Personal Homebrew
The standard 5e Human is boilerplate and rather boring, leading to most players considering the Variant Human from the Player's Handbook, which gains a free Feat at character creation, to be the better option. Pursuant to this, I have homebrewed this alternative to the standard human which is based around the idea of Humanity in fantasy fiction as a group Heroic Generalists, capable of specializing in a particular field, but also coming through in the clutch, swinging well above their weight class.
All of the following information replaces any ability score increases and features that a human would otherwise gain. If your game is using this version of the Human, it is recommended to disallow any other version of the Human.
- Ability Score Increase. When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. You can't raise any of your scores above 20.
- Age. Humans reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.
- Alignment. Humans tend toward no particular alignment. The best and the worst are found among them.
- Size. Humans vary widely in height and build. You may choose to be either Small or Medium.
- Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
- Inborn Prowess. Many humans have a particular hobby they obsess over or have trained to excel in a particular role. Choose one of your skill proficiencies or one set of tools. Your Proficiency Bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses the chosen Proficiency. This skill cannot benefit from any other feature that doubles your Proficiency Bonus, such as Expertise.
- Human Determination. Human stories are filled with tales of heroes punching well above their weight and pulling off amazing, unbelievable feats. When you make an Attack Roll, Ability Check, or Saving Throw, you can choose to do so with Advantage. Once you use this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a Short or Long rest.
- Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice. Humans typically learn the languages of other peoples they deal with, including obscure dialects. They are fond of sprinkling their speech with words borrowed from other tongues: Orc curses, Elvish musical expressions, Dwarvish military phrases, and so on.