Orc-touched

[CTD]

I'm setting up a new campaign based on a nation of orc's that has been defeated by a dominant culture that tried to make citizens of the orc survivors. After a generation of effort to civilize the orc's the dominant culture decided to give up and deport the orc's to a newly found land that is not populated.

So they are rounding up all the people who appear to have any orc blood in them and shipping them off.

My PC's will be those deported orcs, in a survival game essentially.

Starting races will include the standard orc, the half-orc, and the orc-touched which is a human with a trace of orc blood. Perhaps the ears, teeth, nose, or some other physical feature that tells their heritage, but not so much orc blood that the person is an actual half-orc.

I'm building a racial template for them, trying to mix the half-orc and the human (to make a quarter-orc I suppose) and would like input on the 'balanced' or not of this idea:

+1 STR, -1 CHA
Medium Size
Base Speed: 30 feet
Orc Blood (for purposes of anything that works against/for orcs)
Langugaes: Common, Orc
Bonus Languages: Any
Favored Class: Fighter
+1 Feat at first level
+2 skill points at first level

I thought about giving them low light vision (dark vision diluted) but decided that it was probably too much (with the feat and skill bonus from human staying around). I chose favored class Fighter to show that they are brutish like their orc-blood would indicate, but can be more civilized than a barbarian with ease.

Ideas? Suggestions? Criticism?

 

[Sixchan]

Don't use 1s for Stats. It makes it too easy to min/max.

Aside from that it's OK, but if you take out stat adjustments I'd give them Lowlight vision.

 

[trentonjoe]

I would just use humans and add:

-2 to chr
lowlight vision
orc blood
and the scent feat for free.

 

[CTD]

Don't use 1s for Stats. It makes it too easy to min/max.

I know that this means I have missed some great debate at some point, but how is a +1 easier ot min/max than a +2. I can see that people would put an odd number in STR and CHA to give a STR bonus and no CHA penalty, which skewes it a little, but it still pegs that CHA down one point and deters people from taking CHA dependant classes/skills encouraging the tone that I want for the race (physical).

Is there a link to a thread here that details how switching down to +1's is a bad thing?

I thought about Lowlight, but thought it might be a bit much on top of the free feat and all.

Thanks for the input! Don't take my questions as a negative response, I just didn't see it coming and would like to know more as to why it's a bad thing in the universal opinion

 

[Drawmack]

a +2/-2 always puts you up to the next level of bonus or drops you down a level of bonus. Whereas a +1/-1 could be used to up on one bonus and not go down on the other bonus.

For example STR = 13/+1 CHA = 13/+1 then you adjust STR = 14/+2, CHA = 12/+1. Since ability bonus are used almost exclusively instead of the scores you should always use +2/-2 and not +1/-1.

 

[Tonguez]

Actually I would change anything for the orc-touched and just make them straight 'humans' with a roleplaying penalty of not being very popular in the setting

This way you could have 'ugly' humans falsely accused of being Orc-bloods

 

[Technik4]

I would give your PC humans "Orc Blood" and force them to take 1 of a few different "orc racial feats". Ideas include any of the stuff from FRCS, scent, and maybe exotic weapon prof- Orc Double Axe.

Technik

 

[the Jester]

The issue of odd-numbered stat bonuses is discussed in the DMG.

I wouldn't give them low-light vision; that is qualitatively different than darkvision. Maybe 30' darkvision instead of 60'.

I like the basic idea- send 'em to a colony in Australia like the Brits did to convicts. I thought about running a game with a convict group of pcs, but it wandered in a different direction.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

Actually I would change anything for the orc-touched and just make them straight 'humans' with a roleplaying penalty of not being very popular in the setting

This way you could have 'ugly' humans falsely accused of being Orc-bloods

I like this version.