Racial Feats

[Dormammu]

I notice a lot of people discussing whether the preview racial feat for Elves is underpowered. It has been compared to other previewed feats from 4E as well.

I think people may be forgetting the hints Wizards dropped about the Heroic levels and racial differentiation. Didn't they specifically say you would get little mini racial abilities throughout the first 10 levels to further differentiate Humans from Dwarves from Elves etc?

If you are getting a racial feat every couple levels on top of normal feats, it's not surprising if they are a little more modest in power level.

 

[Plane Sailing]

My recollection is somewhat different - I think I recall them saying that optional racial feats are available all the way through (they want race to count throughout all the levels a character can be). In addition, there is the clear idea that they are feats you can choose to be more elfy instead of one of the normal feats you might choose. It is either/or.

The example was then given that NPC races might be expected to just automatically take as many of their racial feats as possible to be exemplars of their race (while PC drow might decide that dancing lights or spell resistance (for instance) are not something that their PC wants to develop.

Cheers

 

[Scribble]

My guess is also, that the things we would call "normal powered" feats in 4e have been moved into the "power" category.

Feats will be slight bonuses, or boosts. A slight edge, as opposed to something needed to survive.