So one of the top contributors fleshed out the Races wiki page, and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I think it's an improvement, as more content has been added; and a lot of really cool stuff was thrown at the page. However, I kind of disagree with some of the classifications/conclusions. Now, I'm hardly the most experienced player, and the last thing I want is an edit war or discouragement of contribution, so I thought I'd rather make a post to start some discussion and maybe see where the consensus lies.
I really like the explanation of how early converters ("front-loaded"), late converters ("back-loaded") and "timed" converters work. Excerpts:
Human (back-loaded)
Dwarf (back-loaded)
Elf (front-loaded)
Halfling (timed)
Gnome (timed/back-loaded)
Orc (front-loaded)
Goblin (timed)
My cents:
I'm not sure about the terminology, but I think there are 2 main types of races, those that grant a permanent bonus, and therefor convert "as soon as possible", and those that grant a one-time bonus, and therefor convert "when they need it". So maybe this is equal to "front-loaded" and "timed".
Within front-loaded there is the Orc who is literally very front-loaded to the point that it's actually a good idea to mass-convert at Level 1; and the other races who are more gradual, i.e. benefit from early conversions, but will gain more and more power out of those early conversions as they level up.
Within timed there is Goblin, which is very specifically timed in the sense that you don't want to convert earlier, but just at the right moment; and the potion races, who generally don't mind converting earlier, but are normally fine to put converting off until they need the potions (which can be quite late in the game, considering the starting and standard loot potions).
1. Damage Races
Both Orc and Human benefit from early conversions. Orc very visbily, and Human much less so, but still I would call both races "front-loaded" in the sense that yes, you can put off conversion for a human by a few leves without massively losing out on damage, but when you're starting to get into town - around level 3-4 - their conversion is also starting to become significant. Unless you're in a situation where you want to use glyphs to level, and melee damage to fight the boss(es), you'll be converting latest in the mid-levels also with the Human. I would call the Orc "extremely front-loaded" and the Human "front-loaded" in the gradual sense.
2. Bar-boost Races
Both Elf and Dwarf are front-loaded in my opinion. The idea behind these races is that you become a little bit stronger with each conversion, and then you can leverage that bit of extra strength during each level; but there are very few cases when one of these races would actually benefit from holding off conversion until late in the game. It's true that their power increases exponentially with level-ups, but this only makes them gradual, but still front-loaded.
3. Potion Races
These would be both timed according to the terminology. Sure, in most games you can safely not even worry about converting before sometime the boss fight, maybe using up standard issue / loot potions earlier to pad gameplay. Then again, you can easily convert as early and often as you want, and just lug the small item potions until you need them. So I would say they're "timed" according to above terminology. Or, we could re-define "back-loaded" as those guys who are generally safe to put off conversion latest until they need the refills, which is usually the boss fight, and call them "back-loaded" instead.
4. Goblins
Very specifically, they need to time conversions just right, so too early is also not good for them. I would say they are "specifically timed" or something.
Specific point about Humans and Dwarves, who are listed as back-loaded. I fully agree that these races benefit a lot from levels, and only show the true benefit of conversions later on. That said, they need to convert early, to benefit from their bonus during the leveling phase, even if the bonus looks smaller initially. Consider that if all you want to do is spike the boss, and you put off conversions until the end, then invariably these races will look very poor in comparison to a Halfling, who gets a massive benefit from his conversion if he only cares about the boss fight. The only way a Dwarf can be remotely as effective as a Halfling is by converting early, and leveraging the extra health along the way.
Thoughts?