It's one of the fun parts of creating fantasy worlds and fantasy races, the freedom to give your races abilities that our human race will never have. Call it magic, cobha, or whatever you want, lots of authors like to give their fantasy races an ability or two to make them special. So, today I want to share some thoughts about making races with special abilities.
First, I want to acknowledge that a) not every author gives their races special abilities and b) that there is a great deal of variety among the special touches that authors use on their races. It can be just a subtle touch, like beyond-human eyesight, hearing, etc. or a special affinity with nature. Or it can be a little more magical feeling. Either way, they're things that make our races different from us and accordingly make their lives different from ours.
Here's the thing, regardless of how natural or supernatural these abilities are, the fact is that they
do make our fantasy races different from us and thus they're lives would be different from ours. A race with keener senses than humans would be a lot better hunters than we are, might have a different taste in art and music (I can't imagine people with dog-like hearing listening to heavy-metal music without wanting to claw their ears out), might have issues with secret keeping and intrigue, you get the idea.
So, since I'm probably supposed to ask questions here, here we go:
How would your race's special abilities make their lives different than ours? We've already looked at the less fantastic abilities, and it's just as true, if not more so, for the more fantastic abilities. Hunting would be a breeze if your race could communicate with animals. On the other hand, that ability may result in your race being vegetarian (and that idea of animal-communicators being vegetarians has been used exhaustively IMHO). A race with a natural talent for influencing plant growth probably wouldn't have to work as hard at farming. A telepathic race would probably have some very set rules of etiquette to make sure privacy wasn't invaded, or they might just let their thoughts flow freely for anyone to browse through. This applies especially to races with race-wide abilities like shapeshifting, but shapeshifting races is a different post entirely.
How would your race view their special abilities? I mean, they're special to you, but to them they're a part of their daily lives. They might not esteem them as much as we would. They might view their ability to talk to trees in the same way we view our ability to walk. On the other hand, they might view it as a core part of humanity (since there's really no other word for it, even though they aren't human). If you can't talk to trees, then you aren't really a person, you're something "other". For us, the ability to feel, reason, and communicate is kinda where we draw the line, but if they started out away from other races, they might think that all people talk to trees and upon encountering races that can't talk to trees, consider themselves special. Or their view of it could be something else entirely. They could view it as a curse or a temptation to be resisted (this is similar to how my Kelpies in Fantasia view their shapeshifting abilities). There's lots of possibilities with this, but odds are that if they've had these abilities for generations, a child manifesting them would not suddenly be revered as the greatest thing since baked bread (unless your race is such that the ability only manifests in some).
Are the race's special tricks universal to the race or a special trait unique to certain members of that race? To look at it in more heredity terms, is it a dominant trait or recessive trait in that race? Is it something that most everyone in the race can do to some extent or another, or is it a trait native to that race, but only occurring in some individuals (maybe more common in one gender than in another)? Above, I've already shared quite a few thoughts about abilities common to the whole race, so now some thoughts about how recessive abilities might be viewed. Depending on how recessive the trait is, it could simply be viewed as an interesting feature, but nothing special. It also depends on the ability, enhanced hearing wouldn't probably attract as much attention as being able to summon lightning from the clear blue sky. If it's a pretty rare ability, people with it would probably be viewed and treated differently from the general populace. They'd probably either be valued as special, feared, despised, or some combination of two or even all three of those reactions. It might even be that some in the society fear/despise them while others hold them in high esteem. And keep in mind that this is all within the race that possesses the ability, we haven't even begun to talk about how the ability would be perceived by a race that doesn't possess it.
Are the race's abilities more dominant in one gender over another? Maybe the girls are the ones that talk to trees while the men can grow prehensile tails at will *shrugs*. This of course would affect the race's views of men and women. Tree-talking may be considered by that race as natural a part of being a woman as childbearing. That would certainly cause them surprise if they encountered a man from a different race that talked to trees.
How do the race's abilities manifest in regards to time? Are they something like the ability to see that begins at birth and is fully developed within a few weeks, or like walking which is mastered within a few months or a year or two, or like talking which for many is learned by four but continues to improve over the following years? Or is it something that manifests during adolescence? This latter seems to be the favorite of most fantasy authors. After all, what's more exciting than having your young MC discover that they're part of a different race with a special power that they must learn to master while dealing with all the other physical, emotional, and social changes going on in their life? (I'll probably wind up ranting...er...posting on this topic later). I think it would be cool to have those abilities manifest more naturally rather than just popping up out of nowhere during puberty. If you think about it *ponders how to word this delicately* that isn't how puberty works for us. We don't suddenly sprout longer arms, legs and new muscles. Rather our existing organs are further developed and matured. Wouldn't it make sense for a race's abilities to work that same way, they might have those abilities in a weaker form for most of their life but during puberty they begin to rapidly develop and mature over the course of a few years. It makes more sense then, "Wow! I'm a teenager and now I can suddenly throw people through rooms with my mind!" If you can make that work, great! I just know that a lot of people are trying this, so maybe there are other ways to come at it. On the other hand, the development of that special ability could be a major rite of passage for that race if it's a common ability.
I could probably think of more questions if I took more time to think about it, but I've been working on this off and on for the past four days, so I'll leave ya with one more question. I might come back to this topic later. *shrugs* Who knows?
How do the other races in your world view the other races' abilities? Do they revere them? Fear them? Despise them? Envy them? A combination of these views? I could probably delve into these possibilities deeper; but like I said earlier, I'm losing steam on this. So I think I will leave you to think through this question on your own.
I know this is a really long post, but hopefully it'll be helpful
In Christ,
Jordan
Shucks! Thanks 
God bless, and keep writing these helpful posts!