So what do people think about using feats in place of level adjustments. The way they did with the deep gnome?
For example (with minimal attempt at balance).
Pixie
+2 Dex, +1 Cha
tiny, flys 50'
bonus skills of stealth and deception.
Pixie invisibility feat:
You can cast invisibility on yourself at-will.
Pixie magic resistance
You gain advantage on saving throws against magic.
Mind Flayer:
+2 Int, +1 Cha
telepathic
resist phycic.
advantage on insight checks.
Junior mind flayer feat:
You cast mind blast at will. You can use charm person 1/day
Sienor mind flayer feat:
You can eat people's brains and turn them into your thralls.
Troll:
+2 Con, +1 Str
Maximize any hit dice spent.
Troll rengeration feat:
You regain 1 HP per 10 minutes.
Rapid troll regeneration feat:
You regain 1 HP per turn.
Personally i like it.
It has a certain elegance to it....
Since it's tied to class you get it through leveling your class which doesn't make a lot of sense. Thise leads to other problems...
A MC character who may not be seeing their first ability score increase until double digit levels or near to it can't get it.
As a racial ability to acquire it fairly late in the game through "being a hero" while other members of the race get it just by being the race, maybe even at birth or childhood, doesn't make any sense.
It's in place of ability score increase, so taking it means you're a weaker/dumber/clumsier etc. member of the race than one that doesn't have it.
Opportunity cost is very high due to limited number of ability score increases so won't be taken often making the character seem less like the race it is meant to seem like.
Overall feels kludgey due to the lack of flexibility and modularity of the system.
I think it works for the svirfneblin because they get a normal-ish amount of stuff out of their subrace by default (+1 Dexterity, advanatage on stealth checks in rocky terrain - which could be a majority of stealth checks in many campaigns - and their darkvision boosted from 60' to 120'), so the feat is genuinely adding more than a normal race would get.
I don't think it works as a way to say "your racial features are better than they should be, so they will cost you a feat" since then you have taken what is supposedly a more powerful race and made it actually weaker - like the pixie above that gets basically zero racial features besides flight (which is a lot less than other races get), and if they spend a feat to pick up their more potent racial features they aren't then as powerful as another race would be having taken an ability score increase or a feat.
mellored wrote:
I find it more preferable for more powerful races than racial classes, level adjustments, or pretending 
is just another race.....it seems like a particularly good fit for things like medusas, trolls, mindflayers, and nymphs. I do think multiracial feats, like a "monstrous" feat (+1 strength and size becomes large) that would let an orc (or half orc) PC be an ogre or a PC minotaur be a savage minotaur from the monster manual would keep the bloat lower.
I do figure mindflayers should get brain sucking as a physical attack if they grapple someone as a racial ability, but thralling someone should be a feat.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
My suggestion is a miture of racial classes from "the complete psionic" and the parangon racial classes from "Unearthed Arcana".
The tree troll (from Dragon magazine) could be a PC race, but regeneration is very powerful.
* Pixies are tiny, but fly can be very powerful. If a pixie can fly across a dungeons without touch floor or wall most of traps could be avoided. She could carry a little paper with a rune of teletransportation to send all the group across a great obstacle.
* To create thralls or mind-controlled minions is a too powerful power for PCs. Yet is too early for monster allies and henchmen. Maybe a psionic subclass about become a illithid creature, like the prestige class "flayerspawn pshychic from The complete psionic.
Mechatarrasque wrote:
The current one, for the deep gnomes, is pretty powerful. And, by powerful, I mean that its better than both the Magic Initiate feat and the drow / tiefling racial advantages. A cantrip plus three spells known. Given that Magic Initiate counts as spells known for using spell slots, I can only assume that the racial magics like this do too.
Mephi1234 wrote:
We'll be lucky to see any non-wizard gnomes of any ilk. Maybe an Eldrtich Knight or Arcane Trickster, but I consider them part wizards anyways.
Though, the not recovering HD is random. Why, do the deep gnomes have a history of being unable to sleep well, or something?
And, while we're on the issue of the "dark" races... humans get tieflings, dwarves get grey, elves get drow, gnomes get deep. Where are the dark dwelling halflings? I call gyp!
FFSAA: Um it seems like it's not making the feat part of the race so much as it's the first racial feat. It's a special ability that is unique to a race but not available to every member of the race. No where doe sit say that you have to take the feat like it's built into the race or antything.
I like the concept of taking the higher order racial powers and making them into race locked feats in order to allow races with a lot of power or signature abilities not appropriate to being a race ability.
I htink a lot of the above examples would probably need to be massively overhauled though.
rampant wrote:
I just want to see more racial feats. They are a great way to push your character's race if that's what you want to do. Plus, it makes some more powerful racial abilities eventually available, and optional. As it stands, in the PHB, every race/sub-race is front loaded, except the drow and tiefling. They get new spells at level 3 and level 5. I think the dragonborn also gets more damage dice on their breath weapon too, but I cannot remember. This means that there's really no further fun choices for racial stuff at higher levels. I don't like that. Sure, many feats should be universal, but each race should also have a few just for them.
While I didn't like all the feat bloat that 3/3.5/PF/4e had eventually, 5e needs more feat choices, IMO.
Just because an entry in the MM has an ability, doesn't mean a PC of that same race would or should. Also, look at HD in the MM. Some of these creatures' entries have the HD of a level 5+ PC, regardless of their challenge rating. So...They're not even a 'level 1' version of the race, anyway. Maybe the standard MM creature took the racial feat. 
FFSAA: Well then you just can't play a lot of races, and others are just flat innappropriate because of how specialized some of their powers are. I mean monster classes could work (as actual classes mind you no level adjustment crap), but people seem to hate that concept too. Furthtermore especially with higher level critters I don't see why it'd be at all unusual for some members of the race to not develop their abilities in the same order or time frame. I mean the runty-giant is a thing, as would be the spell less x for a high magic race.
Look at say the ithillid for example the basic 'average' mindflayre form the MM has 13 HD, a classed character could easily have three feats by then, the minotaur has 9 HD and could have two feats. Ok Yeah multi-classed characters don't get the chance to develop their racial powers until later, but honestly racial powers don't have to advance in lock step with level either, a runty minotaur may never get big, or it may take years, plenty of tiem for him to adventure and bring up even a multi-classed build to the point where he's getitng feats. Many htings that could be considered a racial power may simply exist in weaker forms unless developed and for example a Ogre Mage raised by humans may never develop the full power of a 'normal' ogre mage because he doens't know how to train them ot the potentcy that the others have. I mean unless you claim that the monster manual versions of everything are total lazy slobs who have nothing they weren't born to then it's pretty easy to see that an individual member of the same race might have different abilities, or not have as highly developed powers in one or more areas.
Its not so much that people hate the idea of monster classes, its that, for the overwhelming majority of monsters, they are little better, if not overwhelmingly worse, than actually taking levels in one of the twelve to fourteen (alchemist and psion may still end up as new) classes.
Do we really need an entire monster class to represent the Maralith, when they're basically glorified Fighters with some Eldritch Knighthood backing them up? The only thing a maralith has on a high level Eldrtich Knight is a tail (which is easily added as a racial feature) and six attacks (which a level 11 fighter can do with action surge, twice at 17). Can't a mindflayer's powers mostly be duplicated through spells? Rogue modrons aren't anything special - they can easily be created as a variation off of warforged.
Its not that monster classes would be, by necessity, weaker than regular classes. Its that monster classes would be redundant in the face of existing classes, and any "innate abilities" you might want from the class can be handled in the form of racial abilities / feats. Why bother?
rampant wrote:
Personally I find that there are a lot of abilities that the basic classes don't cover, size/reach for example, decent natural weapons for the beast fans, good shapeshifting, energy manipulation (spells completely fail in this regard IMO).
I'm not even talking about a class for every individual monster race, but maybe a therianthrope class, an angel class, an abberation class, a giant class.
Anyway the point is advanced racial powers need to have a cost, and right now that means feats or levels.
Mephi1234 wrote:
It would be interesting, a dragon monster class vs a dragonborn sorcerer/dragonfire adept, or a celestial vs a aasimar favored soul, or a werebeast vs a wander shifter.
LuisCarlos17f wrote:
It seems like racial feats would fit with the warforged too. After the war, the government stripped the warforged of their expensive armor, leaving only the basic armor (it isn't like the US government tells all the solders "keep your M-16 [or whatever the current primary personal weapon is], it's a bonus" or a dark ages king would let serfs keep weapons). The feat would mean they have acquired replacement armor and had it attached.
I'm really not under the impression that such armor is easily removable in the normal course of things. It would kind of defeat the point, also a lot of forged weren't under government control by the end of the war.
Brock: Well yeah, If the character can make it to level X without the feature then it obviously isn't mandatory. Somepeople are perfectly happy to play the lesser version of a race because it either already does what they want or they aren't hung up about being perfect copies of the MM entry. Why would it be mandatory? Not every deep gnome is going to harness his power the exact same way. I mean the fact that spells are used for racial powers has more to do with simplicty than anything else. It's easier to simply state that they have these spell-like abiltiies then detail the actual ability they have that is nromally expressed in effects similar to such spells.
FFSAA wrote:
cowleymen wrote:
rampant wrote:
FFSAA wrote:
But sunlight sensitivty isn't an effectvive cost, it's highly situational at best, where as most o ftheir powers aren't.
Recovering less HP is also iffy, better than SS sure, but still iffy. Carry weight as a balancing factor is laughable, as is the 10 hour rest because you're not hurting them were their powers help them. Requiring custom fitted armor? Seriously? Come on, you can't honestly believe that will function as a balancing factor.
Smaller Recovery HD than indicated by class might actually be a decent Idea but only if 1.) You don't do it by introducing con penalties, and 2.) You have a response for classes that already use the smallest type, and the smallest theoretical type (d4s), no letitgn the wussy classes off the penalty just because they already suck.
Also that's very limited and not appropriate for a wide array of races.
The simple fact is that you can't give away everythign on some of the higher tier races to a first level character, so if you want that stuff it has to come form somewhere else, and right now there's a limited number of places to cut pounds of flesh from.
Furthermore feats and levels can provide abilities that race shouldn't, things like natural attacks, size, extra limbs, in depth energy manipulation.
Also let's say I'm an ithillid fighter who hasn't developed his mind-blast all the way, I simply use the time my human fighter buddy spends learning to wield heavy weapons more effectively, or lifiting weights to bump his strength score, workign on my mental powers so that once we get our feats I get improved mind-blast, he gets great weapon mastery or +2 strength. You don't spend all your free time practicing your class features, that what feats/attribute mods are, things you practice that exist to customize you beyond your class.
Or: Pixie
+2 Dex +1 Cha
Speed: 10ft, fly 30ft.
Size: tiny
Stealth proficiency
Language: Sylvan
1 Invisiblity per short rest
Pixie magic resistance
You gain advantage on Dex, Cha, Wis saving throws against magic.
I don't know if I like the idea of adding them later through feats. I think there are ways to make a race concept work without resorting to that. Also, thinking about a PC Pixie race is giving me severe Wizardry nostaligia.
Edit: Good point, rampant.
What would be the ramifications of the tiny size? also Magic resist is a little much I'd advise picking a couple of stats for it to apply to instead of all throws vs. magic. Charisma for sure, probably wisdom, not sure about int for pixies, dex and con maybe, not strength though.
rampant wrote:
actually +2 still sounds fine to shield, The main advantage of a shield is how much of your body it covers. you use it to redirect and distribute the force of a blow. I would keep the +2 bonus for a pixies shield. But i can see what you mean about the weapons. It could prove some problems with the loose language of 5e.
FFSAA wrote:
Um.... no not really. Feats and levels sure, but for ADVANCED racial abilities above and beyond what is appropriate to a basic race time, wealth, growth, and xp as you have described mecha, don't work. Even if the additional power is a once a week kind of deal it's still more than a race should give. Racial power is very tightly limited in 5e because it's a one time thing for the vast majority of races so there's very little wriggle room, especially since you can only choose once and are pretty much stuck with it, barring reincarnation.
Say you have the xp cost approach, well no that doens't work unless you give all the memnbers of other races something to spend XP on in a similar manner because otherwise you've not only screwed the level up system, but you've also created a situation where as long as your character survives he will end up better than the other characters because he had the ability to buy powers with a resource that eventually stoops being useful to the other characters, i.e. you hit level 20 and exp means jack all from that point on.
Wealth? Really you want us to buy racial powers with gold? HTere's like a couple of races that would make sense for and it'd still be broken as hell unless, again, you gave the rest of the races a away to do somehting similar if more basic.
Now if we wanted to expand the race system overall that woould be different. Frankly I think an expanded race system has been somehting DnD has been hurting for since 3e.
EDIT: Pixie - I really don't like the implications of the space controlled thing that, especially combined with the weapon issues, really gimps them as warriors, as if the maneuver problems weren't enough to hinder them there. And don't you even try to tell me that it's okay for tiny characters to suck as warriors. I hate to say this but a selection of Fairy arms may be the best solution to the problem. Weapons specifically designed for tiny critters to give them the reach and oomph needed to combat the monstrous beings that in habit their world... And I just gave myself the mental image of Tinkerbell in Maneuver gear trying to stab me in the back of my neck.
the problem with race penalties, is that they often arn't penalties. sunlight sensitivity doesn't hurt a drow sorcerer. likewise needing custom armor isn't a penalty to a monk or barbarian. so you get advanced abilities with no real trade off.
and that doesn't count the pigion holeing. a deep gnome fighter is possible now by skipping the feat, but would really suffer with a sunlight sensitivity and a collection of less useful spells. though taking away a combo is less of a problem. If pixie sorcerer's where better then any other sorcerer, then it's a problem, but not being able to play a pixie barbarian isn't a huge loss.
rampant wrote:
I think it is a good idea as a way of including more powerful races in a party without overshadowing the other races.
Another thing, FFSSA, Mecha, that you're not taking into account is the fact that all the mechanics that we've seen so far, for all these races? They're all aspects of those races, firmly established by years of backround and lore. Randomly adding in penalties just for the sake of adding in penalties to achieve some kind of balance, but doesn't have some kind of background to it, doesn't make sense. I promise you that random penalties will cause an uproar from a lot of people.
Having to pay out experience points and gold will likewise cause issues because it fundamentally affects major parts of the game - how do you set a gold or exp cost for games that have low income, or use alternative exp tracks? When you start creating new things and ways of paying it out, you are trying to create special scenarios that don't fit within the basic framework of the game. Which causes other issues down the road, and unnecessarily complicates the game, and potentially creates things that are unballanced. Right now, a feat has a cost (+2 attribute) that's consistant with the way other things cost.
Drow having light sensitivity is not only in theme for the race, but it also helps reinforce specific affinity classes - namely, the drow warlock and assassin characters.