Publication:Unearthed Arcana/Human Paragon

Human Paragon
Human inventors, explorers, and others who push the boundaries of knowledge and experience may become human paragons. They turn adversity into opportunity by finding new ways to apply their skills, discovering new techniques to solve problems, and challenging entropy by constantly seeking out ventures they have not yet mastered. Humans, and the paragons who rise from among them, balance strength with agility and temper intellect with intuition.


 * Adventures

Adventure occupies much of a human paragon's time. Whether impulsive or carefully studious, a human paragon searches almost constantly for the new and unexplored. Few, however, think of themselves as pioneers or inventors. They see themselves as naturally curious, deeming the intelligent and unusual way in which they use their skills to be the norm rather than an exception. Curiosity and wanderlust are easily the two most common motivations for undertaking adventures, but human paragons may find themselves on adventures as a result of a quest or some other necessary duty.


 * Characteristics

Human paragons are inventiveness personified. They are adaptable and capable of using their skills in a broad variety of situations. Perhaps because they are capable in such a wide range of situations, human paragons tend to dislike repetition and crave variety. They seldom pass up a chance to indulge in a new experience, and a new challenge is much more likely to excite them than a lingering goal.

If human paragons have a downfall, it is that they see themselves capable of overcoming any challenge or inventing a solution for any problem. When asked who would be best for a task, a human paragon almost always chooses himself — not out of overconfidence or egotism, but because he has learned through success after success that when backed into a corner, he'll almost always find a way out.


 * Alignment

Human paragons have few tendencies in alignment. Perhaps more are attracted to chaos over law, although those who become devoted to a religion or cause seem to gravitate toward lawful deities or philosophies.


 * Religion

Humans are as varied in their beliefs as they are in every other aspect of their lives, and human paragons are no exception. Many human paragons dabble in religion, learning a bit of one doctrine, following another deity for a brief time, and so on. Although these individuals seldom stay with one belief system for long, they become quite well versed in religion over time. While it's more common to find human paragons with only these surface attachments to religion, some human paragons develop a passion for worship that fuses seamlessly with their views of humanity, resulting in zealotry. In almost every case, these human paragons follow lawful deities and multiclass as clerics or paladins.


 * Background

Although there is no single common background for human paragons, many share some common characteristics. They often arise from situations in which they have many opportunities to learn, either from parents, an accepting community, or even a monastery filled with learned monks and clerics.


 * Races

Human paragons are open and accepting, embodying the best aspects of humanity's flexibility and tolerance. Human paragons usually delight in poking gentle fun at the foibles of other races, finding their extremes of behavior amusing. They also find much to admire in other races, including the stoic fortitude of the dwarves, the beauty and grace of the elves, and the curiosity and inventiveness of the halflings. In truth, human paragons are closer in attitude to halflings than any other race — both suffer (or benefit) from more than a touch of wanderlust.


 * Other Classes

Human paragons are widely accepting of other classes. They value the presence of fighters, rangers, and other skilled combatants, knowing that they are more likely to survive a battle when teamed with such characters. They also understand the value of knowledge, and they regard spellcasters with a bit of awe. Rogues and bards, closest in ability (if not in spirit) to human paragons, usually have skills that overlap the paragon's in several areas, allowing the paragon to diversify his learning rather than become overly specialized.

Game Rule Information
Human paragons have the following game statistics.

Abilities: Skilled and quick to adapt, human paragons benefit from a high Intelligence. But they are also often at the forefront of humanity's wars, making Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution important for their respective roles in combat.

Race: Humans.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d8.

Class Skills
The human paragon can choose any ten skills as class skills. (Knowledge skills must be selected individually.)

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x4. (Does not include the human's 4 bonus skill points at 1st level.)

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier. (Does not include the human's bonus skill point at each level.)

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the human paragon class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Human paragons are proficient with all simple weapons and with light armor. In addition, a human paragon is proficient with any one martial weapon of his choice.

Spells per Day
At 2nd and 3rd level, a human paragon gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the level. He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (bonus metamagic or item creation feats, bard or assassin abilities, and so on). This essentially means that he adds the level of human paragon to the level in the spellcasting class, then determines spells per day, spells known, and caster level accordingly.

If a character had more than one spellcasting class before he became a human paragon, he must decide to which class he adds each level of human paragon. If a human paragon has no levels in a spellcasting class, this class feature has no effect.

Adaptive Learning (Ex)
At 1st level, a human paragon can designate any one of his human paragon class skills as an adaptive skill. This skill is treated as a class skill in all respects for all classes that character has levels in, both current and future. For example, if a human paragon chooses Spot as an adaptive skill, he treats Spot as a class skill for all future class levels he gains, even if it is not normally a class skill for the class in question.

Bonus Feat (Ex)
At 2nd level, a human paragon gains a bonus feat. Due to the varied talents and adaptable nature of humans, this feat can be any feat for which the human paragon is qualified (he is not restricted to a special list of bonus feats). The character must meet the prerequisites for the bonus feat normally.

Ability Boost (Ex)
At 3rd level, a human paragon increases one ability score of his choice by 2 points.