racial feats detached from race

[diplomancer]

Would it break anything, apart from thematics, to let people choose racial feats without having the required racial backgrounds? Is there any obviously broken race/feat combination?

[Trustypeaches]

No, but everyone will go after Elven Accuracy and at least one Bountiful Luck.

[stoutstien]

No. The only issue I could see is with Vhuman but it's no worse than gwm or cross box expert. There are a few I opened up like prodigy just bc it helped a lot of builds that would dip just for expertise like shield master builds or grappler.

[Joe the Rat]

Well, Dragon Fear is flat broken, because you don't have a Breath Weapon trait to fuel it.
Bountiful Luck is kind of zany, as the limiter (lose Lucky racial) does not apply to non-halflings. You have to decide if that means there's no downside, or if the Lucky trait is an essential cost for the ability to work. Orcish Fury is half functional.

I'd have to dig up the lost notes-era expanded list, but there are a few that key on racial traits as well. From memory, the Efreet one is on edge - plenty of races have Darkvision, so it's probably okay. The Hobbo one will simply not work without saving face.

Now if you mean broken as in OP... Elven Accuracy is already borderline. The rest are a bit side-skewed - Dragon Hide and the racial magics are sort of out of left field without the core traits (i.e. needs a really good explanation to why suddenly Dwarfy).

Oh, and I'd set a level 4 prereq on the magics, simply so you don't get jackass vhumans coming out the gate with 2nd and 3rd level spells in hand.

[Trustypeaches]

Honestly Prodigy should never have been limited to humans / half humans since they scrapped the skill-feats.

[Naanomi]

A few races could make better use of the feats than the 'real' race that is supposed to have it... Elven Accuracy on a Half-Orc (who crits harder) or Bugbear (who sneak-attacks better) for example... and a few are harder to fluff (Natural armor and/or claws for non-dragonborn works for some races, but not others... what is Flames of Phlegathos supposed to represent if it isn't on a tiefling?)… but nothing obviously game-shattering

[Sahe]

I would allow it depending on circumstance and if there is any reason in their background for them to take it or maybe it would be a thematic fit for the class.

For example: Dragon Hide for a Draconic Sorcerer or one of the Tiefling Related ones for a Fiend Warlock. Fade Away, Critter Friend and Fey Teleportation could be opened up to a Feylock...or maybe the child of a Satyr and a human.

As a DM in cases like this I would usually ask: Give me a good reason why and if it is good reason I'll usually allow it.

[Trustypeaches]

A few races could make better use of the feats than the 'real' race that is supposed to have it... Elven Accuracy on a Half-Orc (who crits harder) or Bugbear (who sneak-attacks better) for example... and a few are harder to fluff (Natural armor and/or claws for non-dragonborn works for some races, but not others... what is Flames of Phlegathos supposed to represent if it isn't on a tiefling?)… but nothing obviously game-shattering
Elven Accuracy wouldn’t work for STR based attacks, fwiw