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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 2889730" data-attributes="member: 13966">Goolpsy, and others, it's not just about a character's "power level".  It's about their usefulness.Take the earlier example of a half-elf bard versus a human bard.  Both are good at what they do as bards, generally, except the half-elf bard is practically a liability in any dangerous situation, whereas the human bard is actually still useful to the party when danger arises.  Adventuring is dangerous no matter what kind of adventuring it is.  The 1st-level half-elf bard with Point Blank Shot isn't much use in a fight, especially once muggers or elfblood-hatin' half-orcs or what-have-you get into melee with the half-elf or his/her comrades.  The human bard, though, with Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot, remains useful to his companions even when bad guys get up close and personal with violent intent.The half-elf bard may risk moving into melee reach himself and poking baddies with his longsword, but as soon as one of those baddies looks at him funny, his piddly bard HPs won't keep him in the fight more'n a round or two most likely.  Also, his feat doesn't help at all when he's not shooting stuff.  The human bard won't feel like a burden on the party, since he'll still be useful, but the half-elf bard will likely feel like a liability, no good on the attack and not really helpful on the defense yet either.  Sure he can still contribute a bit with bardic music and flanking or something, but he'll mostly just be putting himself in danger then or just not helping as much as if he were actually shooting stuff with his crossbow like the human bard would be doing.At later levels, the human bard will have gained things like Rapid Shot, Far Shot, and maybe even Shot On The Run, Mounted Archery, or Improved Critical.  He'll be able to help the party effectively in a fight, while the half-elf bard will be behind in that regard; no SotR or MA or IC for the half-elf, most likely.Skills-wise, the half-elf might instead take Skill Focus (Diplomacy) at 1st-level, but the human could just take that AND Negotiator (or whatever the feat was called), remaining equal with the half-elf when it comes to Diplomacy.  He'll also have enough skill points to be better than the half-elf at something else; he may be a bit behind in Gather Information, but the Negotiator feat will even that out by making hiim better at a different skill, still leaving the human better than the half-elf with 1 more skill.  Sure the half-elf will be able to take Negotiator at 3rd-level, but then the human will have taken Stealthy or the like, remaining ahead with 1 skill more than the half-elf; the half-elf will be better at Diplomacy and Gather Information, maybe, but the human will be better with Hide, Move Silently, and at least one other of his own choice (not determined by his race); plus with the human's extra skill points, he will likely be getting another +2 synergy with one or more skills from having 5+ ranks in one more key skill than the half-elf, maybe even making up for his otherwise-slightly-lower Diplomacy and Gather Information skills.  The human will just generally be a slightly better bard than the half-elf, and thus more useful to the party.</blockquote>

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