Racial Spell-Like Abilities

As much as I like that latest suggestion of using racial abilities as replacement class abilities (effectively treating race as class,) I'd like the option of integrating the easy approach to racial spell-like abilities into the new approach, or at least giving other people the option of using either or both. Fortunately, I've got the Gifted class to suggest the way: a race with an innate power (1st level equivalent) is a lot like a Gifted character limited to 1st level. So: let races with a single innate ability function as a Gifted characters with a penalty to the Con save equal to the power level of their ability.

Example: I gave a -6 level cap to Halflings to pay for their +4 save bonus and innate Invisibility. Let's drop the save bonus and focus on the "little people who can hide in plain sight" archetype: that's a -2 adjustment. Under this scheme, a Halfling can turn invisible at will, but must make a Con -2 save or potentially lose up to 4 hit points from the effort (roll 2d6, each die result less than or equal to 2 counts as damage.)

An option to the damage roll, especially for races with multiple abilities at different power levels, is to treat failed Con rolls as causing sleep deprivation, with a penalty to action if it reaches the severe level.

If you trust the original race's power balance, this actually allows quick conversions of AD&D races:

• subtract the race's level cap from 12 to get the level adjustment;
• subtract level adjustment from Con rolls when using innate powers.

Of course, I'm going to meddle with the races, so expect to see follow-up posts...