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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 3371670" data-attributes="member: 710">I think a +2 bonus to Strength is worth a penalty to 2 ability scores, but I tend to think that the penalty to Intelligence is to harsh. It makes it to compelling to just play just Half Orc Barbarians and Fighters, because, frankly, they don't really need skill points to be effective. Unfortunately, it still makes them boring, and it makes playing against the half-orc grunt stereotype to hard. Alternative Stats: +2 Strength, -2 Wis, -2 Cha.+2 racial bonus to Intimidate (and Survival, if you want to retain the Barbarian archetype)+2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease. +2 racial bonus on saving throws against fear effects and checks against intimidation. Low-Light visionFavored Class: Fighter (or Rogue?)Racial Weapon Familiarity: Half-Orcs treat the Orc Double Axe and the Orc War Scimitar* (*Use the rules for Bastard Swords, but damage is 1d8 and critical 18-20 x2) as martial weapons. Or use any other exotic weapon that you think are preferred in their culture. As an alternative, you could give the some kind of weapon familiarity with some martial weapons that they treat as simple (or Rogue/Wizard?) weapons instead. (Battleaxe, Great Axe, Hand Axe, Throwing Axe). A penalty to wisdom is a noticeable penalty to even the simplest grunt, and fits the archetype of your description better than a penalty to intelligence. (You need to be smart to organize a well-trained fighting force, but it isn't really wise just to focus on war. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )The bonus against diseases is just for flavour, but it benefits all classes. The bonus against fear compensates the penalty to wisdom in many cases and enforces the idea of Half-Orcs as powerful warriors - they don't run away from their fights. (They just execute tactical retreats. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )A Half-Orc with this modifiers would still make a good Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard and to some extent even Ranger (if you're willing to ignore the ranger spells and want to play a melee focused two-weapon combat style Ranger). Clerics and Druids become less desirable then with the standard Half-Orc, and Sorcerer and Paladin are unlikely as ever. In all cases, the Half-Orc has more skill point to use to flesh out the character.</blockquote>

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