Reworking Mongrelfolk

Mongrelfolk are among the most common races in my campaign. But, if you look at them, they're actually kind of weak, or at least uninteresting.

They're not SRD, so I'm toeing the legal line here, but let's consider what the mongrelfolk can do:

+4 Con, -2 Int, -4 Cha. This may be really good for a tanking character, especially one that uses extremely heavy armor. No penalties to physical stats, large bonus to constitution. That's about the nicest thing they have going for them. Interestingly, half-elves get a diplomacy bonus because of general likeableness, but half-everythings get a large charisma penalty because of horribleness.

Low-Light Vision isn't bad, but it's far from great. It rarely comes up.

Immunity to Sleep spells and effects. Good in theory, but I've never in my life seen anyone cast Sleep.

+2 on saving throws against any spell that targets or ignores a particular race from which the mongrelfolk is descended. Do any such spells even exist? Dance of Ruin ignores demons, but mongrelfolk aren't demons. I'm sure there are other spells like that, but they never get used, so that's not a useful ability.

+1 on saves against enchantment and illusion spells and effects. Not terrible, that at least applies to 2/9ths of spells, not that it's a particularly large bonus. Also, +1 saves against poison, which can be nice, lots of monsters have poison, but again, not a large bonus.

+1 to Appraise, Climb, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Search, and Spot. Three skills people use frequently, three nobody ever does. Maybe a rogue can benefit from move silently. But again, small bonus. The little things add up, sure, but it's still not very interesting.

+4 to Hide and Sleight of Hand. At last, a super-useful bonus! ...for rogues. If you're not a rogue, this is crap-tastic, because you never use either of these skills.

Can automatically Emulate Race, as with Use Magic Device, provided the race is humanoid. +4 to emulating non-humanoids. This could be useful, if there were many magic items that required you to be a specific race. There aren't.

Can mimic any voice or sound they have heard. This has real potential, even if you don't allow the mongrelfolk to mimic, say, the Babble of an allip (as you probably shouldn't; Babble is a Supernatural ability, Sound Imitation is only Extraordinary).

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In summary, aside from the con bonus and the Sound Imitation, most of the mongrelfolk abilities are "can do X slightly better, if there were ever any call to do X, which there isn't". And they all sort of fit thematically, but none of them (except Sound Imitation) are at all interesting, which is a major problem.

What can we do to fix this? Well, for one thing, why are mongrelfolk limited to being descended from human, halfling, dwarf, elf, gnome, goblin, and orc? Especially in an all-ocean world where sahuagin, tritons, merfolk, locathah, and kuo-toa are so common, and where virtually all the other races died out or interbred with mongrelfolk?

Well, first, because it makes no sense for a mongrelfolk to get mongrelfolk benefits from some things they're descended for and not from others, I add some clauses to Emulate Race and Diffuse Blood:

Where Diffuse Blood specifies "Mongrelfolk gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against any spell that targets a particular race or ignores a particular race, provided the selected race is part of their general ancestry (human, halfling, dwarf, elf, gnome, goblin, or orc)", I add "or any other race from which they are descended through feats, bloodlines, or templates".

Where Emulate Race specifies "A mongrelfolk can automatically emulate any humanoid race", I add "or any race from which they are descended". Where it gives a "+4 racial bonus on attempts to emulate nonhumanoid races", I specify "nonhumanoid races from which they are not descended".

Now the kicker, the actual major change that could make mongrelfolk a legit force to be reckoned with. I add to the list of mongrelfolk racial traits:
"Mongrelfolk may take heritage feats even if they do not meet the class restrictions (for example, you may take the Draconic Heritage feat even if you are not a sorcerer). If you take a heritage feat tree, choose a single race described by that heritage (for example, if you choose Fiendish Heritage, you may choose to be descended from any one demon or devil, for example a succubus). You are descended from that race for the purpose of your Emulate Race and Diffuse Blood racial abilities."

Boom, with one feat (Fiendish Heritage, specifying some specific demon), a mongrelfolk wizard can cast Dance of Ruin, doing 2d20 to every creature in the vicinity including himself, but get a +2 to save. Okay, yeah, that's still only okay.

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The other thing I did, then, was to add a buttload of additional mongrelfolk-only feats, partially capitalizing on this new specification that a mongrelfolk is descended (for the purpose of his racial abilities) from anything from which it is descended (in general).

Balanced Heritage [Racial]
You are descended from a more balanced mix of races, so you are more comely but less hardy.
Prerequisite: Mongrelfolk race
Benefit: Your racial bonus to constitution and your racial penalty to charisma are both reduced by 2, bringing your racial modifiers to a total of +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma.

Because I've all but eliminated gnomes and halflings and replaced them with engineers, there may be a bit of an open niche for Small races, so:

Small Heritage [Racial]
You are descended from kobolds, fey, or some other undersized humanoid.
Prerequisites: Mongrelfolk, 1st level only
Effect: Pick any Small or Tiny aberration, fey, giant, humanoid, monstrous humanoid, or outsider. You are descended from that race for the purpose of your Emulate Race and Diffuse Blood racial traits.
In addition, you are naturally Small sized. Your height is halved and your weight is divided by 8. You take a +1 size modifier to attack and armor class, -4 to Grapple, +4 to Hide, -2 to Strength (to a minimum of 1), +2 to Dexterity. Your unarmed strikes do 1d2 instead of 1d3damage. You use smaller equipment, which is correspondingly less expensive, but your weapons also do less damage because of their size.
Special: You may take this feat more than once. If you do, you may choose a second creature from which you are descended. You receive no other benefits for taking this feat more than once.

By analogy with Small Heritage, we should include a Large Heritage. Notably, this would be the only way to get a Large PC at anything less than +2 ECL, which is problematic. So it's worth more than Small Heritage, and should thus be an investment of two feats, both at first level (so you must take a flaw to take them). It's still marginally problematic, in that Powerful Build is in some ways better than actually being Large. But you can get Powerful Build at first level (by being a goliath), so that's not so terrible. Why would you want to take both feats, if you already get all the benefits of being Large and none of the penalties? Because Powerful Build doesn't stack with Monkey Grip, and legit Largeness does. Plus, Large Heritage gives you a permanent size bonus to Strength and penalty to Dexterity, which can be useful:

Built Heritage [Racial]
You are descended from giants, ogres, minotaurs, or some other oversized humanoid.
Prerequisites: Mongrelfolk, 1st level only
Effect: Pick any Large or Huge aberration, fey, giant, humanoid, monstrous humanoid, or outsider. You are descended from that race for the purpose of your Emulate Race and Diffuse Blood racial traits.
In addition, you have a Powerful Build. Whenever you are subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), you are treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to you. You are also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature's special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. You can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, your space and reach remain those of a creature of your actual size. The benefits of this trait stack with effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject's size category.

Large Heritage [Racial]
You are descended from giants, ogres, minotaurs, or some other oversized humanoid.
Prerequisites: Mongrelfolk, Built Heritage, 1st level only
Effect: Pick any Large or Huge aberration, fey, giant, humanoid, monstrous humanoid, or outsider. You are descended from that race for the purpose of your Emulate Race and Diffuse Blood racial traits.
In addition, you lose your Powerful Build, but you are now naturally Large sized. Your height is doubled and your weight is multiplied by 8. You take a -1 size modifier to attack and armor class, +4 to Grapple, -4 to Hide, +2 to Strength, -2 to Dexterity (to a minimum of 1). You have a space of 10 feet and a natural reach of 10 feet. Your unarmed strikes do 1d4 instead of 1d3 damage. You use larger equipment, which is correspondingly more expensive, but your weapons also do more damage because of their size.

Seafolk Heritage [Racial]
You count one of the races of the sea among your ancestors. This can manifest even late in life.
Prerequisite: Mongrelfolk race
Benefit: Pick one of Merfolk, Triton, Locathah, Sahuagin, or Kuo-Toa. You are descended from that race for the purpose of your Emulate Race and Diffuse Blood racial traits.
In addition, you gain +2 to Swim checks to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. You can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. And you can use the run action while swimming, provided you swim in a straight line.
Special: You may take this feat more than once. Each time you do, you are descended from an additional seafolk race, and you gain an additional +2 to your Swim checks, to a maximum of +6.

Seafolk Amphibious [Racial]
You have inherited gills from your seafolk ancestors.
Prerequisite: Seafolk Heritage
Benefit: You can breathe both air and water.

This is a fairly powerful feat, but it does take a two-feat investment.
Triton’s Ally [Racial]
Due to your triton ancestry, you have the ability to summon a water elemental.
Prerequisite: Seafolk Heritage (Triton) or Triton-Descended Mer.
Benefit: An innate talent for magic grants you the following spell-like ability at a caster equal to your hit dice: 1/day – summon nature’s ally III, water elementals only.
Special: If you have the ability to gain a familiar, you may lose the spell-like ability and gain a Small Water Elemental familiar instead. Like a familiar chosen from the Improved Familiar list, this familiar does not gives you a bonus to a check for proximity.
If you have the ability to gain a special mount, you may lose the spell-like ability and gain a Water Elemental instead. If you are Small, your mount is a Medium Water Elemental; if you are Medium, your mount is a Large Water Elemental; if you are Large, your mount is a Huge Water Elemental. You can “ride” within the elemental as if you were riding on a solid mount. You can ride your elemental mount even if it is in vortex form: you remain in the same orientation with respect to your surroundings.
If you have the ability to gain an animal companion, you may lose the spell-like ability and gain a Water Elemental companion instead. You may select from the following list, depending on your effective druid level. Stronger elementals gain abilities as though you were a druid the indicated number of levels lower, as on page 36 of the Player’s Handbook.
Size : Required Level : Adjustment
Small : - : -
Medium : 7th : -6
Large : 10th : -9
Huge : 13th : -12
Greater : 16th : -15

Sahuagin Blood Frenzy [Racial]
Like your sahuagin ancestor, you can fly into a frenzy when you take damage.
Prerequisite: Seafolk Heritage (Sahuagin)
Benefit: Once per day, if you take damage, you can fly into a frenzy in the following round, attacking madly until either you or your opponent is dead. You gain +2 Constitution and +2 Strength and take a -2 penalty to Armor Class. You cannot end your frenzy voluntarily.
Special: If you have access to the Barbarian Rage class feature, you may gain an additional use of rage per day instead of your frenzy.

Sahuagin Four Arms [Racial]
Sahuagin have a small chance of being born with four arms, and you have acquired this trait from your sahuagin ancestry.
Prerequisite: Seafolk Heritage (Sahuagin), 1st level only
Benefit: You have four arms and may use extra weapons. You do not gain sahuagin claws.

Sahuagin Sharktongue [Racial]
You have inherited the ability to speak with sharks from your sahuagin ancestry.
Prerequisite: Seafolk Heritage (Sahuagin)
Benefit: You can communicate telepathically with sharks up to 150 feet away. The communication is limited to fairly simple concepts such as “food,” “danger”, and “enemy.”
Additionally, you can use the Handle Animal skill to befriend and train sharks.

Mongrel Specialization [Racial]
One of the races from which you are descended is more powerfully expressed than others.
Prerequisite: Mongrelfolk race
Benefit: Choose one of the races from which you are descended for the purpose of your Diffuse Blood racial trait. For the purpose of feats and prestige classes, you may consider yourself a full-fledged member of that race.
Special: You may take this feat more than once. Each time you do, it applies to a different race.

Kuo-Toa Keen Sight [Racial]
You have excellent vision thanks to the two independently focusing eyes you inherited from your kuo-toa ancestors.
Prerequisite: Seafolk Heritage (Kuo-Toa)
Benefit: Your eyesight is so keen that you can spot a moving object or creature even if it is invisible or ethereal. Only by remaining perfectly still can such objects or creatures avoid your notice.

Kuo-Toa Slippery [Racial]
Thanks to your kuo-toa ancestry, you secrete an oily film that makes you difficult to grapple or snare.
Prerequisites: Seafolk Heritage (Kuo-Toa)
Benefit: Webs, magical or otherwise, don’t affect you, and you gain +4 to all Escape Artist checks.