Korimyr the Rat said:
When I saw this thread title, I was thinking more along the lines of half-breeds, though-- templates that would make a character half-elven, half-dwarven, or half-orcish.
I saw this actually implemented by feats (that may, of course, only be taken at first level).
I.e., elf-blood gives you sleep immunity, +2 against enchantment, low-light vision, +1 listen, spot & check, and knowledge of elven language. Orc-blood gives darkvision, knowledge of orcish languages, and the racial adjustment (+2 Str -2 Int -2 Cha).
The asset is that is makes things more consistant and streamlined. If you want to create a dwelf (they
do have canon support from old 2e material, in
Dwarves Deep), you could take a dwarf and give him elf-blood, or the reverse if you've come up with a dwarf-blood feat.
The drawback is some of these feats are quite powerful for feats. And of course, like with templates, some people will have mechanics to create things that really don't make sense from a logical standpoint (like an elf with elfblood, so as to get +3 listen spot and check total and +4 against enchantment).
Here's a work-around: make that two feats. Each must be taken at first level only, and one has the other has a prerequisite. Only humans, among the base races, will be able to get the Strong Whatever-Blood feat, which echoes the fact only humans seems to breed with whatever they can find (the other half of half-elf, half-orc, half-ogre, half-giant, etc., is always human).