Racial benefits ranked without stats

[AllisterH]

From the "what would you like in 5e" thread, I'm thinking this was an interesting topic in of itself...

What racial benefits over the various editions did you consider good/see use either frequently or infrequently?

What benefits never shown up at your table and how would you rank said benefits. Just as importantly, do you think said benefits would encourage/discourage players to play race X with class Y?

[NeoSeraphi]

My ex played an elf in every game she played with me, except for one. And she never once detected a secret door.

The bonus to Appraise checks that dwarves get is alright, but seeing as rogue is the only base class in the PHB who has Appraise as a class skill, I never saw this bonus apply either.

The gnome +1 DC to Illusions is top notch. A racial bonus to save DCs is great and should be incorporated more often, or as other types of bonuses, like a race that has a certain type of affinity with magic should get boosts, like auto-extended buffs for half-orcs or increased skill bonuses from spells that grant bonus to skill checks when cast on half-elves. That sort of thing.

The dragonborn's breath weapon sees a lot of play. In fact, I might go so far as to say it is one of the primary reasons people choose to be dragonborn in 4e (other than looking like a dragon, of course)

I really like the changeling and it's Disguise Self ability.

[Zaydos]

In Basic the elf bonus to finding secret doors (1 in 6 when not checking, 2 in 6 when looking, instead of 1 in 6 when looking) was good. I never played a dwarf or halfling in Basic so I can't say for those.

In 2e elves still have the secret doors bonus (haven't seen it come up), and they get a +1 to attack rolls with longswords (they might have in basic too I forget) which is useful when bonuses are hard to get (in 2e 17 Str was a +1). Their resistance to sleep and charm could be useful but I didn't see it come up much.

2e Dwarves got a bonus to several saves (+3 or more) and a +1 to hit orcs, goblinoids, etc. When a Lv 1 fighter most likely has a +1 to hit assuming they specialized in the weapon they're wielding, and at most has a +4 assuming they have 18/00 Str (18/51-99 gives them a +3 total, 17 or 18 gives them +2) this is a pretty good bonus at low levels. At higher levels it becomes less meaningful because your bonuses get higher (okay your THAC0 gets lower and you get magic weapons and possibly gauntlets of ogre power or belt of giant strength) and you fight less orcs and goblins and when you do their AC is non-consequential (by 10th level who cares about AC 6 orcs on orcs). Also Stonecunning gave you a 50% chance of detecting traps, as opposed to merely a small bonus, and the ability to detect things that normally couldn't be known.

3.X

I've never really seen any elf ability be that useful; the spot and listen bonuses are nice if you keep them maxed out but that's just like taking the Alertness feat.

Dwarves get a good bonus to saves, a free rather bad XWP; which comes up when I play a dwarf because I think war-axes are cool. The AC bonus can be nice, but Giants are too rarely encountered. The +1 to hit orcs and goblins matters a lot less when you hit one on an 10 without it (as compared to needing a 13 without it) and tend to see more varied low level encounters.

Humans get a bonus feat and bonus skills which probably rank as #1 and #2 for good abilities; most IRL groups I've been in primarily play humans because of these two benefits.

[Eldariel]

Earlier editions, those abilities of course defined the races and came up constantly since the success chance was actually significant. 3.X combined Stonecunning and passive Secret Door Detection with skills though which made 'em less useful.

That said, our first party with Elven Cleric, Elven Fighter & Dwarven Fighter & Wizard still had everyone use their racial abilities, but mostly on low levels (I do recall we found like 3 secret doors total with the Elven ability; my character had 18 base Intelligence which didn't hurt - and we did avoid some Trap with Stonecunning). Higher up, only really Wizards have a relevant chance (outside the actual dedicated classes) here because of their naturally inflated Intelligence. We never really found anything. Meh.

It's a pity really; the abilities are pretty cool but in 3.X's system they really require a linked class to shine. In PF, you can at least get pretty close to max ranks even if said skill is not in class for you, but 3.X's cross-class system really penalizes trying to CC them.


Though the racial weapon proficiencies, especially Elven Longbow and Rapier, are pretty useful for things like Cleric Archers and such. It's too bad they only gave bonuses to Dwarven Warriors (as opposed to Dwarven Clerics, which is equally classic an archetype) and Elven Wizards (as opposed to Elven Warriors, which again are quite classical).

But I'd say in general, just about all of them were useful from Basic to AD&D. In 3.x, the usefulness varies wildly depending on what kind of a character you're playing.

[shadow_archmagi]

Elan grants some wonderful special abilities. Specifically, if you're a psychic character, you can spend power points to eat, buff your saves, and deflect damage.

Illumian is interesting because it offers a buffet of racial features; it's a literary race so you choose two power words and they each grant a feature and the combination grants a feature.

[LibraryOgre]

The bonus to Appraise checks that dwarves get is alright, but seeing as rogue is the only base class in the PHB who has Appraise as a class skill, I never saw this bonus apply either.

The gnome +1 DC to Illusions is top notch. A racial bonus to save DCs is great and should be incorporated more often, or as other types of bonuses, like a race that has a certain type of affinity with magic should get boosts, like auto-extended buffs for half-orcs or increased skill bonuses from spells that grant bonus to skill checks when cast on half-elves. That sort of thing.

There's a bit of a disconnect, here. "A dwarf's bonus to a certain skill is only applicable to certain classes, so it is not very useful" v. "A gnome's bonus to illusion DCs is awesome", even though that will apply to even fewer classes (in 3.x core, really only 3 classes can make good use of illusion spells, whereas ANYONE can take Appraise cross-class). Yes, it's a much more awesome bonus, but it's also one that tends to pigeonhole races further. If you're passing up on a small bonus (+2 to a skill in certain situations), you usually have a suite of other racial abilities to draw on, and the bonus is nice when it applies. However, if you're passing on a major bonus (by playing a gnome ranger, for example), then a greater chunk of your character build is "wasted". Similarly, an elf's bonus proficiencies with bows and swords. Those are nice if you're a rogue or a wizard... but if you're a fighter, they're "stuff you paid for that you don't get".

A lot depends on the design choices they make, but I'd like to see something like "certain skills are always class skills for this race", perhaps with a bonus for those who take classes that get them, anyway. An example of this can be seen in C&C; elves and halflings both have racial stealth skills... if they happen to rangers, thieves, or assassins, however, they get a bonus. In HMb, an elf always gets a mastery roll on certain skills. If their class provides the same skill, they get another mastery roll. It conveys that the race has either a talent for it, or that their upbringing always includes such things, and that early training makes them better at it than a human with the same degree of training.

So, the short version is I'd want to see racial abilities that bring races closer to a specific style, without forcing you to ignore racial benefits if you don't (or do) play a certain class. My militant, plate-clad elfin warrior can still strip down and sneak around a bit. My dwarven druid can still tell you a bit about mining. But my elven thief is a ghost, and my dwarven miner knows six different ways to approach the same rock face, and can tell you which one is best while the human is still taking measurements.

[Eldariel]

I think the handling of cross-class skills in general is the issue. PF's version is much more elegant and makes maxing and excelling at cross-class skills actually doable; suddenly an Elven Fighter can find the secret door while Dwarven Cleric can tell you precisely where in the stonework the trap lies, and even disarm it.

For those unaware, PF removes the concept of buying skills at the 2-for-1 rate; all skills are 1-for-1. Skill cap is the same for class skills and cross class skills and you don't gain the 4x skill points on level 1. However, you get a +3 bonus to any class skills you've trained. In other words, compared to 3.5 class skills max out the same as ever but cross-class max is now Level-3 instead of Level/2; much more workable aside from the low levels (it's funny how 3.5 seems to be designed to work at level 1; things like racial bonuses and cross-class skills and such all work great there, but as soon as you gain 10 levels all of them suddenly lose all meaning - the system needs more linear progressions for such things) and you don't have to bend over backwards to buy a cross-class skill; you get the same value for your investment regardless of it's a class or a cross-class skill.

I personally like plain giving characters an automatic ½ level of ranks in these checks if they have no ranks in the appropriate skills tho; dedication still makes it better but even untrained, the racial trait sometimes accomplishes something.

[Mercenary Pen]

Just an idea that I had reading all the comments about racial abilities wasted by the build they're in, how about if each race had a decent range of potentials, but each player got to choose which ones they invested in.

For example:
Lets take our arbitrary dwarven race/subrace, we'll call them Granite Dwarves, they get 10 racial points and can invest them in the following:
Examine stonework: +1 to checks to examine stonework per point invested, to a maximum of 3 points
Mithral stomach: Granite dwarves do not pass out due to drunkenness- 1 point only
Natural smith: +1 to craft weapon and craft armour per point invested, to a maximum of three points
Dwarven industriousness: +1 to endurance checks against fatigue per point invested, to a maximum of three
Dwarven combat heritage: Granite dwarves gain proficiency with one exotic hammer or axe per point invested.

Obviously, you can't take everything from all those features, so different players are going to optimise in different directions, depending on their interest in such things as crafting, surviving a forced march, examining their surroundings, but the fact is, the choice has been left open to the players, so they can choose the more relevant options and you could even add static features on top if you were of a mind to- though possibly the more static features a race had the fewer points it would get to pick variable features with.