ALTERNATE RACIAL FEATURES

The following alternate racial traits may be selected in place of one or more of the standard racial traits above. Consult your GM before selecting any of these new options. These options replace either the Skill bonus or the bonus feat.

### **Skill bonus replacements**

* **Comprehensive Education**: Humans raised with skilled teachers draw upon vast swathes of knowledge gained over centuries of civilization. They gain all Knowledge skills as class skills, and they gain a +1 racial bonus on skill checks for each Knowledge skill that they gain as a class skill from their class levels.

* **Dimdweller**: Whenever characters with this trait benefit from concealment or full concealment due to darkness or dim light, they gain a +2 racial bonus on Intimidate, Perception, and Stealth checks, and finally they gain darkvision out to 60 feet.

* **Dual Talent**: Some humans are uniquely skilled at maximizing their natural gifts. These humans pick two ability scores and gain a +2 racial bonus in each of those scores. This racial trait replaces the +2 bonus to any one ability score, the bonus feat, and the racial skills.

* **Heart of the Fields**: Humans born in rural areas are used to hard labor. They gain a racial bonus equal to half their character level to any one Craft or Profession skill, and once per day they may ignore an effect that would cause them to become fatigued or exhausted.

* **Heart of the Mountains**: Humans born in the mountains are skilled at negotiating heights and precipices. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Climb checks and Acrobatics checks to move on narrow surfaces and uneven ground. Furthermore, they are considered acclimated to the effects of high altitude.

* **Heart of the Sea**: Humans born near the sea are always drawn to it. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Profession (sailor) and Swim checks, and these are always class skills for them. They can hold their breath twice as long as normal, and they gain a +4 racial bonus on concentration checks whenever attempting any effect that requires concentration while underwater.

* **Heart of the Slums**: Humans who eke out a life in a city’s teeming slums must be quick and clever. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Sleight of Hand and Stealth checks, and a +4 racial bonus on Survival checks in urban and underground settings. In addition, they may roll twice when saving against disease, taking the better roll.

* **Heart of the Snows**: Humans born in chilly climes treat cold climates as one category less severe. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Fortitude saving throws against the effects of cold climates, on any check or saving throw to avoid slipping and falling, and to CMD against trip combat maneuvers. This bonus applies on Acrobatics and Climb checks made in slippery conditions, and snow and ice are not considered rough terrain for them.

* **Heart of the Streets**: Humans from bustling cities are skilled with crowds. They gain a +1 racial bonus on Reflex saves and a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class when adjacent to at least two other allies. Crowds do not count as difficult terrain for them.

* **Heart of the Sun**: Humans born in tropical climates treat hot climates as one category less severe. They also gain a +2 racial bonus on Fortitude saving throws against the effects of a hot climate, as well as against the poison and distraction ability of swarms and vermin. This racial trait replaces skilled.

* **History of Terrors**: Humans with this trait gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws to resist mind-affecting effects. The bonus increases to +4 if the effect is also a fear effect.

* **Industrious**: Humans are known for their drive and work ethic. Humans with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on concentration checks and checks with their choice of one Craft or Profession skill.

* **Innovative**: Humans have come to shape the world because they are inveterate innovators. Humans with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on a single knowledge check that can be associated with a craft check, and a single craft check type to independently research and create items they have never encountered before, and identify unique item effects. They also gain a +2 racial bonus on Charisma-based skill checks to persuade others to adopt a new ideology or further the cause of discovery and progress.

* **Institutional Memory**: Humans rely on their institutions to remember the distant past and to preserve their own memories for the distant future. They gain a +4 racial bonus on Knowledge checks to answer questions about any organizations, guilds, or religions to which they belong or have been made familiar with, and they can attempt such skill checks untrained.

* **Wayfarer**: Humans maintain the largest trade networks and the farthest-reaching civilizations, putting them in contact with a huge number of cultures. Humans with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on Survival checks to avoid becoming lost, Knowledge (Earth and Life Sciences) checks, and Knowledge (Current Events) checks. Whenever these humans gain a rank in Linguistics, they learn two languages rather than one.

* **Heart of the Wilderness**: Humans raised in the wild learn the hard way that only the strong survive. They gain a racial bonus equal to half their character level on Survival checks. They also gain a +5 racial bonus on Constitution checks to stabilize when dying and add half their character level to their Constitution score when determining the negative hit point total necessary to kill them.

* **One of the Multitude**: City-dwelling humans are skilled at blending in with the busy multitudes of the city. They gain a +1 racial bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth checks when within 10 feet of at least two other humanoids. They gain a +1 racial bonus on attacks of opportunity made while flanking.

* **Practiced Hunter**: Members of some human cultures train from youth to find and follow the trails of vital game and at the same time hide the evidence of their own passage. These humans gain a +2 racial bonus on Stealth and Survival checks, and Stealth and Survival are always class skills for them.

* **Silver Tongued**: Human are often adept at subtle manipulation and putting even sworn foes at ease. Humans with this trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Bluff checks. In addition, when they use Diplomacy to shift a creature’s attitude, they can shift up to three steps up rather than just two.

* **Social Ties**: Some human societies run on complex webs of favors and loyalties that canny members can intuitively exploit with relative ease. These humans gain a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks, and on any skill checks to recruit members and teams for an organization. They also add a +1 racial bonus to their Leadership scores (if they gain the Leadership feat).

### **Bonus feat replacements**

* **Eye for Talent**: Humans have great intuition for hidden potential. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Sense Motive checks. In addition, when they acquire an animal companion, bonded mount, cohort, or familiar, that creature gains a +2 bonus to one ability score of the character’s choice.

* **Focused Study**: All humans are skillful, but some, rather than being generalists, tend to specialize in a handful of skills. At 1st, 4th, and 8th level, such humans gain Skill Focus in a skill of their choice as a bonus feat.
* **Military Tradition**: Several human cultures raise all children (or all children of a certain social class) to serve in the military or defend themselves with force of arms. They gain proficiency with up to four martial or exotic weapons appropriate to their culture. This racial trait replaces the bonus feat trait.
* **Mixed Heritage**: Often human civilization is defined by more than one characteristic. A human with this trait may select another racial alternative ability that replaces its skill bonus instead of gaining a bonus feat.
* **Piety**: Humans place great trust in the gods to protect them. Humans with this trait receive a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks and Knowledge (religion) is always a class skill for them. In addition, once per day before attempting an attack roll, saving throw, ability check, or skill check, such a human can call out to its deity in order to receive a +2 racial bonus on that roll; it can use this ability only if it is able to speak.

* **Rationalize**: Humans have the ability to assuage their own fears by convincing themselves that what they saw or read is not real. Humans with this trait gain a +3 bonus on saving throws against effects that cause sanity damage.
* **Tribalistic**: Many humans naturally form into cliques or tribes, and these humans work exceptionally well with those they view as fellow tribe members. Such humans gain a +2 racial bonus on attack rolls and skill checks to use the aid another action to aid humans of the same ethnicity. Humans with this racial trait must hail from an ethnicity that has its own language other than English, and they only start with that language; if they have high Intelligence scores, they can select their bonus languages. This racial trait alters starting and bonus languages.