Easy answer to both of you:

For instance, if you gave Orcs the racial trait of bonus physical damage with melee weapons based on how much Health they are missing, which would prompt a player to the idea of taking their Orc the "tank" route so they can soak up damage to deal more damage. And this would be a constant effect, not just the once a day.

Orcs are physically larger and stronger than the other races, by lore. It is in their genetics as it were, the same way that Elves are always of lithe body and light foot, while Dwarves are short and stout of body. An Orc, by birth, is simply physically stronger than an Elf, or at least has the potential to be. To be as physically strong as an Orc, an Elf would have to use magical means in the same fashion that if in Dungeons & Dragons a Human wanted to have "Giant's Strength" they would have to use a spell, because no Human can ever be as strong as a Giant naturally.

Giving a bonus such as Bonus Physical Damage based on how much Health you are missing, as an Orc, does in no way impede an Orc from becoming a Mage, nor does it impede on a High Elf from becoming a Warrior. Just as Berserk does not stop an Orc from becoming a Mage now or stop a High Elf from becoming a Warrior.

All it does is strengthen the choice between choosing race A over race B if the player decides to make the race they chose to fit the archetype that said race is "known for."

No limitation at all on anyone else. None.

I'm not sure how you guys don't see this simple concept when it's staring you in the face every time you play Skyrim anyway:

Wolves are not exactly like Bears.
Bears are not exactly like Saber Cats.
Saber Cats are not exactly like Trolls.
Trolls are not exactly like Spriggens.
Spriggens are not exactly like Draughr.
Draughr are not exactly like Vampires.
Vampires are not exactly like Dragons.

You seemed to have missed my point. My point was that gamesas needs to find a balance where races have notible strengths and weaknesses, but are not so profound as to make one race unable to perform as something that they have weaknesses in.

I say this because it sounds like some people here are saying "I WANT AN ORC TO BE FAR STRONGER THAN AN ELF, NONE OF THIS SKILL BOOST CRAP THAT IS EASILY OVERCOME!" If this was implemented, there would be no point for a non-Orc to be a fighter, since they couldn't match an orc's prowess at melee AT ALL. No matter how much training or magic they had, an Orc would always be better. THAT is what I am saying.

However an Orc should always be better at being a Warrior, simply based on lore and the way Bethesda presents the race alone. That's just standard fare for an RPG, and a standard fare that Bethesda themselves gives to us when they match Orc with an ability like "Berserker."

There would still be a point for players to create a non-Orc Warrior; because they want to. The point would be having a consequence to your choice, choosing Option A instead of Option B. That choice and consequence should not be limited to just quests or what weapon you're going to equip but also the pros and cons of each race when held up against the various class archetypes. If you make the choice to create a High Elf Warrior it should be under the understanding that Elves are not going to measure up to Orcs in this archetype because of their racial differences but the player is ok with that.

Currently, there is no weight behind choosing an Orc or a High Elf for speccing a Warrior.

And again, this idea does not make an Elf "unable," it simply means an Elf is "not as good as." That's how these games work; something or someone, somewhere, is always going to be better. That is proven every time you play the game and get into conflict. When you defeat a Bandit you have proven that your character is better than that Bandit. When a Dragon Priest defeats you the game has proven that the Dragon Priest is better than you. Why should that not extend to the races a player can play as?

There should be mire distinctions between the races, I would like that if they had more positives and negatives to being a certain race, each race should be more adept on one thing than another.

The races are 75-90% the same. There's a couple of minor differences between the races.

The taller the race, the faster you move. High Elves move the fastest, while Bretons are the slowest. Easily noticeable when trying to sprint past Alduin in the tutorial when Hadvor calls the kid over. High Elves and Nords should have no problems, the others will still get by but it's a lot closer.

Each race has a unique ability and some of them are really good like Warcry. Others like the Khajitt's claws bonus are wasted.

Starting bonuses although those even out after a couple of levels, the +10 though is a solid bonus at the beginning like Restoration for Imperials.

Orcs can enter the Orcish strongholds immediately, others will have to do the Forgemaster's quest or help Pavo out with his quest near Markarth.

The sad thing is, this is mostly true. I mean, different races have different starting stats, different "Special Starting spells", and different minor abilities. In other games, especially Morrowind this wasn't the case.

An Orc should NEVER be as good a thief or better than an Argonian, Khajitt or Wood Elf. Just like those races should NEVER be as good or better warriors than an Orc, or Nord or Redguard.

Where is the replayability and the decisions if you make all the races the same so that no matter what you choose makes no difference other than how people talk to you?

You can be a Wood Elf warrior if you want in Morrowind and in Oblivion , you just won't be as good as you would if you were another race. That's how it should be. It's call ROLE PLAYING. It's called making a decision, which I think should be an important component in an RPG.

Nicely said

It is generally the racial differences make Orc never as good thief as Argonian, yes to majority Orc, but there are exception... it is YOU. Do you see any Orc thief out there is actually better? Nope, only if you make yourself so. For example, most best NBA players are black, traditionally by racial differences, chinese are never better NBA players. But there are Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin who are outstanding NBA and they are Chinese. The fact is not every Orc in the game are better thief, only you if you made so.

And it is worth to make an Orc thief just because lore say Orc are no better thief. Through hard works and you can make the best thief in Skyrim world, why not?

Terrible anology considering that neither Yao or Jeremy are better than Jordan or Kobe.

"But it's YOU!" is a shallow angle.

Like TheEngravingMan said... this is an RPG, is it not? It's supposed to be about choices and consequences, is it not?

Then why are you wanting to leave the choices and consequences restricted to just quests, Perks and gear?

They should have done skills and other checks as highly contested values, that can be checked and diminished by enemy/object level and skill vs player level and skill...and made racial bonuses a form of multiplier. That way, a race that was better at whatever, would have a permanent edge in facing harder or more difficult situations specific to those skills by having a hidden bonus value that cannot be matched by leveling or equipment. A bonus that cannot be overcome by skill, due to raw natural talent and racial upbringing.

Did I say they are better player than Jordan? Nope, I said they are out standing player only. Racial bonus still play a role here and therefore Jordan is still better player, and don't forget Jordan and Kobe are exceptional among their race too.

If an Orc and a Khajiit thief level up at the same rate, Khajiit should always a better thief than the Orc until he reach all stealth skill at 100 where the Orc started to pick up. Don't forget Khajiit always have night eye makes better night thief than an Orc. But it is stupid to compare so, since there won't be another as powerful NPC as player in a single player game. You can make an overpowered whatever at lv20.

Here's the logical flaw in the bolded part though:

Does the Khajiit suddenly just forget everything that put them on a level higher than the Orc? Did they lose all the physical traits, like soft padding, when the Orc reached a skill level of 100? And mentioning Night Eye, that can be handled with a simple spell or Enchantment.

I have sarted a file as each race and make each biuld I make towardes the asseated skills.
I do hate that some of the abiliteies are eather shouts or magics you can get later, and that the Kajiets got jeped out of there ability.
Also the races are not different for the resoen that noone would miss out on a certian experence because they picked the wrong race much the same way with gender differences in most RPG's.

Nords and orcs do NOT do 8% more damage.

High elves do the most damage out of anyone, as they have the LARGEST scale, and as such move slightly faster and do slightly more damage.

Did you actually play the game?

Yes but I have the other files to see the differences in the races plus certain giulds dont work with certian ceareters so/

As a PC I have no problem with all races being the same. We are one person out of billions of people. So what if I make an Orc mage. Most if not all of the NPC orcs are warriors(yes I know about the dude in the mage college). I have no problem with how skyrim presents races. It's not about the player character, it's about the NPC's.

Pretty much this, an one a day power is close to that Tvtropes calls awesome but useless if it is awesome at all, far from all greater powers are.

If you have something you can only use rarely, either once a day or an single scroll you eiter: save it to use it later, or forget it, or do not know how to use it well as you have seldom used it. This makes it way less useful than it should be.

Had it had shorter cool down time like 3 minutes real time, it would be something you could use regularly against stronger enemies.

To be honest, the only racial difference I ever found to be sigificant in Morrowind was the the magicka boosts for Altmer and Breton, which was because of the high cost of decent spells and lack of regeneration. Beyond that it didn't matter whether you played a Nord warrior or Bosmer Warrior, they would both end up on equal footing sooner or later.

There're also resistances, but those still exist in Skyrim, just with the numbers turned down slightly.

The problem is that there is no exception in Skyrim, every time you play the game you can make an Orc thief just as powerful as you could an Argonian thief.

Now, if there are a chance that when you did select an Orc and there was no way for that Orc to become a better thief than an Argonian than your anology would be correct.

My problem is that without a significiant difference in the beginning when you choose your character than you are removing a very important decision and in the process removing an important Role Playing mechanic, having to decide what race you want to be.

I'll say it again, there is no reason to choose any other race than whatever your favorite may be. There is no decision. There are no consequences. That is hurting the overall Role Playing in the game.

It's true that every class should be available for every race.
But the thing is that all races have almost same potential at being awesome as any class, and that's wrong.
I doubt that anyone here wants to make some drastic differences between races to point that a Redguard can't be a mage, or Altmer can't be a thief.

They may be different in bonus but no matter the race, people treat you always in the same way.. being an argonian or being a nord changes nothing in game except for a few more starting points in two handed/sneak. Noone seems to notice that you are a khajit (except a few guards) , you can do the same things ecc. At least in Oblivion something changed

Your saying that you need to be disscrenated like the other of the race,like the dark elfs and argonions in winterhold.

Absolutely, it would be much more fun and would give more immersion to the game. Imagine if u had to perform an extra mission in order to be trusted by guards and to enter in windhelm, i would love it... Remember this is an RPG