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Message: <blockquote data-quote="IanB" data-source="post: 2881043" data-attributes="member: 1473">Agreed that it is a human advantage over every other race. The reason I bring it up here is I use humans as the primary measuring stick for the half-elf, as they are the most similar race to the half-elf, having no stat adjustments, favored class, size problems, etc. I feel this highlights the disadvantage best.I think part of the disagreement here is you seem to value feats a lot less than I do. Feats are perhaps the most precious and valuable resource a character has, and getting an extra one puts humans at a significant advantage for most specialized roles. It means they run one step ahead of any other race on feat chains at any given level, it means they can follow multiple chains more easily with non-fighters, etc., etc., etc. Maybe at first level the human's advantage is that he has weapon focus, which is a small relative difference. At 8th level, the difference could be far more significant - in effect, the human's feat advantage grows over time when you're talking about a feat chain, because the feat he has extra is always the *best* one in the chain. For some chains this is obviously more significant than others. (As an aside, I frequently take empower spell at first level as a wizard. I may as well get it out of the way early, since it has no prerequisites, and save my later slots for feats that I don't qualify for at 1st level.)Another thing to note is that all of the half-elf's significant advantages - low light vision, immunity to sleep, bonus on enchantment saves - can be duplicated or exceeded via magic. This is less true for many other races, and totally impossible for humans. A +2 on enchantment saves is handy early on but useless by the time, say, mind blank comes along; the human's feat and skill points always stay useful.As for the half-elf's skill bonuses, they're probably the only reason I might choose one, although it is worth noticing that by level 4 the human's total extra skill points exceed the skill bonuses possessed by the half-elf. They don't go over the maximum ranks, but they're far more versatile.</blockquote>

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