Humans in Dungeons and Dragons 5e: Classes, Backgrounds, and Roleplaying Guide 

We incorrectly assumed the target audience for this video would be mostly species with dark vision wanting to learn about humans. As it turns out, our audience is 98% human and thus our lighting was not appropriate.

@@DungeonDudes what are the other 2% ?

Mind flayers ... probably

@@DungeonDudes RU-vid's rhythmic al-golems.

@@SymbioteMullet So, mind flayers.

I dunno man, I don't think it's propaganda. I mean, those Kobolds be lookin' kinda thick.

my half-ettercap is offended :P

Or a lot of a stretch, depending on the human's partner.

Drows, Dwarfs, Elves etc can all get it but not Owlins, Tabaxis or Lizardfolk. There's a limit

​@@Joker-yw9hlpeople have done it with tabaxis

Human Fighter is so basic that Mayonnaise is sorry for it:) Human Fighter is so bland Salt is too spicy for it:) Human Fighter is so dull a Cotton Ball cuts more:)

@@morrigankasa570 If your human fighter is boring, that's on you. I'm playing a human fighter (with a dip in rogue) for Curse of Strahd and it's the most fun I've had with roleplaying a for a long time. He's short and chubby, though not without muscle, he fights with two scimitars (dex based) and he loves making traps - he's a monster and bounty hunter. I've described him as a cross between the Tasmanian Devil (how he fights), Bugs Bunny (when he successfully implements a plan of action) and Wile E. Coyote (when he doesn't). He lugs around a chest full of equipment that's useful against a variety of monsters, as well as a mule loaded with more stuff. He's inadvertently become the party face, despite only having a 10 in charisma, because he's reasonably intelligent (14) and not afraid to put himself out there. That relatively low charisma also means he likes to make bad jokes and I like to play him as the comic relief, which his personality and flaws lend themselves to. Human fighters aren't dull. An endless parade of gruff, averagely built, young to middle aged men who only do stuff when there's a fight is boring. But _they_ neither need to be human, nor a fighter. It's just that people who lack imagination tend towards human fighters tat fit that description.

@@MalloonTarka I actually don't have a Human Fighter character myself. But have seen a couple and both are very boring. My favorite character I created is a Drow Feylost Death Domain Cleric sworn to the Raven Queen she is currently lvl 1 (haven't found a group to play with) but has a 4 and a half pages Backstory. Part of that story is she was born in a cave near the surface after her parents fled the Underdark and started trying to form a life on the surface. Her parents have valuable Trade Skills including her Mother being a Smith Cleric sworn to one of the Forge/Smithing Gods. Due to those factors and the fact my character was a baby at the time was accepted by a Village of Humans and Moon Elves. It was a happy childhood and around adolescence a Portal to the Feywilds opened up. My character decided to explore it by herself. She spent a few decades wandering them and learning new things. Eventually finding a path that lead to the Raven Queen's Residence beyond the Feywilds and chose to become a Cleric of her's before a different portal was opened by the Raven Queen that brought her back home. There's lots more details but that's the basics.

What feat? Lucky or Resilient?

@@dragonmaster613 why not Prodigy or Human Determination instead?

Level 20 wizard with legions of clones in an alternate pocket dimension seems pretty good too. Set up a contingency to pop you into one of the clones and you’re in good shape

@@JB-xl2jc isn't that what that mad mage in Faerun did?

@@dragonmaster613 thematically I'd choose Healer feat, with Chain pact and Ever Living invocation.

okay but the human can get a plus one to everything, which is 6 points

@@bigbeard1687 6 points, 3 of which aren't typically relevant without a skill or darkvision.

Anthony Norman most classes in dnd can get a light source, and those three can still be useful if you do like point buy or roll weirdly, it’s better than both of those if you do it right

@@bigbeard1687 light sources have negatives, how does one replace a skill without using a feat? 3 of the +1 will typically go on even stats that'll never be increased again while a racial feature, darkvision or skill can be repeatedly utilized.

Anthony Norman even with dark vision you can only see in low light, you still need dim light to have the ability to see, if it’s dark you have disadvantage, and the likely hood someone in the party doesn’t need light is slim to none, if you use point buy you can have every stat to be odd and get a +1 on everything and work well

Id say it depends allot on how they make characters. People that make their characters by initially deciding their race/class combo and deciding the rest after will evaluate the races all equally which puts human in competition with possibly dozens of other races that have real lore and appearances attached. They'll pick human a tiny fraction of the time even without being biased against them. However some tend to create characters by deciding what skill they want to excel at or what mechanical combo they want to use first and then look at race by their mechanics/how well they fit that idea. Now every useful feat/stat combo of the variant human can basically be treated as its own race mechanically. This makes from 50 to 80% of the options available to them just be varients of human, and they'll pick them that often.

Variant Human is super strong idk dude

@@YourPalRowan variant everything now thanks to tashas.

I like that system so might incorporate that into my "House Rules".

yeah, a "you can pick from these feats" would be great instead of "you can pick any feat you want". Martial Adept is a feat that would fit into one of these selections. Since the PHB has already a namelist for the various human cultures of faerun, why not add a line "Variant Humans of this culture typically have [this feat]"?

That's great bit it's still a shame that other races don't get the bonus feat. Makes me not want to take variant human ever, because it feels like cheating to do so. I know it's not, but it still feels that way. Everyone should just get to pick a feat to begin with. Human can still have the bonus to every stat, and that's a great bonus nobody else gets.

@@Torthrodhel I like to tie the feat to a specific aspect of my character. Maybe you're deaf and learned to read lips to communicate with others (Observant) or you were a cook before you delved into the adventuring life (Chef). Something specific that speaks to the flavor of my character and isn't one of those feats that you're gonna take anyways

@@maid_of_heart3261 that's neat, and since Tasha's released we have Custom Lineage which kinda completely fixes this problem. Now your character with a starting feat can be any race. Made me want to sometimes choose human again, when I didn't before.

Seconded.

Thirded.

I love this idea!!!!

So do I!

Best human warlock: John Constantine

War Caster is so much more important for Warlocks, especially Bladelocks, in combat centric campaigns. With limited slots, Warlocks can’t afford to drop their concentration. For Hexblades in particular War Caster also functionally grants +2 AC due to having shield proficiency. Not to mention that Tome Pact is basically the best ritual casting mechanic in the game if you like rituals.

@@M0ebius I agree that maintaining concentration is high priority, and War Caster is definitely on the menu. But in first tier I don't see it as crucial. Expanding the utility casting, on the other hand, has a big impact and of course the wizard's list is usually the most desirable. The reason that I'd usually go chain pact (while not disputing the value of tome pact at all) is the countless valuable ways to use an invisible, intelligent familiar that can fly and has hands (and acts on its own initiative). In first and second tier, I am generally able to abuse Minor Illusion and Silent Image as soft control and defensive spells, so that concentration isn't a big concern. If I didn't take War Caster at creation, I'd definitely take it at 4 (or possibly leave CON as an odd number and take Resilient CON).

Christian Swensen What rituals do you think has such a big impact that it’s worth burning a feat on? Especially considering you can get almost any ritual you want with Tome Pact? Genuinely curious.

@@M0ebius I'm approaching it from the other perspective. I want the pet from chain pact. Period. I consider that the highest value pact boon by a large margin. From that decision, I look at how I want to play the WL, and the ability to cast rituals goes a long ways to making the WL feel like a caster. As to specific spells, no books on hand at the moment. But Identify, Purify Food and Water, Invisible Servant, Leo's Hut. Obviously none of these are game changers on their own. But taken together, they make the WL able to use magic far more than his couple of slots would indicate.

one of the few classes I would be willing to be a human. I get to "play" a human IRL 24/7 365.. (except during games) so I kinda like, in my imagination, having darkvision.

Its ok if someone never wants to play human in dnd and the reason doesnt matter. You do you :) I hope you and they enjoy themselves, thats the only goal.

@@beebobox ik and i get that but i prefer they think it through instead of asum playing a human will be as boring as what ever boring life they have (the only real feeling and response to my questioning of said reasoning i ever get) that is what annoys me they dont even give it a try or just *sighs idk not finding words for what im trying to say but yes people can play what they want i believe i did say that it just annoys me when people dont play humans cause they asum humans in a medieval fantasy setting are going to be the exacted same as a normal human from the modern age in real world and i just do not get the logic in that

I always have the Darkvision spell prepared on my human druid because my party wants to do the night stealthy approach most of the time

Fighters has to be the number 1 class for humans. It is a class often built around having 2+ feats, and no other class gets a bigger power increase from having that feat at level 1.

I for one actually enjoy playing the variant human races. Adds alittle variety when you have a pc who knows the lore and setting to help reign in the rest of the party antics.

Almost no one is a good enough roleplayer to actually play as a non-human character for more than a single session. I've DM'ed for hundreds of people, and I've only seen professional actors manage to stay in character, as a giant lizard man, dragon man, or tabaxi, game after game. Instead nearly everyone gives up on their character voice and racial attitude after the first few sessions because they can't expound on it past the few stereotypical lines they started with. I think most people would be better off playing as humans, just for their own sake, otherwise it tends to limit their creativity if they keep trying to roleplay with their non-human race in mind.

How did you mispell "fighter" three times in one comment?

You can point buy to 4 odd scores and make standard human shine in AL for MAD classes such as: monk, paladin, etc.

Because v. human is simply overpowered and needs to share its bonus feat with all races.

This feat saved the group I DM for in a recent lvl 2 boss fight. It's a highly underrated feat.

Much love for that Feat. It's crazy how much healing you can get done with it!

There are so many ways to make a human fun. Just come up with your most badass awesome action hero fantasy self and go live it.

That PC must be a true... bugbear for the DM to plan encounters for.

My human fighter has PAM, sentinel, and was given a windcutter glaive to make his reach 15ft as well. Bugbear still has three attunement slots open though!

Especially when you take tunnel fighter. :^)

@@Hagosha TUNNEL SNAKES RULE

I raise you my swashbuckler X/hexblade 3 with booming blade. Not because it's better but because it just straight up neutralizes the polearm sentinel combo. You don't get to punish me when I get close. You don't get to punish me when I try to leave. In fact, I get to punish you when I get close and once again when you try to chaise after me. Granted, the bugbear reach means I won't actually get to leave your reach with my specific rogue. I'm better off having him use his darkness + devil's sight combo paired with elven accuracy and just kite and sneak attack you from range. Alternatively, any ranged build with mobility (especially the feat and flying) should do. Or, you know, I can just use the darkness + devil's sight combo in melee to straight up ignore opportunity attacks because they require sight . That'll still leave me my bonus action to dash away :P Generally, if you're a DM and you want to create an encounter where the party polearm sentinel struggles, just heavily obscure the fighting area and thus you have neutralized polearm sentinel. I once had a trap that released an eversmoking bottle that obscured everything and provoked several swarms of bats to attack. There are also other options like ranged enemies with fly speeds or even straight up invisibility, but finding a way to heavily obscure an area involves a bit more creativity and flexibility. You can get heavily obscuring steam, smoke or mist/fog from both spells, traps and natural phenomena. Bonus points if you make it so the other members of the party can de-obfuscate the area and thus force the polearm sentinel to at least once in a while be reliant on the party.

I agree with Davvy on most of his class breakdowns, but I thought he was high when he gave his opinion on the Gloomstalker LOL

We are working through the whole roster, expect more in the weeks to come

Dungeon Dudes As far as PHB races go, Dragonborn are very weak. The problem is their breath weapon scales from Constitution, which isn’t a stat they get from their racial ASI (and they’re the only race where this happens). And unlike 4e, using their breath isn’t a minor action (bonus action) so the 2-5d6 is piddling damage compared to using Extra Attack or casting a spell, so it will almost never be a good use of action beyond tier 1. So discounting their breath, all they have is an energy resistance, which is basically nothing.

I agree with Kurisu. The first character i ever made was a dragonborn paladin and his breath weapon was less useful then the Command spell i always insist to use. I would go with Lizardfolk and flavor it with some dragon aspects.

I totally agree. However the bonuses they get make it them great for picking classes that don't overlap. I have two mountain dwarf characters. One is a War Magic Wizard that hits things with a flaming hammer and is so hard to hit it's stupid. The other is a strength based Arcane Trickster Rogue that focuses on grappling while enlarged. The armor proficiency and strength bonus allows for combos otherwise unavailable to that class.

Isaiah Boyce yea, I like the fiend warlock for them. I usually pick hobgoblin and medium armor feat if I go war/abjuration wizard. Str based arcane trickster sounds awesome

Marc Garlasco my very first character was a 6’10” Dragonborn rogue lol. Ended up being a 17 assassin and level 3 barbarian

I've mulled over playing a mountain dwarf wizard just so I can wear medium armour. You could even kind of explain it, since dwarves and gnomes have a close friendship.

Gods Among Men you could make a variant human wizard with the feat that gives you medium armor right off the bat

@@Dezbood You would have to get lightly armoured first, then moderately armoured at fourth level.

Gods Among Men true, idk what I was thinking

Two weapon style and dual wielder are noob traps. They are pretty decent in the first 3-4 levels, but fall sharply after 5th in comparison to other styles and feats, like GWM.

that's an even more awesome skillmonkey rogue by default :D

The +1 to every stat is quite powerful if you're using a build that uses 3 or more stats (which is most of them besides a pure fighter or rogue). Potentially starting a game with 3 stats at 16 in a point buy or spreading them out so that your dump stat is a 10 or 12 means they can be quite powerful in any role.

Actually he spells his last name McLauchlin. I also had to look this up to see if there was another Kelly Mclaughlin our there.... because if there was I’d have to battle them to the death probably. I think that’s the rule.

Coming soon!

WOOT!!!!!

@@DungeonDudeshow about a Hexblade overview?

Healer Feat Bois

It is a cool as you make it. Both the names "Star Wars", a 1970's film you may have heard of, and the band "Megadeth" both have some terrible names. However, they became cool because of what they were. Make your plague doctor blood hunter, and just develop it past the title and make the coolest character you can for both you and your game group. Good luck and sounds fun.

Don't know the physician bg, where's that from?