Half Orcs

[Byronic]

Longtooth shifter. It'll also be in PhB2.

Thanks for the suggestion (although I'm not adding MORE races in. 10 races is MORE then enough)

Maybe I can take the Dragonborn out.... nobodies chosen them and they bore me to tears.

 

[cmbarona]

Maybe I can take the Dragonborn out.... nobodies chosen them and they bore me to tears.

I guess there's no accounting for taste. I love Dragonborn, and since their release, have to struggle to imagine playing anything different when envisioning my next character from scratch.

 

[DanmarLOK]

Hmm, I'm still hoping for Str/Wis. One of my players is counting on it for her character.

Then just make it so. Unless it's a RPGA character that needs to be legal you can do whatever you want to. Personally to try and remove some of the typecasting for my players who play races/classes because it's what they want to play, not because of their powers, bonii, etc (to be honest none of them ever really crack a book to have any idea of what's 'best'), I let them for non-humans put +2 in any one stat and +2 in one of the indicated racial stats. As a balance humans get +2 to one stat and +1 to any other stat. So they can make Dwarven Wizards that are every bit as smart as Elvish wizards. My rationale is player characters are supposed to be unique, the out of the ordinary of their race and background.

While I can agree that certain races would have a proclivity toward certain classes, Players shouldn't have the same full blown 'restrictions by power' as a result. Any one race shouldn't be 'best' at a class in the eyes of a player other than roleplay reasons.

 

[tanj]

This may be the WoW player in me speaking, but I never really understood what could be accomplished flavorwise with a half-orc that you couldn't do with a plain old orc.

Orcs fit in with other orcs. half-orcs don't fit in anywhere. Orcs are brutish, but they have other orcs. What friends does a half-orc have?

Bard, not very good

Actually, I think a half-orc heavy metal bard would be interesting.

Sometimes everyone would love to just get drunk, stuff the consequences, and smack their boss in the face with a shovel. That is the Half-Orc inside all of us. Bless 'em.

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats. H. L. Mencken

 

[Bleoberis De Ganis]

This may be the WoW player in me speaking, but I never really understood what could be accomplished flavorwise with a half-orc that you couldn't do with a plain old orc.

Orcs are, perhaps, a bit too Orc. Eldorian said basically the same thing. An Half-Orc walking into town would be shunned, perhaps hated and viewed with mistrust - RP candy. An Orc walking into town would have several hundred people clambering over each other to nab some easy XP, and not one good aligned person would bother to get of their chair to save them.

I've now got Mo from The Simpsons stuck in my head.

 

[jgsugden]

Half-orcs are what you make of them.

In my campaign world, half-orcs are (and always have been) something akin to the uruk-hai from the LotR films - creatures bred by an evil wizard to be devastating warriors. In fact, I call them uruk-hai.

They are just another breed of orcs with some guided / magically altered evolution. However, that evolution makes them (typically) a bit more civilized and capable of interacting with 'civilization', as they tend to be bit more rational and cunning than the typical orc breeds.

 

[Spatula]

Thanks for the suggestion (although I'm not adding MORE races in. 10 races is MORE then enough)

Maybe I can take the Dragonborn out.... nobodies chosen them and they bore me to tears.

The half-orc in the Advanced Player's Guide is STR/WIS, and IMO has a more appropriate racial power, too.

 

[TheLordWinter]

Orcs are monsters. Half-orcs are misunderstood.

Personally I am not a big fan of Half-Orcs by and large, and will simply convert them to "Orcs" in my home campaign setting. This does away with the inherent problem that "Half-Orcs tend to have a messy implied backstory," quite nicely for my tastes.

Further, someone later mentioned that if an Orc walks into town everyone will leap to attack it. This isn't necessarily true if you make them common enough creatures in your campaign. Orcs who have chosen to leave their tribal structures behind can be every bit the outcast that a half-orc could be.

Also, for those mentioning Half-Orc bards, may I present you with a little picture I like to call "The God of Rock:"

Please note that his "lute" features neither strings nor any means of making sound save the percussion of beating someone with it. Which he looks prepared to do.

 

[jeffhartsell]

Anyone know yet if half-orcs get dual heritage?

 

[Journeymanmage]

Anyone know yet if half-orcs get dual heritage?

I'd say it's a safe assumption that they will. (mmm, Action surge)

Personally I am not a big fan of Half-Orcs by and large, and will simply convert them to "Orcs" in my home campaign setting. This does away with the inherent problem that "Half-Orcs tend to have a messy implied backstory," quite nicely for my tastes.

Someone implied something similar as to why (woc) kept Half-orcs out of PHB(1). Which in a way is odd since Tanis Half-elven is from just such a back-story and is a key figure in one of their major campaign worlds.