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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GreenTengu" data-source="post: 7186877" data-attributes="member: 6777454">Try to make a functional Half-Orc oh... let's say Warlock or Sorcerer or Bard or Druid... and then you see how often your racial abilities actually ever come into play as opposed to if you were an Elf or a Dwarf or a Halfling.And it isn't just bad enough that the race offers you NOTHING of any benefit beyond an Intimidation skill if you are anything but a Barbarian, Paladin or inferior version of the Fighter (moreover, this edition even made it so you can't even be a functional strength-based Monk-- they were so much on their "let's make Dexterity should be the god stat so that elves are the super race" kick that they not only made strength-based Fighters the crappier build, they actually eliminated the possibility of making a functional strength-based monk!), but the abilities the race DOES have all stack onto making them the best possible tank.When you look at the properly constructed races, how it is supposed to work is that if your racial attribute bonuses make you superior for one class, your other abilities should give you less benefit if you are that class and more benefit if you are another class. For instance, the Dwarf has a lot going for it to be a tanky melee class, but if you are one then your weapon and armor proficiency are effectively nullified or, if you choose Hill Dwarf, the extra hit points mean less to a class that gets twice as many hit points normally than one that gets half as many.In the case of the Elf, if you do a Dex fighter with one then your weapon proficiencies don't mean anything. On the other hand, if you choose the Wizard-leaning one, you get one extra cantrip which means a lot less to a character who already gets 3 than a character who wouldn't normally get a cantrip at all.In the case of the Half-Orc, your attribute bonuses are already ones that extraordinarily limit you to only 2 classes or the inferior build of a third class or possibly the cleric (but not really). Then you have an ability that only helps you if you are the person in the party who is going to go down in combat first-- sure, its possible that someone besides the tank is going to one day have to make a death saving throw, but in any such case the tank should have already gone down and be on their 2nd or 3rd turn of being at 0 HPs before it is remotely likely that a spellcaster is going to be making one. And then you have an ability to do more damage, but ONLY in melee combat.Oh, and let's consider something here... what reason was there to limit savage attacks to melee weapons? Putting that restriction on it when you already forced the race to primarily specialize in the second worst attribute in the damn game was an incredibly stupid thing to do. Is there any particular reason the aggressive spirit of the Orc-blooded individual couldn't make their magical attacks a bit more "boomy" than a less a race with less fury racing through their blood? A simple strike-out through the words "a melee weapon" and replace "weapon's" with "attack's"... and right there you would have a key to making a functional Orc Monk, Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Warlock or Wizard. Instead, an unnecessary restriction to ONLY work with melee weapon attacks slapped on there exclusively to artificially limit the classes you can even play as with the race is jammed in there for no other reason but that the designer who made it sucks at his job.And its no like the concept of an Orc shaman or warlock is such a wild or unusual one that it would seem wildly out-of-character. And when such things are depicted, they are never depicted as absolutely HAVING to use a weapon at all times to be remotely effective. In fact, having their spellcasters use big, flashy, barely controlled blasty damaging spells seems quite Orc-like.Oh, and finally there is the Intimidation skill. That could possibly be useful, but only if you are willing to follow up your threats with actual violence. Its always going to be inferior to Deception or Diplomacy in any given situation. And, moreover, since the Half-Orc's attributes and other abilities basically prevent you from being any class that is going to have a reason to invest in charisma, it cannot remotely be of any use. You can pick an intimidation skill up off of background or choosing it from your class skill list, so you are better off being any other race that offers any other skill you might use in addition to giving you actual benefits then just picking Intimidation up off background or class.But, you know... given that the two major things that make the Half-Orc kind of terrible are..1) Strength being an absolute trash dump stat in this edition that offers you no real benefit.and2) Savage attacks being unnecessarily limited only to melee weapon attacksWell, #2 is easily houseruled out of existence and #1?... well, yeah... that's a more fundamental problem with this edition that isn't resolved so easily. Quite a lot of houserules would have to be implemented in order to make Strength (and even more so Intelligence) attributes that any character should actually want to invest in.</blockquote>

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