An important consideration in the balance vs. diversity argument that hasn't been touched upon is the designer's decision to front-load character abilities and grant additional racial abilities as the character progressed in level. This allowed the designers to eliminate ECL (Effective Class Level), which was a troublesome mechanic that hindered racial diversity. In my mind, playing a +3 ECL character in a low to mid level game was a difficult challenge. Sure, you had some nice abilities, but your low hit points and other level dependent benefits were crippling. One nasty crit was more than enough to do you in.
In 4E, it seems that it would be a lot easier to create diverse races and still maintain game balance because you don't have to incorporate an artificial mechanism to level the playing field, i.e. ECL.
For instance, one of the problems with creating physically larger PC races was the high physical ability score bonuses that these races would receive. If the race received a +4 to Strength and Con, you'd either have to offset these positive modifiers with substantial negative modifiers to other abilities, most likely Int and Cha, or assign a very high ECL to the race. Getting a +4 bonus to each score isn't that big of a deal when compared to the typical humanoid race gaining a +2 bonus to two different scores in addition to a slew of other unique racial abilities.
4E's decision to front load characters and incorporate ongoing racial progression is a boon to diversity because the designer has more freedom to create new and interesting races without ECL considerations.
In 4E, it seems that it would be a lot easier to create diverse races and still maintain game balance because you don't have to incorporate an artificial mechanism to level the playing field, i.e. ECL.
For instance, one of the problems with creating physically larger PC races was the high physical ability score bonuses that these races would receive. If the race received a +4 to Strength and Con, you'd either have to offset these positive modifiers with substantial negative modifiers to other abilities, most likely Int and Cha, or assign a very high ECL to the race. Getting a +4 bonus to each score isn't that big of a deal when compared to the typical humanoid race gaining a +2 bonus to two different scores in addition to a slew of other unique racial abilities.
4E's decision to front load characters and incorporate ongoing racial progression is a boon to diversity because the designer has more freedom to create new and interesting races without ECL considerations.