I've brought this up in the recent past already, but I felt, that writing a complete suggestion on the improvement of racial advantages and disadvantages would make things easier for everyone to understand. In it's nutshell, I believe, that several species are in disadvantage to each other, while a select few reigns superior over others, in terms of sheer power. While the smaller percentage of more exotic species can be explained by their small population in-character and the popularity of 'superior' species out-of-character, it does not justify the fact, that we encourage the creation of less populated species via our racial perks. I am sure, that some of the staff shares this concern, while others might not have considered it - and I hope, that my suggestion will create more equality between the 'superior' species and the less populated species. I've done my best in pinpointing what might be the cause of this, and gather my own suggestions of answers to this flaw.

Please, read this, and contribute on it to your best ability.

Has any of you ever compared the amounts of abilities, that we give to different species by default? I looked at them, and sadly, I realized, that they have a taste of indifference to them - and by taste of indifference, I mean great gap in number. The same goes to the amount of techniques, that each species is allowed to start out with. Below, I've gathered a list of the amounts of abilities and techniques, that each species possesses by default.

Abilities per Species:

Bount — 4 [+3 in Fusion]
Arrancar — 4 [+2 in Segunda]
Visored — 4 [+1 in Bankai]
Fullbringer — 4 [+1 in Evolved]
Shinigami — 3 [+1 in Bankai]
Quincy — 3 [+1 in Vollstandig]
Humans — 4
Mod Soul — 3
Hollow — 2

Techniques per Species:

Visored — 14 [+6 in Bankai]
Arrancar — 11 [+6 in Segunda]
Fullbringer — 11 [+6 in Evolved]
Shinigami — 10 [+6 in Bankai]
Bount — 10 [+6 in Fusion]
Quincy — 8 [+5 in Vollstandig]
Mod Soul — 12
Hollows — 10
Humans — 6

Now, as you can see, the species on the list are ranked on how much abilities or techniques they get. If we look at the four topmost species (not including the bounts in their number of abilities), you can clearly see that visored, arrancar, fullbringers and shinigami have the greatest amount of slots. What do we know by fact, about the popularity of these four species? Well, at least in the past, these four have been the most populous species, often leaving the other species with a few, if not only a single, character. A factor in this, would be the sheer advantage, that the four species offer to a character - thus, the decision between making a human or an arrancar, seems quite simple to me; even if, personality- and plot-wise, the character would make a better human, the player feels attracted to the advantages of making an arrancar. In the end, we have no human characters, but numerous arrancars. True, this is partially due to their out-of-character popularity as well, but clearly arrancars are not just powerful because of their status as spiritual beings - they have more abilities and techniques than a human has, for no reason.

In a sense, it's all about mathematics, and how making a certain species will restrict your freedom of making equal amount of techniques as a shinigami has. The lists should be reversed so, that less populous species get more perks, while the populous one do not reign supreme over them - because if we look at it, that's how things are. Humans get six techniques and an arrancar gets seventeen, while a hollow gets two abilities and a visored gets five. At the worst, difference between technique slots of two species is fourteen. Why I do not see any equality or justification for this in the system?

And, so here's my proposal;

The numbers are uneven and biased by racial popularity. What I do not think, is that we should allow the exotic species more slots than the more popular ones; not because I would think, that it would create more inequality, since arrancars and visored are always going to be the most popular species, but because I believe that equality might just equal to fairness. Characters, who have been played for longer periods of time, will have more techniques, because they have trained for them, but I think, that offering every species the equal amount of ability and technique slots, and allow them to spend them freely in different areas of their character application.

My suggestion is, that this would be 5 abilities for all characters, regardless of their species, and 15 techniques. However, by rule, one of the default five of ability slots is reserved for their released form, that must be trained for - in other words, only three species, humans, hollows and modified souls, none of which possess a release of their own, are allowed to have the five ability slots in their application. In addition, this does not apply to characters with tier 2-1, that have their release already written within their application. So, most species can have up to four ability slots in their application, and they can distribute them as they wish, as long as a shinigami and an arrancar has at least one slot used in shikai and resurrected form, respectively. This system allows freedom of choice, whenever an arrancar will have one personal ability and three resurrection abilities - the player can choose where they want to invest their slots in.

In terms of techniques, this is along the same lines. Humans, modified souls and hollows have the maximum of fifteen by default to them, while to other species, the last five come available in their trained releases - thus, most species have ten technique slots in their application. No other complex regulations on that you may have four general techniques and six shikai techniques if you make a shinigami, but the freedom of investing the slots where you want to - you could have one general technique and nine shikai techniques, or the other way around. It's really simple, in my opinion.

The biggest change goes to the species of Visored. Really, they are the strongest species on the site to be honest, and only ones with the sheer power to stand against them in terms of advantages are the arrancars. They have the largest number of techniques and abilities, basically. I think, that this is both unfair, and encourages people to make them in large numbers, even though they are born only in extremely rare circumstances. This system would change that, make them more equal with other species. To be specific, this would mean, that they no longer get an additional ability slot nor additional five technique slots to their hollow mask - they get the same number of slots as a shinigami would, but the player is able to invest some of these slots in the hollow, if they wish to do so. I find this more than justified, even though some might disagree due to playing a visored character - this would be fair for the site, and encourage members to consider making other species as well, not just visoreds. Cero would come naturally to a visored, and would not need a technique slot.

I hope I didn't leave out anything important. Please feel free to say your opinion and contribute to the idea with alternatives if you wish.

Below, you can find the current AR-based strengths and weaknesses of each species, that are tied to what is known in canon.

Shinigami:
Shikai - First release. AR +1
Bankai - Second release. AR +2

Visored:
Shikai - First release. AR +1
Bankai - Second release. AR +2
Hollow Mask - Stacking boost. AR +1

Hollow:
Spiritual Environment - Stacking boost. AR +1
Sated Hunger - Stacking boost. AR +1

Arrancar:
Resurrection - First release. AR +2
Second Stage - Second release. AR +3
Hierro - Stacking boost. FAR +1 to Defense

Quincy:
Spiritual Environment - Stacking boost. AR +1
Vollständig - First release. AR +2
Human Body - Stacking weakness. FAR -1 to Defense

Fullbringer:
Evoked Power - First release. AR +1
Evolved Power - Second release. AR +2
Human Body - Stacking weakness. FAR -1 to Defense

Bount:
Spiritual Environment - Stacking boost. AR +1
Zeige Dich - First release. AR +1
Fusionieren - Second release. AR +2

Modified Soul:
Enhancement - Stacking boost. FAR +1 to two attributes.
Shinigami Type - Gains shikai [+1 AR] and bankai [+2 AR].

The AR system, thanks to Duquin, is fair and equal for the most part - however, I'd like to take this a step further and make the boost balanced equally between all species. +3 AR is the maximum boost, that one can possess at a time, as Duquin's writing described - and I believe this is a fair cap, and the cap, that all species should be reach, if given the right circumstances. Visoreds and arrancars are the only ones capable of reaching the maximum via releasing their true power, while quincies and bounts can reach it via release in a spiritual environment. However, this leaves the rest of the species less powerful, even with their full power unleashed - and that's not fair, is it? Since the fifth species, humans, do not get AR advantages, due to their in-character status as the weakest species - though this might change as well - the remaining four should be able to reach the stage of +3 AR. I am sure someone feels the same way.

For fullbringers, I am thinking, that the future plot of 'Darkbringer', a more hollow-like fullbringer would prove a great opportunity for this - I'd say, that by devouring a soul, a fullbringer could activate their inner hollow, and attain a stacking boost of +1 AR, similarly to their parent species and Visoreds, who are similarly a hybrid species. Modified souls could naturally possess a 'killer mode', which is what Ururu displayed - though it was left undetermined, whenever she was a modified soul or a human. In it's nutshell, a mod soul could attain power equal to that of a shinigami's bankai, by entering a stage that mimics that of the stage, that a shinigami's soul goes, when they release their bankai - this would not give abilities or techniques, would be innate for all mod souls but activated ONLY in extreme danger, not when an individual wills it.

Simply because I cannot think of any bonuses, that a shinigami or a hollow could have, I suggest, that one of their abilities can have the effect of an additional +1 F/AR. This way, all of the species can reach +3 AR boost, if they wish so. Aaand, that leads to the next thing. For sake of fairness, and to negate attempts to make a character akin to Aizen, a character should not have ANY abilities/techniques, that give them additional AR/FAR, under any circumstances. Really, this is reasonable, and I don't see why it isn't banned already. If you have an argument against this, feel free to say, but really, I think no character should never be able to reach beyond +3 AR boost. Never.

Also, a customization between AR and FAR, which has already been really active, should become an official system with it's own guidelines. Ideas on this are welcome!

Ideas on everything are welcome!!!

Further Note:

You might have notice, that I left out some boost from the list. This is due to an upcoming update on F/AR system, and it reflects my own suggestion - I decided to use it here, but since I am making it a separate thread, you may not discuss it here.

This thread is meant for other subjects.

Basically, a shinigami gets free techniques in form of Kido spells. An arrancar has innate hierro [+1 FAR to Defense] and high-speed regeneration. A fullbringer has the ability to manipulate souls of inanimate matter. These are free perks, that your character gets by being of a specific species, which do not give an AR boost. What do other species get as their perks, besides from arrancars, fullbringers and shinigami? Nothing, according to our current guidelines. These perks shouldn't be symmetrical to each other, and another species will occasionally have more perks than another - however, I do emphasize, that perks play the greatest role in the appeal of a species. In other words, if we want to encourage making characters, who belong to the less populated species, we give those species special perks, that make give them advantage over the more populous ones. And this is the fun part. As staff, we are responsible for assigning these perks. Below, you can find my ideas for these.

Shinigami:
Kido - 10 free Kido spells!

Visored:
Kido - 10 free Kido spells!
Cero - Ability to use cero!

Hollow:
Acidic Touch - Ability to burn others via touch!

Arrancar:
Regeneration - Ability to regenerate wounds!
Hierro - Permanent +1 FAR to Defense!

Quincy:
Ginto/Kirchenlied - 10 free Ginto/Kirchenlied spells!
Blut Vene - Temporary +1 FAR to Defense! [Free to Echt only]
Blut Arterie - Temporary +1 FAR to Strength! [Free to Echt only]

Fullbringer:
Fullbring - Ability to manipulate inanimate souls!

Bount:
Healing - Ability to heal in spiritual environments!
Stealth - Ability to have undetectable spiritual pressure!
Hypnosis - Ability to hypnotize others via voice! [Plot uses only]

Modified Soul:
Sixth Sense - Ability to detect the faintest of reiatsu! [Even Bounts]

Human:
N/A

All these are just ideas. When you post here, you should definitely try to come up with more, or comment on if you think something wouldn't fit to the universe. It would make sense to give humans and hollows, and most likely, to mod souls, more perks than the populous species, so there would be sort of 'advantage' of playing one. Ones, that I believe do not need more perks than they already have are the four most populous; shinigami (10 extra techniques is a lot), visored, arrancar (they are basically strongest with their hierro) and fullbringers (ability to manipulate the matter gives them a vast advantage in battle). Think something like the Bount's ability to hide their presence completely, or something like the Arrancar's Hierro, that gives a permanent/temporary FAR boost. A perk may not give an AR boost, however, as that would fall to the FAR/AR system - also, this would mean a subtle change of moving Hierro out of the AR system to the racial perks, since that's what it basically is.

Thanks for reading me!

--- Erida