D&D (2024) The Variant-variant Human:

[Horwath]

Honestly, I'd just pick half-elf and call my character a human. That is what I do when vhuman isn't an option.

that's my current aberrant mind sorcerer

but I would like something more "human" instead of darkvision and "elven immunities and resistance"

Personally, I would have elves with perception proficiency+expertise, half-elves; perception+ any other skill proficiency and humans; 2 skill proficiencies.

 

[renbot]

Hmm, you really want to shake things up, give them just ability score mods and +1 to proficiency. What they are good at, they are good at. That's worth a +1 to your prime ability it terms of hitting and/or spell DCs, all trained proficiencies, is a huge deal for expertise if you want to make a skill monkey. And like other racial abilities, it's a big deal at low levels and still relevant but not as huge a deal at higher levels.

I think this would have been a great idea BEFORE they started transitioning so may abilities to "PB times per long rest." Now it feels too good. Although feats are pretty darn good. Hmmmm....

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Since latest two UA's, we had a bonus feat added via background, and in latest we had 2nd feat added at level 4, we might see the end of Variant human with bonus feat and Custom race with bonus feat as an option.
And default human is both bland and weak.

So a possible variant that gives flexibility to humans and makes them as powerful as new racial lineages and most of the PHB races.


HUMAN:

Abilities: +2 to one ability and +1 to another. Or +1 to three abilities.

Languages: Common

Skilled: gain proficiency in two skills of your choice

Tools of the trade: gain 4 proficiency in any combination of languages, tools or weapons.

Hidden talent: gain expertise in one skill or tool that you have proficiency in.

I think this is actually an extremely good idea, because Expertise is very hard to access, but would be an extreme asset for a lot of characters, and fits well with humans and would definitely be better than the bland-max of "a Feat", as you've pointed out.

 

[MoonSong]

that's my current aberrant mind sorcerer

but I would like something more "human" instead of darkvision and "elven immunities and resistance"

Still way more human than just a bag of +1s...

 

[jgsugden]

One DM I know has the rule that vairant human (and now customized humanoid) can take a feat - but it has to be a feat nobody has taken with their heritage selection feat. So, if another Variant Human took Sharpshooter, you can't. Honestly, I wish I'd adopted that at the beginning of 5E.

However, I think that we're seeing the start of 'testing' for the next phase of D&D, whether that is 5.5 or 6E. Regardless, I expect there will be a 'break' in the edition in the next couple years. Unless WotC starts to commit to their new product being 'forwards compatible' for the next few years, I'm going to start to evaluate them and consider treating them the same way as I did the stuff at the end of 3.5E and 4E.

 

[AliasBot]

Poked at this a month or two back - went in a similar direction in some respects, different direction in others:

Prodigy: +1 skill proficiency, +1 tool proficiency, +1 language(?), expertise in one skill you have proficiency in
Resolve: Once per long rest, when you fail a saving throw, you may reroll that saving throw. You must use the result of the new roll.
Persistent: As an action, you may spend a Hit Die to heal equal to a roll of that die. You may do this PB times per long rest.
(Tireless Stamina: Treat the effects of Exhaustion on you as one level lower? or just reduce Exhaustion level by 1 on short rests?)

First two are fairly standard; flexible, generically useful, relatively flavor-light. The other one or two (couldn't come up with a "mucking around with exhaustion levels" take I was satisfied with) were an attempt to lean into humans' real-life biological niche; we're persistence predators, built for endurance in long-distance travel. To my knowledge, that isn't actually a niche that's already being filled by a D&D race (Dwarves and Goliaths sit more in the space of hardy/resilient than high-stamina), so there's room to expand Humans into a slightly less generic space if one can come up with a satisfying mechanical expression of that endurance.

...obviously, the first potential issue with Persistent is whether the moves away from short-rest resources will affect how hit die-based healing works for all races/classes in "5.5"; the contrast with the current standard is most of the point of the ability, leaning into the "tireless" concept by making Humans less likely to need to take short rests (because they can get one of the major benefits of a short rest much quicker and more fluidly), which goes away if the current standard changes. The other potential issue is that putting different races on slightly different timetable might just wind up replicating or reinforcing the issues that already exist with different classes being on different timetables? I like the ability in a vacuum, but I could see it playing worse in practice.

Even if I'm not totally satisfied with the specific abilities I came up with, the general concept of stamina/tirelessness feels like a fruitful flavor-space to play in to come up with something that's actually interesting while still feeling distinctly Human.