Comments on: No, Humans Are The Best Race!

By: Celebrating The Teiflings Infernal Heritage — Dungeon's Master

Celebrating The Teiflings Infernal Heritage — Dungeon's Master — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:19:20 +0000

[...] a look at this infernal race. You may also want to check out Mark’s write-up on why he thinks Humans are the best race over at Dice [...]

By: PK Sullivan

PK Sullivan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:13:56 +0000

I agree that the human is a great race but only that human is the best race for one class in particular – the Wizard.

A Wizard needs to be prepared, with a trick up their sleeve for every contingency. you need a decent ranged area attack to be controller-y, a decent close attack for when your fighter falls asleep on the job and things actually reach you and, hopefully, a ranged basic so you have something to do when that Warlord in the party starts giving everyone free attacks. To me that means having scorching burst or chilling cloud, thunderwave and magic missile. What’s the only race that can provide all of these? Human.

Even better are some of the feats humans can take. Action Surge. For a feat that can be taken at first level, it is astoundingly effective. The bonus applies to all attack rolls made during that extra action – want to drop Sleep on the boss fight? You’d best action point first.

Want to up your damage potential? Arcane Reserves. Most folk blow their encounter power first turn – it makes sense, come out swinging. This feat also affects all targets of a power – that Thunderwave and Scorching Burst just had their damage output turned up a notch. The only downside is it doesn’t help Chilling Cloud because there is no damage roll.

Don’t even get me started on how amazingly versatile a Human Tome of Readiness Wizard is. To be even more sickening still take Expanded Spellbook. Oh, yeah.

That said, I do like the other races. Sometimes it’s fun to step outside of who you are just a bit more. Dwarves and Longtooth Shifters are my personal favorites.

I’d also like to point out that the Fellowship of the Ring only had two humans. Four hobbits, a dwarf, elf, wizard and two men. Yes, Gandalf looked like a human but everyone knew he wasn’t.
PK Sullivan´s last blog ..Group Role

By: Matthew Arcilla

Matthew Arcilla — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:03:58 +0000

I am now inspired to write Why Warforged Are the Best Race. If only because I know, it will take all you guys a while before you get to them after the elves and gnomes.
Matthew Arcilla´s last blog ..Burninating the Azeroth

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:44:36 +0000

Pah! Humans, dwarves… everyone knows Half-Elfs are the best. They have all the advantages of being a Human and an Elf, and don’t forget triple-classing! Well maybe you should forget triple classing… it sucked having a level 1/2/1 character when everyone else had level 4!

@Wimwick, definitely do a Tiefling post. I’m really enjoying my current Tiefling character.
Mike´s last blog ..Illuminated Ruminations

By: Rook

Rook — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:19:49 +0000

I’m in the same boat as you. No one in my group is human. I think that is because all four players are new to 4E, so of course we have a dragonborn, a teifling and an elandrin. And my oldest son likes Legolas, therefore an elf ranger.
I, on the other hand, love to play humans because of everything you mentioned above; versatility, familiarity, etc.
Rook´s last blog ..Wondrous Lootz: the Orcwand

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:19:07 +0000

Why thank you, Wimwick. I’m a big fan of your blog, and I’m always happy to contribute. I’m looking forward to your Tiefling post.

@Swordgleam: I wish our group was like that. The contention in my group is the question of “I’m human, why would I want to play one in a fantasy game?”

By: Swordgleam

Swordgleam — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:23:42 +0000

Funny you should mention that – it’s been a point of interest in our new party. The previous party was mostly human or characters who considered themselves human. A couple players left, a new one came, and some subplots got plotty, and all of a sudden the only human character is the new guy. He keeps having moments where he goes, “How did I end up in the middle of the icy wilderness with a couple of shapeshifters and a god only knows what? They’re going to kill me in my sleep.”

By: Wimwick

Wimwick — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:17:33 +0000

@ Mark
Great post! I do agree, humans are fun to play. In fact I’ve played more human PCs than any other races in 4e. The extra feat and skill choice make them a very easy choice to make. Tack on the defense bonus and you have a real winner.

Of course now you’ve written my post on humans for me, I’ll have to choose another race to highlight this week. While Dwarves might be the best, I think they all deserve to be highlighted. Perhaps I’ll look at the teifling.
Wimwick´s last blog ..Eberron Resource Page