Discussion:What's up with racial abilities?

Why do some races get a bajillion racial abilities and others get the shaft?

I can understand that all races are designed to be different and to show that they get some snazzy racial abilities that make them unique. I also understand that in order to keep things fair WotC give some races with loads of goodies racial HD and LA to make them harder to level and therefore balanced. But why do some races have tons of features (including optional cup holders and leather interior) while others have next to nothing? Let's look at some examples:

The standard races are medium size to be on par with humans (obviously the dominant race). Hill/Mountain Dwarves get 8 (count 'em 8!) racial abilities including +2 to saving throws against spells (all spells!), as well as +4 to skills. High Elves get 8 racial abilities including immunity to sleep, the 5 foot secret door thing, and 4 racial bonus martial prof. feats (6 if you treat composite bows as seperate), and +6 to skills. I understand elves have an automatic -1 health each level because of their con penalty. Meanwhile there are Half Orcs (which for now we'll pretend their +2 -4 ability mods are balanced) get... what? Darkvision and Orc Blood? Not even a bonus to skills or a saving throw bonus? And then there are Orcs which get wep. familiarity with the Orc Double Axe, Darkvision, and Light Sensitivity. REALLY!? I get that orcs are the only race with a nat. +2 to damage for ECL 1 but come on, thanks to Light Sensitivity half of the time that's not even true. Starting to see my point?

I see in the Savage Species supplement (pg. 11) that Small size races get a -1 LA for their troubles. Lightfoot Halflings (in all their Halfling glory) get 5 racial abilities (I count the +1 to each save as its own) and +8 to skills. Rock Gnomes (GNOOOOMMES!!!) get 7 racial abilities including +1 DC for illusions which is like a feat and +4 to skills. Then there are Goblins... what do goblins get? Darkvision, 30ft move speed, and +8 to skills. Did I mention their racial adjustments of +2 -4? Kobolds have it the worst, they have +2 -6 racial adjustments and Light Sensitivity. For their troubles they get +1 nat. armor, darkvision, 30 ft move speed, and +6 to skills. Yikes.

Some races have +1 LA because of their racial abilities. Hobgoblins for example recieve one because they have +4 racial ability adjustments, with darkvision and +4 to skills. Goliaths (Races of Stone pg. 56) have one because they have +6 -2 racial ability adjustments, with 2 racial abilities and +2 to skills... aaannd Powerful Build...

In MY Campaign...

I've devised a little bit of a template for balancing out the races that was based on the Human:

Race Name (ability adjustments)

Size Speeds 'special vision (basically darkvision or low-light vision for the races that have it)'

Wep. Familiarity (All races have either this or a racial ability, counts for two weapons like with the dwarf)

Racial Ability (Yep, just one each... +1 for every penalty you add)

Racial Penalty -If you want a race to have more than one racial ability you need to balance it out.

+8 to skills (-2 for special vision)

+2 to save against something (has to be specific, like saves against poison or fear)

Favored Class (everybody gets one, tell him Peter)

HD and LA

Based on reading Savage Species, I figure that because a racial HD takes up one level, each one should provide a single racial ability. Because an LA doesn't give you a boost to your HP, BAB, and Saves like a HD does, each LA should give you 2 racial abilities. I think that each reduction in sizes from Medium should be -1 HD or +1 racial ability, not -1 LA because that's too good. Conversely each increase is +1 HD or -1 racial ability, not free for Large size but still +1 LA for Huge. A racial ability adjustment is worth +/-1 racial ability. A nat. armor of +1 to +3 is worth a racial ability. A racial spell-like ability can have 1.5 spell levels 1/day (0th level spells count as 1/2) so Gnomes can keep theirs. Spell-like abilities that have 3 total spell levels or that can be used 3/day are worth LA 1. Caster level is always equal to 1/2 class levels. A SR of 5 is worth one racial ability. SR is always +class levels.

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