What about Orcs?

[RefinedBean]

Orcs are the only MM race not to get any skill bonuses. At all. As someone who's about to play one in LFR, that kinda concerns me. I mean, Orcs have to be good at SOMETHING other than bashing, eh?

(the errata shows no changes as well)

Am I missing a balance here? Their encounter power (1[W] + Str, spend a healing surge) and the +2 speed while charging is nice, but frankly, I just don't see how those are so phenomenally awesome that we couldn't throw the poor guys a +2 to frickin' Intimidate or Endurance.

Thoughts on this? I'd say Orcs are just plain weaker to the comparable MM races of Warforged and Minotaurs...but sometimes I'm blind to the obvious. Maybe I'm missing something!

 

[DracoSuave]

Non-balanced Monster Manual races are Non-balanced.

Such questions are forstalled by reading the damn section said descriptions come from, reading the part that says that they aren't -meant- to be balanced for Player Character consumption, internalizing that information, and attaining enlightment.

 

[Danceofmasks]

.. and Kobold PCs can't see in the dark.
MM races are just made of fail in general. I'm playing an orc anyway.

 

[Rashak Mani]

There seems to be a clear racial discrimination against Orcs...

 

[Thesubtlepenguin]

I expect Orcs will get alot of love in the PHB2. Half-Orcs will most likely have a dual heritage, being able to select human and Orc feats, meaning we should get a decent amount of Orc feats in it. Perhaps one of those feats will address this.

 

[inkmonkeys]

When the orc is published in a full race spread, you can expect it to have a skill bonuses, and maybe more.

 

[Tripgnosis]

When the orc is published in a full race spread, you can expect it to have a skill bonuses, and maybe more.

Are the orcs going to be published in a full race spread?? I hadn't even considered that possibility. I was fully expecting half-orcs, but considerring the dual heritage thesubtlepenguin mentioned, maybe both orcs and half-orcs are going to be in the PHB2. That would be cool

 

[MrMyth]

As others have mentioned, the MM races aren't supposed to fall perfectly in line with the standard races, so there may be some discrepancies until orcs get a full write-up somewhere.

However, I will note that the ability to spend an extra healing surge in a fight is pretty strong. Might not matter in some groups, and is conditional in that they need to hit - but used well, that is a very potent ability.

 

[RefinedBean]

Hrm, I suppose I'll have to wait 'til the PHB2, or maybe an online supplement.

Ah well. There's nothing WRONG with bashing things good. Or making an Infernalock, or whatever cute term we have for it now.

 

[Runestar]

Well, the gnoll and warforged were clearly improved in their dragon article writeups compared to the existing MM versions, so it stands to reason that the latter are clearly too weak to be PC-worthy.

I suppose that if orcs do get their own article, they will likely be improved as well.