On Friday, WoTC opened their next round of feedback.  On this feedback, my focus was on race attributes.  In a nutshell, this is what I told them:

I believe that racial attributes should be beneficial to all PCs, regardless of class.  When you have core benefits that are class specific, you pigeon hole the players into that class.

For example, with the mountain dwarf's ability to wear medium and heavy armor without penalty, as well as their increase of damage dice with axes and hammers, why would you ever play a lightly armored mountain dwarf fighter (like a monk or dualist)?  Or a dwarf thief who used daggers or swords instead of axes?

Same with elves and halflings.  The halfling just screams, "make me a thief or nothing at all!"  One of my favorite characters was a halfling from B/X, who was quite the fighter.

So that part didn't fit well with me.  I'm all for saving throw bonuses, nightvision, etc--things that help all classes.  But not a fan of increased damage dice.

Agreed. Too much in the way of mechanical combat benefits just feeds the optimization machine.

Oh, one other thing I wrote feedback on was the nerfing/neutering of the wraith, but we already had that discussion earlier.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;583202For example, with the mountain dwarf's ability to wear medium and heavy armor without penalty, as well as their increase of damage dice with axes and hammers, why would you ever play a lightly armored mountain dwarf fighter (like a monk or dualist)?  Or a dwarf thief who used daggers or swords instead of axes?

You wouldn't... because they're Dwarves, and can handle the extra weight because they've evolved to carry heavy gear well. So your lightly-armed Dwarf fighter wears chain, because for him it is light. It's not a class-specific benefit.

Quote from: Ladybird;583259You wouldn't... because they're Dwarves, and can handle the extra weight because they've evolved to carry heavy gear well. So your lightly-armed Dwarf fighter wears chain, because for him it is light. It's not a class-specific benefit.

Not every class can wear chain or plate armor, so it's a racial benefit that benefits only certain classes.  And with the weapon type, why pigeon hole players into equipping their dwarves with only axes and hammers?  Why do the same with halflings and short swords, daggers, and slings?  Why am I being essentially penalized for wanting to play a dwarf thief who uses daggers or short swords?  Why am I being penalized for wanting to play a halfling who uses a short bow and war hammer?