Are skill bonuses on races considered racial bonuses?
- Thread starter malcolm_n
- Start date
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
I think anything you get from your race is a racial bonus. Note that they are NOT the result of feats, thus there should be no issue with stacking. Feat bonus stacking is wrt other feat bonuses, not bonuses from other sources. 2 feat bonuses can't stack with each other, they can certainly stack with other modifiers, thus it is a moot point.
deleteme123456
Explorer
Of course, PH2 went and introduced feats which grant a racial bonus. 
This comes up in PH1 though, with a party with 2 half-elves. Group Diplomacy gives a +1 racial bonus to diplomacy when you're near an allied half-elf. What if you are a half-elf? You have a +2 bonus to diplomacy from your race, but it's never called out specifically as a racial bonus. Personally, I'd say that's a racial bonus, but RAW I think it's not.
This comes up in PH1 though, with a party with 2 half-elves. Group Diplomacy gives a +1 racial bonus to diplomacy when you're near an allied half-elf. What if you are a half-elf? You have a +2 bonus to diplomacy from your race, but it's never called out specifically as a racial bonus. Personally, I'd say that's a racial bonus, but RAW I think it's not.
Starfox
Hero
I remember an example in PH2 where one of the bonuses you get for race is called a racial bonus... I think it was about elves and in a feat description or possibly a racial paragon path.. Let me take a quick look.
Ah yes, page 29, the Twilight Guardian path. This is about elves:
"your racial bonus to Perception checks increases to +4, and the racial bonus to Perception checks that you grant through your Group Awareness racial trait increases to +2."
Here the elf Perception bonus and the perception bonus aura are called racial bonuses. In the PH, the aura bonus is called a racial bonus, but the static bonus you get yourself is not.
Ah yes, page 29, the Twilight Guardian path. This is about elves:
"your racial bonus to Perception checks increases to +4, and the racial bonus to Perception checks that you grant through your Group Awareness racial trait increases to +2."
Here the elf Perception bonus and the perception bonus aura are called racial bonuses. In the PH, the aura bonus is called a racial bonus, but the static bonus you get yourself is not.
DracoSuave
First Post
Racial bonuses will say 'racial bonus to X.'
There is no implied naming for stuff. If a bonus is named, that name is explicit in -every- case.
So, no, the skill bonuses are untyped, and therefore stack with everything.
Not that it matters much.
There is no implied naming for stuff. If a bonus is named, that name is explicit in -every- case.
So, no, the skill bonuses are untyped, and therefore stack with everything.
Not that it matters much.
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
The governing rules on bonus stacking are in two places. PHB 192 specifically talks about bonuses granted by feats and explains they are either untyped, which stack, or typed, which do not. In practice I believe ALL existing typed bonuses provided by feats are typed as feat bonuses, but in theory that could change (and I haven't read through PHB2 yet, so there could be some others in there).
PHB 275, the box 'BONUSES AND PENALTIES' provides the overall general rules for bonus types and stacking. It defines all the types of bonuses and defines which bonuses would be of which types. For example it says "A racial bonus is granted by your race." and then uses the Elf's Group Awareness trait as an example, which means group awareness is definitely a racial bonus and thus does not stack. However that does not indicate that OTHER bonuses provided by race, marked as such or not in other places, are NOT racial bonuses. The wording does leave it open to either interpretation. Given that many of the bonuses listed under racial traits for each race DO explicitly specify they are racial bonuses, while others do not, it would appear that the mere fact that a bonus is granted BECAUSE of race does not automatically make it a racial bonus.
Note that it would be VERY rare for racial bonuses to have any possibility of stacking. There is no way that a racial bonus which only applies to your character could be a stacking candidate since you would practically speaking have to have a PC of multiple races for that to happen! The case where it does matter is things like Group Awareness that apply to other creatures, and those are so far ALL designated as racial.
So I don't think there is any ambiguity at all. It is RAW that racial bonuses don't stack, and all such bonuses are marked in the text as racial.
PHB 275, the box 'BONUSES AND PENALTIES' provides the overall general rules for bonus types and stacking. It defines all the types of bonuses and defines which bonuses would be of which types. For example it says "A racial bonus is granted by your race." and then uses the Elf's Group Awareness trait as an example, which means group awareness is definitely a racial bonus and thus does not stack. However that does not indicate that OTHER bonuses provided by race, marked as such or not in other places, are NOT racial bonuses. The wording does leave it open to either interpretation. Given that many of the bonuses listed under racial traits for each race DO explicitly specify they are racial bonuses, while others do not, it would appear that the mere fact that a bonus is granted BECAUSE of race does not automatically make it a racial bonus.
Note that it would be VERY rare for racial bonuses to have any possibility of stacking. There is no way that a racial bonus which only applies to your character could be a stacking candidate since you would practically speaking have to have a PC of multiple races for that to happen! The case where it does matter is things like Group Awareness that apply to other creatures, and those are so far ALL designated as racial.
So I don't think there is any ambiguity at all. It is RAW that racial bonuses don't stack, and all such bonuses are marked in the text as racial.
