D&D 5E Half-Orcs

[Kurzon]

Hi folks. Can anyone tell me what we know of half-orcs in 5th edition? I wasn't a part of the playtesting, so have no idea what kind of design path they're following for them. And do we know if they're in the PHB?

Back when I was playing D&D regularly (3rd edition), one of the first characters I made was a half-orc wizard, mostly because of a cool picture of one I saw in Dragon magazine (by Todd Lockwood, I think). Anyway, he was modelled on Beast from the X-Men, i.e. highly intelligent and cultured, sensitive about his brutish appearance, and prone to giving in to his beastly nature when provoked.

So now that I'm about to get back into D&D, I'm hoping that this favourite character of mine will still be viable and work. I'm also hoping that there are some wizard builds/specialisations that will work well with a half-orc's racial abilities/characteristics, as back in 3rd edition I never really took him far from the generic wizard model.

Cheers.

 

[Remathilis]

Yes, they are in the PHB. They had bonus to str and con, and probably a proficiency in intimidate, but anything else is unknown.

 

[Paraxis]

I have heard they will do extra damage on a critical hit and once per short rest when dropped to 0 h.p instead they drop to 1 h.p instead.

 

[Kobold Stew]

We also know that they (and half-elves) will have two pages devoted to them in th ePHB. -- same amount as the tiefling.

That's actually a big deal, I find, because they were presented as very bare-bones creations in the play test. The 2-page allocation suggests art, backstory, and (I hope) more nuanced mechanics that (what I saw as) underwhelming implementations in the play test.

 

[jadrax]

I have heard they will do extra damage on a critical hit and once per short rest when dropped to 0 h.p instead they drop to 1 h.p instead.

I think that's now unlikely, as that's the old Orc mechanics, which did not make it to the starter set.

 

[Wolfskin]

I think the final mechanics for the half-orc will look a lot like the latest playtest, as described by [MENTION=7635]Remathilis[/MENTION].

 

[Minigiant]

Yes, they are in the PHB. They had bonus to str and con, and probably a proficiency in intimidate, but anything else is unknown.

With the +2 bump to both Str and Con in the mountain dwarves, I hope they do sometime to make half orcs interesting. The playtest half orc was very bare bones +Str, +Con, advantage to Intimidation, & dark vision. I hope the team had the insight to adjust half orc once the mountain dwarf change was made

 

[Li Shenron]

We also know that they (and half-elves) will have two pages devoted to them in th ePHB. -- same amount as the tiefling.

That's actually a big deal, I find, because they were presented as very bare-bones creations in the play test. The 2-page allocation suggests art, backstory, and (I hope) more nuanced mechanics that (what I saw as) underwhelming implementations in the play test.

That's exactly what I thought. 2 pages rather than 3 for common races might simply mean they don't have subraces, but it's hard to tell if the "mechanical implementation" is fully fledged, or under-developed like in the playtest, because most of that space is anyway occupied by flavor text and a picture.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

With the +2 bump to both Str and Con in the mountain dwarves, I hope they do sometime to make half orcs interesting. The playtest half orc was very bare bones +Str, +Con, advantage to Intimidation, & dark vision. I hope the team had the insight to adjust half orc once the mountain dwarf change was made

My big concern with Half Orcs is that they are basically going to be straight-up inferior to Mountain Dwarves - quite likely with +2 STR, +1 CON, and both fewer and weaker racial abilities. Which would be pretty awful.

 

[Paraxis]

I think that's now unlikely, as that's the old Orc mechanics, which did not make it to the starter set.

True, I hope they get more than +2 str, +1 con, darkvision and the new orc mechanic of bonus action to move towards a hostile creature. That would be pretty lame compared to all the other races.