Fixing the Half-Orc, Revisited.

IndyPendant

First Post
A while back, there was a post filled with *great* ideas about how to fix the half-orc. I read it, set things aside, chewed on it for a while, and came up with a combination my players like that seems to fit the race. So I thought I'd post it here for feedback before I added it to my house rules. In this case, I can't really claim anything original; nearly all of this is a blatant ripoff of the original post. : )

Anyways, please tell me what you think:

Half-Orcs:
--+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.
--Half-orc base land speed is 30 feet.
--+2 racial bonus on Intimidate and Survival checks.
--Darkvision: Half-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.
--Half-orcs receive Heavy Lifting and Toughness as bonus feats, even if they do not meet the prerequisites.
--Weapon Familiarity: Half-orcs receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the battleaxe, handaxe, and throwing axe as bonus feats. In addition, half-orcs may treat orc double axes as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons.
--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.


Heavy Lifting [General]
You can carry more than you normally could.
Source: Adapted from the 3e Tower.
Prerequisites: Str 13+.
Benefit: Your base carrying capacity is doubled. For example, a small creature with 18 Strength could normally carry a light load of 75 pounds, but with this feat he could carry a light load of 150 pounds.

Toughness [Combat]
You are tougher than normal.
Source: My adaptation of the PHB feat.
Prerequisites: Con 10+
Benefit: You gain +1 hit points per HD that you possess (minimum +3hp). Each time your hit dice changes (such as by gaining or losing a level) you gain (or lose) 1 hit point per hit die.
Special: This feat replaces the Toughness feat from the PHB. This feat can be taken several times, and stacks with itself.
 

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Now you've gone and made them too strong...... I'd take away the auto-proficiency in weapons, and take away the Survival bonus. Also, your version of the Toughness feat is awefully powerful now, since you've left it available for taking multiple times..... Complete Warrior has an Improved Toughness feat IIRC, which is only available once but grants basically the same bonus.

If you want to make Toughness better than in the Core but not overpowered, I'd suggest just changing its HP boost to the following...... 4 HP, or the character's total Base Fortitude Save, whichever is higher at the time the feat is gained. Not sure though if it should be retroactive though (i.e. take Toughness twice at 1st-level as human fighter, gaining +8 HP, then by 20th-level having instead +24 HP as a result of base Fort reaching +12). Even if it were retroactive though, of course, it would still be much better balanced than your overly-potent version of Toughness as-is (if a human took your Toughness feat twice at 1st-level, they'd get a pathetic +2 HP to start with but +40 by 20th-level).
 


Arkhandus said:
Now you've gone and made them too strong......

are you kidding?? ever hear of a race called "dwarves" published by some little company called Wizards?? THOSE are overpowered for being LA +0 race. this seems fine, other than the the bonus feats, which i don't entirely agree with. The Toughness feat is kinda over-powered for being a free feat. personally, i'd give em the the standard PHB Toughness feat, and keep the heavy lifting (it only gives the +5 Str in regards to lifting, nothing too bad) and id also drop the +2 survival thing, unless they are scavengers or something.

IMC, it is very tolkien-themed, so my orcs are kinda based off of that. heres my own half-orc.

Ascension-Paths of Power Half-orc

+2 Str, +1 Con, -2 Int, -2 Cha
medium size
30 ft base speed
Low-light vision
+1 natural armour
+2 intimidate, -2 Diplomacy
+1 damage vs dwarves and elves
Orc Blood: For all effects related to race, a half-orc is considered an orc.

favoured class: fighter

i might even end up adding "toughness as a bonus feat, so thank you for the idea! anywyas, hope i helped you with this. i like it, and your half-orc is a better one than the PHB half-orc
 
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Half-orcs, not accepted by orcs for their weak "human" heritage, not accepted by humans for their "monter" heritage, I would say if your campaign has half orcs some where like this then survival would fit very nicely.

I would either use regualr toughness or use improved tougness from CW. Also the feat every level thread has a good improvement on toughness, could give them that.

Nice work though!

-Sravoff
 

Wow, a cross-reference to my Toughness variant!

I've never thought it's that unbalanced to give out a larger number of HP when a character is 20th-level. After all, how big of an impact is 60 hp really going to have for your 20th-level barbarian compared to Power Attack, Cleave, and Great Cleave?

Of course, my variant goes only as high as +12 hp per instance of the feat, and it only gets to that amount if you have a very high base Fortitude save (+11 or higher), so it's more appropriately scaled to character class.
 

In our game we simply made the following additions.

* +2 Racial Bonus to Intimidate, Listen, Spot and Survival skill checks.
* Endurance feat for free at 1st level.

Its not over the top, but adds a little more punch to the racial bonuses and seems to fit the flavor without completely re-writing the race as intended.
 

Yargh... now there are TWO threads when ONE would have sufficed. *shakes fist mightily* Please see post "Fixing the Half Orc ('cause they're broken)" started yesterday on this topic. :P

LCpt. Thia Halmades
 

Nyaricus said:
ever hear of a race called "dwarves" published by some little company called Wizards?? THOSE are overpowered for being LA +0
So your fix for the overpowered, as you say, dwarves, is to make the orc just as powerful?

So you now have two overly powerful races?

Not too good a fix if you ask me. If the problem with race balance is the dwarf, then fix the dwarf. Fiddle with the orc based on its own demerits.

(I happen to agree with you that dwarves get too many goodies, it's just a shoddy reason to change the orc)
 


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