Re-balancing the 1/2 Orc for my own campaign

[Crothian]

I'd keep the Int penalty and drop the Charisma one.

 

[Quartz]

I don't see anything wrong with half-orcs as is. The -2 INT penalty is only going to drop you by 1 skill point a level, which is not much if you're taking rogue or ranger levels.

That Str 16 you get from point-buy is going to get boosted to 18 by race and more by Rage. That's a pretty major advantage at first level.

If you're worried about first level, you could always use the Apprentice Rules at first level, and your half-orc could be a rogue / barbarian or ranger / barbarian.

 

[maggot]

I'd keep the Int penalty and drop the Charisma one.

Same here. The game already has the non-chasimatic warrior race (dwarves). And the charisma penalty removes half-orc sorcerer as a truly viable option.

 

[NilesB]

Half-Orcs are already balanced against the other PHB Races, but they do lack the almost meaningless tiny bonuses most other races get. So you could give them (and Orcs) a few bonuses like a +2 to intimidate checks and saves versus disease.

If you are using variant rules for the other races in your campaign Half-Orcs may well need some substantial bonus, but we would need a link to the rules for such races before anyone could make informed suggestions.

PS:your poll should have a Half-Orcs are plenty powerfull already option.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Half-Orcs are already balanced against the other PHB Races

How do you figure that to be so?


They definitely need something, if the race is going to be used, and if game balance is considered important. Compare with Dwarves, or even Elves. In fact, *any* other PHB race. . . except maybe Half-Elves.

 

[NilesB]

They definitely need something, if the race is going to be used, and if game balance is considered important. Compare with Dwarves, or even Elves. In fact, *any* other PHB race. . . except maybe Half-Elves.

What do you mean? Half-Orcs are killing machines with no meaningfull drawbacks. I have never seen a Half-Orc player miss his Int and Cha points, It comes up less often than the reduced move of a dwarf fighter who wears heavy armor. Elves on the other hand are (sometimes literally) always dying for more constitution.

 

[Aus_Snow]

What do you mean? Half-Orcs are killing machines with no meaningfull drawbacks. I have never seen a Half-Orc player miss his Int and Cha points, It comes up less often than the reduced move of a dwarf fighter who wears heavy armor. Elves on the other hand are (sometimes literally) always dying for more constitution.

Ah. It seems we are - for all practical purposes - talking about two different games, even though they both happen to be D&D 3e on the surface of it.

And that's something I wasn't accounting for in those previous statements - different play styles will occasionally skew the relevance of particular game mechanics one way or the other.

But still, with that in mind now, I don't think Strength is inherently more valuable than any other ability. This is a case where I disagree with the game designers, not because I feel a need to disagree with them (an attitude I've seen before) but because I believe they were wrong in this.

In fact, there is a current co-author of WotC D&D sourcebooks who also disagrees with the original 3e design team, according to his website. FWIW.

 

[smootrk]

I agree with the crowd that would remove the Charisma penalty, especially with the current inclination to call Charisma a Force of Personality, and not physical attractiveness. You could easily give them penalties dealing with certain skills or against certain races (as in Charisma-based Skill penalties against non-humanoids).

Otherwise, the Charisma ability makes sense for a Sorcerer type of character, which seems more apprapo for Orcs (or Half-Orcs) than a 'learned type of arcane caster - ala Wizard). I would also state that Charisma seems especially necessary in maintaining a horde-mentality or army building that Orcs seems to relish.

 

[Thurbane]

Half-Orcs are already balanced against the other PHB Races, but they do lack the almost meaningless tiny bonuses most other races get. So you could give them (and Orcs) a few bonuses like a +2 to intimidate checks and saves versus disease.

Actually, I have seen pretty convincing evidence to the contrary, as per Yabbathewhat's feature points over at the WotC forums.

If you are using variant rules for the other races in your campaign Half-Orcs may well need some substantial bonus, but we would need a link to the rules for such races before anyone could make informed suggestions.

Nope, other races are "as is"...

PS:your poll should have a Half-Orcs are plenty powerfull already option.

Oh, you mean "other"? Yep, that's up there.

 

[Thurbane]

After another day or so I'll create a new poll, with most of the suggestions included here.

Believe it or not, bonus skill point per level was going to be my thirs poll option, but I though "Nah, that doesn't seem worthwhile"...but looking at it again, it seems a lot more reasonable the way people have explained it.