D&D (2024) Orogs in the 2025 Monster Manual?

[Hriston]

Shrug see no reason why we should limit TSR's serial number filing based on lore they were totally not copying for legal purposes.

I don’t understand your claim. Did TSR file the numbers off Uruk-hai, or did they totally not copy them? I don’t think they could do both?

 

[Hriston]

Well, that doesn't feel like something WotC will be comfortable with in 2025.

I would guess they get renamed to something non-biodeterministic, like Orc Siegemaster or Beastcunning Ogre or something. Just unusual members of each society, but not something that -- by default -- could be the result of eugenics.

No, I don’t suppose they would be and wasn’t suggesting it as a replacement for what the OP says is the orog’s current “orc, but smarter” identity. Now that I think about it, it could hold a clue to a possible new identity for the orog as “ogre, but smarter”. And before someone says oni already fill that niche, let me append “non-magical”.

 

[aco175]

I think if we had more than one statblock per monster back in the old days then we would have orc-champion instead of needing a new monster called orog. I can just see them being a new type of orc to fill a role of leader or champion and fit the CR needed.

 

[Willie the Duck]

If they need to be preserved*, I wouldn't mind them now being underdark-orcs or orcs that settled above a field of kryptonite/touched the gem of Cyttorak/were bitten by a radioactive plot device.
*and I'm not sure that they do.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And before someone says oni already fill that niche, let me append “non-magical”.

WotC has been wisely slow-walking "ogre magi" away from D&D ogres and back toward being Japanese folklore monsters, which is the right way to go, IMO. If there needs to be a magical ogre (Warcraft does well with them), they should be distinct creatures and part of ogre society, rather than being an entirely different monster smashed into the giant family.

 

[aco175]

WotC has been wisely slow-walking "ogre magi" away from D&D ogres and back toward being Japanese folklore monsters, which is the right way to go, IMO. If there needs to be a magical ogre (Warcraft does well with them), they should be distinct creatures and part of ogre society, rather than being an entirely different monster smashed into the giant family.

I smell Oriental Adventures 2026 coming.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

If they need to be preserved*, I wouldn't mind them now being underdark-orcs or orcs that settled above a field of kryptonite/touched the gem of Cyttorak/were bitten by a radioactive plot device.
*and I'm not sure that they do.

They need to be preserved for "backwards compatibility" - in that there needs to be a CR2 creature called "Orog" that roughly fills the story niche, so that when you run a published 5e adventure that mentions them, you wind up with the right thing.

All that said, they don't need to have too much of the same lore.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I smell Oriental Adventures 2026 coming.

Uh... as long as it's called something totally different - Either Kara-Tur or Kamigawa would fill the niche.

 

[Tonguez]

Uh... as long as it's called something totally different - Either Kara-Tur or Kamigawa would fill the niche.

Tarkir

 

[Marandahir]

Uh... as long as it's called something totally different - Either Kara-Tur or Kamigawa would fill the niche.

This. If Kamigawa returns for the "Death Race" set early next year (I could totally see Akira-style biker gangs drag racing around Cyberpunk Kamigawa) I would DEFINITELY count a D&D Kamigawa crossover as a high possibility.

If Kamigawa isn't returning to MtG anytime soon, then I'd bank a little bit more on Kara-Tur, given its classic D&D role beyond just as part of the FR (given that they're even bringing Greyhawk back this year).