In the Advanced Race Guide, page 219, under "Challenging Advanced and Monstrous Races" it suggests having races be a level less for race cost 20 for a while. In order to implement this I came up with a system for XP debt.
However, that can be a pain to implement. It is easier to just give a flat modifier. I was thinking that perhaps using Point-Buy Attributes, and giving a number of Attribute points based on the race cost.
For example, races that are more on par with the PHB races would be at 20, and races that are a bit tougher would have fewer attribute points to play with. Assuming that Humans and similar-pointed races would be 20 attribute points. A lower-point build (I think Kobold was 5) would be 25 attribute points. Tieflings and Aasimars would be 15 attribute points.
As a related aside, I have seen posts where people said that the race guide is not all that balanced. I wonder how true that is, I figure that it is really more subjective based on races and what they did (or did not do) in a given gaming session.
Is this a fair assessment? You guys and gals are good at shooting down my ideas (but in a good way), I would rather ask before trying it in the game.