Darklone said:While you're right, it matters more the higher the AC is you fight against.
Example: If you need a 17+ to hit, a +1 to hit will increase your average damage by what? 25%. Granted, that's an extreme example... but pretty important for the secondary attacks.
About halforc style and extra feats and whatever: Read the thread. This has already been discussed and many houserules or bonuses to the halforcs have been proposed and me for example said: I like them and I do use such stuff.
This discussion now was not about whether the halforc couldn't use extras, it was about:
"Why did the designers think they had to balance Str+2 with two stat penalties?"
The answer is simply summarized:
"Because that str+2 is useful for most halforc characters very often in most games."
Team, I quit.
Fair enough. Something else that I think needs to be considered about balance -- you balance against the strongest use of a race, not the weakest.
Dwarves make excellent wizards (despite the move issue which is alrger than usually considered) but horrible sorcerers. Elves make sub-optimal tanks. Halfling Barbarians are rare (despite being fun).
If you improved the Hlaf-Orc it would be start being really good for strange classes like Cleric. For example, +2 STR, -2 INT would make a brutal cleric. The Dwarf already has some of this but the slow movement helps balance this race except for making the ebst fighters.
Also, I suspect that the designers balanced Iconic Characters not necessarily classes and races themselves. So they balanced a Half-Orc Barbarian (see more skill points) with a Dwarf Fighter, Halfling Rogue and Elf Wizard. I think you'll find the game plays surprisingly more balanced when you use these combinations.