Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Human Versatility

In D&D 5E, Human Versatility includes a bonus Proficiency and a bonus Feat when the optional Feat rules are being used.

In BG3, there is no bonus Feat.

As implemented, Humans are nerfed compared to all other race options. Most races give advantages like magical abilities, immunities, and even bonus proficiencies. Sure, as a human the player can pick one proficiency and other races have specific bonus proficiencies, but this hardly makes up for not having much of anything else.

Please add the bonus Feat to humans Larian. Not only would it make custom Human characters more fun to play, we would get to see many different versatility options as players find interesting ways to make use of this versatility Feat.

100% agree with Extra Feat. I'd take it over bonus Proficiency. ASI need not be on the list.
25% more carrying capacity? A brainfart. If at all, then the Dwarves should have it.
Militia Training? Well, most of the other races have some racial weapon and/or armour proficiencies ...

The funny thing about the "Militia training" is that either you are playing a class that already gets it... or it's probably close to useless on your character anyway.
It's such a bad deal as far as unique racial perks go.

Still no love for humans after the latest patch? An extra feat is not much compared to the starting bonuses of other races.

I wish they added for humans varying racials the same way they did for elves.

For example, based on the country/area you were raised you get different racials. Because the Sword Coast had a problem with monsters and bandits that spanned for decades the humans who lived in areas not protected by either the Flame Fist or the Lord's Alliance were forced to train as stand alone militia.

Meanwhile the humans of Rashamen live on a land consecreated in ancient magic that offten peaks the interest of the denizens of the Feywild. Their interactions with the spirits of the land, wizards of Thay and inherent war like culture makes for a very unique mentality compared to that of Baldurans.

From a gameplay mechanic, the people of Rashamen could be getting some free weapon proficiencies which fit the Viking/Berserker stereotype such as Spears and Hand Axes(important for druids and arcane casters since they don't get these) as well as Battle Axes and Medium Armor (no Light Armor because it's very cold in Rashamen). The magically gifted would probably have a free druidic cantrip in place of the proficiency with Battle Axes considering the amount of spirits living alongside the humans there.

Frozenfar, the continent of Ice Wind Dale would also give birth to a new kind of human civilization. The Frozenfar is similar to Sword Coast in the sense that they have a monster problem, but they also have a warlord problem as well, which is a worse than bandits. Unlike the Sword Coast, the Frozenfar is very cold, like the equivalent of Northrend in the sense that it's always snowy and freezing in Frozenfar.

Humans there are more likely to use Medium Armor, because it helps retain body heat better as well as Shields in case of a fight. They would also be using lighter weapons than their Baldurian counterparts (weapons lacking two handed and heavy properties).

I am hoping this post serves as a strong enough motivation to help encourage people with greater understanding of Faerunian lore to begin to theory craft a series of variant racials for Humans, depening on their region of origin.

I'll ask again.

Please add the bonus Feat to humans Larian. Not only would it make custom Human characters more fun to play, we would get to see many different versatility options as players find interesting ways to make use of this versatility Feat.

This is a standard for humans in 5E which has not made it into BG3 for some reason. This simple change would make Human characters more interesting to play without upsetting the balance of the game.

If balance maters to you ... everyone should get free feat at level 1.

A free feat for humans would really be strong, maybe too strong. And as the game is already quite easy, a free feat for any race at level 1 would be surely a problematic feature.

For my taste Human Militia is a very welcomed and strong feature, it especially makes Gale and Wyll so much better. What is debatable is that half elves (my preferred race, but because of visuals actually) also get it although they are already very strong from racial bonuses.

Oh rly ...
Why?

How does it make Wyll or Gale better? They gain proficiency with a bunch of str-based melee weapons which they have poor ability scores for. Unless you re-spec them, Wyll and Gale shouldn't ever rely on a str-based melee weapon to deal damage. Why would you ever waste their whole action to have them make a single melee attack that they will most likely miss anyway?

I suspect it's mostly the shield that's appreciated, along with the light armor for Gale.

*

For what it's worth, I also think the racial features should be changed. Flavor should always dictate mechanics, and in this case it doesn't.

It's like the draconic sorcerer getting a base AC of 13 because of the scales but the dragonborn doesn't. Whoever put this stuff together allowed mechanics to dominate flavor, not always, but too often.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that.

Not all scales are equally hard. Even if both are of draconic descent, it doesn't necessarily mean that Dragonborn have hard scales to the point of having that inherent +3 AC.

While the mechanic is specifically suggesting that Draconic Sorcerers do in fact gain scales that are hard enough to warrant that extra AC.

My goodness, folks will rationalize anything to themselves.

Or, they'll simply put a modicum of thought into things.

Scales don't provide inherent protection. You go and hit a snake in real life and your attacks aren't going to glance off them because of their scales.

Ergo, Draconic Sorcerers are getting an AC because they're specifically hard dragon scales.

If Dragonborn had the same scales as dragons, then they'd have 19 AC baseline like an adult dragon right?

But they don't. They have no innate AC bonus. Thus, implying that they don't have hard dragon scales and instead have just soft Dragonborn scales.

Dragonborn are decended from dragons, but they're not actually dragons. Hence they don't have wings, can't use breath attacks at will, don't have damage immunity to their natural element, don't have claws and teeth that can be used as weapons. Or should we start giving Dragonborn all these features for "Flavour" because they have the word "Dragon" in their name?

Yes.
Next question?

Fair enough. If you can spare the adamantine shield, the immunity to critical hits can really improve their chances of survival.

Humans are still a lot better than Shield Dwarf for sure (who don't even get the shield proficiency though it's literally in the name).

I don't disagree that it takes a modicum of thought to reach that conclusion. That's the problem.

Once a modicum of thought is surpassed, perspective begins to shift.

Or someone thinks they're putting in a modicum of thought while in reality they're doing mental gymnastics (Without actually providing any substance to a viewpoint other than "Hurr durr dumb person is dumb" which seems to be your modus operandi for responding on these formus).

Dragonborn aren't dragons. That's a fact. It's not "Flavour" for Dragonborn to have dragon abilities because they're not dragons.

They're descended from dragons and have some dragonic elements such as the reptillian appearance, resistance to their element type and the ability to use a breath attack. But that is as far as it extends. There is no mention of them having dragon scales just as there's no mention of them having dragon wings.

Without dragon scales, there is no reason for them to have any bonus AC.

Could they be retconned into having dragon scales? Sure, but you'd also have to add some additional mental gymnastics to explain why they get ONLY 13 AC instead of an adult dragon's 19 AC... Or maybe you just give them baseline 19 AC and break the balance of the races with such an obscene bonus just because you can't comprehend anything besides your random headcanon "Flavour"

One could argue that draconic bloodline sorcerers are farther removed from dragons than dragonborn. So it's hardly a stretch to say they could probably have the same armor class bonus, since I think those two should be the things we compare here, and they were already the things we compared at the start of this little diversion. Sure you can come up with justifications as to why, but they're not the most elegant.

Human versatility in D&D 5E (which is what the game is based on) includes a free feat. This is not a suggestion to change the rules. It is a suggestion to follow the established rules of the game.

As it is, there is really no reason to create a human player. Every other option when selecting race is superior. Restoring the nature of the human versatility to also include a bonus feat would add flexibility in character creation and allow for human characters to be closer to on par with the other racial options.