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Humans

You are adaptable and versatile, and your kind have quickly spread to every terrain. You may adventure for any reason at all, and a great many humans do. Exploration, adventure, riches, curiosity, trade, settlement, and missionary work motivate many humans. Perhaps you embody the greatest human motivation of all: because it is there. Humans can and do excel in every role, from warrior to wanderer, from monk to magic user.

Details

Introduction: Humans are the youngest of the civilized races of demi-humans (a term coined by humans, though considered a put-down by other demi-humans). They have spread far and fast, and their adaptability has allowed them to become the dominant race in the world. Humans tend to have big families, to be ambitious, and to embrace change (which they call "progress"). Iron and steel are human inventions, and superior arms and armor has helped them in their rise.

Appearance: Humans range from under five feet to well over six feet in height. They may weigh under 100 lbs or over 300. Humans are robust and healthy, surpassed in endurance only by dwarves, but with a vibrant energy that has worked well to fuel human success. Depending on the local culture, their fashions may range from pants, shirts and tunics to kilts, togas, sarongs, and more. Their eye, hair, and skin colors also vary widely.

Society: The human tendency to experiment means that there is no standard human society. Governments range from monarchies to theocracies to republics to even more unusual options. Some human societies are modest and conforming; others are wild and raucous. Most humans are farmers or fishers, but many have flocked to new remarkable human cities. A human might be any alignment at all.

Rules

Character Creation: Apply the following adjustments to every human player character. Note that humans have more choices than other races.

• Ability Score Adjustment: +2 to any one ability score you choose, or add +1 to any two scores.
• Saving Throw Bonuses: Pick two of Fortitude, Will, and Reflex saves. You gain a +2 bonus on both.
• Extra Hit Points: +5 if you have three skill bonuses; +3 if you have four skill bonuses -- your choice.
• Skill Bonuses: +3 to three skills of your choice if you have +5 extra hit points, otherwise +3 to four skills of your choice if you have +3 hit points. You are proficient in these skills.
• Size: Medium.
• Move: 30 feet.
• Vision: Normal.
• Languages: Common. Bonus languages: Any except rare and exotic languages (see the Language skill for list).
• Special: Versatile - You gain a bonus feat of your choice, so long as you meet its prerequisites.
• Weakness: Callow Race - As the youngest race, human expansion and success engenders resentment among other civilized races. You have a -3 penalty on all charisma checks and charisma-based skill checks interacting with giants, humanoids, and demi-humans (except half-elves and half-orcs), and their starting attitude towards you is Unfriendly (see Diplomacy skill). Within human lands, NPC demi-humans tend to be agreeable, perhaps obsequious and servile, but in the larger world, they are rude and insulting towards you.

Tyro Tier (character level 3): Select one of these three powers:

• Power: Favored Class (Any) - Select one class; once chosen, your selection cannot be changed. Your levels as this class do not count against you when determining experience point penalties for multiclassing.
• Power: Homesteader - You gain a +3 bonus on Survival checks as well as all checks related to farming, fishing, herding, and homely tasks.
• Power: Tinker - You know the Mending cantrip. You can make and are proficient with one item from the human invention list below.

Adventurer Tier (character level 8): Select one of these three powers*:

• Power: Explorer - You gain a +4 bonus on checks to avoid getting lost, on scrivening checks to craft and use maps, and to navigate on sea and land, as well as on all saving throws to resist the effects of natural weather and environments. You gain a +1 racial bonus against fatigue and exhaustion effects as well.
• Power: Robust - You gain a +1 bonus on saves to resist disease and poison, as well as on concentration checks and Strength-based skill checks.
• Power: Cultural Appropriation - You have learned and adapted lore from another demi-human race. You gain a free rank in the Language skill, which must be used to learn the language chosen below. You are not fluent, but you gain a +4 racial bonus on language checks with the chosen language. Pick one:
  • Dwarf: You can speak the Dwarf tongue. You gain a +2 racial bonus on all Craft, Appraise, and Knowledge checks related to stone and gems.
  • Elf: You can speak the Elf tongue. You know the Prestidigitation cantrip.
  • Gnome: You can speak the Gnome tongue. You gain a +2 racial saving throw bonus against illusion spells and effects.
  • Halfling: You can speak the Halfling tongue. You gain a +1 to hit with slings and darts.
  • Liontaur: You can speak the Liontaur tongue. If you successfully track a creature, you can make an appropriate Knowledge check to identify the number and creatures making these tracks, and you can tell if a tracked creature is wounded (if it has taken any damage) or very wounded (below 20% max hit points when the tracks were made).

Hero Tier (character level 13): Select one of these two powers*:

• Power: Inventor - You can make and are proficient with four items from the human invention list below.
• Power: Leader - If both you and another creature both acknowledge that you are their leader and that they are your subordinate, they receive a +2 morale bonus on Will saving throws (+4 vs charm and domination) when you are in line of sight. This bonus does not stack; you cannot be your own leader, and a subordinate of yours cannot also be your leader.

Legend Tier (character level 18): Select one of these two powers*:

• Power: Talented - You gain any one feat, even if you do not meet its prerequisites.
• Power: Skilled - Pick three skills you are proficient with. You may always take ten on these skills instead of rolling.

* Or select a lower tier power that you have not chosen before.

Human Inventions List - All the following require 50 gp and one day to make (no check required), weigh one pound (unless otherwise noted), and can be sold for 25 gp. If you have the human Tinker or Inventor racial power, then you are proficient with the inventions you have chosen. Otherwise, when you use use human inventions you suffer the standard non-proficiency penalty.

• Abacus: This device helps users perform mathematical calculations. It grants a +2 competence bonus on Appraise checks and other checks using math.
• Alchemist's Kindness: Favored by young rakes and those who have drunk with dwarves, this is a crystalline powder resembling salt. Mixed with water, it makes a fizzing cocktail that eliminates the effects of a hangover within 10 minutes of drinking it. (weight --)
• Antiplague: If you drink a vial of this foul-tasting, milky tonic, you gain a +5 alchemical bonus on Fortitude saving throws against disease for the next hour. If already infected, you may also make two saving throws (without the +5 bonus) that day and use the better result. (weight --)
• Astrolabe: This device consists of a flat disc upon which two other discs are mounted. The mounted discs can rotate on a central axis, allowing them to spin and move as days pass. The bottom disc represents the latitude of the user; the upper disc represents the sky, and is filled with astronomical features. Anyone can be shown how to use an astrolabe at night to determine the date and time (which takes 1 minute). An astrolabe grants a +2 circumstance on Knowledge (geography) and Survival checks to navigate in the wilderness (and on Profession [sailor] checks to navigate at sea).
• Backpack, Masterwork: This backpack has numerous pockets for storing various items that might be needed while adventuring. Hooks are included for attaching items such as canteens, pouches, or even a rolled-up blanket. It has padded bands that strap across the chest and the waist to distribute its weight more evenly. Like a common backpack, it can hold about 2 cubic feet of material in its main container. When wearing a masterwork backpack, treat your Strength score as +1 higher than normal when calculating your carrying capacity.
• Balancing Pole: These flexible poles range from 15-30 feet in length and, when used properly, help you keep your balance when crossing narrow walkways. Using a balancing pole grants you a +2 circumstance bonus on Tumble checks made to traverse a narrow surface.
• Barbed Vest: Thin leather flaps keep the hundreds of tiny, fishhook-like needles dotting the surface of this black vest from harming you while you wear it. However, any creature that injures you with a natural or unarmed attack takes 1 point of damage. If a creature swallows you it takes 2 points of damage each round until it either spits you up, you escape, or you die (at which point the vest has sustained enough damage to no longer serve as a threat). The vest can only be worn over light armor or no armor.
• Bloodblock: This gooey, pinkish substance helps treat wounds. Using a dose gives you a +5 alchemical bonus on Heal checks for providing first aid, treating wounds made by caltrops or similar objects, or treating deadly wounds. A dose of bloodblock ends a bleed effect as if you had made a DC 20 Heal check. When treating deadly wounds, using a dose of bloodblock counts as one use of a healer's kit (and grants the +5 bonus stated above as well as doubling the amount healed).
• Buoy: A buoy is used to mark a specific spot in lakes, rivers, or similar bodies of water making it possible for you to return to that location a later date. Each includes a spherical or ovoid hollow metal float (typically copper), a length of chain rather than twine, and a metal anchor -- though you can make improvised buoys with other materials. The float is usually painted a vivid color, and may have a small flag to attract attention. Though anchor buoys prove quite resilient to normal weather and tides, they offer little challenge to intelligent creatures determined to sabotage them. (weight 5 lb)
• Butterfly Net: One end of this 6-foot-long pole supports a wide metal hoop covered by a thin mesh net. You can use this to sift objects out from material capable of passing through the net such as sand or water. You can also use a butterfly net to capture Fine or Diminutive creatures as if it were a net (weapon), though you don't need to re-fold the butterfly net if you miss, and you use the handle of the butterfly net like you would the rope of a net weapon.
• Cleats: Useful on any terrain where traction may be a concern, cleats are shoes with spikes or hooks attached to the soles. Cleats reduce the penalty for walking over slick surfaces by 50%; for example, walking across ice normally costs 2 squares for every square of movement, but with cleats it costs only 1.5 squares for every square. They also offer a +1 circumstance bonus on Climb checks.
• Compass: An ordinary compass that points to the magnetic north pole grants its user a +4 circumstance bonus on Survival checks made to avoid becoming lost. It also can be used to grant the same bonus on Knowledge (dungeoneering) checks made to navigate underground.
• Fortune-Teller's Deck: This deck of illustrated cards is used by those in tune with the spirit world to predict the future -- and by charlatans to take money from gullible or desperate people. A fortune-teller's deck is usually of wooden plaques with painted color images; it is suitable as a focus for the augury spell, and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on Profession (fortune-teller) checks.
• Map Maker's Kit: This small kit contains a simple slate with a grid carved into its surface and a number of different colored pieces of chalk. Anyone using this kit to draw a map as they travel receives a +2 circumstance bonus on Survival skill checks to avoid becoming lost.
• Periscope: This 2-foot-long metal tube has right angles at each end with mirrors inside; if you look in one end, you can see out the other end, allowing you safely peer over obstacles, around corners, or into small spaces your head wouldn't fit. When using a periscope, the end of the tube counts as a Diminutive object, making it much less likely an observed creature notices you; if you have total concealment from the creature except for the end of the periscope, use the tube's Diminutive size modifier for your Stealth instead of your own size modifier. Distortion from the mirrors gives you a -2 penalty on Spot checks while looking through the periscope. Though the tube is fairly sturdy (hardness 5, 2 hit points), the mirrors inside are fragile (hardness 1, 1 hit point), and any damage that gets through the tube's hardness applies to the tube and the mirrors.
• Pulley: A simple block-and-tackle pulley, when properly secured, adds a +5 circumstance bonus on Strength checks to lift heavy objects. Securing the pulley requires 1 minute.
• Smelling Salts: These sharply scented gray crystals cause people inhaling them to regain consciousness. Smelling salts grant you a new saving throw to resist any spell or effect that has already rendered you unconscious or staggered. If exposed to smelling salts while dying, you immediately become conscious and staggered, but must still make stabilization checks each round; if you perform any standard action (or any other strenuous action) you take 1 point of damage after completing the act and fall unconscious again. A container of smelling salts has dozens of uses if stoppered after each use, but depletes in a matter of hours if left opened. Drawing, uncorking, and using smelling salts is a standard action; stoppering and putting away smelling salts is a move action. Both provoke attacks of opportunity. (weight --)
• Smoke Pellet: This small clay sphere contains two alchemical substances separated by a thin barrier. When you break the sphere, the substances mingle and fill a 5-foot square with a cloud of foul but harmless yellow smoke. The smoke pellet acts as a smokestick, except the smoke only lasts for 1 round before dispersing. You may throw a smoke pellet as a ranged touch attack with a range increment of 10 feet. (weight --)
• Smoked Goggles: These spectacles have lenses made of smoked glass that help protect against creatures with gaze attacks. You are always treated as averting your gaze when dealing with gaze attacks, and you gain a +8 circumstance bonus on saving throws against visual-based attacks (any attack that a blind creature would be immune to). You have a -4 on spot checks while wearing the goggles.
• Sneezing Powder: This coarse yellowish-red powder is a splash weapon that causes uncontrollable sneezing for 1d4+1 rounds (treat as the queasy condition). Anyone standing in the square of impact must succeed on a DC 12 Fortitude save to resist the powder, while those in adjacent squares must make DC 8 Fortitude saves. (weight --)
• Snowshoes: These high-tension nets of rope or sinew in wooden frames which are lashed to the feet spread your weight across the snow, making you much less likely to break through the crust and rendering walking much easier. Snowshoes reduce the penalty for walking through heavy snow by 50%; for example, if moving through snow normally costs you 2 squares of movement per square traveled, snowshoes reduce this cost to 1.5 squares per square traveled.
• Soothe Syrup: This sweet and wholesome-tasting blue liquid creates a sense of warmth and comfort. Soothe syrup coats your stomach and makes it much more difficult for you to succumb to queasiness. For 1 hour after drinking soothe syrup you gain a +5 alchemical bonus on saving throws made to resist effects that would make you nauseated or sickened. (weight --)
• Sparkle Powder: This coarse gray powder has three uses. (1) Thrown against a floor (a standard action), it blinds creatures within the 10-foot-radius burst for 1 round, Fortitude DC 13 negates. (2) Thrown into the air of an adjacent square, it reveals if there is an invisible creature there, giving the creature a sparkly coating for one round. (3) Tossed into the air as a readied action when an ally creates a fire-based area attack (as a burning hands spell, for example), the powder adds 1d6 of nonmagical fire damage to the effect. (weight --)
• Swarmsuit: These heavy and overlapping layers of clothing, coupled with a wide hat outfitted with a dense, veil-like netting around its brim makes it all but impossible for Diminutive and Fine creatures to make physical contact with your body. Wearing a swarmsuit gives you a -2 penalty on search and spot checks, DR 10/ -- against Fine creatures (including swarms) and DR 5/ -- against Diminutive creatures (including swarms). Otherwise, treat this as padded armor. (weight 10lb)
• Weapon Cord: Weapon cords are 2-foot-long leather straps that attach your weapon to your wrist. If you drop your weapon or are disarmed, you can recover it as a swift action, and it never moves any further away from you than an adjacent square. However, you cannot switch to a different weapon without first untying the cord (a full-round action) or cutting it (a move action or an attack, hardness 0, 0 hp). Unlike a locked gauntlet, you can still use a hand with a weapon cord, though a dangling weapon may interfere with finer actions.

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