Alternate Humans

In the reckonings of most worlds, humans are the youngest of the common races, late to arrive on the world scene and short-lived in comparison to dwarves, elves, and dragons. Perhaps it is because of their shorter lives that they strive to achieve as much as they can in the years they are given. Or maybe they feel they have something to prove to the elder races, and that's why they build their mighty empires on the foundations of conquest and trade. Whatever drives them, humans are the innovators, the achievers, and the pioneers of the worlds.

A Broad Spectrum

With their penchant for migration and conquest, humans are more physically diverse than other common races. There is no typical human. An individual can stand from 5 feet to a little over 6 feet tall and weigh from 125 to 250 pounds. Human skin shades rage from nearly black to very pale, and hair colors from black to bond (curly, kinky, or straight); males might sport facial hair that is sparse or thick. A lot of humans have a dash of nonhuman blood, revealing hints of elf, orc or other lineages. Humans reach adulthood in their late teens and rarely live even a single century.

Variety in all Things

Humans are the most adaptable and ambitious people among the common races. They have widely varying tastes, morals, and customs in the many different lands where they have settled. When they settle, though, they stay: they build cities to last for the ages, and great kingdoms that can persist for long centuries. An individual human might have a relatively short life span, but a human nation or culture preserves traditions with origins far beyond the reach of any single human's memory. They live fully in the present-making them well suited to the adventuring life-but also plan for the future, striving to leave a lasting legacy. Individually and as a group, humans are adaptable opportunists, and they stay alert to changing political and social dynamics.

Human Traits

The following options allows you to create a human based on their environment, making him less generic than the human race of the Player's Handbook.

Ability Score Increase. Increase an ability score of your choice by 1. You cannot increase the same ability score given by the subrace you choose.

Age. Humans reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.

Alignment. Humans do not tend towards any particular alignment as a group. The interplay of their ambition and empathy sees all alignments represented among them.

Size. Humans vary wildly in size and shape from under five feet to well over six feet tall. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 ft.

Languages. You can speak, read and write Common and one other language of your choice.

Subrace. Humans are divided by the environment where they live: desertborn, forestborn, mountainborn, plainsborn, seaborn and winterborn.

Desertborn

As a Desertborn, you come from a martial culture of nomadic warriors. Most of the desertborns travels for days through the desert with light equipment to be fast and agile while moving, scouting and fighting. Their skin can range from light brown to black and they are known for being well muscled.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.

Agile and Strong. You have proficiency in the Athletics and Survival skills.

Born in the Desert. You have advantage on saving throws against extreme heat. In addition, once per long rest when you would gain a level of exhuastion, you can choose to not gain a level of exhaustion. You can read more about extreme heat in the chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master's Guild.

Dune Warrior. You have proficiency with light armor, scimitars, whips and shortbows. When you score a critical hit with any of this weapons, you can roll one of the weapon's damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

Desertborn Names. (Male) Askari, Bakad, Caamir, Mahdi, Rushdi, Saabiq, Taqi; (female) Atifa, Iltani, Kema, Maisah, Nameera, Qadira, Zahra; (surnames) Attali, Benzadi, Khadra, Madjer, Rahal, Safar, Tarik

Forestborn

As a Forestborn, you come from a wild but wise culture. Forestborns lives in small communities among the trees, hunting and gathering food that nearby forests provides. Most of them are tanned by living in the outdoor, with brown or black hair.

Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2.

Children of the Wild. You have proficiency in the Nature skill and you gain proficiency with the herbalism kit.

Fleet of Foot. Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.

Natural Resistances. You have advantage on saving throws against poisons and diseases.

Watchers of the Forests. Whenever you make a Wisdom (Perception) checks while in a forest, you are considered proficient in the Perception skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead your normal proficiency bonus.

Forestborn Names. (Male) Agnar, Eadwin, Guthred, Oslac, Thordar, Turold, Volund; (female) Aedwen, Anne, Cerys, Efa, Elise, Idina, Rowena; (surnames) Buggir, Gaster, Hrilk, Resvonn, Thall, Troth, Varhig

Mountainborn

As a Mountainborn, you come from a culture of artisans and warriors. Most of the mountainborns lives rugged terrain, building their towns and cities as close as possible to a mountain. Thanks to this, mountainborns have good relations with dwarves, and they are called sometimes as "tall dwarves". They are smaller than the average human, but very muscular, with a hair tone that goes from dark brown to black.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2.

Stone People. You gain proficiency with the artisan's tools of your choice: smith's tools or mason's tools. You have proficiency with the light hammer and warhammer.

Mountaineer. You ignore difficult terrain when moving through rocky terrain. Whenever you make a Strength (Athletics) check to climb rocks, you are considered proficient in the Athletics skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.

Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Strong as a Rock. Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level.

Mountainborn Names. (Male) Asmund, Erik, Gundulf, Grimald, Herbert, Jakob, Sten; (female) Fride, Grete, Helen, Kaja, Lena, Sonja, Vilde; (surnames) Buer, Haug, Jorstad, Karlstad, Monsen, Ohlsen, Strom

Plainsborn

As a Plainsborn, you come from an old culture of talented craftsmen and inventors. Most of the plainsborns are settled and established in places to improve their agriculture, animal husbandry and architecture and share their knowledge with others. They are slender with tawny skin, with a hair tone that goes from fair to black.

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2.

Versatile Culture. You gain proficiency in two skills of your choice.

Crafting Expertise. You gain proficiency in one artisan's tools of your choice. When you craft an object using the artisan's tools you're proficient with, you count as two characters working for determining the ammount of gp worth of effort for every day spent creating the item, allowing you to craft objects faster than others.

Plainsborn Names. (Male) Ayden, Carel, Jerrit, Kale, Landen, Rick, Stenvel; (female) Arlette, Caitlin, Cherine, Ita, June, Loriana, Marisa; (surnames) Bayne, Ferner, Hulett, Kern, Meister, Pernick, Reinsel

Seaborn

As a Seaborn, you come from a mercantile culture. Seaborns live in the coast near the seas, they are excellent sailors and they are known for their skills as shipbuilders and tradesmans. They are lightly built, with dark hair and naturally light in skin tone.

Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2.

Appraiser. You have advantage on checks to determine the value and craftwork of items.

Masters of the Seas. You gain proficiency with vehicles (water). You have a swimming speed of 30 feet.

Natural Trader. You have proficiency in the Deception and Persuasion skills. Additionally, you have advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks when negotiating prices with others that aren't hostile toward you.

Seaborn Names. (Male) Audey, Buckley, Derwin, Knoll, Norwell, Orson, Radford; (female) Addison, Atha, Eleanora, Janie, Joyce, Lindsay, Zetta; (surnames) Antone, Brent, Drace, Gresham, Hale, Reid, Wadhley

Winterborn

As a Winterborn, you come from a culture based on honor and glory. Winterborns are light skinned and fair or red haired, taller and more muscular than other humans thanks to generations having endured the harsh, cold climates.

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.

Courageous. You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Glory over Death. 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.

Snowfolk. You have proficiency in the Survival skill. You have proficiency with battleaxes, great axes, longswords and greatswords.

Winter Fortitude. You have advantage on saving throws against extreme cold. You can read more about extreme cold in the chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master's Guild.

Winterborn Names. (Male) Arnvid, Brusi, Folkmar, Gorell, Hrogvar, Norryn, Styrolf; (female) Agala, Astrid, Bera, Regima, Sibbe, Svadis, Yri; (surnames) Askel-, Bodvar-, Kar-, Mak-, Orn-, Torsten-, Ulfar- (-sson for males, -dottir for females)