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Players deserve to know what the rules are when they make decisions, so mostly I go by the letter. If the RAW produce something that's counter to the spirit of the rules, then it's time to house-rule. Of course, if a player tries to tweak egregiously in a way that's technically legal but wildly...

Plausibly, a balanced +1 LA race would be one of the standard races, but with +2 racial bonuses to two or three ability scores. If characters assign the racial bonuses carefully, they're using them to maximize their point-values -- improving good scores to even better ones. So they're likely...

I'd agree with all of this.

I think the sentiment here is spot on. However, there's a really simple solution that a lot of people use. The attack and save progressions are actually equivalent to a constant, fractional bonus: a good attack progression (like the fighter) yields a +1 bonus per level; a fair progression (like...

I use this rule and have races with "favored class: any" treat the class they took their first level in as their favored class for this purpose. A half-elf who begins as a ranger gets the extra skill point whenever he advances as a ranger.

Here is a feat. Tell me if it's (a) worthwhile and (b) balanced. It's designed to foster the archetype of the intelligent, tactical fighter who's good at focusing on a particularly dangerous foe and bringing him down. Note that Duelist and its prerequisite work well together: the best way to use...

Characters using Power Attack with a two-handed weapon actually benefit more from enhancement bonuses than from special abilities. They can trade the +1 attack bonus for an extra +2 to damage, which works out to a total +3 to damage -- nearly as much on average as an energy enhancement, but it...

Not true. Soulknives can have defending, keen, mighty cleaving, vicious, or wounding mindblades, all properties not on the psionic weapons list. In Races of Eberron, there are substitution levels for kalashtar soulknives allowing them to be almost exactly as the original poster wants, holy...

Cosmic-level stakes, where the characters' actions can impact the campaign setting in fundamental ways. I like to think of it in narrative terms: local bards might sing about the exploits of mid-level characters, while high-level characters could be accorded important places in a world's history...

Tentatively, I'm looking at about 160,000 gold pieces. The transportation effect seems to me to be about equivalent to a sixth- or seventh-level spell (usable seven times per day), and the immunity to fatigue and exhaustion is a significant added perk.

Also straightforwardly worse than a class level. (Though it sounds like the OP is going for a more general "beefing up," and if you gave up the strict adherence to LA +1, I think this is a great idea.)

I think all of the races get a power-up in the Midnight setting; you might want to look to that. One option is just to make humans the "only" LA +0 race. That is, given them a bonus class level of their choice, but don't increase their effective character level.

The latter is straightforwardly worse than the class level you could get otherwise. The stat bonus and the caster level or base attack benefit might be too much.

There's a non-double dire mace in the Complete Warrior. 1d12 medium (I think 1d10 small), x2 crit, one-handed weapon. You take a -1 AC penalty on any round you swing it.

If the Book of Nine Swords finally has a prestige class that does a good job of modelling the unarmored, meditative, 1e-style kensai (rather than the weird version in the CW), I'll be really happy. Is there a link to the catalog from January to April?

This is highly debatable, because Righteous Wrath is, well, exalted, and exalted feats are uniquely sensitive to moral considerations. Taking an exalted feat means adhering to a very high moral standard that might preclude learning how to enter a screaming blood frenzy during which you're less...

Great idea! You could also build something like this rule explicitly into your game world to explain why Old Man McGee, though a first-level commoner with the attacks and saves you'd expect, is the best damn basketweaver in nine counties.

Quoted for truth. Unless you want to do damage as quickly as possible, a -5 to attack for +5 to AC trade is almost never harmful, and sometimes helpful, when you're trading attacks with a single opponent, and is almost always very helpful when you're being attacked by multiple opponents...

Sorry to offend! It's a movie reference, and was meant all in good fun (though I could see how it could come across as too harsh). Marty's a character in the movie; your lines are cribbed from a character named Nigel Tufnel.

This seems really plausible, and makes glass swords properly, but not prohibitively, expensive.