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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2009593" data-attributes="member: 172">Heroes of High Favor: Half-OrcsHeroes 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 LookHeroes 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 $9.95The 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 LookAs 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.ConclusionWhile 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</blockquote>

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