Humans’ ambition, versatility, and exceptional potential have led to their status as the world’s predominant ancestry. Their empires and nations are vast, sprawling things, and their citizens carve names for themselves with the strength of their sword arms and the power of their spells. Humanity is diverse and tumultuous, running the gamut from nomadic to imperial, sinister to saintly. Many of them venture forth to explore, to map the expanse of the multiverse, to search for long-lost treasure, or to lead mighty armies to conquer their neighbors—for no better reason than because they can.
Physical Description
Humans' physical characteristics are as varied as the world's climes. Humans have a wide variety of skin and hair colors, body types, and facial features. Generally speaking, their skin has a darker hue the closer to the equator they or their ancestors lived.
Humans reach physical adulthood around the age of 15, though mental maturity occurs a few years later. A typical human can live to be around 90 years old. Humans often intermarry with people of other ancestries, giving rise to children who bear the traits of both parents. The most notable half-humans are half-elves and half-orcs.
Society
Humanity is perhaps the most heterogeneous of all the ancestries, with a capacity for great evil and boundless good. Some humans assemble into vast raging hordes, while others build sprawling cities.
Human variety also manifests in terms of their governments, attitudes, and social norms. Though the oldest of human cultures can trace their shared histories thousands of years into the past, when compared to the societies of the elves or dwarves, human civilizations seem in a state of constant flux as empires fragment and new kingdoms subsume the old.
Religion
Humans also worship a wide range of gods and practice many different religions, tending to seek favor from any divine being they encounter. The Justicar and The Traveler are most common, though The Smith and The Hunter have their fair share of human worshippers as well.
Names
Unlike many ancestral cultures, which generally cleave to specific traditions and shared histories, humanity's diversity has resulted in a near-infinite set of names. The humans of northern tribes have different names than those dwelling in southern nation-states. Humans throughout much of the world speak Common, yet their names are as varied as their beliefs and appearances.
Sample Names
A variety of human ethnic groups—many of which have origins on distant lands— populates the continents of Aerth. Human characters can be any of these ethnicities, regardless of what lands they call home.
Human Mechanics
Traits
Human, Humanoid
Hit Points
8
Size
Medium
Speed
25 feet
Ability Boosts
Two free ability boosts
Languages
Common
Human Heritages
Versatile Heritages
You select a heritage at 1st level to reflect abilities passed down to you from your ancestors or common among those of your ancestry in the environment where you were born or grew up. You have only one heritage and can’t change it later. A heritage is not the same as a culture or ethnicity, though some cultures or ethnicities might have more or fewer members from a particular heritage.
Skilled Heritage
Your ingenuity allows you to train in a wide variety of skills. You become trained in one skill of your choice. At 5th level, you become an expert in the chosen skill.
Versatile Heritage
Humanity's versatility and ambition have fueled its ascendance to be the most common ancestry in most nations throughout the world. Select a general feat of your choice for which you meet the prerequisites (as with your ancestry feat, you can select this general feat at any point during character creation).
Human Feats
At 1st level, you gain one ancestry feat.
Adapted Cantrip (Feat 1)
Human |
Prerequisites spellcasting class feature
Through study of multiple magical traditions, you've altered a spell to suit your spellcasting style. Choose one cantrip from a magical tradition other than your own. If you have a spell repertoire or a spellbook, replace one of the cantrips you know or have in your spellbook with the chosen spell. If you prepare spells without a spellbook (if you're a cleric or druid, for example), one of your cantrips must always be the chosen spell, and you prepare the rest normally. You can cast this cantrip as a spell of your class's tradition.
If you swap or retrain this cantrip later, you can choose its replacement from the same alternate tradition or a different one.
Arcane Tattoos (Feat 1)
Uncommon | Human |
Access Varisian ethnicity nationality
You have tattoos on your body corresponding to one of the ancient Thassilonian schools of magic. Choose one of the following schools of magic: abjuration (shield), conjuration (tanglefoot), enchantment (daze), evocation (electric arc), illusion (ghost sound), necromancy (chill touch), or transmutation (sigil). You can cast the associated cantrip (listed in parentheses) as an innate arcane spell at will.
General Training (Feat 1)
Human |
Your adaptability manifests in your mastery of a range of useful abilities. You gain a 1st-level general feat. You must meet the feat's prerequisites, but if you select this feat during character creation, you can select the feat later in the process in order to determine which prerequisites you meet.
Special You can select this feat multiple times, choosing a different feat each time.
Haughty Obstinacy (Feat 1)
Human |
Your powerful ego makes it harder for others to order you around. If you roll a success on a saving throw against a mental effect that attempts to directly control your actions, you critically succeed instead. If a creature rolls a failure on a check to Coerce you using Intimidation, it gets a critical failure instead (so it can't try to Coerce you again for 1 week).
Natural Ambition (Feat 1)
Human |
You were raised to be ambitious and always reach for the stars, leading you to progress quickly in your chosen field. You gain a 1st-level class feat for your class. You must meet the prerequisites, but you can select the feat later in the character creation process in order to determine which prerequisites you meet.
Natural Skill (Feat 1)
Human |
Your ingenuity allows you to learn a wide variety of skills. You gain the trained proficiency rank in two skills of your choice.
Unconventional Weaponry (Feat 1)
Human |
You've familiarized yourself with a particular weapon, potentially from another ancestry or culture. Choose an uncommon simple or martial weapon with a trait corresponding to an ancestry (such as dwarf or goblin) or that is common in another culture. You gain access to that weapon, and for the purpose of determining your proficiency, that weapon is a simple weapon.
If you are trained in all martial weapons, you can choose an uncommon advanced weapon with such a trait. You gain access to that weapon, and for the purpose of determining your proficiency, that weapon is a martial weapon.
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