Heroes of High Favor: Half Orcs

[Messageboard Golem]

They are the orphans of savage wars, drifting back into the territories of yet-unconquered people, a reminder of the constant struggle against the forces of chaos. Shunned by humanity, the half-orcs have learned to survive on their own, through savage barbarism: What is not freely given must be taken by force. The half-orc does not seek pity nor compassion, but fear and respect.

HALF-ORCS features background information and role-playing tips for ten unique half-orc prestige classes, as well as new feats and new uses for old skills specific to barbarians. New Craftsmanship rules detail savage weapons and armor as well as quick-and-dirty "shoddy craftsmanship," so you can arm your horde in a hurry. New Handle Animal rules allow comprehensive (yet simple) cross-breeding of fantastic guardian beasts, and you’ll find additional uses for your Intimidate and Wilderness Lore skills as well.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Heroes of High Favor: Half Orcs
Written by Benjamin Durbin
Published by Bad Axe Games
64 6 x 9 pages
$9.95

Half Orcs are one of the most under represented classes in the whole of the D20 fantasy system. First off, like half-elves, they’re not truly a race in and of themselves. Second off, one of their parent races isn’t a standard player race. There’s not a lot of information you can pull from an orc book to mold your half-orc on.

That’s where Benjamin Durbin steps up to the plate.

A word of warning first. This isn’t a book about angst-ridden characters but rather, a book whose main focus is on the barbaric and orc aspect of the half-orc. There are no weeping orphans of war here but instead, savage tribal aspects to add to any campaign.

The book starts off with a brief introduction to the Heroes of High Favor line and why half-orcs favor barbarism. The simple solution is that it’s the blood. Of course on the mechanical side, the high strength and low intelligence help push players in that direction too.

The book jumps right into the game mechanics starting with feats. Benjamin introduces the half-orc and rage feats. One example of a half half-orc feat is Craft Savage Magics, which combines several item creation feats (Craft Wondrous Items, Craft Magical Arms and Armor) but relies on the remains of monsters slain. This idea ties into the skills latter in the book. Another half-orc feat that’s also a rage feat is Extra Orcish Raging where the character can rage more times per day. For rage feats, things like Boar’s Hide, give the character the ability to ‘spend’ another daily rage to get damage reduction, or Focused Rage, which ‘spends’ another rage and grants the user Improved Critical with his weapon.

The feats add depth to the barbarian and the idea of ‘spending’ daily rages for special effects makes for some truly intense characters who can be walking whirlwinds of death, but only when in the middle of a rage. It also helps equalize the rage ability to the turning ability of a cleric, who with feat selection can do numerous things instead of turn undead. I can already see DMs lining up the small fry to get the player to use up his rages to insure that his main baddie isn’t chopped to bits by a half orc.

One of the feats, Tribal Focus/Totem Focus, gets a separate section. A half orc that takes this feat at first level is dedicated to following a chain of feats and gains a bonus to his skills when he takes a feat in the list. For example, the Wyvern has Berserk Rage, Weapon Focus (spear, any), and Wyvern’s Roar. When he takes one of these feats, he gains a +1 bonus that he can apply to one skill from a list. When he takes another one, another +1 bonus can be stacked to that same skill, or applied to a different skill from the list. It’s a useful way of rewarding role-playing and can provide the GM some quick ideas when they want to emulate Warhammer with the more savage orcs therein.
Chapter Three, Skills, provides information that players and GMs can use to customize the savage or wild aspect of the half-orc barbarians. For example, skills like Craft Rope, Savage Weapons and Savage Armor, allow bones, stones, and wood to be used. Such items aren’t as good, but creation times aren’t as long either. Even better is the fact that there’s no raw material cost.

More interesting to me at least, is the section on Handle Animal. Now this goes into crossbreeding different creatures and while I don’t know many players who’ll get into this aspect, I know that it makes great ideas ferment to the top of my brain. There are DCs listed for cross breeding and handling animals, beasts and magical beasts, as well as the results of such breedings in terms of how many powers are gained and what strength of breed was produced from the coupling. I’m thinking I may have to throw together a few displacer beasts griffins or something along those lines to torture my party with.

Intimidate gets a new use that may prove a little too powerful for some DMs. The player makes a DC check against 15 + the target’s level and depending on his success, can cause anything from shaken to paniciked results. Mind you it’s highly unlikely that panic will result, but the fact that a skill can do something without a saving throw to resist it is overpowered.

The expanded rules for Wilderness Lore will come in very handy for those GMs who’ve always wondered what’s theDC for preserving meats and hides and how to harvest poison, and those with the feats to do so, can harvest components.

Chapter Four gets us into Prestige Classes and like Dwarves, has ten classes, one for each core class as combined with the barbarian. Each class-combo has background information, role in half-orc society, role in adventuring party, and how to play the character by multi-classing, and then the 10 level prestige class. Now me, I’m thinking that Benjamin plays a little Warhammer because some elements of that campaign world have crept through certain ideas here. Take for example the Barbarian-Sorcerer, the Wyrd. This character becomes empowered by the rage of those around him but the rage can actually damage the caster if he can’t release the power of his brethren. The similarities here are with the Waaagh! Magic that the Greenskins utilize. It would also seem he takes a page from Skaven (that’s rat men to the uninitiated) with the Barbarian-Druid, the Moulder. These strange beings are masters are cross-breeding animals and can even absorb animals to take some of their traits.

My personal favorites though are the Coal-Tongue Raver and the Dire Stalker. The Coal-Tongue Raver is the Barbarian-Rogue and is a master of poison. This hails back in some way to 1st edition AD&D where half-orcs could be assassins but takes it much further with the half-orc becoming addicted to poisons and the poisons having strange effects on the character’s body like making his blood poisonous. The Dire Stalker, the Barbarian-Ranger, is not only a dangerous combo from the core class side, but gains more favored enemies, and a totem focus. Even better is the Grim Feast ability, where he can devour the heart of a favored enemy and gain bonuses dependant on the enemy’s CR.

Chapter Four Closes off with three quick tips for role playing a barbarian and some more tips for showcasing your half-orc nature. I’m particularly fond of the defining fighting styles of all power attack, all the time, and rage on sight. These tips should help new players get into the mood.

Andrew Hale provides the internal art and his skill has grown since the first book. However, I don’t like his take on the half-orc. For some reason, many of the illustrations have these funky looking horns growing from the back of their heads. Text density is fair with good use of white space in most cases. A few of the illustrations are so huge that with the smaller format, there’s hardly any text on the page.

The book suffers a little in the heavy orc flavor too. Because this is a player’s book, and a player’s book that focuses on crunch, there’s little material on role playing a half orc or how the half-orc’s upbringing may result in different styles of characters entirely. It’ll be interesting to see how the half-elf, a half-breed with no favored class is written up.

For myself, I’ll be adding several bits (prestige classes) and pieces (cross breed guardians) right away to several tribes. Players might not get as much use due to the orc tie ins for the Prestige Classes, but the feats and skills, especially the wilderness lore, are useable right away.

If you’re looking for in depth analysis of their motivations, move on but if you find that your barbarian half-orc needs just that extra bit of burning rage at the end of the day, Heroes of High Favor: Half Orcs is for you.

 

[GameWyrd]

This half-orc book is the second in the Heroes of High Favor line from Bad Axe Games and this time round the tight focus of the small 62-paged book is a strength. Half-orcs must be the neglected race of the D&D setting and so this time Heroes of High Favor set about addressing that wrong. The book looks at half-orcs and prestige classes derived from multi-class combinations of the race’s favoured class. Since the half-orcs’ favoured character class is barbarian we have a list of some intriguing and original prestige classes rather than the "oh… and can fight too" combinations which were produced for dwarf fighter.

I described the $9.95 62-paged book as small because it is. It’s physically small. The surface size of the book is about 40% smaller than the industry average. The text size certainly isn’t 40% smaller but is on the small side of the scale. Heroes of High Favor gets a way with this because it’s a book with an acutely defined application; half-orc multi-class based prestige classes. You’ll get the appropriate trappings such as new feats and skills with that but you’ll not get anything else. Fans of the style, those who might favour the crunchy side of role-playing, have described this as "cutting out the fat". For me, though, it’s more like doing without flavour. That said, sometimes you can extract a little bit of flavour when game mechanics have a backbone concept behind them and that’s what you’ll find here. The feat "Mark of the Eye" caught my eye. I immediately wondered, "What Eye? What’s so special about the Eye!" and perhaps it was a bit of luck (or sly layout management) because the turn of the page offered to me rules for the Tribal Focus "The Burning Eye" (no harm in a bit of Tolkien homage, the who genre is built on it) and the finally the "Favored of the Eye" prestige class for barbarian-cleric multi-classes appears later on.

If you put together all the flavour implied by the mechanics and, of course, the explanatory text in the prestige classes you’ll be left with the view of the half-orc being caught between civilisation and savagery. Since the favoured prestige class is barbarian the view of the half-orcs in the book moves strongly in favour of the rural, the rustic and relatively wild orc. In fact, the most decisive decision for the half-orc is whether to lean towards the nearly organised warfare of tribes of the more animalistic and savage totem focused orc. If you’re looking for the whiny half-orc in search of acceptance from either side of his human or orc bloodlines then you’ll not find such a character among the Heroes of High Favor.

Introductions are rarely worth pointing out except when they’re missing. It seems unlikely that a stat heavy book such as this one has anything of note in its introduction but it does. The introduction asks the Barbarian Question. Why do half-orcs favour the barbarism? The barbarian is unique among the character classes insofar that it’s a cultural class rather than a professional one. You learn the way of the ranger, you study to become a wizard and train to become a fighter. You do none of these things for the barbarian class; you just become a barbarian. Are half-orcs more likely to become barbarians because the inherent savagery of their orc blood eventually wins out or are they inevitably pushed into that role by their environment?

Then the feats begin. There’s enough diversity in this list to make it worthwhile. At this stage of d20 development feats along the lines of "Even More Scary Greater Cleave" are just white space. There are some feats in the same family as the previous illustrated example would belong to; feats like "Axe Mastery" and "Refined Skill Focus". The better feats are those that apply new but appropriate uses for the barbarian’s daily dose of rage. Examples of such feats are "Adrenal Healing" which applies only while you’re currently enraged and then after the expenditure of another rage you’ll gain Fast Healing:1 for the for the duration of your current page. The list of these feats attend to the ignored rage special ability in a similar way the whole book attends to the ignored half-orc race. Better yet is the idea of a tribal or totem focus; a game mechanic to inject some flavour straight into your half-orc.

I was also fairly impressed with the skill section in the book. As with feats it can be impossible to get your hands on any new or vaguely original idea for character skills but again the book benefits from the way other companies have ignored the half-orc. The two main thrusts of the skill section are for savage weapons and cross-breeding. Cross-breeding is an obvious skill association for the half-orc only with the benefit of hindsight. The rules for savage weapons thankfully don’t try and move forward some benefit in using inferior weapons and instead concentrate on the ease and relative speed in which these weapons can be made. If you’ve a nearby wood and a pile of pointy stones then you can create twenty spears more quickly than a blacksmith insisting on forging new metal heads for each spear could. Half-orcs are cross-bred humans and orcs and receive a mixture of orc and human characteristics as a result. The cross-breeding rules here provide ways to try and cross-breed animals and pick off the better characteristics of the two. Your half-orc is unlikely to be in the business of creating entire new races since these half-breeds are almost always sterile.

The prestige classes are designed to be "iconic multi-classes". This means each class is paired off with the barbarian class and turned into a prestige class. Except these prestige classes aren’t just "The Fighter-Barbarian Prestige Class" and wrapped up with a better concept and idea. If you accept the concept then you should be able to accept mixtures like the barbarian-monk. The game-mechanic problem with the barbarian-monk is that barbarians and monks have differing alignment requirements. If you’re a lawful barbarian-monk then you can’t rage. The prestige class offered by Bad Axe Games, the Lost One, doesn’t try and gloss over this or provide some unlikely work around; it accepts and embraces this. The same is true of the barbarian-paladin. As I said above the barbarian is the only cultural class and so any combinations with it are particularly interesting even if there’s no game mechanic problems to deal with. All of the prestige classes are detailed through the full ten levels. Good. There are plenty of new special abilities in the book and new special abilities available to each prestige class at new levels. You don’t see too much in the way of the same ability simply getting better (+1, +2, +3, etc) as the character levels increase. The exception to this is the Wyrd (nice name by the way) prestige class based on the barbarian-sorcerer. The Wyrd gets better at controlling his Empathic Sensitivity and not boiling over as he progresses in level. Although Empathic Sensitivity is a bit county and perhaps suited only to campaigns where rage actions aren’t uncommon it’s twist on the original makes it one of my favourite offerings from the book.

Finally Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs finishes on a double page of roleplaying notes. These notes strike me a bit too much as easy steps to encourage a long time roll-player to try his hand at role-playing. I think specialist books like this one do tend to appeal more to long term players of some description or another – at the very least, it’s not likely to be bought by newbies. This is one of the reasons why I boggle at the game mechanic advice that persists throughout the book. This number crunching bothers me as much in Half-Orcs as it did in the previous Dwarf book. I don’t really like to have a new prestige class introduced with the suggestion that Attribute X will be important, not only is it too crunchy for my tastes but it goes as far to suggest that you should create your initial character with numbers in mind for a natural progression to a prestige class picked out in advance. Does this mean if you assign numbers to your character so he’ll become a good Agitator (barbarian-bard) that you’ll persist on that route even if your bard character never has any real in-game motivation to become a barbarian?

On the whole, though, I rather enjoyed this book in the Heroes of High Favor line. The combination of half-orcs and barbarians benefited the book as much as the book benefits those neglected character options. The book’s crunchy, it’s about the game mechanics but its possible to pick up flavour and inspiration by reading between the lines.

* This GameWyrd was first posted here.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

Heroes Of High Favor: Half Orcs (HOHFHO) is the second in a series of race-related books by Bad Axe Games, which concentrate on the relationship between the particular race and their favored class. This one is for Half-Orcs.

HOHFHO comes in at $9.95. It consists of 62 just-larger-than-A5 pages, which I approximate to somewhere around the equivalent of 35 A4 pages. This makes it relatively expensive when compared to offerings of similar page count and type in terms of content volume. Partly because of the page size, and partly because of the layout itself, space usage is not great either. The internal mono art and the blood-spattered front-cover are good. Writing quality is also good, whilst the editing is average (e.g. mixing 'deity' and 'diety' up, which a simple spellcheck should have picked up).

HOHFHO uses a similar format to its predecessor on Dwarves. There are five chapters - an introduction, feats, skills, prestige classes, and advice on roleplaying half-orcs.

The introduction focuses in on the importance of the barbarian class to half-orcs, and particularly the concept of multi-classing barbarian. The book takes quite a traditionalist approach - "Be warned that this book is not for the faint of heart; if your desire is to play a troubled half-orc orphan desperate to escape his barbaric heritage, you should look elsewhere."

Twenty-two feats are offered up, specific to half-orcs, but adaptable to barbarians in general. Several of the feats concentrate on the Rage ability, allowing Rages to be swapped out for other abilities, such as fast healing, going berserk, enraged casting, and damage reduction. Other feats offer mastery of savage weapons such as spears and axes. One particular feat, Tribal Focus/Totem Focus is dealt with in more detail at the end of the chapter. This feat defines different tribes (e.g The Black Hand) or animal totems (e.g. wolf) that are linked with a specific set of feats (e.g. The Horse Lords tribal feat list consists of Leadership, Mounted Combat, Refined Skill Focus (Ride), and Trample. If your Half-Orc character dedicates himself to following the feats of his tribe or totem as he gains levels, he gets a +1 kick-back on a limited choice of skills appropriate to either a tribal or totemic society, each time he picks up one of the feats.

The Skills chapter looks at new uses for old skills - Craft (Craft Rope, Craft Savage Weapons, Craft Savage Armour, masterwork components, using tough hides to create naturally tough armour, and shoddy craftsmanship), Handle Animal (Breed/Cross-breed Animals/Beasts), Intimidate (used to make an opponent shaken dazed, frightened or panicked), Knowledge (Half-Orcs), and Wilderness Lore (Fashion Savage Tools, Preserve Meat, Preserve Hide, Harvest Components, and Harvest Poison).

The Prestige Classes chapter takes the Barbarian class as the basepoint, and then multiclasses with each of the other core classes. Advice is given on standard multiclassing for the combination including the character's role in half-orc society and in an adventuring group, then an 'iconic' 10-level prestige class (best achieved by this multiclass mix) is offered:

* The Agitator (Barbarian/Bard) continues progressing with his bardic abilities, but learns to use his music to infuse a crowd with different emotional states, particularly fear and anger.
* Favored Of The Eye (Barbarian/Cleric) - gains additional orc domains whilst continuing to progress in spellcasting. Can also cast spells while raging, use the smite ability and gain divine inspiration to improve spellcasting at later levels.
* Moulder (Barbarian/Druid) - continues to improve in spellcasting, rage, and wild shape. Gains the ability to mould together himself with an animal companion or two animal companions together, allowing the remaining being to gain extra abilities. He can also enrage an animal companion.
* Horde Chieftain (Barbarian/Fighter) - continues to gain extra rages and feats, whilst gaining the ability to call and control a barbarian horde.
* Lost One (Barbarian/Monk) - combines monk-type abilities (flurry of blows, furious strike, mental fortress) with barbarian-type abilities (damage reduction, mighty grapple, improved evasion).
* Fervent Antagonist (Barbarian/Paladin) - retains paladin spellcasting, aura of courage, special mount, smite and divine grace with the barbarian's rage but also gains bonuses to charge/rage, the ability to enrage his mount, and may perform a coup de grace as a free action when combined with a full attack.
* Dire Stalker - (Brabarian/Ranger) - develops various additions to the Favored Enemy Ranger class ability such as raging at his favored enemy, and intuitively sensing their direction. Also gains a Totem Focus at 1st level (+ bonus feats), but loses 'virtual feats' such as Two-Weapon Fighting in balance. Has a cool ability to rip out the hearts of fallen enemies and eat it, thus gaining temporary bonuses depending on the challenge the enemy provided.
* Coal-Tongue Raver (Barbarian/Rogue) - insane from poison addiction, gains abilities such as poison spittle, poison resistance, and poison blood, as well as some standard thief abilities.
* Wyrd (Barbarian/Sorcerer) - slower spellcasting advances but gains the ability to feed of others' emotions to focus his rage into more powerful spellcasting - this has the potential to seriously screw him up if it goes wrong.
* Hoodoo (Barbarian/Wizard) - witch doctor type, who can summon enraged monsters, is skilled in divination, gains a limited ability to convert spells into arcane healing, and advances more slowly than a standard spellcaster.

The final 2-page chapter on roleplaying half-orc characters is amusingly forthright as exemplified by one section heading - "'Violence Never Solved Anything' - Wrong!". There is also a short section on defining the half-orcs fighting style, such as 'All Power Attack, All Of The Time'. Short, but good.

Conclusion:
Half-Orcs are my least favourite race, but if anything I enjoyed this more than 'HOHF: Dwarves'. The highlights were the Tribal/Totem Focus feat, the section on naturally tough armour, the Dire Stalker's 'Grim Feast' ability, and the Coal-Tongued Raver's poison abilities. I also liked the section on roleplaying, even if it was too short.

Like its predecessor, HOHFHO is long on crunch and short on fluff - its ideal for players, 'merely' interesting for GMs. Much of the information could, however, be extrapolated in order to provide ideas on half-orc society and in fact barbarian societies in general. Few of the feats, skill uses or prestige class abilities stood out as unbalanced - even those that seemed over-powerful at first glance had a less obvious balancing feature hidden within the text. Prerequisites were also good; my only disappointment was that several of the prestige classes gained very similar (or the same) abilities as a standard multiclass combination would gain. For me, a prestige class should have a defined role in the campaign setting, and have their own unique abilities - not all the prestige classes in the book achieved that expectation.

 

[The Sigil]

Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs (hereafter simply HALF-ORCS) is the second in Bad Axe Games' Heroes of High Favor line. Each of these books is dedicated to a single race and explores the options and implications of that race's favored class, mostly in the form of rules-crunchy Prestige Classes that are designed to work for multiclass combos of Favored Class/Other Class.

Percent of OGC: Roughly 50%. As with HoHFwarves, HALF-ORCS puts the designator "all text on this page is Open Game Content" to make the OGC easy to find.

First Impressions: Well, I now know what to expect from Bad Axe, so unlike HOHFwarves, the format and the material here were anything but a surprise. HALF-ORCS sticks to the Bad Axe formula established in HoHFwarves... give your reader a little background, then get right to the crunchy stuff by throwing Feats, Skills, and (mostly) Prestige Classes at 'em.

Initial Annoyances: There was nothing "new" and "fresh" about the layout. While Bad Axe is still a relatively young company, and their layout is excellent, I will be very interested to see what happens to the layout when they release something that is not in the HoHF series... I worry that they might fall into a rut. Furthermore, there seemed to be a little excessive "graphicness" to some of the illustrations. I suppose this could be explained by the focus on a race that is usually depicted as brutish and crude, but hopefully it is not the start of a trend. Further releases will tell us, I suppose.

Chapter Breakdown:

Chapter one is the introduction. All of two pages, it essentially gives a quick "background history" on half-orcs and discusses the implications of the Favored Class (Barbarian) on their culture. As with HoHFwarves, this plays a little away from the "chicken and egg" question - are half-orcs barbaric because of their culture or is their culture barbaric because that's their favored class? As with HoHFwarves, the answer tends to be, "it doesn't really matter." In other words, HALF-ORCS is not about changing stereotypes or the role of the half-orc in society; rather, it is about reinforcing them (not necessarily bad, BTW). There is also a little information about the company, the product, an the OGC demarcation.

Chapter two introduces us to Feats and Totem/Tribal Foci. The Feats are generally solid, and (notably) include a couple of neat new uses for the Barbarian Rage ability (appropriate, based on the focus being on Half-Orcs and their favored class, Barbarian). Bull's Health, for instance, allows a barbarian to expend one of his daily rages in order get a "second chance" at a saving throw vs. poison. Focused Rage can only be used while (already) raging, and grants the character the use of the Improved Critical Feat with any weapon he uses (proficient or not) for the duration of the (initial) rage. Of course, with all the new things to "spend" rages on, the Extra Orcish Rage Feat, analagous to the Extra Turning Feat from the PHB, provides the half-orc with three extra uses of rage per day - but can only be taken once. Totem/Tribal Foci are concepts that introduce extra synergy between Feats and Skills and are somewhat analagous in placement and function to the Runes introduced in HoHFwarves in that they provide a unique (if understated) way for Half-Orcs to leverage their abilities. It "costs" a Feat to start (Tribal Focus or Totem Focus), but the Feat provides a character with an immediate +1 bonus to a skill (character's choice of skills from a limited list - the tribal focus has one list and the totem focus has another). If that seems a little underwhelming, consider that each time a character selects a Feat approriate to the tribe/token (a list of Feats is given for sample tribes/tokens), the character receives, free of charge, another +1 bonus to assign to a skill from the list (he may assign the bonus to the same skill as before). For example, a character who takes Totem Focus and chooses the Wolf token might take a +1 bonus to his Wilderness Lore skill. If the character later takes Dodge, he gains another "free" +1 bonus, that he can apply to Wilderness Lore or perhaps Move Silently or Handle Animal (the character must make the choice at the time he gains the bonus and cannot change it later) for a total of +2 in bonuses. When the character takes Track, he gains yet another +1 bonus (total of +3). When he takes Spring Attack, he gains another +1 bonus (for a total of +4), and so on (most "chains" top out at +6). Because the bonus is unnamed, it stacks with other bonuses and with itself (a quote from HALF-ORCS, but a worthy reminder of how bonuses work). It's an idea for Feats that makes them a little underpowered compared to Skill Focus when first taken, but that "cost" is offset by a long-term advantage over Skill Focus (assuming of course, you are interested in taking the proscribed Feat Chain). A wonderful little concept here.

Chapter three handles Skills. The most notable uses of skills come in the Craft (Weapon) skills in which a character can make weapons more quickly, more cheaply, or at with a lower DC. The "cost" is that these weapons are substandard and break more easily, breaking on a natural roll of 1 (or 2 or 3, should more than one of the above factors be used). A nice little touch that explains why nobody likes to loot orcish corpses - the weapons break too easily. Also included is a short section that could be titled "Animal Husbandry 101" - rules are given for cross-breeding creatures using the Handle Animal skill. Another great use of a neglected skill, and much better than trying to build a new mechanic into the system to handle it. Brownie points there.

Chapter four is the meat of the book - Prestige Classes. And yes, there is a Paladin/Barbarian multiclass combo (the Fervent Antagonist) and a Monk/Barbarian combo. These are explained as rare, but possible (due to alignment changes). It is possible - but difficult - but not impossible - to qualify for a couple of these without the associated "second class" (to go with Barbarian) but for the most part, the requirements include certain class abilities only accessible to those with 3-5 levels in the "second class." A few notes on the "quickest path" to each class are provided, with some advice on which stats are and aren't important to a character seeking to fill this niche. Obviously, this is not "set in stone" but provides good guidelines to those seeking to use the classes. None of the classes struck me as particularly overpowering on first blush. Since the Fervent Antagonist is probably the most unusual combo, I will mention that most of the Fervent Antagonist abilities seem to center around allowing the character to gain access to both his paladin abilities (such as spells, smites, divine aura, and so forth) and his barbarian abilities (espeically rage). The cost to combining these two fields (which a normal multiclass character cannot simultaneously possess) is that the character is not quite as good a paladin as a "lawful" paladin and not quite as good a barbarian as a "chaotic" barbarian. Not too badly done - this was probably the toughest to execute and seems to have been done in a decent fashion. The other classes are a bit of a mixed bag - again, the focus seems to be on leveraging the abilities of the two classes into a few unusual special abilities at the cost of a little bit of the raw power that a "normal" multiclass character could achieve.

Chapter five (mislabelled as chapter four on the page headers) is a short summary with some tips on how to role-play a "classic" half-orc (or classic barbarian). There are a few tips given on how to separate Barbarian 1 from Barbarian 2 without straying too far afield from the classic stereotype. This kind of advice is a nice help for newbies and good reminder for veterans. In that it's only a couple of pages, it doesn't take up too much space, either, so the veteran shouldn't feel cheated by being told what he already knows.

Presentation: Similar to HoHFwarves, HALF-ORCS is tightly focused and the illustrations are slightly cartoonish but clean and clear. The "violence level" was definitely upped for HALF-ORCS, but that may be a consequence of the barbarian theme. The artwork is not always inspiring, but it is relevant and nicely done. The placement of "the text on this page is Open Game Content" is excellent and also garners points for presentation by making OGC hideously easy to find.

Conclusion: Another strong showing for Bad Axe games. The further expansion of the Craft Skill is nice, but the real gems are the Totem Focus and (especially) Handle Animal/Animal Husbandry sections. If you already have HoHFwarves, this is more of the same and you know what to expect (if you liked Dwarves, I guess that's good and maybe it's bad if you didn't) - there will be no surprises in here for Bad Axe return customers. If you haven't read Dwarves, you might well consider picking this up for your half-orc. It's a nice resource, gives a lot of "crunchy" options to your character, and will probably see quite a bit of use. Nothing in here that will knock your socks off because of originality, but technically sound and with several new ideas that do an excellent job expanding the d20 ruleset just a touch. This is a solid book with solid artwork and solid writing on some really good ideas that sticks to a solid and proven formula. It is the ideas more than anything else that push it up from "averge" into "good." The target all along was a book about the stereotypical half-orc and/or barbarian, and it is achieves those goals, making it a worthy purchase that earns a Good rating. It's not for everyone - if you're not excited by stereotypical half-orcs and/or barbarians, however, you'll want to steer clear of this one unless Animal Husbandry rules particularly excite you - but it does what it promises, and that's all you can ask of a book.

--The Sigil
October 16, 2002

 

[Psion]

Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs

Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs is the second in Bad Axe Games' Heroes of High Favor series of books. These small player-oriented books contain new options for PCs of a particular race, including prestige classes, feats, and special rules.

Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs is written by Benjamin Durbin.

A First Look

Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs is a small-sized (each page is a little larger that half of a standard 8 ½ x 11" page) 62-page perfect bound book priced at $9.95

The cover of the book depicts an animal skin stretched out on a stretching frame with a symbol and the title of the book branded on the skin. The interior is black-and-white and has various depictions of barbaric half-orcs. Both cover and interior illustrations are by Andrew Hale.

The interior has modest sized body text, but the paragraphs are double-spaced. There is very little in the way of flavor text in the book; aside from short descriptions, the book is thick with mechanics.

A Deeper Look

As with the first Heroes of High Favor book, Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs spins off of the concept of the race's favored class as an important indication of the flavor of the race. Most of the mechanics revolve around the barbarian and its class abilities. As such, the GM may use parts of the book it to represent other barbaric races and cultures as well.

The feats chapter introduces a number of new feats for half-orcs. Many of these feats are rage feats, which require the rage class ability of the barbarian. Some rage feats allow the character to expend an extra rage use while raging to gain an additional benefit. For example, the adrenal healing gives the character fast healing 1 for the duration of the rage.

One interesting feat unique to half orcs is black blooded feat, which causes the half-orc to ignore the normal racial bonuses and penalties due to being descended from a "black orc". The book never defines a black orc, but it sounds suspiciously like the black orc described in AEG's Monster.

Much of the feats chapter is devoted to detailing options for the Tribal Focus / Totem Focus feat. The feat can be taken at first level by a half orc, and gain a +1 bonus to a list of tribal or totem skills. The character chooses a tribe or totem, each or which has a short list of feats that signifies the style of the tribe or totem; the character gets an additional +1 bonus to one of the tribe or totem skills for each feat that the character takes on the list.

The skills chapter provides a number of potentially useful rules for barbarian type characters or cultures, including rules for crafting savage weapon and armor, more detailed rules and tasks for animal handling and wilderness lore, and so on. Some of the more interesting and useful new rules are the rules for shoddy craftsmanship, a simple rule that can be added to any campaign to represent knock-off quality materials, and rules for crafting armor that allow the armor to retain some properties of the creature it is taken from. This last rule might take some GMs aback.

The prestige classes chapter presents a new prestige class for each non-barbarian core class. Each class concept is built around a concept theoretically appropriate to a character with the class in question and the barbarian class. The prestige classes (and corresponding multiclass combination) are:

- Agitator (Barbarian-Bard): Agitators are charismatic leaders that serve to stir orc hordes into action. The class abilities of an agitator resemble a bards abilities, and can whip a crowd into a mighty rage-like fervor.
- Favored of the Eye (Barbarian-Cleric): The favored of the eye are priests favored by the orcish deity. Among other abilities, the favored of the eye gain an ability to cast some clerical domain spells while in a rage. The class is possibly overpowered, as it offers both full spellcasting advancement, fighter-type BAB advancement, and the two good save advancements typical of a cleric.
- Moulder (Barbarian-Druid): This bizarre class specializes in twisting the shapes of animals as well as their own shape. They can merge with animal companions to gain some of their abilities, as well as join two animal companions to create a bizarre creatures.
- Horde Chieftain (Barbarian-Fighter): The horde chieftain is a warrior who reaches a leadership position by superiority in battle. The horde chieftain gains abilities to summon and inspire a horde and attract and inspire bodyguards.
- Lost One (Barbarian-Monk): The lost one is a half-orc that treads the incompatible path between barbarians and monks. For example, it could be a half-orc orphan taken in by a monastery, but who could not restrain the inner rage inherent to their race. The lost one combines the fury and toughness of the barbarian with the fighting style of a monk.
- Fervent Antagonist (Barbarian-Paladin): The fervent antagonist is a paladin who fell to the path of barbarism (or reformed from it), but retains some divine authority. The class ability basically combine that of the barbarian and paladin. This hodge pode doesn't really seem to work well and the class seem conceptually weak to me.
- Dire Stalker (Barbarian-Ranger): The dire stalker is a combination of barbarian and ranger that highlights the favored enemy aspect of the ranger. The dire stalker holds a predatory beast as a totem and gains feats related to this totem as well as abilities related to a predatory totem (such as scent).
- Coal-Tongue Raver (Barbarian-Rogue): The coal-tongue raver is a dangerous and unstable fellow with a fondness for poisons. Most of the raver's class abilities are related to poisons, but otherwise the class is more similar to a rogue than a barbarian.
- Wyrd (Barbarian-Sorcerer): The wyrd gains spellcasting ability slowly, and gains fighting ability at a moderate rate. The wyrd's main ability is to derive power from the emotions of others. Raging and charging enemies and allies give the wyrd "rage tokens" which can be used to enhance casting level or pay the spell slot cost for metamagic. However, if the wyrd gains too many rage tokens, it can be very dangerous for the wyrd and those around him. This is very reminiscent of ork wizards in the Warhammer fantasy battle game.
- Hodoo (Barbarian-Wizard): The hodoo is a spellcaster that parleys for arcane knowledge from tribal spirits. The most interesting ability of a hodoo is to channel her rage ability into summoned creatures.

Some of the classes and class combinations are naturally neat fits. Others are interesting concepts as well; I particularly liked the lost one, moulder, and hodoo. However, some concepts did not work out so well. The fervent antagonist was a lost cause, and the favored of the eye is overpowered.

The last chapter covers the subtleties (or lack thereof) involved in playing a character from a savage society, and provides a quick and interesting primer of ideas, especially for players new to playing such characters.

Conclusion

While I do appreciate the "cut to the chase" approach of the Heroes of High Favor series, I did not like Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs as much as Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves; some of the classes seem a little less balanced and some concepts less compelling. However, it is still a very good resource of ideas and options for half-orc or other barbaric characters. Some prestige classes and feats are interesting and useful, and the skills section provides some good, simple variants for savage characters.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Nail]

After reading over the other reviews here at ENWorld, I think I'd better throw my own 2 cp in. I got HoHF: Half-Orcs on the strength of the previous book HoHF: Dwarves. The others here probably did the same. We were expecting a book filled with solid writing, original rule-work, and little in the way of "fluff". ...And wha'd'ya know, that's what we got. Read over what the others said, and you'll find not one reviewer that says otherwise.

This is a concise, well-crafted tool set for iconic half-orc characters. Its not for the angst-ridden mommy-boy half-orcs that sit weeping in corners, wresting with the "monster within". And it's not for those that need long pages of mood text to tell them how to evoke the proper orcish demeanor. If you think about it, it's the rules of the game that form the basis for whatever yer looking for in a character -- or even for an entire orcish empire, Grummish willing -- and this book delivers that foundation, for Player and DM alike.

As usual at ENWorld, several earlier reviews go over the structure and content of the book very thoroughly, so I won't repeat that here. I'll just talk about what I like (and don't like). As always, YMMV.

Chapter 1: After my first read, I was left a bit cold, to be honest. I was thinking: "These barbarian-orcs are portrayed so ....brutally! What about the noble savage, questing for redemption, out-cast from his half-blood brothers, and never to be accepted by those in civilized lands....." (Can you hear the violin music playing in the background? Yep, there it is....)

Fortunately, I gave the book a second thorough read....and I realized how brain-washed I'd become in my thinking of what it is to be a half-orc. Page 1 in this book wiped that all away, drowned it with visions of rage, blood, and slaughter....

The point is: Half-orc favored class is barbarian. There's a reason for that. Think about it.

Chapter 2 are the feats. I especially liked the Rage feats, such as Bull's Health and Enraged Casting. These bring out the role-playing opportunities, while at the same time providing a solid and balanced roll-playing benefit. The Tribal/Totem Focus feats do the same thing as a sort of "feat chain" - I'm "yoinking" that idea right away; it's excellent.

My quibbles with the feat section were Adrenal Healing and Axe Mastery. I think Adrenal Healing might be on the weak side of things...perhaps "Fast Healing: 2"? And perhaps the (Axe, Spear, etc) Mastery feat could be made into a template feat, rather than a separate feat for each weapon. <shrug>

Chapter 3: I was hoping for some "craft" goodies (like the Craft Weapon and Armor in HoHFwarves), and I wasn't disappointed. Of course orcs aren't going to be carefully forging mithril keen masterwork long swords. They're gonna be churning out Shoddy-craftsmanship spears, axes, an' bows. Fer th' raging hordes, ya know? Can't be spending weeks just to arm and armor 'em...they've got villages to raze and people to slaughter!

(Trivia note: Shubba Goat-boy makes an appearance in print at last!)

The "breeding" section was excellent. Top-notch idea (synergy with "half-orc" breeding, anyone?), and the mechanics are sound and balanced. This is likely to be an NPC use, of course, unless the PCs have extra time.

Chapter 4: This chapter has received a fair share of grief and even misunderstanding. As it covers each possible combination of multi-class barbarian, it's got it's work cut out for it. IMO, here are the highs and lows:

• Each section briefly suggests how to arrange your attributes to maximize your benefits. Some may be put off by this, perhaps thinking it smacks of "munchkinism". I like it, and I don't see any problem with this sort of advice, especially for newbies. Moreover, it's the sort of advice that's sadly lacking in Player-focused supplements. If a designer has ideas about good combos, I want to hear about it!
  
• Favored of the Eye: Wow and Ouch! I think that needs a nudge or two down the power scale. Perhaps retain the BAB of a cleric, and/or loose the third domain.
  
• Moulder: Awesome, no two ways about it. Exactly the right feel and power level.
  
• Fervent Antagonist: Wins "most mis-interpreted PrC" award for this book. Y'all should give it another look-over, because it can work and make sense. I think the biggest reason for the mis-interpretation is that we, the readers, expect the Fervent Antagonist to be Lawful Good, while the PrC itself requires neither that nor that the character be a paladin (or ex-paladin). Look at it again, and think "in the same ball-park as Blackguard, only it doesn't have to be evil (or good)." It's simply an orcish holy warrior.
  
• The Rest of the PrCs: right on th' mark. Several players I know would love to play the Wyrd. (Shubba, anyone?) The Dire Stalker and the Coal-Tongue Raver are other stand-outs.

Chapter 5: Roleplaying
Short and to th' point, just like barbarians should be. What? Need more barbarian-playing help? Watch one of the best movies of all time: Conan the Barbarian....

Crush your enemies,
See them driven before you,
And hear the lamentations of their women!

...<ahem>........anyway....................:

Conclusion:

• Production: 4 (some of the editing looked hurried, otherwise very good)
• Value for the money: 5 (Compact, no wasted space or gratuitous artwork)
• Art: 3 (I don't personally like the look of these half- or full blooded orcs)
• Rule-Set Balance and Useability: 5 (some minor quibbles)
• Cool Idea Factor: 5 (Rage Feats; Shoddy Craftsmanship; Moulder, Coal-Tongue Raver, and Wyrd PrC)
  
  Overall: 4.5 (Not perfect; but it delivers exactly what it promises.)
  
  Would I buy this product "all over again"?: Yep.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Steven Creech, Exec. Chairman, d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing Up the Target
Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs is the sophomore effort from newcomer Bad Axe Games. Written by Benjamin Durbin, this 62-page trade paperback size book retails for $9.95. Half-Orcs is designed primarily for the player rather than the GM and it offers some interesting classes for the half-orc.

First Blood
Half-orcs tend to favor the barbarian class and the book focuses on that. Nearly everything here is based on the assumption that your half-orc is starting out as a barbarian. Almost every feat listed requires the ability to rage. Tribal/Totem focus choices offer characters additional options but carry them down a specific path in that they tend to retain certain savage qualities. New skills are presented with one of the better ones being Craft Savage Weapon, which allows a player to manufacture bone or stone weapons.

Another new concept is the breeding and crossbreeding of different animals and beasts. Using a simple system of skill checks, half-orc players may attempt to breed animals in unusual combinations.

Ten new prestige classes are offered with each focusing on a different barbarian multiclass combination. Each entry covers the character’s role in half-orc society, his role within the adventuring party, how nearly the same results can be obtained from multiclassing rather than using the prestige class, and then a breakdown of the PrC itself.

Critical Hits
Careful thought went into the game mechanics of the book. Balance is evident although a couple of classes gain some rather potent abilities at upper levels. The information regarding skills and the comparing of specific prestige classes to multiclass combinations is quite original. I like the Moulder PrC and the way they develop their own animal companion.

Critical Misses
The book really only focuses on one aspect of the half-orc in that the barbarian class must be a part of the equation. It fails to give alternative or new takes on half-orcs as a race. Every half-orc need not be a barbarian at heart capable of berserker rages at the drop of a hat. On the back cover, there is the claim that this book “is the definitive sourcebook for half-orc characters of every kind.” If this claim is going to hold water, then there should be material that gives GMs and players choices other than a multiclassed barbarian. Perhaps the words “definitive” and “every” should be dropped from future books.

Coup de Grace
Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs is a better book than its predecessor on dwarves. The overall game mechanics, for the most part, are balanced. There are a few such as Improved Enraged Casting and Ruthless Assault that come close to going over the top. It’s good to see some solid multiclass and PrC info for players, but I wish they didn’t all have the barbarian as their fundamental base. Still, for the dollar, it’s a good buy if you are looking for something that fits the half-orc stereotypes.

To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

 

[WizarDru]

Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs is the second release from BadAxe Games, the publishing label for Ben Durbin, better known as Wulf Ratbane to ENWorld regulars (and author of Wulf's Story Hour, one of the most popular Story Hours at ENworld). I should qualify this review that I purchased this title on the strength of reviews of BadAxe's previous release, HoHFwarves, as well as general curiousity.

The first thing of note about this release is its size. Larger than a paperback, but smaller than the standard magazine-sized format of most RPG supplements, the supplement immediately stands out as different from the majority of releases. I actually like the format, but I could easily see how some might not prefer it. The size is not reflective of poor print quality, however, and I was quite pleased with the binding and paper. More noticably, the format is the most likely reason that HoHF:HO comes with a scant $9.95 price tag, making it a tasty morsel in today's world of $20+ classbooks (which is not to say I disparage those prices...merely that it's refreshing to buy a supplement that isn't as expensive).

The cover, artwork and overall visual style is clean and well-done. The artwork, done by Andrew Hale, is always relevant to the text, and fun to look at. It offers the necessary spice to liven the text, without detracting or distracting from it. It is my hope that he also illustrates the other books in this series, as he is a serious asset. Unlike many d20 publishers, there are no prerequisite shots of hlaf-naked women strewn throughout the book, nor is the text spaced unusually or with an unusually large font to fill space. Everything in the book serves a purpose, and the book is exactly as long as it needs to be, no more and no less.

Now to the content itself: the meat and potatoes of the book (and the central conceit of the entire HoHF series) is to take a particular PC race, and then focus specifically on their favored class. In this case, it's the Half-orc barbarian that benefits. The book benefits from such a tight focus, as it is able to devote it's attention solely to variations on the theme, but introduces enough concepts to keep it fresh. Not an easy task. To be clear, the book makes it clear in no uncertain terms: this is a player's option book. It also specifically notes that you'd best be talking to the DM if you actually want any of this content to make it's way to the gaming table.


The content includes:

• New Feats: Most of the new feats are either feats for a barbarian to enhance his rage, or for specific variants of some of the new content included in the book, such as Craft Savage Weapon. On the whole, there was nothing here that set of my DM early-warning system (with the exception of the Orcish Rage feat, which I was uncertain of...until the author pointed out a comparison with WOTC's own Extra Rage feat, and I felt more comfortable with it).
  
• New Skills and uses for existing ones: This is always a potential stickler for me, as it has the serious danger of messing up existing content much more than new feats. I actively encourage the use of more skills in D&D. Nothing outrageous here, but the introduction of a new use for Animal Handling (more in a moment) as well the option to craft "Savage" weapons.
  
• New Rules/Mechanics: I'll admit it, I wasn't expecting much here. Because of that, I was very pleasantly suprised not only to see new material, but that is was both creative and original. A whole new set of mechanics for Animal Husbandry and selective breeding showed me that there's always room for new concepts within the game. The "Savage" equipment variants (i.e. equipment that is quicker and cheaper to make, but not as sturdy) worked well, too...and remained balanced.
  
• New Prestige Classes: Often, this section is the meatiest of a supplement, and the most poorly thought out, usually in favor of 'cool concepts' over good design. Not so, here. The prestige-classes (and presumably this is the pattern for the series) are all the extension of a half-orc barbarian multiclassing with each one of the core classes, and being taken to an extreme. So, for example, the half-orc barbarian/bard can become the Agitator, while the half-orc barbarian/sorceror can become the Wyrd. One class, the Moulder (H-O BAR/DRD) specifically breeds...things, using the new husbandry rules.
  
• Gaming Advice: Arguably, the section on how to play a barbarian should be required reading for anyone considering playing a barbarian. I know that it was read aloud at my gaming table, and it probably will be at yours, too.

Durbin's writing style is light-hearted and amusing, and that goes a long way to making this an enjoyable read. Even so, there is no wasted space here. It's all worthwhile mateial, and Durbin gives his topic the royal treatment. The half-orc barbarian is a savage, nasty fellow, as presented here, and Durbin shows how to make him nastier.

In short, I would highly recommend Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs, both to DMs and players. The new content is equally useful for PCs and NPCs, and will most likely be welcome within most games. It manages to bring some fresh concepts to the table, and presents them in an entertaining fashion. Couple that with the attractive design and inexpensive price, and you've got a winner.

 

[Krug]

This is a review copy.

Heroes of High Favour: Half-Orcs is the 2nd book in BadAxe's HoHF series, and it develops two of the most underdeveloped subjects of 3E. Half-Orcs and Barbarians. These books are as much about the classes as they are about the races, and after a tentative start with HoHF: Dwarves, HoHF goes all out, bursting with ideas and concepts to boost the Barb, in particular.

This book starts off with the usual Feats. Herein you'll find a bunch of rage-based feats, and introduces the concept of Tribal focuses for feats. Basically by following a set series of feats according to his tribe, the half-orc gains bonuses they gain an additional +1 bonus to certain skills. It's an interesting concept.

Next up is an extensive Skills section, and one of the best parts of the book. Here you get rules for crafting Savage weapons and armor, which costs a fraction of regular item and take much less time to make. However, they're prone to breakage. There's also rules for interbreeding animals, with bizarre results. I would have liked to see some examples though, something I always found lacking in other HoHF books.

The meat of the book goes to the PrCs, and the concepts which arise from combinations of the Barbarian class with other standard char classes, are stronger. Some very interesting PrCs include the Moulder, the Barbarian-Druid combo who interbreeds animals (and himself with them!) with bizarre results; the Coal-Tongue Raver, a Barbarian-Rogue combo whose blood runs with poison; the Wyrd (Barbarian-Sorcerer), whose magicks can rage and destroy anything around him. Even the other PrCs are full of flavour, such as the Hoodoo and the Dire Stalker . The Barbarian-Monk and the Barbarian-Paladin combos are slightly more dubious, but remain interesting.

The final section focuses on half-orc roleplaying, which gives insight into playing the Half-Orc. It's useful for beginners, or for those who haven't tried playing a half-orc before.

Overall, I found this book very useful. It definitely fleshed out both the Barbarian and Half-Orc, and even if you dislike the latter, there's enough in this book for the former to warrant buying it. I felt this was the strongest of the three HohF books so far, as author Durbin has really let his imagination run, uh, wild, extending the Barbarian class and making it much more unique. Krusk would be pleased.