Alright so this is going to be a long winded thing so here we go.
I'm going to be starting in a Pathfinder game and I'm going to be participating as a member of the group as a Merfolk Sorcerer. I've done a bunch of comparisons to features and what not and I've drawn a pretty amazing self-portrait so I'm pretty set in wanting to be a Merfolk. I've got a nice spread of stats and I'm trying to squeak out a path of what I'm going to take in the future and since Sorcerer's don't get bonus spells known the pickings in the future are looking pretty slim.
Now I figure I have a few ways to get some extra spells in the long run, be it via carrying about twenty wands for low level non-scaling utility spells and whatnot, but I'd really like some extra wiggle room, and the best way for me to get that would be via the Human Class Bonus for Sorcerer.
For the record, here are the following differences between the racial favored class bonuses:
Human Add one spell known from the sorcerer spell list. This spell must be at least one level below the highest spell level the sorcerer
can cast.Merfolk Add +½ to the sorcerer’s caster level when determining the range of any spells with the water descriptor.
I've done some checking up on some spells and whatnot and have determined that the Merfolk Sorcerer Favored class bonus stinks on ice something fierce. There are 11 spells or so that have the water descriptor, about 8 of them have Long range by default so range isn't even an issue at that point. There is one Fixed range spell, and two short to medium range spells that might benefit from a range increase.
In other words, It sucks. Fiercely. It's far far worse than a Hit point or a skill rank, and that's really saying something. The Human bonus on the other hand gives you 3 Bonus Cantrips, 2 bonus spells of every other level, and 3 bonus 8th level spells.
My question is thus, is there any way for a non-human to acquire another races favored class bonus, and if not is there an efficient way aside from Rings of Spell Knowledge or carrying many, many wands to get the bonus spells I want and/or need?
Best Answer
Not that I can find
There's a bunch of stuff to let humans be other people, and you can be a Aasimar Human Goblin if you want, but no way to count as human if you're not already a half-elf/half-orc/aasimar/tiefling.
Backwards compatibility (hah!) has you covered, though. From Races of Destiny,