Kristian

Imo these changes, in addition to the racial bonuses change, is bad without a shred of redeeming factors. The "all races having equal opportinuty" is not fantasy-esque, and any reasons erronously trying to tie this to IRL human skin colors is just bogus.. Orc vs elf is not light skinned vs dark skinned. Fantasy races should, imo, adhere to the old facts that some races lean towards certain "ways", the magic elf, the magic-sceptic dwarf, the sneaky halfling, etc. If you skip caring about powergaming, it makes challanging those stereotypes that much more fun.

With regards to proficiencies, I whole heartedly disagree. Thinking it bad or illogical that some races HAVE in fact seen training in axe use (or other) from childhood is trying to make this fit into our world and world views. The weirdness of the cultures of the fantasy races and how they are different from IRL humans is what makes them intereseting.