Change racial traits based on what race raised you.

[RoSothian]

I feel like what race your character was raised by should have a big impact on the racial traits. Should a gnome raised by humans still have proficiency with the gnome-hooked hammer? Should Halflings raised by elves still have a bonus to throwing due to throwing stones in their youth? So I propose that you change around the starting racial traits of your character based on who raised him. It is very easy to tell what bonuses are innate and what bonuses come from training.

This opens up new opportunities. Say you want to be a human, but a few gnome traits are appealing to your character's profession and/or class. Then you can give him a lot of the gnome traits without having him be a gnome.

[Blue_C.]

It would make sense to do that, as long as the changes are cultural, not physical. No matter how many years you spent with a Gnome family, your human character is probably still medium sized (depending on rule system, of course), but they might have picked up a gnome's fascination with tinkering.