cross-race paragons?

[Theo R Cwithin]

Is there anything glaringly wrong mechanically with allowing humans (in a humans-only campaign) to take racial paragon classes? The idea is to express a latent lineage.

The rules I'm thinking about are:
[sblock]* a character must spend a "Lineage" feat in order to gain access to a racial paragon class. (A "lineage" feat would typically grant a +1 or +2 bonus on 3 or so race-appropriate skills or other attributes.) Humans taking levels in Human Paragon are exempt from this feat requirement.

* a character cannot take levels in a Racial Paragon class if he already has levels in another Paragon class, or if he already has a Bloodline.

* the Half-race paragon classes are not available (mainly to avoid Bonus Feat conflicts and Divided Ancestry feature).[/sblock]
I've never used racial paragon classes before, so I'm not familiar with any balance issues they might present. Does the above sound reasonable? Am I missing something obviously broken?

 

[Ahnehnois]

I don't see it as being a problem. There may be a few things you have to interpret if a class improves something the character doesn't have. Example: an elf paragon's racial bonus on Search and Spot checks *increases* to +4. Just add +2 to whatever bonus the character might have had from the lineage feat you're using.

Also, the rules note that for ECL races the paragon class is a bit more powerful, but even these I don't think would trash the game, since paragons don't get full caster progression and typically lose out on something important while they're gaining their racial powers.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Good call. Fortunately, it looks like most of the class features on those lists are fairly easy to extrapolate what the level bonus (rather than the total bonus) is.