Most DMs run across this argument sooner or later. A player, usually a less experienced one, approaches him with a new race that he wants to play. The DM looks the race over and sees that there are higher stat adjustments than usual. When he points it out to the player he immediately responds, “But look, I took away from another stat so it balances out.” That seems fair, right?

Wrong. It’s not just about balance. What you have to keep in mind as a DM is that there is more to the creation of a balanced race than just making sure the net stat adjustments are +0. In truth, this isn’t about creating a fair and balanced race, it’s about creating an especially powerful character. To give an example, let’s say you have a player who wants a +4 to strength. In exchange, he is willing to take a -4 to intelligence. While the total change in bonuses does balance out, obviously this player is planning on making a character that doesn’t use intelligence much anyways. This also works the other way around, a player might be willing to take a -4 to strength for a +4 intelligence. Even though intelligence is a mental stat, and generally seen to be less useful, the situation is still the same. The player is probably planning on playing a wizard, who should not be in combat anyway, so he does not suffer much from the loss.

I would not allow anything higher than a +2 racial bonus in any stat, not even if the player was willing to make an uneven trade. Almost every character has a stat that they do not need, which the player is willing to give up any amount of in exchange for a bonus in their primary stat. For example, a player may be willing to take a -8 to strength in exchange for a +4 to intelligence. While this might seem like a more than fair trade, closer inspection reveals that it is not truly balanced. Let’s take a situation where a player has rolled his stats and he has a 10 and a 16. If he gets these changes, all he has to do is put the 16 in intelligence and the 10 in strength. His intelligence becomes 20 and his strength becomes 2, but it really does not matter to the player because his character will never be in melee. And that is with relatively modest rolls, imagine a player who rolled an 18. His intelligence becomes 22 at first level, beyond what any other first level character could hope to achieve, eventually making him the most powerful wizard to ever live. Other characters will simply not be able to catch up to him.

Ultimately, remember that the races in the player’s handbook are, at least relatively, balanced with one another. If you want to allow races with higher stat changes, I would either give them level adjustments or allow every player to have an equal stat change. Essentially you will be playing a higher-powered game, which is fine, so long as you realize that fact.

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