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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 1361998" data-attributes="member: 2629">People just misunderstand the half-orc. It is not underpowered in pratical effect. It is quite well balanced with human.It is lousy for a bard, sorcerer, or paladin. It is ok for druid or cleric,  but makes a fine monk, ranger, barbarian, fighter, or rogue. In many games, people forget to account for lighting. They tend to assume that their PCs can see things even though the lack a light source or their light source doesn't allow them to see the targets for which they wish to aim. In those games, darkvision is useless, but in games where lighting is well controlled, darkvision is a very strong ability. It allows you to dispel magic light and gain the upper hand against many foes. It allows you to sneak around without carrying a light source. It is very useful - far more useful than 1 skill point per level for many PCs.The strength bonus is also very useful. It gives you a +1 to hit and up to a +2 to damage. People don't think this is significant, but it adds up. When using a two handed weapon, this is the equivalent of weapon focus *and* weapon specialization. In other words, twice the benefit of the human's extra feat.The attribute penalties of a half-orc are usually not important to the classes that tend to be half-orcs. The loss of skill points can be hard to handle if you wish to use a prestige class, but the loss of charisma is often an after thought.The orc blood can be trouble in limited situations (versus certain rangers, etc ...), but in general it is a non-issue.I play a melee half-orc barbarian 4 / rogue 18 in a newly epic game. The darkvision has allowed me to use darkness to incredible effect. The extra strength has results in a miss turning into a hit more times than I can count. The extra damage from strength has brought a foe down one attack earlier even more times. I've gotten far mroe bang out of being a half-orc than I would have gotten out of being human ...</blockquote>

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