Dwarves rock, Half-orcs suck! - An analysis

[Plane Sailing]

Don't forget that with most races you can chose one or more classes where

a) your ability bonus is great

b) you don't care about your ability penalty because it is a dump stat anyway


From this viewpoint elves are shafted because *nobody* makes Con a dump stat

Halflings and gnomes... have some excellent archetypes which don't rely on Str and which can benefit from their Dex or Con bonus. Arguably they are more restricted than half-orcs in this respect because a low Str hampers all fighting class options.

Half-Orcs can still make fine fighters, rangers, rogues, priests, druids, monks which can all afford to dump Cha and Int if they wish (not advisable for all builds, naturally, but it is an option and a pretty common one in many cases I've seen)

Dwarves - well, Con is great for any class and Cha is the most common dump stat of them all - a double winner for the dwarf (IMC dwarves get a -2 Dex penalty instead of -2 Cha, and that evens it out a bit more IMO)

Cheers

 

[ivocaliban]

Well, I didn't really need a formula to prove this to me. Though the fact that many would argue mental traits are of slightly less value than physical traits might make a significant difference in your math.

 

[der_kluge]

Don't forget that with most races you can chose one or more classes where

a) your ability bonus is great

b) you don't care about your ability penalty because it is a dump stat anyway


From this viewpoint elves are shafted because *nobody* makes Con a dump stat

Come to think of it, I haven't seen anyone play an elf in any of our campaigns yet. Well, aside from the elven swashbuckler named Pierre who spoke with a heavy french accent that my friend made just to annoy the DM, who killed his previous half-orc character.... But he didn't last long.

 

[Mighty Halfling]

Here's my half-orc variant:
HALF-ORCS
This race is slightly altered in this game.

Of course they have the typical abilities:

+2 Strength, –2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma. A half-orc’s starting Intelligence score is always at least 3. If this adjustment would lower the character’s score to 1 or 2, his score is nevertheless 3.
Medium: As Medium creatures, half-orcs have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Speed: Half-orc base land speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision: Half-orcs (and orcs) can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and half-orcs can function just fine with no light at all.
Orc Blood: For all effects related to race, a half-orc is considered an orc.
Automatic Languages: Common and Orc. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Giant, Gnoll, Goblin, and Abyssal.
Favored Class: Barbarian. A multiclass half-orc’s barbarian class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty.
Then they add these two things ...
Iron Stomach: Half-orcs can eat any plant or organic matter to avoid starvation, including rotten meat, spoiled milk, leather and chips of wood. This material must be broken down into small enough portions to fit in their mouth and down their throat. Typically, they can make a Survival check (DC 5 plus environmental modifiers) and they find enough material to sustain them for a day. Additionally, they are immune to all food-borne diseases and infections, but not poisons applied to such food.
Selective bonus: Because half-orcs are a varied race with a diverse heritage, at 1st level a half-orc selects one of the following traits.

• [*]Intimidator. Intimidate becomes a class skill and it is thereafter based on Strength, rather than Charisma.
  [*]Free Feat - Alertness. Like their orcish parent, this is now a bonus feat.
  [*]Free Feat - one Exotic Weapon Proficiency. Orcs love strange and bizarre weapons, and often train with them from an early age.
  [*]Disease resistant. The unique resistance a half-orc develops because of his dual parentage provides him with amazing immunities. A disease-resistant half-orc earns a +6 resistance to any disease, even magical ones.
  [*]Extended Darkvision. Some orcs who live underground have especially acute darkvision. As such, some half-orcs have a 90-foot range on their darkvision.

----
I think this makes them a fun, adaptable race.
Mr. Thread starter, I'd also be interested how this fits into your racial calculator.

 

[Particle_Man]

The one advantage to a half-orc is for beginning players. Just get the half-orc out, slap on a 2-h weapon (don't need to carry any light source), pick a fighter with p-attack/cleave (don't tell them what p-attack does yet) and max. out the intimidate skill and go!

No bunches of little racial bonuses for this and that to remember.

But that doesn't change the fact that dwarves are simply better, as are the +0 ECL wood elves and the + 0 ECL orcs..

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Come to think of it, I haven't seen anyone play an elf in any of our campaigns yet. Well, aside from the elven swashbuckler named Pierre who spoke with a heavy french accent that my friend made just to annoy the DM, who killed his previous half-orc character.... But he didn't last long.

I've seen it fairly frequently. The con hit is a big negative but a dex bonus is a big plus. I've seen many more elven clerics and elven rogues than elven wiz/sor though. There benefits seem to fit rogues more and there weapon prof make clerics even more kick butt. They seem to have a very large disconect between there description and there abilities and acomplishments.

 

[Plane Sailing]

One of the campaigns that I play in started off with an elf bard, an elf druid, an elf cleric, a human rogue and a human sorcerer (me)

By 3rd level I had the highest hit points in the party.

None of the elves made it to 5th level, and none of them was replaced by an elf character - nor have they turned up since except in the case of my characters cohort (elf ranger) who has a pumped-up CON (14 )

Cheers

 

[Mighty Halfling]

Hey, Die_Kluge!

Here's my half-orc variant:
HALF-ORCS
This race is slightly altered in this game.

Of course they have the typical abilities:

+2 Strength, –2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma. A half-orc’s starting Intelligence score is always at least 3. If this adjustment would lower the character’s score to 1 or 2, his score is nevertheless 3.
Medium: As Medium creatures, half-orcs have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Speed: Half-orc base land speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision: Half-orcs (and orcs) can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and half-orcs can function just fine with no light at all.
Orc Blood: For all effects related to race, a half-orc is considered an orc.
Automatic Languages: Common and Orc. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Giant, Gnoll, Goblin, and Abyssal.
Favored Class: Barbarian. A multiclass half-orc’s barbarian class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty.
Then they add these two things ...
Iron Stomach: Half-orcs can eat any plant or organic matter to avoid starvation, including rotten meat, spoiled milk, leather and chips of wood. This material must be broken down into small enough portions to fit in their mouth and down their throat. Typically, they can make a Survival check (DC 5 plus environmental modifiers) and they find enough material to sustain them for a day. Additionally, they are immune to all food-borne diseases and infections, but not poisons applied to such food.
Selective bonus: Because half-orcs are a varied race with a diverse heritage, at 1st level a half-orc selects one of the following traits.

• [*]Intimidator. Intimidate becomes a class skill and it is thereafter based on Strength, rather than Charisma.
  [*]Free Feat - Alertness. Like their orcish parent, this is now a bonus feat.
  [*]Free Feat - one Exotic Weapon Proficiency. Orcs love strange and bizarre weapons, and often train with them from an early age.
  [*]Disease resistant. The unique resistance a half-orc develops because of his dual parentage provides him with amazing immunities. A disease-resistant half-orc earns a +6 resistance to any disease, even magical ones.
  [*]Extended Darkvision. Some orcs who live underground have especially acute darkvision. As such, some half-orcs have a 90-foot range on their darkvision.

----
I think this makes them a fun, adaptable race.
Mr. Thread starter, I'd also be interested how this fits into your racial calculator.

Die_Kluge, how about that analysis?

 

[der_kluge]

Die_Kluge, how about that analysis?

I'll have to work it up at home. Just guessing from memory, the stats would be -40, since a +2/-2 balance out. The darkvision is +40, which cancels out the -2 stat. So, you're sitting at -10 there for the multi-class restriction.

I'd probably give 5 points for the "eat anything" and immune to diseases. food-borne diseases don't come up very often. So, with that you're sitting at -5.


I'm not sure your bonus abilities are necessarily all balanced. 1 extra exotic weapon proficiency is probably more powerful than having an extra class skill, for example. Even if you add an extra feat (the cost I gave for the gnome hooked hammer on the gnome paled in comparison to other racial abilities), so even having an exotic weapon proficiency isn't a huge deal, in my mind.

It's still weak, overall.

My advice - just drop the race. It's a stupid throwback to 1st edition, and I spent many happy years playing 2nd edition, and no one seemed to complain.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Because some people would rather RP a half-orc than a dwarf? I personally like playing dwarfs, but not in long-running campaigns. They seem a bit regimented for that to me while half-orcs could grow in so many ways I'd much rather play one than a dwarf.

Captain Tagon... aren't you dead?