Justice and Rule
Legend
No, the problem with this is that you're thinking about it in reverse: this is not so that my Cleric can have a charisma boost, but rather that I can play a Half-Orc Cleric and not be immediately confined by having to be strong and tough, but rather one that is wise and charismatic.
People keep looking at this from "min-maxing" and that's half-right and half-wrong: rather, it's making it so that people don't have to optimally choose their race to fit their class. Elvish Barbarians, Dwarfish Rogues, Gnomish Fighters, etc. Instead of someone looking at an elf and saying "Well, I have to fit this to best advantage my Dex bonus", they can play an elf that is wise and charismatic but also clumsy. You can now play a sickly dwarf who became booksmart because he couldn't do regular dwarfish tasks.
The whole point is that it opens up all races to do whatever you want and show a broader ideas of what those races can be. If you want to distinguish the races, then in this system ASIs are the most restrictive and worst way to do it: you don't get many of them and while they can have big effects in a low-number system they are also the least flavorful thing you can use to differentiate them. Like, the new Dwarf's Stonecunning ability is cool, flavorful, and useful in a way that the 2014 Dwarf's ability kind of aren't (Sorry, a few extra proficiencies just don't do it).
Like, 5 years ago I had an idea like this where instead of ASIs for race, you'd choose between several racial feats that would express natural proclivities and cultural focuses. This is not a bad start. Aim more for that stuff. Pathfinder 2E has a starting feat for Elves if they are over 100 years called Ancestral Longevity, where you can basically prepare a skill for the day since you've lived long enough to have dabbled in just about everything. That stuff is way cooler than an ASI and that's what D&D should lean into with these. Every one of these races should get two more cool abilities.
Yeah, I've been saying this for a while now: the ki point resource pool is a great idea for just about any martial you want. Just give it some refill capability outside of resting (Again, just take that Grit concept from Matt Mercer's gunslinger) and it'll be great.
ASIs aren't genetics. Your stat array is, since you have a limited ability to affect that: if I'm clumsy, I can work at not being clumsy but it'll take a lot of time to be truly good. Just as well you can be a natural at something and improve it with practice.
ASIs in the game are explicitly not about genetics but about improvement, otherwise you wouldn't gain them over time without any sort of restriction on where you can put them.
Again, the standard array would be closer to your natural abilities, with your background showing where you decided to focus and improve yourself. A good-for-nothing ne'er-do-well would absolutely get better in, say, Charisma if he has to lie a lot, just as a noble would get better Charisma by virtue of having schooling and training in how to act around people, how to make banter, etc. The idea that you don't improve the parts of you that you practice is utterly surreal and goes against the game's design.
Why not Romulan vs. Vulcan? Those are two groups that are genetically identical, but are brought up in completely different philosophies which shape what they focus on. Like backgrounds, it is the environment and what they choose to focus on that would lead a Vulcan to have more Wisdom while a Romulan would likely have more Charisma.
Further, this misses that there can be significant genetic biodiversity that would allow people not to be confined to the simple stereotypes: why can't there be an elf who is actually is not exactly smart and has a penalty for Int? Why not have a halfling who isn't really quick, but he's damn strong? Why can't I have a Dragonborn who is not strong or charismatic, but is dexterous and fast?
Again, the bigger point would be to give each ancestry cool tools that allow them to differentiate themselves in interesting and more noticeable ways than ones that just confine them to certain niches. Again, gonna bring up Stonecunning because that is a power that doesn't confine a Dwarf to a certain class but rather is generally useful. Even the spells that Elves and Gnomes have are generally useful and don't push them towards any one class. At the end, you want to open up options, not try to push people harder into a box.
I know there was something I wanted to say beyond just quoting people (I'll probably remember it right after I post), but the biggest thing is that they need to give these choices more. Dragonborn are just anemic and should have some cool stuff beyond the colors of their scales. The races that get cantrips obviously have a bit more pop to them, but I'd rather see unique abilities and not just spell stuff. Giving the humans "resourceful" was a cool start, but let's just see more.
