Is +2/-2 really enough?

[med stud]

I, on the other hand, think that there should be less difference in ability scores from one race to the next. 3d6 for all races (of EL1 at least).

Then special cases are made to bring out the differences such as vision, stockyness, alertness or what have you.

I find it silly that there is right now one elven (or even non-elven) sub-race for every conceivable character concept. If you play an elf you can get your boni where-ever you want them just by picking sub-race.

Especially considering the length of an elf generation. The elves must be the pinnacle of La Marquian evolution that adapt themselves instantly to new environments.

It has taken humanity at least 1500 generations to reach the variety we have between races, and those varieties are very small to say the least.

 

[johnsemlak]

I'm not as unhappy with the dwarf bonus/penalty as written, though I think dex would be a better penalty stat than cha. It seems to me that any culture would have individuals who had high charisma, and since I love the idea of dwarf sorcerers, I don't really want to penalize that stat.

I suppose that could be remedied by saying that a dwarf's charisma is only penalized when dealing with other races, and not when doing sorcery. That is arguably unbalancing however.

Green Ronin's Hammer and Helm offers a feat with allows Dwarven sorcerors to replace Charisma with Constitution as the ability tied to their spellcasting. I like it for flavor but it's a bit unbalancing as well (all sorcerors would be dwarves in this case).