[D&D] What is a 'Half' Orc?

[Lanefan]

If Humans and Orcs* can interbreed, and assuming the offspring are themselves fertile (an assumption I make by default) it only makes sense that not only would you see Half-Orcs but all sorts of other ratios e.g. 1/8 Human-7/8 Orc etc. Hence, we don't even call these mixed-species types Half-Orcs anymore, instead calling them Part-Orcs; and have different stat effects etc. for each gradation by eighths.

* - same applies if you substitute "Elf" wherever you see "Orc" above, for the same reasons.

What this also means is that Elves and Orcs might be able to interbreed (though it's unlikely they'd ever want to!), and Part-Elves and Part-Orcs even more likely so. It's quite possible, for example, to end up being 1/4 Elf, 1/2 Human and 1/4 Orc.

And it doesn't stop there. A careful reading of ye olde 1e Monster Manuals will provide all kinds of ideas as to what can potentially interbreed with what (poster child: Tabaxi)...and then you throw in immortals and deities breeding with mortals, shapechangers and what they might be able to do, and everyone's favourite spell (Wish!) and the possibilites are endless...

Lanefan

 

[CubicsRube]

But in the latter case, we should also have ....half-halflings...

Would that be a quarterling?

 

[TwoSix]

What is a half-orc? A miserable little pile of secrets! Enough talk, have at you!

 

[Lanefan]

But in the latter case, we should also have ....half-halflings...

Would that be a quarterling?

It could just as easily be a three-quarterling.

And I kid you not, my group got into a hilarious argument - in character! - about this very thing (quarterling vs. three-quarterling) during a session several years ago, and kept the argument going - still in character - through a whole major combat.

Lan-"but the argument goes away if you just call them Hobbits, like they were always meant to be"-efan

 

[Greenfield]

Because two half-orcs can fall in love, (or lust, whichever), there can reasonably be half-orcs who have no Human or Orcish parents.

So try this: A Half Orc is a person with both Human and Orcish ancestry, in approximately equal amounts.

 

[Eltab]

Because two half-orcs can fall in love, (or lust, whichever)

Or just plain be the only person (in this corner of the land anyways) that the other can see keeping in their lives long-term.

 

[loky1109]

Orc + Human = Half-Orc
Orc + Half-Orc = Half-Orc
Human + Half-Orc = Half-Orc
Half-Orc + Half-Orc = Half-Orc

It's simple.

 

[TwoSix]

It has always seemed to me that at least in the Forgotten Realms setting Half-Orc is a really common race, and certainly not exotic. Given their numbers, how one generally encounters them eveywhere coupledwith the low lifespan, the whole 'orc raider with human woman' doesn't seem to fit the circumstances.

That implies a very uncomfortable backstory.

 

[Eltab]

Fortunately, there is a table in Xanathar's Guide to Everything for this !

 

[RealAlHazred]

In Eberron, half-orcs can be produced naturally, from a human parent and an orcish parent, but they also breed true: the offspring of two half-orcs is another half-orc. One of the older cultures of Eberron is an orc/half-orc/human culture that brought the first druids to the continent of Khorvaire where most of the published stuff takes place.