(yes, I've also seen and participated in several threads recently about racially-unlocked enhancement threads. I'm just putting these couple posts up in order to link to them in my wishlist in my sig)

Quote Originally Posted by Eladrin
I think that the current list of racial unlock trees were:

Dwarf: Stalwart Defender
Warforged: Stalwart Defender
Halfling: Assassin
Half-Orc: Ravager
Elf: Arcane Archer
Drow: Tempest
Human: Pick one. (Slightly higher investment in Racial tree required to unlock.)
Half-Elf: Arcane Archer,

Human, Elf (Yes, in our current plan they can unlock racial trees from the other races if desired. They might be able to go Half-Elf tree -> Human tree -> Any PrE through gargantuan AP expenditures.) These are still subject to change. (Especially that Human part.)
A couple years ago, it was stated that the Devs were thinking about giving each race a racially-unlockable tree, in the same way that elves and half-elves get Arcane Archer. It fell by the wayside, and I haven't heard about it recently, especially by Devs. I wonder if it might be a good time to revisit this idea. I think it's got a lot of potential. My only thing about it is the human one. As it stands, Humans are a free-to-play race that are better than almost any other race (damage bonus, massive hamp, skills, DD dragonmark). I don't think they should ALSO get to choose any racial unlock. In fact, I think they should be the ones without a racially-unlocked tree at all. In my opinion, each race should have a good reason to play it. Whether that be for a battle reason, or a utilitarian or other flavor (not RP. Actual, uniqueness in playstyle) reason. Humans already have tons of reasons to play them.

I think we should work to make other races viable too. A couple weeks ago, in the regular forums, I suggested a slight revamp to the half-Orc tree (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...lf-Orc-Reprise). The goal wasn't to make it even as good as humans, but at least to make them less-worse. I think that each race should at least make the most sense for 1 build type, in the same way that Drow has received a little bit of an interest-boost recently by seeming to be the best Shuriken-thrower.

First, I'd like to make a couple suggestions, then I'll try to play devil's advocate against my own ideas.

Here's my revised list:
Dwarf: Stalwart Defender
Warforged: Kensei*
Halfling: Thief-Acrobat**
Half-Orc: Ravager
Elf: Arcane Archer
Drow: Tempest
Human: none.
Half-Elf: Arcane Archer
Iconics: Maybe we could revisit them after a while, but for now, I'd say leave Iconics out of this upgrade.

*A big Greatsword-wielding follower of the Lord of the Blades seems much more offensive than defensively-focused.
**While halflings are the epitome of rogishness, they have much more of a fast-movement, trip, tumble type of rogue flavor, instead of a "kill them!" type rogue flavor.

Complaint - With even more trees, you won't be able to take what you want!
Response - Exactly right. More options means more hard choices. It's a good thing. Anything you can build now, you will be able to build with these options in place. But there will be more options for those who want more options.

Complaint - This will make [race] OP!
Response #1 - There are certain races that are OP now. We don't have our API, so I can't tell you exact figures, but I'd say it's a safe bet that out of all our races, probably 50% of characters will be one of three races. (this isn't a good response, I know)
Response #2 - To unlock these trees, it will require a certain amount of APs spent in the racial tree. This alone makes it more costly, and more of an investment to take these trees. You're not going to be able to heavily invest in your primary class trees as well as your racially-unlocked tree. In the same way, by multiclassing, you give more options, while reducing your ability to take a lot in your primary class trees.
Response #3 - Well, let's check out those trees and see what's OP.