Sat in a hospital waiting room, musing on Skyrim (because my life is that interesting). It occurred to me that I don't remember ever using a racial power in the game. I don't remember using them much in previous games, either. Are any of them useful?

I think the Orc one sounds pretty good. Maybe I should start using them (if I remember).

Any thoughts?

I've used Ancestor's Wrath perviously but thats it

Breton racial power is pretty useful - combined with the Atronach Stone it granted immunity to magic. Sadly, that was nerfed in patch 1.7 and spell absorption caps at 85% now.
Khajiit's Night Eye is neat if you use mods that make dungeons darker.
Orc and Argonian powers sound good too.

All are good in some way.

Orc is really good for warriors.

Some people also think that the Imperial one is weak..... it is very usefull. Free backsteps for 60 without interference from other NPC's.

As long as they're once per day and share a key with shouts, they're useless.
Bosmer's Command Animal could be a substitute for illusion magic, but it's severly limited - that's why I never use it and keep Become Ethereal under Z instead.
Night Eye is also useless in vanilla Skyrim because dungeons are way too bright.

It's abilities that I like. Resistances are a life-saver and Khajiit claws + enchanted gloves make a hand-to-hand character viable. Of course there's Argonian waterbreathing - in a game without underwater treasures

Ah, well I'm on 360 so there are no darker dungeons for me. I can see how Night Eye would come in handy, though.

Is the 'fear' power for Nords? I saw my brother use it on the frost troll on the way to High Hrothgar. That's what got me thinking about this in the first place!

I still think the Orc one sounds the best. I have a duel-wielding Orc at about level 10 and I haven't played that character for a while. I'll try it out.

The only ones I've used are the Dunmer's and Orcs' powers. Neither of them have I used in Skyrim, but used both several times in Oblivion.