Why human?

[MysticRhythms]

Human Clerics get Wisdom and Charisma enhancements. The feat is a tremendous boon. The skill point lets you take Concentration and Diplomacy wiithout spending anything on Intelligence.

Human Rogues get another skill boost, another damage boost, a saving throw boost and an attack boost all in one enhancement. The feat AND the skill point, again, are a huge benefit.

Human Bards get the same use out of Versatility that Rogues get. My Warchanter loves the damage and attack boosts when he Power Attacks. Bards are also VERY VERY VERY starved for feats and having such a great skill list means the extra skill point gets put to use.

I have 6 characters I play a lot now. Three are humans, two are warforged and one is drow (and I really wish she were a 32-point elf instead).

[Ciaran]

Since the original human versatility got nerfed, there has been no reason to play one.

Extra Feat
Extra Skill Points
+1 to two stats
Because you want to?

[Emili]

Human Clerics get Wisdom and Charisma enhancements. The feat is a tremendous boon. The skill point lets you take Concentration and Diplomacy wiithout spending anything on Intelligence.

Human Rogues get another skill boost, another damage boost, a saving throw boost and an attack boost all in one enhancement. The feat AND the skill point, again, are a huge benefit.

Human Bards get the same use out of Versatility that Rogues get. My Warchanter loves the damage and attack boosts when he Power Attacks. Bards are also VERY VERY VERY starved for feats and having such a great skill list means the extra skill point gets put to use.

I have 6 characters I play a lot now. Three are humans, two are warforged and one is drow (and I really wish she were a 32-point elf instead).

The boosts are nice as is the extra feat... only problem is as with any boost 2 minutes of boosts do not go very far between shrines and of the 20 sec 2 seconds are delayed so you really only get 18 seconds of boost to do anything with... often times I hold back on using a boost - except for skill usage. Battle boosts with the exception of the fighters haste are really sketchy in the output usage you get from them... I have two human fighters and a barbarian... the only time I hit those boosts are on a boss... even at +5 they are by far less powerful then a passive +2 to a weapon as each one constitues for appoximately 3 to 4 mob tops in usage du to the time frame to hit the key... interupt swing sequence and engage the mob ... then move onto the next.

The extra skill points are nice for skilled classes... humans tend to make out quite a bit (rogue or bard). The extra feat is not that great as people are right you find yourself shoring up the saves or toughness or other areas other races get by spending ap's - on top of that most racial enhancements make many feat look like garbage in some places... the extra feat is nice for planing out an early feat chain, but at capped toons most other races have greater leway since they plan around the feat chain and then use thier ap's to make a significant difference in the secondary things like save, AC, etc... so the Human usually falls behind there.

Humans do make decent fighters... not the epitome of one but an ok one. They make good casters, clerics but they shine a tad better in the pure classed rounded classes - pally or bard... they do very well in multiclassed characters outside of the 1-2 splash - which case the 1-2 slpash usually in 3.5 do better than a true multi.

Three out of nine of my characters are human - used to be five but there are predominantly some better races for some classes due to how you want the final build.

[Mayen]

And one enhancment to rule them all, Improved Healing 3. If your tank based, the people keeping you alive (even yourself) will love you for it. If your a caster that doesnt want to go WF, then you can UMD CSW wands for a very nice return or even heal scrolls (143 instead of 110).
Extra Feat is helpful, extra skill equals less int you have to put in at starting if your worried about your skills. Other races "shine" more but in my opinion the shine is usually an overabundance of something you probably already have plenty of

[JayDubya]

If I wanted a pure rogue, I probably would have gone Elf/Halfing/WF (assassin). But if I want to multiclass, and still maintain close-to-top level rogue skills without having to drop lots of extra levels of rogue, I prefer human. the skill, feat and respeccable floating stat boosts are very nice. HV as a boost instead of a static is a bummer, but it still works.

If I were to multiclass a monk, I would go human as well, for the wisdom and skill point bonuses.

Basically, if you want to go straight-class, Human is only optimal for Clerics, of the non-battle variety. But for many of the more sophisticated multiclassing options, being a human smooths out the rough edges between the roles.

[Dawnblade]

I would think humans make good paladins. I'm waiting till I get my 1750 favor to build one but for what I have in mind, it sounds like it would be pretty cool.

The extra feat would allow me to get empowered heal without sacrificing other important feats. Additionally with lvls of improved recovery, devotion item and paladin devotion, I would be healing myself for decent amounts (assuming the enhancement affects my self heals as well). That would allow me to be a little more self sufficient in groups and solo.

Additionally, being able to raise two different stats could come in handy for a class like paladin.

I think it would be interesting to give humans a favored weapon bastard sword feat. I feel that right now there is little benefit for using such weapon and that could give said swords a place in game.

Keep in mind that the above opinions are from someone who has no experience with humans in DDO and limited experience with the game. Therefore, they could be completely wrong.

[QuantumFX]

Humans are also underestimated for monks. Human Versatility for adding to whatever you need at the time (Monks could actually take advantage of every aspect of HV), Human Improved Recovery stacks with Monk Improved Recovery, and a +1 to your attack stat and Wisdom.

[Noctus]

Humans are not useless. They make the best caster-clerics. And have some minor usefull racial abilities.
There are some builds out there who can put these minor boosts to work. Nobody said their racial enhancements are useless,but comparedto the racial enhancements the other races get the human falls sharply to the last place.

From a Powergaming viewpoint no reason to take Human as a class.(except obove mentioned caster-cleric)
For example the combat boosts are so much less usefull over the course of a quests than a static +2 bonus to hit and damage, which equals +4 STR. Makes the +1 STR increase Humans can get quiet pathetic.
Improved Recovery looses most of its usefullness once clerics are able to cast Heal. 1xHeal = your Full. With or without Improved Recovery.
Skill-Boost is nice, but Dwarfs, Elfes and Drow get a permanent +2 to search and can increase that further with AP.


--> Humans are no gimps or reserved for people who enjoy playing "for a challenge", they just lag behind in the power level of their racial enhancemts.

[Dawnblade]

Improved Recovery looses most of its usefullness once clerics are able to cast Heal. 1xHeal = your Full. With or without Improved Recovery.

The benefit I can see of having improved recovery at high lvls is that if your cleric knows you have it, they can use a lower heal on you, which will cost less sp, being therefore more cost effective. At least that's what I read somewhere else and it actually made sense to me.

[debo]

Humans are a strong race for just about every class except Fighter, and go figure my main is a Human Fighter.

[Falcone]

If I wanted a pure rogue, I probably would have gone Elf/Halfing/WF (assassin). But if I want to multiclass, and still maintain close-to-top level rogue skills without having to drop lots of extra levels of rogue, I prefer human. the skill, feat and respeccable floating stat boosts are very nice. HV as a boost instead of a static is a bummer, but it still works.
<snip>
... for many of the more sophisticated multiclassing options, being a human smooths out the rough edges between the roles.

JayDubya hit exactly the reason I chose human for my 14 Bard / 2 Rogue. You can keep all the skills high enough (in my case: Search, Spot, Disable, Open Lock, Perform, UMD, Haggle) and have a maxed skill-boost via HV instead of Rogue levels, also gaining the option for the other HV boosts situationally.

[krud]

they are good for any multipurpose multiclass build. The ability to shift stat enhancements wherever needed is good for builds that need quite a few stats. The extra feat and skill points will help any multi-rogue build. NeatoMan would not be anywhere near as well rounded. most other races, except maybe drow, would require him to be a little more focused.

[Generals]

Well, considering the time spent behind your character's bum, it's hard to beat the human female.

Reason enough?

[Dawnblade]

Well, considering the time spent behind your character's bum, it's hard to beat the human female.

Reason enough?

Hmm guess it's time to reroll my elven paladin

[Tanka]

Lesser Dragonmark of Passage.

'Nuff said.

[Aspenor]

Meh, WF are better for high con casters, my wiz has a 26 Con and can get 28 with +6 con item and +2 tome (might use favor tome for this).

Warforged sorcs suffer from -2 DC compared to a tweaked human caster. That's at least 10% spells hitting more. That's a huge difference.

Wizard is a better choice for warforged.

[GORAK]

I find Humans to be the best overall race. The original core classes of fighter, magic user, cleric and thief were all human and they were the most powerful class in the original D&D basic game. I only play humans in PnP with my favorite being a pure human thief and next fighter.

[JetEskimo]

Going human was the only way I could get my Dex-based, spring attacking, Fighter2/BardX warchanter all the necessary feats for WC by level 8. Plus I still have room for FoP, and TWF/ITWF at later levels. That extra feat, the skill points, and chose-your-own ability enhancements can really help flesh out a non min/maxed build.

[flamberg]

I dont know people forget about flavor in the game is it all about min and max everything. My main toon is a Human fighter most people love to run with him (dont know why maybe hes good or something). He uses get this dwarven axes I like to make a character that is not the norm. Everyone is forgetting about one of the best things about a human. Check out the human dragon mark of passage. 25% striding and Dimension door ok teleport is kinda lame but DD is the most useful clickie a human fighter can have.

You can make the same kinda toon the next guy is making. What I call a cookie cutter toon or you can have fun in the game and experiment and enjoy what the game has to offer.

DDO has over powered some races lets just look at the WF omg no disease, no poison, no paralasys, no underwater action item, and no enveneration, dang that consumes alot of inventory slots Oh wait give me 20 seconds to change armor, let me screw in a new docent immediatly.

Dwarves wow what damage we could do with them axes.

I am just saying play the race cause its fun not cause you can maximize the stats.

[Inspire]

actualy it isnt nice at all... full heals hit for 350ish... will it really make that big of a diff if they do more? a human tank would barely even be able to hit 350 hp and its not like ur getting those heals at 0 hp...

Dunno About That I Only Have 1 Human, A 16 Paladin, Who Has 411 Hps, I Know Human Tanks Out There With 500+, /Shrug, Still I See Your Point.