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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eric Tolle" data-source="post: 5565092" data-attributes="member: 53859">Here's what we get when we take a Traveller 2300 alien and replace the word "Kafer" with "Orc":"The nature of Orc intelligence has posed a serious problem for human scholars attempting to understand their behavior. Orcs appear slow-witted, even stupid, at first. Numerous observers have reported that, in the first moments of a fight, their Orcish opponents appeared to mill about in confusion as if uncertain what to do, and that their officers could be seen moving among them, beating them or using something like a cattle prod or whip as if to get them moving. Strangely, after only a few moments of combat, Orcs are transformed, becoming cunning, innovative, and deadly opponents. As described elsewhere, Orc intelligence is dependent upon a biochemical analogue to adrenalin. Introduced to the bloodstream in large amounts when danger threatens, this chemical enables Orc brains to work at far greater efficiency than normal. The effects are maintained until the chemical breaks down, approximately 30 minutes after the stimulus ceases. This singular fact of Orc evolution has resulted in a new type of  "short term intelligence," where Orcs show an ability to think quickly as an emergency develops, and concentrate on day-to-day survival at a lower, almost instinctual level. With the advent of technology, this aspect of Orc evolution has hampered their development in several ways.""Orc civilization depends on violence. Indeed, the father of Orc civilization decreed that violence is the lifeblood of the people. Orcs seek stimulation, be it in simple brawls to gladiatorial combat to war. Orcs feel no fear, or rather they feel something like fear, but they enjoy it. Likewise Orc medicine is quite primitive, having never developed painkillers, which Orc would find unthinkable. the most they use is a red-hot blade to sear wounds shut.""Orc culture is an intellectual aristocracy, because not all Orcs are of equal intelligence, and there are indeed Orc geniuses. Also, Orcs who survive a long time find their at rest intelligence rising over time due to the repeated stimulation cycles having a permanent after effect, like exercising a human muscle. ""The greatest, instinctual fear of the Orc is of the "smart barbarian"; Orcs that are smarter due to lacking the comforts of civilization, and that cause the downfall of Orc civilization. Over history there's been a repeated cycle of Orcs creating civilizations, losing the stimulus to make them intelligent, only to fall to smarter barbarian Orcs. This has only ceased relatively recently, when an Orc genius declared a religion of constant recreational violence to keep Orcs relatively intelligent."So basically, if you adapt Kafers to orcs, you get a far more alien creature that is violent and warlike not because it is inherently evil or beholden to some god, but because violence and combat makes it feel smarter and more alive.  But that doesn't make it any easier to deal with, in fact it makes it more troubling, because even if you take orcs and raise them in human society, they'll STILL have the need for violence.For Pathfinder, the stats would be something like:STR 14DEX 12CON 14INT 4/14WIS 6/12CHA 8Feats: EnduranceSkills, normal: None.Skills, intelligent: Knowledge: Tactics 10Stealth: 8Survival: 8For the first 1D6 rounds of combat or if they take a wound (1D3 if an officer takes the time to beat them into intelligence) , Orcs will mill around and fight and defend very stupidly. After that, the altered stats take effect, and Orcs become very canny fighters, taking advantage of cover, forming ambushes, and otherwise becoming nasty opponents.</blockquote>

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