Racial Blood
You come from a mixed ancestry having ties to another race.
Prerequisite: Con 13, Human
Bonus: Choose a Race, you can take feats that have that race as a prerequisite as long as you meet any other requirements. You also gain a +1 racial bonus to skills that the race provides a +2 racial bonus to.
Special: You must be level 1 to take this feat, and it cannot be retrained. Half-elves may not take this feat.
I'm pretty sure this would end up broken, but maybe if I post it there can be feedback to turn it into something workable.
Its a feat, that just opens up feats it has no benefits in of itself. For reference the half-elf currently gets this feat twice to start with (once for humans once for elves).
As long as it can only open up one race's feats, it seems mechanically reasonable to me. As for explaining how your great grandfather was a dragonborn, good luck
Is it balanced? No idea, I'd have to go over every racial feat to be sure.
Now, here's where it gets strange. Half-Elf has its own actual race, with unique feats, powers, features, and the sort. (Having a WIS Cleric that does CHA Eldritch Blast is awesome.)
Do you grant new racial bonuses if you take this feat? Does your appearance change? Is the difference solely in your bloodline, so you were trained to do something as a youth?
It sounds to me like you're going for the latter. If so, that's cool. It's not broken, but it's not really balanced either. It almost seems too weak. I feel there should be something to go along with it. Along with "learn another race's feats" you should have SOME kind of bonus or something. It feels too wasteful otherwise. I'm not sure what kind of bonus to suggest though. Perhaps you could look at all of the racial features and pick one for each race (something useful without being overpowered... you don't want to give a human Dragon Breath).
edit:
Though, humans do get an extra feat to begin with, so it may not feel like a waste after all.
There.
That works. =)
Dwarf - Dwarven
Drow, Elf, Eladrin, Half-Elf - Elven
Gnoll - Abyssal
Genasi - Priomordial
Halfling, Tiefling - ???
Minotaur, Warfoged - None
It would work, except for the few races that don't have their own language, and a couple that don't have anything but common... Granted as a DM some of these I wouldn't really allow a Racial Blood for.
Perhaps give them half of the racial skill bonuses from the race?
As to changes in appearance, those are fluff anyways, and can vary character to character as to how dominant they are.
Myself, I like the Dwarven Blooded Human, being larger than most humans. He's to a human what a dwarf is to a halfling (appearances again, just fluff, not stats or size changes).
Elven blooded could be similar to half-elf in appearance. Where Half-Elven Blooded might be indistinguishable from human.
But this feat is also to help the interracial mix and less segregated style of my world. It seems odd to me that only elves and humans can get together. Everyone else has to stay in their own part of town.
Tiefling - Infernal
In 3E, maybe, but, since this is for 4E, beyond the fact that there is no Infernal anymore, Tieflings start with "Common and one other language", and the language that the devils DO speak, Supernal, can't be taken by a first level character.
That being said, I like the basic concept of the feat, but I'm still wondering if, even with the +1 to a skill, it still isn't underpowered?
The problem is the same problem as the half-elf's Dual Heritage: you're limited by meeting the prereqs of the feat, both stated and implied. This tends, for half-elves, to make elf feats outright useless (Elven Precision -- no elven accuracy to be buffed) or suboptimal (Elven Beast Mastery -- your beast ignores difficult terrain when it shifts... you don't). A quick survey of elf feats in the PHB and MP reveal that, if you're a half-elf, you're probably only going to be taking the paragon-level elven feats. The human feats, on the other hand, are all fair game.
I have a feeling it will be the same situation for a human taking Racial Blood. Dragonborn, drow, or genasi? Forget about it. Eladrin and tiefling aren't much better. For elf it's going to be the same situation as with a half-elf, and halfling is like that too. You're basically looking at half-elf or dwarf for reliable ability to take the feats. Otherwise, I think you're still going to be taking the human racial feats, and now you're "short" a racial feat because you used your bonus feat to take Racial Blood.
Dual Heritage is kind of a lame racial ability, when you think about it. As I said above, you can't even take proper advantage of a number of the elven racial feats, and it doesn't even allow you access to human-only or elf-only paragon paths (although the lack of Wild Step and elven accuracy would probably trip you up there, too). I think you may need to offer a bit more in Racial Blood to keep it from being Dual Heritage 2.0...
Racial Blood
You come from a mixed ancestry having ties to another race.
Prerequisite: Con 13, Human
Bonus: Choose a Race, you can take feats that have that race as a prerequisite as long as you meet any other requirements. You also gain a +1 racial bonus to skills that the race provides a +2 racial bonus to.
Special: You must be level 1 to take this feat, and it cannot be retrained. Half-elves may not take this feat.
Favored Heritage
Your lineage is stronger on one side than the other.
Prerequisite: Con 13, Half-Elf
Bonus: Choose either Human or Elf, you now are considered that race for all purposes. If you chose elf, you also gain a +2 racial bonus to your Perception. If you chose human, than you can choose one skill that you are not trained in to receive a +2 racial bonus to, if you gain training in this skill, you may move the bonus to a different untrained skill.
Special: You must be level 1 to take this feat, and it cannot be retrained.
Human Blooded
You come from a mixed ancestry having ties to the human race.
Prerequisite: Con 13, Non-Human, Non-Half-Elf
Bonus: You can take feats that have Human as a prerequisite as long as you meet any other requirements. You may also choose one skill you are not trained in to receive a +2 racial bonus to, if you gain training in this skill, you may move the bonus to a different untrained skill.
Special: You must be level 1 to take this feat, and it cannot be retrained.
In 3E, maybe, but, since this is for 4E, beyond the fact that there is no Infernal anymore, Tieflings start with "Common and one other language", and the language that the devils DO speak, Supernal, can't be taken by a first level character.
That being said, I like the basic concept of the feat, but I'm still wondering if, even with the +1 to a skill, it still isn't underpowered?
The problem is the same problem as the half-elf's Dual Heritage: you're limited by meeting the prereqs of the feat, both stated and implied. This tends, for half-elves, to make elf feats outright useless (Elven Precision -- no elven accuracy to be buffed) or suboptimal (Elven Beast Mastery -- your beast ignores difficult terrain when it shifts... you don't). A quick survey of elf feats in the PHB and MP reveal that, if you're a half-elf, you're probably only going to be taking the paragon-level elven feats. The human feats, on the other hand, are all fair game.
I have a feeling it will be the same situation for a human taking Racial Blood. Dragonborn, drow, or genasi? Forget about it. Eladrin and tiefling aren't much better. For elf it's going to be the same situation as with a half-elf, and halfling is like that too. You're basically looking at half-elf or dwarf for reliable ability to take the feats. Otherwise, I think you're still going to be taking the human racial feats, and now you're "short" a racial feat because you used your bonus feat to take Racial Blood.
Dual Heritage is kind of a lame racial ability, when you think about it. As I said above, you can't even take proper advantage of a number of the elven racial feats, and it doesn't even allow you access to human-only or elf-only paragon paths (although the lack of Wild Step and elven accuracy would probably trip you up there, too). I think you may need to offer a bit more in Racial Blood to keep it from being Dual Heritage 2.0...
I currently play a half-elf, so I understand you completely. My elven feat I've taken is light step.. and that's only because I am a warlord and I'm trying to assist my party however I can (this has since been traded since MP). And dwarven is by far the best "racial blood" you can grab (especially with MP). I'm hoping more feats come that will eventually let the half-elf, be more than a human with pointed ears...
I'm keeping the benefits lower, because there are two reason to take this. Character flavor (in which case benefits aren't that big of a worry), or because there is some great feat in another race that you want. Just like is Multiclass, and a swap feat worth getting a single power on your character? Some people yes, some no, some don't care because they just envision their character with that power.
Here is a question for you with those. They say you get the bonus to a skill you aren't trained with. What if you later gain training? Do you lose the bonus? It should be clarified.
Fixed. If you gain training, then you should shift it to a different untrained skill.