I was working on making my own race for my pathfinder game and wanted to get some advice.
What i know for sure, the race will be sized small, that's about it.
Would there be any issues with a small race not getting a Str. penalty?
Would giving the race a simple +2 to any one ability score work?
How big is a climb speed?
How big would scent be?
How big would a natural poison bite attack be?
I'm not necessarily planing on giving them all these just wanted some general opinions.
I don't see any reason why they should have to have the strength penalty. Mostly it's just a thematic thing. It makes sense for most small creatures to hit less hard, but yours could pretty easily be different. +2 to any 1 should be ok.
A climb speed is potentially pretty big, since it almost completely invalidates a whole skill. You'd be letting them climb faster than a character who put everything into climb, without requiring them to invest skill points for it. I'm certain it's bigger than a feat.
Scent is not that big in my opinion, but it's still useful. you're unlikely to break the game by adding it to a race.
A bite attack is also not huge. Tengu and half-orcs can both have one. Half-orcs trade out ferocity for it and they can also trade ferocity for a perception bonus, if I remember rightly, so it's on roughly the same level as that.
Poison is a bit more difficult. It's not out of the question to get it. It's useful to a player character, but pretty damn nasty when used against them by an npc. It can cripple a character with a low ability score for days. Be careful, but don't be scared to try it out.