Human

 

Human Traits 

 

Characters with human heritage share a variety of traits in common. 

Age. Humans reach basic maturity around age 18, although many continue to grow in body and mind through their twenties. Only the most exceptional human elders live past 100 years. 

Size. Most adult humans are in the 5 to 6 foot range, although taller and shorter statures do occur. Your size is Medium (with your Narrator’s permission, your size can instead be Small.) 

Speed. Your base Speed is 30 feet. 

Fast Learner. With their shorter life spans, humans can acquire knowledge at a higher rate than more long-lived heritages (although not all acquire the wisdom to use it). You gain proficiency in one additional skill of your choice. In addition, you require half as much time as normal to train yourself in the use of a suit of armor, tool, or weapon during downtime.

Intrepid. Your survival instinct is remarkably strong. When you make an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw, you can choose to gain an expertise die on that roll. Once you use this trait, you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest. 

---

Human Gifts 

Humanity’s most overlooked trait is their physical and spiritual endurance. How a human exhibits this hereditary resilience varies on their personal disposition. In addition to the traits found in your human heritage , select one of the following gifts. 

Diehard Survivor 

Foes of humanity may see them as ants, but humans are equally difficult to eliminate. The ancestors of human beings learned to survive through the harshest conditions, including drought, winter, and famine. Humans, in their stubbornness, can even pull themselves back from the brink of death to fulfill their dreams. You have the following traits:

Feast and Famine. You can tighten your belt during hard times. You can go a number of days equal to your Constitution modifier without suffering any fatigue from lack of Supply . Afterward you require twice as much Supply for as many days as you went without.

Radical Perseverance. Through your sheer stubbornness and will to live, you sometimes manage to wriggle out of death’s grasp. You die after 4 failed death saving throws instead of 3. 

Ingenious Focus 

Not all human minds work the same—some have a nearly miraculous level of focus. People with this intellectual mode often bring a surprising level of insight and passion to almost any topic they engage. In spite of their brilliance, they typically have difficulty with more general awareness. You have the following traits:

Inexorable Concentration. When you fail a Constitution saving throws to maintain concentration, you can immediately reroll it, taking the new result. You may use this trait a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1), and regain all expended uses after a long rest. 

Resident Expert. You have a reputation for painstaking detail on certain tasks and subjects. Choose two tools with which you are proficient , or a skill with which you are proficient from Animal Handling, Arcana, Culture, Engineering, History, Medicine, Nature, or Religion. When you make a check with that tool or skill and the d20 shows a natural result of less than 10, you can count the d20 result as being 10. 

Spirited Traveler 

The power of movement is one of humanity’s evolutionary advantages. An ancient human hunting strategy for killing fast game is persistence hunting—following prey relentlessly, shifting between walking and running endlessly until a beast became too exhausted to defend itself. Many humans maintain their health through running, and foot races are a universal favorite game. In a word, humans gifted at running will go far. You have the following traits: 

Desperate Dash. When you take the Dash action, your movement this turn does not provoke opportunity attacks. During this movement, you gain an expertise die on Athletics checks made to jump, and Dexterity saving throws. Once you use this trait, you cannot use it again until you finish a short rest . 

Marathon Runner. The first time between each long rest you would gain a level of fatigue , you do not gain that level of fatigue. You still suffer a level of fatigue from finishing a long rest without any Supply .

Sojourner’s Fortitude. You gain an expertise die on saving throws made to resist fatigue for marching longer than 8 hours. 

---

The following gifts are additionally available in sci-fi settings using the Voidrunner's Codex :

Adapted

As humans began to venture away from their world and explore the galaxy, they encountered hardships and challenges they never could have imagined—and proved themselves to be one of the most adaptable species in the cosmos. Confronting each new hurdle head-on, humans began to tinker with their genetics, creating new adaptations capable of surviving anything the galaxy could throw at it. Through splicing non-human or synthetic DNA, ancestors of these humans take human survival skills to a new frontier. Beyond basic survivability, you are adapted for one specific environment. You gain the following trait:

Just Like Home. Choose one type of terrain, reflecting the area from which your family hails: arctic, desert, mountain, or swamp. You ignore all naturally created difficult terrain of that type. Additionally, you gain an expertise die on Survival checks made within this terrain type, and gain a type of damage resistance related to your chosen terrain: arctic—cold, desert—fire, mountain—lightning, swamp—poison.

Jovian

Growing up on a high-gravity world has lent you remarkable endurance. You recover one level of fatigue during a short rest as long as you have only two or fewer levels of fatigue, and you count as size Large when determining your carrying capacity.

Prodigy

Humans once believed they only used a portion of their total brain, and that using more would give them access to supernatural abilities. Whether through natural or forced evolution, space-time anomalies, or other strange quirks of galactic exploration, some humans have evolved beyond the limitations of the physical. Many people with this gift are marked by some telltale sign of their mental power or their evolution, such as glowing eyes or loss of vestigial or unused traits.

Your natural abilities allow you limited ability to command a potent effect. Choose a level I psionic power. You know your chosen power and you can manifest it once without expending psionic points. You must finish a short or long rest before you can manifest it in this way again. Your manifesting ability modifier for this trait is the same as the ability score used in the manifesting class in which you have the highest level, or Intelligence if you have no levels in a manifesting class.

Unbound

When humans began to venture into deep space, many never settled down. Whether living their lives as asteroid miners within their solar system, Voidrunner's Codex 24 living aboard space stations, or as members of generational colony ships, some humans found themselves particularly suited to life within zero gravity. For some, this is evolution in action, for others it is wanderlust turned outward toward the stars. You have the following traits:

Space Legs. You are adapted to the unique rigors of zero gravity, suffering minimal disorientation and even showing increased mobility. While in zero gravity, your base speed increases by 10 feet and you gain a climb speed equal to your base speed.

Vacuum Resistance. The harsh vacuum of space is an ever-present threat in space travel, but you are adapted to it, for a time. You gain an expertise die to Constitution checks to resist the effects of a hard v acuum, and add your proficiency bonus to the number of minutes you can hold your breath. In addition, you gain resistance to cold damage.

---

Human Paragon

When you reach 10th level, you are an exemplar of humankind, and you gain one paragon gift from the following list. 

Determined 

When you are bloodied and make an attack roll  or saving throw , you can use this feature to treat the result of the d20 roll as a natural 20. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long rest . 

Wind at Your Back

Your Speed increases by 10 feet. You ignore difficult terrain when you Dash. When you make a melee weapon attack against a creature, until the end of your turn you do not provoke opportunity attacks from it. 

Voracious Learner 

You gain an expertise die in each of three different skill or tool proficiencies. 

---

Human Culture 

With life spans considerably shorter than elves and dwarves, the pace of human culture is rapid. Even in cultures which value stability, one hundred years is long enough for human society to change radically, and a millennium enough to lose entire human civilizations to the ravages of time. Some human cultures are more innovative or fast-paced than others, although the hunger for progress is not a value shared by all human societies. 

Due to the high birth rate of humans compared to other heritages they often find themselves exploring and settling new lands. Humans are adaptable and can grow into almost every living situation imaginable, and while they tend to populate the land rapidly, they’re rarely alone. Human cultures can span entire continents, and their cities house countless people of every shape, size, and heritage. However your character was raised, they were moulded and influenced by the human culture around them. 

Suggested Cultures

While you can choose any culture for your human character, the following cultures are linked closely with this heritage : cosmopolitan , imperial , settler , villager .