Is "gnome cunning" the most powerful PHB racial ability?

[Klorox]

Advantage on all mental saves vs magic is pretty damn good.

[JNAProductions]

Advantage on all mental saves vs magic is pretty damn good.

Yeah, it's pretty dinger-dang good.

[Cybren]

I think it's among the more powerful racial features but not necessarily more powerful than Half-Orcs being able to avoid getting knocked out, variant humans getting a bonus feat, or halflings getting to reroll 1s

[Falcon X]

What variant human feat could be as good as that? Or is it just that you get to choose it that makes it good?

[Cybren]

What variant human feat could be as good as that? Or is it just that you get to choose it that makes it good?
The big ones, yknow, Lucky, Sharpshooter, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, Crossbow Expert. Advantage on mental saves vs spells is very very good, but it's not exactly among the list of things people like to claim is Ruining D&D.

[Naanomi]

The big ones, yknow, Lucky, Sharpshooter, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, Crossbow Expert. Advantage on mental saves vs spells is very very good, but it's not exactly among the list of things people like to claim is Ruining D&D.
Exactly.. if there was a 'Iron Will' feat that duplicated the gnomish racial, I doubt it would be top of the feats chosen list for Variant Humans

[Specter]

Gnomes get a good racial ability because they're only good for Wizards/Arcane Tricksters/Eldritch Knights. In any case, Variant Human with Lucky/Tough gets a pretty rad racial too.

[Dalebert]

It's great but the answer is a solid "no". Yuan-ti have advantage on all magic saves which is objectively better. Then add on being completely immune to poison, an extremely common dmg type and negative condition.

EDIT: Just noted that you specified "PHB racial ability". Yuan-ti obviously aren't PHB. Still, they rock.

[Cybren]

It's great but the answer is a solid "no". Yuan-ti have advantage on all magic saves which is objectively better. Then add on being completely immune to poison, an extremely common dmg type and negative condition.

You must have a different PHB from me. Mine seems to omit yuan-ti

[Zardnaar]

Its not that good as its useless most of the time. I would rate it weaker than lucky feat and that feat is not top 10 best feats.

[Cybren]

Its not that good as its useless most of the time. I would rate it weaker than lucky feat and that feat is not top 10 best feats.

That feat is easily the best feat most characters can take. Not using it doesn't mean its bad, it means that you still have it to use later. Max Wilson once described it as Defense In Depth.

[Findulidas]

Its probably the best single racial feature ignoring the extremely ineptly balanced monster races in volo and variant human pick one feat obviously. However I disagree that that it wouldnt make a strong feat. Also if you can get away with picking yuanti or kobold then you can probably already do op homebrew stuff.

[JellyPooga]

The problem with Gnome Cunning is that it's entirely passive. It's powerful, yes, but is entirely dependant on having to make those saves. I rate the Halfling Lucky higher because it applies to practically everything you do; sure, it might only come up once every 20 rolls or so (in theory) but turning that 1 into a success, whether it be a skill check, save or attack, rates very highly in my book and you use it actively just by making more checks.

[Talyn]

Yeah, I'd say Halfling's Lucky is probably stronger, but I agree that Gnome Cunning is way up there.

[Zardnaar]

That feat is easily the best feat most characters can take. Not using it doesn't mean its bad, it means that you still have it to use later. Max Wilson once described it as Defense In Depth.

Apart form Sharpshooter, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, Shield Master, Warcaster, Resilient, Mobile, Alert

I would rate the Elf, Dwarf, Varian Human and the Half Elf over the Gnome.

[JackPhoenix]

Apart form Sharpshooter, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, Shield Master, Warcaster, Resilient, Mobile, Alert

What makes Lucky better than either of them is that every character benefits from it, and any game will see its use. All of the above (except the last 3) are required for certain builds, but completely useless for everyone else. As for the last 3, Resilient, sure, but Mobile and Alert are much more situational (and with the limited number of feats available, much less likely to be taken.)