Are the PHB races balanced if there were no ability modifiers?

[imneuromancer]

If you were to take away ability modifiers and just give an "already modified" stat array of [16, 16, 13, 12, 10, 8] would the PHB races be balanced as far as other traits?

Reason being that I think the stat modifiers tend to funnel people into the same race + class archetypes. I think it would be interesting to allow any race and class combination without essentially nerfing the character. To that end, just wondering if getting rid of the stat modifiers would cause other issues.

Note that I realize that the difference between a 14 in a main stat and a 16 in a main stat isn't all that great and shouldn't keep people from role playing something interesting, but it tends to be a mental barrier because it is (generally) not optimal.

[Lombra]

I'm playing a tiefling way of shadows monk. My stats are underwhelming but I love the character, and I always managed to pull off useful things in battle. People should care less about Ability Scores and focus more on the feel for their character. A friend of mine loves dragonborns and always made dragonborn characters for both his cleric and his barbarian/monk, and he kicks loads of asses.

[Sabeta]

Only if you remove V.Human, but then I imagine you'll probably end up with far fewer half-elves and more elves/tieflings for the innate casting features, or more Dwarven Wizards for the extra HP. It probably could be just as balanced, but people are going to find something to gravitate towards.

[CaptainSarathai]

No. They were not designed to be. Consider the different variations of stat distributions you get:
+2, +2 is rare, and has few racial features
+2, +1 is considered standard for a balance of good abilities and features
The outliers are:
+2, +1, +1 (Half Elf) gets 2 skills and otherwise fairly common racials.
+1 All (Human) gets 2 skills and no racials
+1, +1 (VHuman) gets a whole Feat
+1, +1 (Warforged) started a small riot because the racials sucked.
I honestly can't comment much on VGM material.

The other consideration is where those scores are going. Getting boosts to +Con is pretty awesome. +Int, not so much unless you're going Wizard.

Some of the Feats also offset the Racials somewhat. Like, I'd hate to be an Elf on the same array as a VHuman, with my bonus Wizard Cantrip, and the VHuman is starting with Magic Initiate.
Conversely, I'd hate to be a standard Human and lose all my +1s, and start with 2 skills and nothing.

[MinotaurWarrior]

They'd be less balanced, but still probably fine.

Stat mods are used in part to funnel the other abilities into classes where they're more appropriate. So for instance Hill dwarves get bonus HP and a waived strength requirement for armor on a set of Stat bonuses that's only really proactively useful for a cleric. They're already good Wizards, but they'd be even better if you could start with 16 int. Arguably, they'd completely outclass rock gnomes.

Still, I don't exactly think it breaks the game when you roll for stats and the dwarf wizard rolls well.

[Theodoxus]

I've only played two characters who were built specifically for the race/class synergy - a swashbuckler lightfoot halfling and a berserker half-orc.

Everything else has been "less than optimal" for stats: high elf cleric, dwarf warlock, half-elf thief/knowledge cleric (though arguably, that was for maximizing skills, but still, +2 charisma boosted a low roll).

All have been fun to play - the "optimized" two played better at level 1, and were basically the MVPs out of the box, but didn't appreciably improve outside of class abilities (the halfling rogue was insane - rolled stats, started 20 Dex, 18 Chr, boosted Chr to 20 at 4, took Alert at 8... +15 Initiative was jawdropping... but without a good opener, going first basically meant I got into position and if alone, got sneak, but otherwise was still waiting for the other melee folk to catch up - I wouldn't go that route again).

Needless to say, attributes and racial stat bonuses play a very small role in how a particular class will play. Sure, not having that 20 in a stat will be noticeable if you're competing with a similar role with someone who does... but presumably, going with a different race opens up options you wouldn't normally get.

I like the idea of a generic +2 to 1, +1 to 1 for every race, but then, I don't use standard array in my games... I like the idea of a slightly boosted elite array as you propose.