D&D 4E The 4e Mystery Race is going to be...

[Mortellan]

Minotaurs, heh.

Orcs and etc. trouble me because up till now AFAIK in all the core books none of the playable races have been typical NPC villain races. I like the idea of Orc heroes as well, but does this diminish their value for the DM to use as villains?

 

[FourthBear]

Minotaurs, heh.

Orcs and etc. trouble me because up till now AFAIK in all the core books none of the playable races have been typical NPC villain races. I like the idea of Orc heroes as well, but does this diminish their value for the DM to use as villains?

I don't think so. I've never had any problems with human, elven and other traditional PC race villains. I can't recall anyone ever complaining that the elven cultist about to sacrifice to Orcus wasn't believable, since elves have CG on their racial write-up. As long as you give a reason for the heroes to be fighting the villains, racial tropes are really secondary, IMO.

 

[GreatLemur]

Unless I'm forgetting something, all of the piles of 4e preview stuff we've read somehow failed to mention orcs at all. That seems kind of striking, seeing as how they've pretty much been the default D&D (or even fantasy in general) antagonist for decades. Their conspicuous absence suggests WotC has some manner of orc-related surprise for this edition.

 

[Mad Mac]

Unless I'm forgetting something, all of the piles of 4e preview stuff we've read somehow failed to mention orcs at all. That seems kind of striking, seeing as how they've pretty much been the default D&D (or even fantasy in general) antagonist for decades. Their conspicuous absence suggests WotC has some manner of orc-related surprise for this edition.

This is a point I made earlier in the thread, and probably the best point of evidence in favor of Orcs.

 

[JustinM]

My guess is either a shrieker or phantom fungus. Nothing else will ever work.

 

[lukelightning]

My guess is either a shrieker or phantom fungus. Nothing else will ever work.

Shrieker bard FTW!

 

[Mad Mac]

Phantom Fungus Rule! I want to be an invisible plant mecha Warlock, and fly around shooting eldritch missles at my enemies. Then I just need a way to become huge sized....

Shrieker bard FTW!

If Bard is a leader class, and I eat the Shrieker, do I regain HPs?

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Minotaurs, heh.

Orcs and etc. trouble me because up till now AFAIK in all the core books none of the playable races have been typical NPC villain races. I like the idea of Orc heroes as well, but does this diminish their value for the DM to use as villains?

One thing I've noticed is that no orcs are mentioned in any of the play tests. Also no orcs were in Desert of Desolation, Night Below or Unhallowed sets... We havent had a new orc mini in over a year. This leads me to think they might be getting a redesigned.

 

[SteveC]

As I've already given out my Stone-Cold, Lead-Pipe Lock of the Week, I'm afraid my subscribers will have to do with only my Insiders pick on this one.

The answer should be: orcs.

Drow are a heavy favorite, but I can't believe that WotC would put four variations of elves into the core rulebook. What do we know we have so far:

Humans (given, focus = generic)
Half-Elf (described enough to indicate they're in...elf #1 focus = charisma)
Elves (also a given, and elf #2 focus = dexterity)
Eladrin (If I'm spelling that correctly...elf #3 focus = intelligence)
Halflings (we have to get our hobbits on, after all focus = dexterity)
Dwarves (hopefully rebalanced a little bit. <--With their stability bonus that's a funny! focus = con)
Tieflings (the newcomer! focus = dexterity)
XXXXXX (our mystery race)

So what are we missing? We have races that are all about Dexterity (a lot of them, actually...maybe too many...that's why no goblins will be there), Constitution, Intelligence and Charisma.

So what are we missing? Wisdom and Strength. The race that's iconic for Wisdom is the Aasimar (oh, spell check, why do you not have D&D spellings in you?) and Strength.

Is there a more iconic ability score for D&D than Strength? I think not! Therefore, our mystery race will be all about Strength, and what race is more iconic for strength than the orc? Well, okay, both Goliaths and Minotaurs are, but they are also not nearly as popular with D&D players, so Orcs it is!

Note: this isn't a Stone-Cold, Lead-Pipe Lock of the Week, so there aren't any guarantees this is going to actually occur, it's just my best judgment.

--Steve

 

[Mad Mac]

Also no orcs were in Desert of Desolation, Night Below or Unhallowed sets... We havent had a new orc mini in over a year. This leads me to think they might be getting a redesigned.

There was the Orc Banebreak Rider in Night Below. As I recall though, it was based off a fairly old piece of concept art, so it might have been slipped in to replace some other mini that didn't work out.

You also have to consider that people have been griping about too many Orcs since Wardrums. Still, its a good point.