Is my "Vexus" homebrew race balanced?

Question

We're having a competition, the least over powered homebrew race that last the longest against the Gnoll Lord. I made this, also, if it is unbalanced, please tell me what I can do to fix it.

Vexus

“What is that?” “That sir is your newest soldier, and it is hungry for battle.” “But what is it?” “We haven’t thought of a name for it yet. It seems to be a new race.” “Can I name it?” “ I guess...”

-The conversation between General Uzumaki and General Noah

Physical Description. The Vexus have bright red wings on their backs, one large eye in the middle of their head, and they have arms that drag on the floor. They also have sharp pointed teeth.

History. They were just discovered, their history is quite unknown, although a water damaged scroll was gifted to General Noah, he was able to make out the following, “No other God would accept us, until Gond came around, he turned us into expert crafters and blacksmiths-“ And its true many Vexus Clerics take to the forge domain.

Race Names. Typically, they do not have names, and they find the concept quite alien and almost amusing, but when a name is required, they use names like these:
Male: Granite, Flint, Steel, Metal, Gravel, Stone (and other rock or metal names)
Female: Rose, Daisy, Lily, Chrysanthemum, Daffodil (and other flower names)

Vexus Traits

Ability Score Increases. Your Constitution increases by 2, and either Wisdom or Intelligence increase by 1

Age. Vexus mature at age 10 and live anywhere from 130 to 250 years.

Alignment. Most are chaotic neutral, it is very rare for one to be of a lawful alignment, but not unheard of.

Size. You stand about 4’4 feet tall, your size is small.

Speed. You have a flying speed of 40 feet, a walking speed of 20ft.

Senses. You have Darkvision for 30 feet, you see in dark light as if it was dim light for the full 30 feet and can detect shades of gray and red.

Gond’s Blessing. You count as a tinker gnome for all feats and are proficient with the tinker tools.

Long Limbed. When you make a melee attack on your turn your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.

Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the eight you can push, drag, or lift.

Vexus War Training. You have proficiency with all bludgeoning weapons. As well as proficiency with a shield.

One Eye. You have a disadvantage against being blinded, but advantages on wisdom (perception) checks that rely on sight within 30 feet.

Poor Depth Perception. The Vexus has disadvantage on any attack roll against a target more than 30 feet away.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Deep Speech, and one choice from Auran, Terran, Ignan, and Aquan.

Aberration Origin. You are a far-off ancestor of the Beholder, you have lost eye rays and gained legs, but still retain many of the features and gained a few here and there. You are considered an aberration when determining how spells and other effects that relate to creature origin effect you. You are considered a Humanoid and an Aberration.

Answer 1

Pick a creature type and stick with it.

Your last feature is inconsistent with PC playable races, and with the game's overall design. Either make this an aberration or a humanoid(which all other PC playable races are¹) and stick with it. Doing otherwise needlessly complicates the game and strays well beyond the creature, monster, NPC and character design templates.

• Recommendation: make this an Aberration given the theme you have established and the direct relationship to the Beholder creature.

About flying speed

WoTC has acknowledged that the Winged Tiefling variant and the Aaracokra are not well balanced - they are not generally elibigle for Adventure League play. At low levels, this feature alone makes this race a somewhat overpowered PC race, however, the fact that Variant Tieflings and Aaracokra exist as playable races suggests that flight alone will not cause this to be "overpowered" any more than those other two races already are.

Balance: comparison to a Half-elf shows too many features

Half-elf is considered a strong racial choice, due to its flexibilty and added skills, so we'll use that for comparison.

Ability Score Increase. Half-elf +2 Charisma and two other ability (choice) +1 versus Vexus +2 Constitution a +1 WIS or INT.

Close enough. Constitution is needed by all classes, and the ability to pick which slot the other + goes into makes it a bit better than a +1 dedicated to a stat for most other races. Slight edge to half elf.

Age: no balance effect. Alignment: no balance effect.

Size. Half-elf Medium versus Vexus small. Other small races - gnome and halfling.

Speed. Half elf walking speed is 30 feet versus Vexus 40' fly and 20' walking.

Much stronger, as noted in the intro about flying PC races.

Vexus darkvision is not quite as good as half elf darkvision, but better than no darkvision. slight edge to half-elf.

Languages: similar to a half-elf.

Skills/Tools. Half Elf skill proficiency versus Gond’s Blessing. Tool proficiency versus 2 skill proficiency. Slight edge to half-elf. Vexus being eligible for gnome feats is a good idea to allow for racial feat access.

Feature Overload

Here's the problematic bit: Vexus have five features as compared to the half elf's one (though it's a strong one). The other flying PC races are limited to one additional minor feature (aarockocra get talons, and tiefling get fire resistance; thanks, @DavidCoffron). Removing a racial feature or two looks like a necessity.

Half-elf:

• Fey Ancestry. Advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Vexus:
- Long Limbed. When you make a melee attack on your turn your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.

While this is counter intuitive for the size of the creature, there is the bugbear PC class with a similar feature. And this argues again for making the creature type an Abberation.

• Vexus War Training. You have proficiency with all bludgeoning weapons. As well as proficiency with a shield.

  Dwarves get proficiency with certain weapons and armor, this is similar albeit weaker.

Recommendation: Pick one. I'd suggest long limbed + Abberation creature type... and now let's look at ...

One Eye. You have a disadvantage against being blinded, but advantages on wisdom (perception) checks that rely on sight within 30 feet.
Poor Depth Perception. The Vexus has disadvantage on any attack roll against a target more than 30 feet away.

I see what you are trying to do here, which is add a benefit and a disadvantage, but it's a contradiction. It has Poor Depth Perception and it flies? You have to see where you are going to fly (or use echolocation as bats do). (FWIW, having poor depth perception is disqualifying for most flight training programs that I am familiar with; I used to teach people how to fly). This additional feature pair is full of contradictions, so I'd suggest that you get rid of all of it as being needlessly complicated.

• On the other hand, if your table full of players and the DM love that kind of complication, then run with it. It does nothing for verisimilitude, but making the one eyed / cyclopian characteristic important to game play could be fun.

Or, add this unique racial feature but modify it to give the race a distinctive texture.

Bottom line: too many features

This has more features than other flying races, and more than other races.

Recommendation: Pick one minor racial feature

Option 1: Keep the "long limbed" feature let class choice drive your weapons proficiency. Make the creature type Abberation.

Is Option 1 overpowered? Your own play test suggests "yes" ...

... if a battle allows a "fly and flee" tactic to work. From the chat (excerpts):

@RandomPerson: I did a small test to see how well it id against a troll. It won
@NautArch: @RandomPerson what level/class did you use? What were the parameters of this single test?
@RandomPerson: I used a level 1 fighter.
@someone_Evil: @RandomPerson: So a level 1 Fighter of your race won against a (CR 5) Troll? What does that tell you about the power of your race? (yes, leading question)

This is another illustration of how flight as a racial feature has issues. When you added the bugbear longer reach feature, the Vexus could move in, strike, and fly away without provoking an opportunity attack unless the creature it is attacking has a reach of 10' or more. (For example, a Bugbear would not have the problems that the troll did).

How do I balance this?

Option 2: drop the long armed trait, and go with a modified "one eye" trait.

One Eye. You have a advantage on wisdom (perception) checks that rely on sight within 30 feet.

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¹ The centaur PC race from the Ravnica Supplement are fey.