Human

Humans have exceptional drive and the capacity to endure and expand. Though many civilizations thrived before humanity rose to prominence, humans have built some of the greatest and the most terrible societies throughout the course of history, and today they are the most populous people.

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.

If you want a character who can be just about anything, you should play a human.

Strive to achieve greatness, either in your own right or on behalf of a cause.
Seek to understand your purpose in the world.
Cherish your relationships with family and friends.

Respect your flexibility, your adaptability, and—in most cases— your open?mindedness.
Distrust your intentions, fearing you seek only power or wealth.
Aren’t sure what to expect from you and are hesitant to assume your intentions.

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 Human ancestries, giving rise to children who bear the traits of both parents. The most notable half-humans are half-elves and half-orcs.

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.

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. Considered as a whole, most humans are neutral, yet they tend to congregate into nations or communities of a shared alignment, or at least a shared tendency toward an alignment. Humans also worship a wide range of gods and practice many different religions, tending to seek favor from any divine being they encounter.

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 (though some continents have their own regional common languages), yet their names are as varied as their beliefs and appearances.

Human Heritages

Unlike other ancestries, humans don’t have significant physiological differences defined by their lineage. Instead, their heritages either reveal their potential as a people or reflect lineages from multiple ancestries. Choose one of the following human heritages at 1st level.

Humans offer players a number of advantages as characters. Humans are little different from humans on Earth. They live, love, hope, fear, curse, pray, and die in much the same way. They’re ubiquitous. Humans are by far the most widespread sapient species—no matter where someone might look, there are likely humans nearby. Finally, they’re diverse. A human can be anything and do anything, as their talents are infinitely adaptable to any task. No matter what idea a player has, somewhere there are humans who can fit that concept.

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).

WINTERTOUCHED HERITAGE

Source PLOCG

The power of winter flows through you. You gain cold resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1), and you treat environmental cold effects as if they were one step less extreme (incredible cold becomes extreme, extreme cold becomes severe, and so on).

Other Halves

By default, half-elves and half-orcs descend from humans, but your GM might allow you to be the offspring of an elf, orc, or different ancestry. In these cases, the GM will let you select the half-elf or half-orc heritage as the heritage for this other ancestry. The most likely other parent of a half-elf are gnomes and halflings, and the most likely parents of a half-orc are goblins, halflings, and dwarves.

HUMAN ANCESTRY FEATS

At 1st level, you gain one ancestry feat, and you gain an additional ancestry feat every 4 levels thereafter (at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels). As a human, you choose from among the following ancestry feats.