How do you spice up your orcs?

[Imaginary Number]

My players and I recently have decided to start a campaign in which orcs will be the primary adversaries for the PCs. Although orcs have been iconic low-level villains since the early days of D&D, I'm having some difficulty coming up with ways to make them viable antagonists over a range of levels. What other monsters have you paired orcs with, or what settings have you placed them in, to make encounters with them interesting and fun?

 

[JediSoth]

I like them roasted with a crust of deli mustard and fresh cracked pepper. Mmm...good eatin'!

Oh wait...this isn't about cooking?

While my orcs tend to be tribal, I make them more than just dumb-brute cannon fodder. You could try making them an honor-bound tribal society. They believe in the superiority of their races and might makes right. Play them like a Mongol horde. They have roughly-average intelligence, so they should be capable of tactics that stymie the PCs on occasion; leader orcs should be at least as smart as the average PC.

I like pairing my orcs with giant scorpions as mounts, if they're in a tropical setting. If you have an artic setting, orcs mounted on polar bears could be quite intimidating (heck, that works for temperate forests, too, just replace polar bears with brown bears).

 

[Crothian]

Make them like Reavers from Firefly.

 

[frankthedm]

3E High up orcs start distributing alchemist fire en mass to the horde. Touch AC climbs slower and splash damage still nickles and dimes until everyone has fire resist.

War machines / siege engines as long as the rules system makes them dangerous.

3.5 has a mob template designed to negate / mitigate the capabilities of higher level characters . I'm not a fan, but it can work for orcs. http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera.../241067-how-does-mob-template-work-3-5-a.html

 

[Dandu]

Da WAAAGH boyz go up in frunt while da sneaky gitz maneuuver around da back to lay some dakka right good, see?

 

[S'mon]

IME 4e Orcs are awesome! I killed 4/6 PCs in one fight with an orc tribe; the survivors escaped - closest I've come to a real TPK in 26 years of GMing! The secret to their lethality was using a Half Orc plague priest controller from MM2 - that guy is one mean SOAB.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Just use Scro from Spelljammer.
In a nutshell they are an evolved Orc.
They even provide a 3.5 update for them.

Scro

 

[Mark]

How do you spice up your orcs?

In quantity -

 

[DaveyJones]

i treat them the same way elves get treated.

i give them spell casters. i give them advanced leaders.
i give them money. i make them bloodthirsty. coup de grace. no mercy.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Things i've done/considered:

- Orkism is a "condition". In 3e, frex, give a level or two of orc paragon class to any creature to up its orkishness.
- Orcs with caster levels get a CL bonus for certain domains or subschools (eg, destruction, etc)
- They wear masks, and always carry off the heads of their dead, and are something of a frightening mystery among commoners.
- They're actually elves, kidnapped and arcanely "twisted" into orcs. They are unnatural beings. Maybe this is a reversible transformation.
- They're toxic to elves and fey. That's why there are no elf/orc halfbreeds in the world: the mother sickens and (mercifully) dies before the baby comes to term.
- They have a climb and/or swim speed, and racial bonus on jump/athletics checks.
- They are elemental in nature, with associated attack/defenses.