Modification for Half Ogre, Too powerful?

[Lareit]

It's basic abilites remain the same
Darkvision 60
speed 30
large
Reach 10
speaks common and giant
favored class barb
natural armor remains at +4

However for a purely Rp stance, and somewhat nostaligic from my past I edited it's Abilities to fight my Ogre, Bashed.
Str is now +8, as opposed to +6
Con is now a +4, to +2
Int is a -8, as opposed to a -2
wisdom is a -6, opposed to 0
cha is a -4, as opposed to -2
dex remains same at -2
No longer has an ECL since the + 12 falls way behind the minus 20 to stats.

Too powerful?
I don't mind being incredibly stupid. Infact i plan on rping it to a degree my chr doesn't know how to buy items or what makes things better, IE i'm hoping my party won't screw me over royally.
Also bear in mind he'll be starting out as level 7

 

[Tywyll]

Too powerful?
I don't mind being incredibly stupid. Infact i plan on rping it to a degree my chr doesn't know how to buy items or what makes things better, IE i'm hoping my party won't screw me over royally.
Also bear in mind he'll be starting out as level 7

As a DM, I would never let a player take a character with a -8 int. I don't think anyone can adequately roleplay the complete and abject disassociation from normal awareness that such a stat would create.

Or rather, being a bit cruel, I might allow such a stat mod, but insist that the character a)be point buy and b)have at least an 8 in int.

As for the stats... does it follow the rule of SS: would you rather play a monster of that level compared to an equivalent PC of the same level?

With that criteria, looking at pure damage/tanking potential, there is no way one can say that they wouldn't rather have a +8 st and +4 con for a fighter or barbarian. All the low stat mods are sink stats for those characters anyway (except possibly dex, but depends on the fighter).

Having recently played a Half-Ogre I think their abilities and ECL are fine as is. In fact I actually feel they are too good (you get a strait positive stat mod of +2 after all are taken into account, Natural armor, and you are large).

But that's just my opinion.

 

[Technik4]

Many on these boards have agreed that the half-ogre from SS is fine as an LA +1 as long as you take 2 levels of Giant (total ECL +3). As a real ogre is LA +2 with 4 leves of giant, this works out very elegantly.

Otherwise I agree about the extremely low Int score.

Technik

 

[Spatzimaus]

Like Tywyll said, I'd never allow mental stat penalties that large. They also don't really balance; look at a Half-Orc. +2 STR balances -2 INT, -2 CHA for the simple reason that a melee combatant gets far more benefit out of the physical increase than he loses from the mentals. By giving giant penalties to INT and WIS, you make an almost un-roleplayable character who still is just as effective in melee combat. I'd never allow the ECL to lower just for that.

Anyway, the SS Half-Ogre is fine either at ECL+2, or ECL+1 with 2 levels of Giant, like Technik4 said. There are plenty of threads on this board about why it's broken at a simple +1. No matter how you try to balance it, making a race with 10' reach and a huge STR is just asking for trouble, especially with all the other bonuses they get. Besides, Ogres themselves only have -4 INT and no WIS penalty, so why should their halfbreeds have such large penalties?

Regardless, I don't use the SS Half-Ogre either, IMC we use an ECL0 variant we came up with on these boards about two years ago. Instead of being a Large race, it's a Medium race with some Large characteristics in the same way that Dwarves are Medium with some Small characteristics (like movement rate and racial bonuses). We've never had a problem with it in our campaigns, and it makes a nice counterpoint to the wimpy little magic-using races. If you can't find the thread on these boards, I can probably find a writeup of it.

 

[Sanackranib]

with a -8 to INT you would be de-evolving your skills every time you leveled up so by level 7 you would really BE as dumb as a brick and your skill set would show that. all you would be able to do is fight and then only using simple tactics. ala Mondo run and bash target" this is totally unplayable for a PC - IMO and would be really unfair to everyone else.
I am also playing a 1/2 ogre and feel they are fine as is.