A Question on Building Races

[the_rippy_one]

So, as part of my attempt to understand All The Things in Pathfinder, I decided to try and do some race building, since Pathfinder provides some rules for it. Except they don't make much sense.

Dropping this in for the sake of reference: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/creating-new-races

Just so people can see where I'm coming from.

For example, using the base Fey racial template takes 2 Race Points...and gives low-light vision...a 1 RP trait. That's it.
A lot of these entries are like that.
Dragon, at best, is a 10 RP template that provides 7 RP of benefits (and maybe not even that). Half undead are 3 for 5. I think that Plant type is the only one that actually accounts for all it's costs in a reasonable way.

So...can someone explain why this is as it is? Most of the other valuations make sense...sort of (Xenophobic language block is still a 0, even though it is worse than Standard language block (Also 0)? Couple others are pretty glaring...like Rock Catching is a Monstrous ability? To play catch (admittedly, with Large rocks, but, still; yes, it's effectively Arrow Catch for rocks, but I'd assume you'd up the RP cost in that light, not restrict access)? There are some others that are bizarre, but this post is getting long)

I sort of suppose the additional costs might be in some way be related to the nature of the requirements for some of the add-on perks listed later (ignoring that humanoid, a 0 RP, has as many options as anything else)...but that seems very much like charging twice.

Is that the case? Does anyone know? And does anyone have a suggestion of how to apply a proper fix, if such a thing is needed?

[Gazzien]

Possibly, it's because of how many things specifically affect [Humanoid]s, with an additional Rule of Cool for the Dragons?

[Jackinthegreen]

Many spells, even in PF, are humanoid only.  Compare Dominate Person to Dominate Monster.  It also means the character can't be given certain buffs like Enlarge Person, but the gain from being immune to offensive spells is generally considered greater than the loss from being immune to certain buffs.  Plus there are ways such as the Expansion psionic power to get certain similar buffs anyway.

If I were you I'd just start looking at various ECL 1 stuff in both PF and 3.5 (here's a +0 LA list and here's a +1 and +2, etc list.  And even then some of them definitely don't deserve the LA they have such as hobgoblins.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Oh this has to be exploitable.

... Dragon, at best, is a 10 RP template that provides 7 RP of benefits (and maybe not even that) ...

... So...can someone explain why this is as it is? ...

{meta-game level}  aDMg turns off his C.O. circuits, like Data and his emotion chip.

Oh that's cuz Dragons are awesome. 
For whatever reason you don't get that, just
know/feel/believe that Dragons are awesome.
Do it.
 

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Step 1 ... what would a 1 HD + 1 LA race
have as a maximum "Racial Point" total ??
I ask 'cuz it isn't all that clear.

Step 2 ... I'm looking at Stat raisers and
Save increasers and (sp) early entries

  ... wow ... whatever the right answer is to step 1, this is gonzo.

[the_rippy_one]

Step 1 ... what would a 1 HD + 1 LA race
have as a maximum "Racial Point" total ??
I ask 'cuz it isn't all that clear.

I...don't think any of the Races built in Pathfinder do hit dice outside of classes. Which is nonsense, on the face of it, but there you go. LA...I think that, as long as you stay under 10 RP, you are classed as LA 0. From the page, over ten gets a +1 LA, and bumps up by 1 every 10 points...but, it's supposed to be over 5 levels per LA? No idea how that works. 

Step 2 ... I'm looking at Stat raisers and
Save increasers and (sp) early entries

  ... wow ... whatever the right answer is to step 1, this is gonzo.

This...is part of why I'm asking! XD

[awaken_D_M_golem]

hmm , yeah some more clarifying would help that.


Monstrous Humanoid + the Fast Healing 1 thingy
... is near borkt good at early levels.
Hit Points becomes an Encounter resource.