To be honest, I would prefer if no race had armor/weapon passives. I think it would encourage build diversity, but that's just me

You still get nice stamina regen which ensures more bow attacks over time because you'll get more resource over time than anyone else. Which technically relates to more DPS.

I actually think this would be the way to go too. I just get the feeling that the devs want to keep a nice dose of TES lore intact and so Bosmers have got to have some sort of Bow Passive as they're all pretty famed archers given the lore

Exactly, it isn't underpowered at all. It's lateral with everything else.

Bow passive is just the same as the other races - Dunmer get dual weilding, Orcs get Heavy Armour, Nords get 2 hander, etc - no issues there

Resist to poison and disease - that's a good one especially in PvP as mentioned above - there are weapon enchants that add these types of damage as well as the poin arrow archer skill - all good to have a defense against.

Stealth speaks for itself.

I think they all even themselves out in the long run, with maybe the Argonians losing out a little with theirs, but the healing boost could potentially be better that the regen in regards to numbers, but with the understanding that the regen is always on and not needing a heal spell to work.

I think armor passives have more utility, with just one piece of the armor you get the benefits of that exp passive with any weapon and skill slot loadout you so chose. But with the bow passive you MUST be holding a bow to draw (punny?) any any benefit from the Bosmer passive. I just feel it's a tad more restrictive is all.

Everyone has their own opinion on the matter.

I feel the bonus XP should not even be there.. but it is what it is. Since all races have it, it is not a huge deal.

On the other hand...

You unlock your stronger/more useful attacks faster and passives sooner.

You get the knockback attack sooner, you get the AOE sooner, you get ranger, long shots and accuracy sooner, and the ranger passive bonus has good synergy with your stamina effecting passives (regen and cap) etc...

You get snipe faster than anyone else in the game. That's good news

Actually you just need a bow ability on your bar. So it isn't all that different from armor.

It's hardly justification to call Bosmer underpowered when only three out of ten races have an armour EXP boost, and when said EXP boost is meaningless in the end.

IMO Bosmer is in a decent place. Poison/Disease Resist doesn't seem that great but a lot of races have similarly not-that-great passives. Argonians on the other hand... unless the Stamina boost added to Amphibious is substantial and not like +3%, it's still a pretty weak set of passives.

Not going to stop me playing one however. With soft-capping the racial boosts will be pretty minor.

With only 5 ability slots I don't think many people will be wasting that valuable real estate just to grab a 15% exp bonus

On the bright side ummm alchemy will be a go-to profession for Alchemists??

That's not good news. Most players spend most of their online lives playing at max level. I'd rather have a slower starting character that made good use of the racials for end game rather than have a leveling advantage that turns into dust when you hit max level.

Considering how widespread bow builds are for -every class-, I would say yes, yes they would.

Especially since it means getting that knockback attack faster than anyone else.

Why not?

I plan to have one of each class power on my bar for as long as possible... just for the XP.

It just seems a little silly to me to have a ability slotted on your bar that you can't actually use. I just don't see tons of Bosmers running around with 2hd swords and staves and keeping bow skills slotted that they cant use. You're effectively turning your ability bar into a 4 slotter just to get a 15% exp to bow. Honestly: will you do this?

Bosmer? I plan on doing it anyways with my "secondary" weapon... It's the same reason I plan on wearing all the armor types.

The game will change. Abilities will be modified, but my XP in those skillsets... they dont go away. It allows me to change with the times.

Ah, I can see you keeping it on there if you're going to be heavily focused on bow. But some Bosmer don't plan on going bow, that's why I was saying armor would provide more utility as armor passives don't directly affect your action bar, whereas weapon passives do affect your action bar and subsequently how you play the game.

Bonus XP is just icing on the cake. If I wanted to go Resto staff and sword and board, I would the weapon skill of whatever I wasn't holding in my hotbar for sure. It's all gravy baby.

If the bosmer resistance talent is like the argonian one, then it isn't "8%" per point, it's 8 points of resistance, which as far as I can tell is similar to armor and spell resistance as a stat. It also scales with level; the argonian character I was using in the beta was getting ~7.5 points of resistance per level with a single point in the talent.

Like that old saying goes, jack of all trades, master of none.

I don't usually say this but...god, not another of these threads.

Really pointless, haven't even done the math to prove anything you say, hell haven't even played the game and your strongest argument is "meh". If you were a theorycrafter and backed this up with math I could take it seriously but in your case you just want to create a bosmer and an argonian alt (or your wife does) and worry about being underpowered, but don't you think the developers have already seen to balancing these racials and know something more than you do?

I guess that's one way to level up as many skill lines as possible. You'll be gaining less experience for the other abilities you do have slotted however and you're limiting your number of abilities you can actively utilize at anyone one time. I wouldn't go that route but hey, to each their own.

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

Logic ... can't beat it!