Goblins have health 80%, evasion 20, melee damage -10%, collection -10%. Since their only stats that can start above 3 are tameness (useless), timidity (useless) and sexual, with 1~3 food consumption, that relegates them to whoring duty.
Compare them to gnomes, who have 75% health and are otherwise the same, but can have wits 5 and magic 4, and consume 1~2 food, and it feels like the game's author is racist against goblins.
'Racist against Goblins', haha :)
I don't think it's necessary to have complete balance where every race has equal potential to others, rather I hope they fit the general fantasy profile for themselves. I think this game goes out of its way to give Goblins the sexual potential you mention, making them useful in a way that doesn't exist in say Dungeons and Dragons, where Goblins are just weaker in all ways than an Orc, or a Human.
That said, I think of Goblins as useful rogue/thieves for the party and I will use the Slave Market to upgrade a Goblin as necessary to fill that role. 'Extra' Goblins are useful to fulfill Servant Guild requests for slaves with Charm or Sexual skill (or just Tame or Timid).
Basically, I think the game is doing a pretty good job of getting the races thematically correct, and the main improvement I would make is an appropriate custom class for each race that doesn't have one (or shared between races like Druid).
As Jotok mentions, don't forget your upgrades! (hey, how did we get off *FOOD*?!?)
I'm not a big fan of either, *BUT* if you get one FREE (Dungeon), or dirt cheap, both can be upgraded to make good back row mages/bows. (or fish/cook/anything using Wits)
Daisy also has poor stats to start, but how many get rid of her?
Actually, w their evasion, *BOTH* have an edge over other low health characters (including Daisy)
IMHO, giving them evasion is a good trade-off for lower health.
BTW, for most char, nearly always more cost effective to *FISH*, than play hooker (even moreso w more nerfed changes--a mistake IMHO)
