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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Empirate" data-source="post: 5559463" data-attributes="member: 78958">So the Elan has a racial ability that can be a lifesaver. Circumstantially. At high levels only. If you pick your career from a certain set of classes.That's good. Options are good. But remember that this racial ability is strictly an option, nothing more. It doesn't provide you with strategies (like a Human bonus feat can, especially at low to mid level play, which is most common). It doesn't provide you with the power to overcome an obstacle - merely with a way to not die. Which is still limited to mitigating single massive attacks that only deal HP damage (not your only problem at high levels, really). And which, more importantly, eats up your resources for actually dealing with the threat that nearly killed you in the first place.If we are to consider strictly racial ability power, we need to do so abstracted from class abilities, and abstracted from levels.What can the Elan do? Prevent a little damage, and get its saves buffed a few times per day. Preventing more damage takes a certain build, and we're not talking builds here - otherwise the Human Red Wizard example simply trumps the Elan's staying alive trick.I'll not go into cheesy races like Anthropomorphic Animals etc. Just plain, exotic LA+0 races.Consider the Lesser Air Genasi. It doesn't need to breathe. That, right there, provides you with the ability to access three quarters of the planet's surface that are effectively closed to most other land-bound races. You're further immune to inhaled poisons etc. You can also levitate, which can put you out of harm's way, or get you places the others can't access (again). Great!What about the Neraph: no need to eat, breathe, or sleep, due to the Outsider type. You can effectively walk over the biggest landmass of the planet without stopping to take a break.Necropolitans are Undead, with all that entails. You're immune to pretty much everything one can be immune to, won't ever die if you're careful, and can abuse Negative Energy shenanigans. You can also spellstitch yourself with Wish, Forcecage, and maybe Stoneskin (just trying to come up with costly spells), but that's going into builds again, so disregard it for now.Warforged have already been harped on, and rightly so.Raptorans, Dragonborn etc. can fly. Can Elans fly? I thought not. Flying is good. This can outright prevent the attack that your Elan had to spend all his PP on to negate, before it ever happens.And although these are all LA+0, Humans are still considered the single most powerful race for almost any build out there! That should tell you how important builds are (as Humans' advantage really only comes into play when builds are considered). Elans' racial abilities must therefore be compared to other, non-racial abilities.For example, Sorcerers can cast Wings of Cover as a 2nd level spell. Immediate Action to prevent one attack, regardless what it does, without burning through many resources at all. This is better than an Elan's Resilience even at 4th level. It is much, MUCH better at higher level, because you're spending relatively less resources on it.Just my opinion of the kind of yardstick one should be using.</blockquote>

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