This week we continue our exploration of ancestry in Realm of Runes with the Human, and its art by Nikki Smith-Cielo. As a basic ancestry, Humans can be played separately or freely combined with any of the available hybrid ancestries. In many ways, Humans represent the baseline in Realm of Runes. They're easy to relate to, and though some might consider their relative normalcy boring, it helps to make the fantastic nature of other options stand out more strongly. And yet Realm of Runes takes great pains to ensure that Humans are as interesting to play as any other ancestry.
From the rulebook: "Diverse and adaptable, humans have a tendency to spread far and wide, even into places that should not be habitable for them. The typical human lives around eighty years at most, but the harsh lives that many choose, or are forced into, make old age an accomplishment. Due to their tendency to spread out, while also grouping into settlements, humans generally outnumber most other ancestries besides goblins. This ubiquity often leads to friction with others, as humans do not generally have a lot of experience dealing with those different from themselves, and often meet even other humans from different cultures with suspicion or outright hostility simply because they are unfamiliar.
"While humans are often a significant force for progress in many fields, their enclaves are often so different from each other that there is no singular style to their craftsmanship or artistry. Additionally, many humans will adopt aspects that they admire from other cultural styles and adapt them into their own sense of aesthetics. Thus, even within the same settlement, styles of art and architecture can vary wildly.
"Humans have a reputation for being ambitious, xenophobic and terrifying persistence predators whose very adaptability make their aggression relentless. While these stereotypes often fit human societies as a whole, individual humans rarely behave the way non-humans expect. Even in the most intolerant settlements, there are usually humans that go out of their way to shelter and assist those that are oppressed. Humans have a knack for befriending and forging close relationships with those they get to know, no matter how strange a pairing it might seem at first, and frequently confuse others by constantly searching for, and somehow finding, a ”common humanity” with beings that do not even superficially resemble themselves."
As a basic ancestry, Humans have a full suite of ten ancestry feats with which they can diversify themselves. As the notional baseline, however, they don't have any inherent special abilities to add to their feats, unless not being forced to take an ancestry flaw can be considered a special ability. Middling in speed, bonus ancestry HP and the number of inherent ability boosts makes Humans rely heavily on their strong ancestry feats. As an almost blank canvas, Humans can have great synergy with any character concept.
Human ancestry feats tend to focus on their natural inclination for persistence and adaptation, and several are there to give a character a head start in its chosen career instead of offering unusual biological quirks. Let's take a look at each of the Human's available ancestry feats. Those with the Biology trait are exclusive to Humans, while those without are available to those of other ancestries that have been adopted by Humans, through the Adopted Ancestry universal feat.
ACCLIMATED ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Biology, Human]
Choose heat or cold. You do not suffer severe temperatures of the type you chose, and have a +2 un-typed bonus to saves against extreme temperatures of that same type. You take a -1 un-typed penalty to saves against severe and extreme temperatures of the type you did not choose.
Human settlements pop up in all sorts of exotic locations, deep in hostile deserts, atop snow-capped peaks, and other typically hostile environments. Adventures also tend to visit many different environments. Having a favored climate that you don't have to worry about gives you peace of mind and helps you fit into a setting that features such intense weather hazards.
ADAPTED SPELL ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Human]
Study of multiple magical traditions reveals how to alter a spell to suit your spellcasting style. Choose one common or uncommon spell from any magical tradition. This spell can be of any spell level, or a Cantrip. Treat the spell as if it belongs to any tradition you gain access to, and it is automatically added to your Spell Repertoire, spell list or spellbook as soon as you can cast spells of its level.
Special: This feat can be taken any number of times.
While the spell lists tend to be generous in what is available to which casters, each one still has its own exclusive entries. Being able to poach tricks from other magical traditions can allow for interesting takes on traditional character roles. Being able to take this feat more than once makes it even more likely that no matter what kind of caster you are, you can still be the one you want.
{F} CLEVER IMPROVISER ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Human]
Trigger: You attempt a check with which you are untrained, or for which you have poor quality tools
Effect: For the triggering check, treat your tools as standard and your proficiency as trained. This can allow you to attempt a skill use that requires trained proficiency. Once you use this ability, you must wait an hour before you can use it again.
Special: This ability suspends a weapon’s exotic trait.
No matter how well prepared a party is, there are always challenges for which the group finds themselves unprepared. This feat helps ensure that you're always in a position to give it your best when those surprises pop up. While there are only a few skills that fully restrict activities from characters that are untrained, several skill uses (like Treat Wounds) require tools, and improvised tools are always poor quality.
COOPERATIVE NATURE ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Human, Teamwork]
Whenever you provide a circumstance or spell bonus to another creature, the bonus is 1 larger.
This feat is not helpful for you directly if you take it, but it is incredible for the rest of your adventuring party. At low levels especially, an extra +1 to a bonus is often an increase of 100%. Bards, Clerics, Wizards, and any character that makes boosting allies a priority will get a lot of mileage out of this feat.
FLAWED ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Biology, Human]
You gain a free ability flaw and a free ability boost. This ability boost does not stack with others gained from ancestry.
Whereas other ancestries have two fixed ability boosts and a fixed ability flaw that fit their physical and mental profile, Humans instead just get two free boosts they can place wherever they want (except in the same ability). Sometimes you need another boost to make a character concept work. This feat will get you that boost for a price, but it's a price a lot of Humans are willing to accept.
GENERAL TRAINING ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Human]
When you select 1st-level General Feats, gain one more General Feat.
General feats provide a lot of useful character tactics like in-combat action economy enhancers and metamagic. Being able to grab an extra one during character creation can help you fit a "nice-to-have" option like Toughness onto your character, or enable you to put together neat combos that would otherwise require waiting to later levels in order to have the number of feats required.
NATURAL APTITUDE ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Human]
You gain an additional 1st-level class feat for the class you choose.
You can never have too many class feats, especially since many of them combo well with others. Just one more feat can make the difference between a character concept working right from the beginning, or having to put it on hold until you have gained enough feats through leveling up.
RATIONALIZE ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Human]
You have a gift for convincing yourself things are better than they seem. When you reduce your tired, sick, scared or dizzy value, reduce it by 1 more.
While this feat might not prevent you from acquiring these nasty conditions, recovering from them faster can be extremely important. Scared, in particular, is of particular note here. That condition automatically reduces itself by 1 at the end of your turn normally, so reducing it by twice as much keeps even intense fear from being a long-term problem.
SKILLED ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Human]
When you apply your 1st-level skill boosts, gain one more skill boost.
An extra skill boost means either better proficiency with more skills than usual, or the ability to grab an important skill feat. With more than 100 skill feats available to even first-level characters, picking up an extra one can save a lot of hard choices between two that both are important. Like class and general feats, too, the ability to set up combos right from the beginning can bring many character concepts to life at a much earlier stage in your career.
STUBBORN ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Human]
Your recalcitrance makes it harder for others to order you around. You have a +1 un-typed bonus to checks and DCs against compulsion, emotion, fear and possession effects.
Always be your own person, and don't let anybody make your decisions for you. Even if someone is trying to use magic to override your personality, your sense of self is strong enough to fight back, and hard. While compulsion and possession might not come up as frequently as emotion and fear in most campaigns, when they do and they take hold they can quickly be part-wipe scenarios. Don't be the one to get turned!
Whether you plan to be a full-blooded Human or augment your capability with the addition of a hybrid ancestry, Humans provide a solid and dependable chassis from which to start. For hybrid ancestries in particular, pairing with a Human base helps shine the spotlight on the more unusual half. Next week we'll continue our ancestry exploration with the last, but not least, of the basic ancestries: Orcs.
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