Latest / Bards and Barrels / S3 Ep 16: Species Review - Human

Transcript

S3 Ep 16: Species Review - Human · Bards and Barrels

• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: There it is, the opening crack! It is time for us to do something new tonight, right, boys?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, here we go.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Phil here in the saddle.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Got Brett and Ross with me tonight, and what are we hitting them with?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, first of all, we need to do a shout-out to the uh unbelievable double crack you guys did.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: That was we're just getting so good, you can't tell anymore.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: These are some quick cracks.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: We just everybody expects it anymore.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: We call it hard.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: Synchronized cracking, like is it's the next Olympic sport.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: Hey.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_03: If breakdancing can make it hard take, if breakdancing can make it, you know, cracking, beer cracking can totally cracking.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: Crack a whacking.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a five from the French judge.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: We do a lot of crack on this episode.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, what wait, wait, what?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna delete that part, right?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: No, tonight we're gonna try something different.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we are going to do what we're calling a species breakdown.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see if the name sticks.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: If you hate it, let us know.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I don't, you know, it's we I think hinted at this in seasons past of maybe doing what we were gonna call a race review um in light of new material being released by Dungeons uh or by Wizards of the Coast, uh new players' handbook, new basic rules, um 2024 stuff that's come out.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: We they've renamed these.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: They are no longer called races, they are now called species.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: So depending on which rule book you happen to have in your hands or you're picking up, you may hear those things used interchangeably.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we're gonna break one of those down.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: And tonight's uh species of choice.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Anybody?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: The human.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, we're starting with the hard one.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, something like that.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: One we have experience with, I guess we could say.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I can say that I am one of these, so can't say that about dragonborns.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: We need to cast zone of truth first before you say that.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: Please do.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Please do see if I smile while I say that.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so initial thoughts on the human species, whether that be 2024 or 2014 rules.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's great for everything.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: This is like the the easiest choice.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you're just getting started, human is a very safe choice, no matter what type of character you're doing.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think uh I think 2014, 2024, it doesn't really matter which one you're using, where where other species or races like had very specific paths where they were extremely complementary to certain classes or whatever may be the case.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: Humans were that one that regardless of what class you wanted to be, you could make it work because you got some versatility with your ability scores and things like that.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: We'll talk about a little bit about that uh and how that's changed for 2024 here in a little bit, but uh I think versatility is the key word when it comes to humans.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: I think so.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: I I can't say that I've played a ton of human characters, I don't think, truthfully.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I a lot of that was driven by some of the classes that I chose that I wanted to really specialize in, and a human's a jack of all trades.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I never really leaned into that.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this isn't one that you're going to pick if you're trying to min-max a character.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's gonna be better options, uh, at least in the 2014 rule set.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh most classes had a better complement um than a human, but in 2024 it's kind of opened up even more so that a human could be any class very easily.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_03: I think the the I've never played just a straight human as uh as any of my characters.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: Closest I ever came was uh Thorn is a variant human, an Asimar, which even in some of the later 2014 books, Asimar wasn't even considered a variant human, they were like their own race completely on their own.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like I don't even know if that counts anymore, but originally it was a variant of a human.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: So and if anyone is more familiar with the 2014 rules, the 2024 human almost is the variant human that people are used to in the 2014 version, uh, at least comparable to that.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, one of the things, if anyone's ever listened to our show uh when we do class reviews, is we talk about pop culture icons.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we thought it'd be kind of funny to throw out some species examples.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, what uh what species examples of humans do we have out there, boys?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: Will Smith.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Take your pick.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Captain America?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: That'd be a higher level human.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Gandoff would certainly be a human.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um Taylor Swift.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: Sure, yeah.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Human.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: There you go.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: Sorceress.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, no.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: She enchants people with her music.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: Fight me on that.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this this one you don't have to try on very hard for.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of feel like we should keep naming them and arguing over them, though.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think that would be fun.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: Steve Irwin?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Ranger.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: Now we're talking classes, but legend.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Legend.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: God rest his soul.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_03: Park crocodile.
• 5:25
  unknown: Maybe.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: You certainly have a Crikeymite.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Alright, we're gonna go to that ramp over there.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm getting this out of the right now.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh let's talk traits on humans, right?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: So looking at some of the kind of general traits on um basically most of the species, uh, kind of in the way they've redesigned things, tend to bleed into one another a little bit, um, anymore.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: But some of the general uh traits, I guess, that apply to the humans specifically that we would be looking for are gonna be things like their humanoid creature type, right?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: Their typical size is four to seven feet tall if they're medium or two to four feet tall if they're small.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: I thought that was interesting you get that choice now.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um I feel like you always used to be medium when you were a human in 2014 rules.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think I think that's an odd inclusion because if you're two to four feet tall, I I don't feel like that that's common to me.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: It is when you think about the lifespan of a human.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh if you're playing a child character, or if you're making an NPC that's a kid, then it would be in the two to four feet.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's very true.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_03: Sorry, I I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll uh rephrase my argument.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: If it's an adult, I think two to four feet seems odd.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_03: But if you're playing through uh if you're playing a child, yeah, I think that absolutely makes sense.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you could be a human with dwarfism.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: But then are you just a dwarf?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: No, false, Ross.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just asking the questions.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: I everybody's thinking, I'm just saying it.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, fine.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: Dwarf is a different species entirely.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, all right, fine.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh movement speed of 30 feet, right?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: Those are basic kind of traits of a human.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh one differentiation that you'll find now is in some of these more uh some of the special traits.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's where we're gonna see a little bit of divergence between maybe 2014 rules, 2024 rules.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think we're gonna focus primarily on 2024 uh for a lot of these, just so everyone can kind of know what's going on in in the most current version of the rules.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so as a human, we get a few things in the special traits realm.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: We get to be resourceful.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: What does being resourceful mean?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so resourceful for humans means you gain heroic inspiration whenever you finish a long rest.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: So heroic inspiration in DD 2024 is if you as a player character have heroic inspiration, you can expend it to re-roll any die immediately after rolling it, and you mustn't use the new roll.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: If you gain heroic inspiration but already have it, it's lost unless you give it to a player character who lacks it.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: Uh basically it's it's in a lot of ways it's luck.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of like the the is it the halfling or the dwarf that has luck?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: Same same kind of concept.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: If you roll something that you don't like, you can re-roll that, but you're only able to do it once per long rest.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, interesting.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Huh.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: But this one you can pick when you use it and it's correct for anything.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: So if you wanted it to go lower, you could.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: That is true.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't specify either what the roll is for.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because like with you roll any die.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: With luck, you have to roll a one on a d20.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: This you could roll anything.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: You could roll a d100 even.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: And this doesn't specify either that it has to be like a skill check or a saving throw or anything like that.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: It says any die.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: So similar to luck, but actually better in a lot of ways.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: If you rolled poorly only once per day.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_02: Your damage dice.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Whoa, that's interesting too.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: It says any die.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're trying to finish off the big daddy right at the end.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: So wait, just just a way to to discuss this really quick.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, if you're rolling damage and you're rolling three d10, can you only roll re-roll one of the d10s?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: It says die singular.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I would assume yes.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't say a whole roll.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: You may re-roll any die.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's fair because like if you if you roll two tens and a five, I would want to try to get a ten.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: Now watch me roll a one.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: But what else is new?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's fine.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's one that's a feature that you're gonna want to proactively use.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: That makes me think I want to play it.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: You would it would be very easy to let that slip through and not use it enough.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: And like you go through a whole day and you're just holding on to it for that perfect moment, and then it resets, and you don't gain any benefit.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: I would use it.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, for sure.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: I think that that's a cool addition, actually.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, are other special traits when it comes to the human?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: So you're skillful, you get a gain proficiency in any one skill of your choice, which is pretty handy that it's not you know limited to a specific skill set.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh another interesting one on here, uh versatile.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: So you gain an origin feat of your choice.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: And once again, we're talking 2024 here, so there's kind of a subset of feats that are specified as origin feats, and I believe in the basic rules, Ross.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they actually had an example one listed out.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: Is that right?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: Skilled, skilled, right?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So with the skilled origin fee, you gain proficient proficiency in any combination of three skills or tools of your choice.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where you kind of are able to pick up some of those features that the old 2014 races built into it, but with 2024, it's a little bit different.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh how they're structuring, adding some of those selected perk perks.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so it I mean if you picked up that feat and you were skillful, you basically could become proficient in four skills right off the bat, in addition to whatever you may get from like your class or your background as well.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_03: I think what what we're seeing here, and we've heard about this for quite a while, how how Wizards of the Coast play DD 24 as your ability when you create characters to really create the character that you want.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_03: And we've we've used that term a lot in our class reviews, like based on you know, different features that classes have.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_03: You can build whatever character you want, right?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_03: But I think this is truly what they're what they've done here, is like it used to be they would spell out like you get a dice set, your proficiency in X, your proficient, not proficiency, proficient in X, Y, and Z.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: That's just what you get as that race, what it used to be.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: Now with these species, it seems like they're throwing things in there where you do more choosing.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like now you get to choose whatever tools you want to be proficient in.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: So if you want to be a freaking legendary wood whittler, you can figure out a way to do that.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas before, maybe you weren't able to do that with whatever race you picked.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: What I think it it's doing that I'm excited about is I felt like there were very specific tropes as far as race class combinations, and it's kind of breaking some of those barriers.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's kind of like how even a couple years ago, they had already gotten rid of alignments being tied to races.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like they got rid of that um to kind of clean up the game, and this goes a little bit step further where you you're they're not pigeoning pigeonholing one race into or one species into a style.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: Agreed, yeah, absolutely.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think they've taken a bunch of those things that maybe used to exist at the species level or the race level, and they've moved them outside of that into some of them are in the classes now, they've moved some of that to the backgrounds now.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and really your your background almost defines your character more, which totally makes sense.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it should.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: So if anything, I feel like you are some I I mean, just from initial looks here, we haven't even ventured very deep in this, that you are far more versatile in what you could become.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: That's the feeling I get.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: I would agree.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: All right, and what are your guys' final thoughts on the human species?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think it's pretty good.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: I I would be one.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: Big surprise there.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Spoken like a breaking news.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: Plays one every day of his life.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: Lots of experience.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: No, this is this is still a great species that can fit a lot of different uh a lot of different classes, a lot of different builds that could work for a lot of different whatever you want to do is a human will work really well.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: I I think uh, you know, since we have like over a hundred years of experience being humans in this room right now combined, that I think uh we're pretty versatile in what we are, right?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: That kind of hurts a little bit, actually, right here.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_03: Right, that we f that we add up to over a hundred years of experience as a human.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um I I I I think I think the human continues to be uh a very versatile, versatile even beyond like the idea of becoming what you want, just because you can tweak a lot of things within here, it still feels like that's the type of species that it is.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um overall, though, I I think what we're gonna find is a common theme throughout this is that no matter what species we look at, and we're our plan is to go through all of these, is that you can become whatever you want.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's truer now, even than it was when we started this process two years ago talking about races at the time.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I would agree with that.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I will add one more thing.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is a great species for an entry player because it can get them into role-playing in a familiar enough uh species that you can step into pretty easily.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you're trying to step into like a wood elf or an orc, those can be a little bit more challenging because it's different.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: This is a great class that is strong enough to make you a good character, but approachable enough even for a brand new player.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, I think just to echo Brad's point, there's so I mean, pick up the TV or the movie, watch watch anything, right?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: And we have examples of humans in different cultures and all sorts of inspiration of like, hey, here's some role play.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I could try to be Ted Lasso, right?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like just play a Ted Lasso character.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Or if you do something like a Star Trek or so, watch something like that where you see interspecies relationships.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: How are humans working amongst themselves or amongst other species in that setting?
• 16:02
  unknown: Yeah.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: What were you gonna say, Ross?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: Before I cut you off so rudely.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_03: I don't remember.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm primed for your outro.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know what?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: That is gonna do it for this episode of Bards and Barrels.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: You can listen to past episodes of the show anywhere podcasts can be found.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at Bards and Barrels.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you soon.