D&D 5E Does Call of the Netherdeep open the door to ogre PCs?

[CleverNickName]

If you're looking for playable Ogres in your campaign, you can do it in a variety of ways, some of them harder than others. Off the top of my head and in order of easiest to hardest:

1. You could just rename the Goliath race to be "Ogre" and be done with it. Very little work, very few balance issues.
2. Follow the recommendations in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount for reskinning the Firbolg. Very little work, very few balance issues. (This is what I would do.)
3. Allow the character to play an actual ogre, as-written in the Monster Manual, as a 7th level character. When they reach 8th level, they begin taking levels of Barbarian, Bard, whatever, using the rules for Multiclassing. A bit of work to set up. Be prepared to deal with balance issues.
4. Rework the Minotaur race in Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica to be an Ogre, swapping abilities and features with the Ogre stats in the MM. Fewer balance issues, but more work on the front-end.
5. Use the optional rules in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything to develop a playable Ogre. A lot more work on the front end.
6. Create a suite of new rules for Large-sized, high-Strength characters. Enormous amount of work on the front end, and possible balance issues down the road.

 

[Parmandur]

If you're looking for playable Ogres in your campaign, you can do it in a variety of ways, some of them harder than others. Off the top of my head and in order of easiest to hardest:

• You could just rename the Goliath race to be "Ogre." Done. Very little work, very few balance issues.
• Follow the recommendations in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount for reskinning the Firbolg. Very little work, very few balance issues. (This is what I would do.)
• Allow the character to play an actual ogre, as-written in the Monster Manual, as-written, as a 7th level character. At 8th level, they begin taking levels of Barbarian, Bard, whatever. A bit of work to set up. Be prepared to deal with balance issues.
• Rework the Minotaur race in Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica to be an Ogre, swapping abilities and features with the Ogre stats in the MM. Fewer balance issues, but more work on the front-end.
• Use the optional rules in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything to develop a playable Ogre. A lot more work on the front end.
• Create a suite of new rules for Large-sized characters. Enormous amount of work on the front end, and possible balance issues down the road.

yeah, 1 or 2 depending on what sort of ogre-ish-ness the player is looking for.

 

[CleverNickName]

yeah, 1 or 2 depending on what sort of ogre-ish-ness the player is looking for.

I could even be persuaded to try #3, with the right player and the right gaming group. Like, if the player was a Shrek super-fan and really genuinely wanted to experience the game from the perspective of a D&D ogre, I'd give #3 a shot. But if the player is just looking for yet another way to add DPR with little or no interest in ogres otherwise, I wouldn't be very interested...I'd let them pick #1 or #2 and move on.

That's as far as I would follow that rabbit-hole. I don't see myself doing #4-6.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

One of the rival adventurers in Call of the Netherdeep is Maggie Keeneyes, an ogre. Since all the other rival adventurers are PC races, does this perhaps signal plans to make ogres a playable option in the future? Or was this just a special request from Matt Mercer?

Matt can do that if he wants for his setting, since it belongs to him and not WotC.

 

[Lycurgon]

I would say no. It is an NPC with an NPC stat block. None of the NPC rivals are made like a PC. The "Rogue" character has no sneak attack but has 2 attacks instead. It doesn't say anything about the possibility of PC rogues getting extra Attack. An Ogre NPC doesn't open doors for PCs.

Matt can do that if he wants for his setting, since it belongs to him and not WotC.

Sure, Matt owns his Setting, but when he is publishing a book with WotC then they have final say on anything in the book they publish. Matt can do what he wants on his streaming game, he can publish whatever he wants with his Darrington Press releases (as long as he abides by the OGL rules) but he can't do what he wants in a WotC book without their agreement.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Sure, Matt owns his Setting, but when he is publishing a book with WotC then they have final say on anything in the book they publish. Matt can do what he wants on his streaming game, he can publish whatever he wants with his Darrington Press releases (as long as he abides by the OGL rules) but he can't do what he wants in a WotC book without their agreement.

Pretty sure that Matt and his team wrote the adventure and WotC edited and published it as part of whatever deal they made that also let WotC publish the Wildemount book, which was also not directly written by WotC.

 

[Lycurgon]

Pretty sure that Matt and his team wrote the adventure and WotC edited and published it as part of whatever deal they made that also let WotC publish the Wildemount book, which was also not directly written by WotC.

Even if that were true (it is not entirely the case, Chris Perkins was involved in writing to at least a little degree) then what I stated is still true. Editing involves changing things. WotC has control over it. As with Wildemont WotC were involved in development and editing. They have final say in what is in the books they publish.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Matt can do that if he wants for his setting, since it belongs to him and not WotC.

And "the DM can do whatever they want with their setting" is a message WotC would really like players to learn.

 

[Ath-kethin]

On top of everything else above, there are a few products available that cover PC ogres, including one form yours truly:

People of Zakhara: Ogres (Al-Qadim and Forgotten Realms Character Expansion) - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

 

[jasper]

If you're looking for playable Ogres in your campaign, you can do it in a variety of ways, some of them harder than others. Off the top of my head and in order of easiest to hardest:

1. You could just rename the Goliath race to be "Ogre" and be done with it. Very little work, very few balance issues.
2. Follow the recommendations in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount for reskinning the Firbolg. Very little work, very few balance issues. (This is what I would do.)
3. Allow the character to play an actual ogre, as-written in the Monster Manual, as a 7th level character. When they reach 8th level, they begin taking levels of Barbarian, Bard, whatever, using the rules for Multiclassing. A bit of work to set up. Be prepared to deal with balance issues.
4. Rework the Minotaur race in Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica to be an Ogre, swapping abilities and features with the Ogre stats in the MM. Fewer balance issues, but more work on the front-end.
5. Use the optional rules in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything to develop a playable Ogre. A lot more work on the front end.
6. Create a suite of new rules for Large-sized, high-Strength characters. Enormous amount of work on the front end, and possible balance issues down the road.

Nice kitty. Except for 6! Grabs the water bottle. Spray spray.