have termed "human privilege." Most places in-game are majority human, so non-humans are some combination of mistrusted, feared, hated, persecuted, or treated as second class citizens. When the city guards show up because the party is brawling in the streets, there's a good chance they will walk right past the humans waving swords around and arrest the elf who was just minding her own business. Castle dungeons are primarily filled with demihumans because there's no justice. I also call this the "infravision tax" (which is a term I feel like I didn't come up with but I don't know who did).
And with that I have posted the classic four and four. Humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings are the classic races and fighters, thieves, clerics, and wizards are the classic classes. My players and I agree that a game that didn't lean heavily on these basics wouldn't really feel dungeon-y or dragon-y enough. I'm down with whatever anybody else does in their consenting-adults game, this is just how we do ours.
The secret perk that humans get during game play is what we have termed "human privilege." Most places in-game are majority human, so non-humans are some combination of mistrusted, feared, hated, persecuted, or treated as second class citizens. When the city guards show up because the party is brawling in the streets, there's a good chance they will walk right past the humans waving swords around and arrest the elf who was just minding her own business. Castle dungeons are primarily filled with demihumans because there's no justice. I also call this the "infravision tax" (which is a term I feel like I didn't come up with but I don't know who did).
And with that I have posted the classic four and four. Humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings are the classic races and fighters, thieves, clerics, and wizards are the classic classes. My players and I agree that a game that didn't lean heavily on these basics wouldn't really feel dungeon-y or dragon-y enough. I'm down with whatever anybody else does in their consenting-adults game, this is just how we do ours.
The next races and classes I will be posting are more along the lines of "oh shit, you know what else would be cool?" Also I have some optional customizable stuff for races and classes (not table-tested) that I will be putting up later on.
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