Lower LA Half-ogre alternative?

[kyrand]

Working on an adventure for my Eberron game, I went to create an PC, a half-ogre warmage... and realized just how much being a half-ogre shafts the character. I've read the arguements on the wizards boards about whether this race should be LA +1 like the Savage Species version, or +2 like the Races of Destiny version.

Instead of dealing with that, I decided to look for an alternative. I couldn't find one that suited my purpose, so I decided to make a more "genetically watered down" half-ogre variant, based similar to the half-giant from Expanded Psionics Handbook.

Half-ogre variant

+2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Int, -2 Cha
Giant type
Medium-size
Powerful Build - Counts as Large for weapons, grappling, trip, etc, but not for speed, reach, or other Large penalties.
+2 Natural Armor

LA = +1

What do you think? Not sure if it's balanced, considering how much I remove from the half-giant without seemingly replacing much. The purist in me also needs a name for this variant, since quarter-ogre stinks and ogreblooded sounds like a templete, albeit an unimpressive one.

If anyone else has any ideas that have worked, I'd be glad to hear 'em as well.

 

[Nifft]

Your version seems okay relative to the XPH Half-Giant, so I'd give it the thumbs up.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Pyrex]

I agree. No net stat-gain; powerful build, type=giant and +2 NA for +1 LA seems reasonable.

If you have access to Races of Stone you might want to compare to the Goliath. IIRC it's pretty close to what you've got here...

 

[kyrand]

I agree. No net stat-gain; powerful build, type=giant and +2 NA for +1 LA seems reasonable.

If you have access to Races of Stone you might want to compare to the Goliath. IIRC it's pretty close to what you've got here...

Crud, forgot all about the Goliaths... *goes and reads*

Thankfully, they have enough flavorful abilities to set these two apart. Unfortunately, this now makes me wonder if there's anything I can do to make my variant unique or flavorful... hmm...

 

[GlassEye]

There's a decent Half-Ogre at the Waking Lands website.

 

[Winding Road]

Crud, forgot all about the Goliaths... *goes and reads*

Thankfully, they have enough flavorful abilities to set these two apart. Unfortunately, this now makes me wonder if there's anything I can do to make my variant unique or flavorful... hmm...

I'd say the main problem is that ogres don't have much mechanically you can grab to make your demi-ogres flavorful compared to the half-giants or goliaths. Of course, the half-giants do have psionic abilities that don't make any sense based off their ancestry*. So there may not be a need to limit yourself strictly to the ogre's abilities when making your demi-ogre. Maybe you could borrow something from the ogre mage?


*That's a remnant of the Dark Sun setting, right? In any case, it's not really relevant to the topic.

 

[kyrand]

There's a decent Half-Ogre at the Waking Lands website.

Unfortunately, they're blocked from here at work But i'll check it out when i get home.

I'd say the main problem is that ogres don't have much mechanically you can grab to make your demi-ogres flavorful compared to the half-giants or goliaths. Of course, the half-giants do have psionic abilities that don't make any sense based off their ancestry*. So there may not be a need to limit yourself strictly to the ogre's abilities when making your demi-ogre. Maybe you could borrow something from the ogre mage?


*That's a remnant of the Dark Sun setting, right? In any case, it's not really relevant to the topic.

Good points all around. (And 100% correct on the half-giants, if I'm not mistaken). Ogre mages, hmm? Let's see what they've got... regeneration, flight, spell resistance, that change self thing (from the SRD, after the polymorph change), and a few spell-like abilities that make no sense why they have them.

Would adding a SR of, say, 9 + class levels be over-powered? It comes out to be 1 less than a drow of the same ECL, low enough to not be terribly unbalancing, yet high enough to not be completely useless. (I'd originally considered 9 + caster level of the character, but that seemed possibly too restricted, IMHO)