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Message: <blockquote data-quote="trancejeremy" data-source="post: 2009669" data-attributes="member: 924">Wrath & Rage is an 80 page softcover sourcebook from Green Ronin on Orcs and Half-Orcs. It's written by Jim Bishop and is priced at $16.95 (I traded for my copy). Though apparently somewhat aimed at the player by the blurb on the back cover, it's largely just for DMs (and in fact requires the use of the DMG or MM to figure out the stat adjustments for making an Orc character*).As a disclaimer, let me point out that I am an existentialist. Which basically means that I believe any intelligent being is free to make his or her own choices or actions, regardless of social status or ingrained genetic behavior. Yes, you might feel an urge to do something, but what separates intelligent people from animals is the ability to not give into urges. Or in D&D terms, I think that a person picks his or her own alignment. Orc, Human, Elf, Drow, all are the same existentially (Dasein). So, I tend to not take the view that orcs are mindless, bloodthirsty monsters who are largely incapable of being good. Unfortunately, my view largely clashes with the view of this book. While it does give some lip service to orcs not necessarily being evil, it really doesn't do anything other than that - most of the feats, classes, gods, spells and such seem to take the point of view that orcs are mindless killing machines. One of my favorite characters ever, was a goblin paladin. That said, I tried to put aside my philosophical objections, since I know most people tend to take the marxist view of things (that behavior is caused by past events or history.) and this product seems to have been writen from that point of view.The first chapter of the book goes into some idea and archetypes of orc characters. Some are perhaps non-evil, but not are actually really good. This is probably the weakest chapter in the book, but thankfully it's short.The second chapter is on new feats. There are lots and lots of them, 50+ apparently. Most are actually pretty good, including several new feats that are chained to the 'Scent' feat. Very interesting, I thought. Also several that are chained to the Leadership feat. Again, very interesting. The third chapter adds several new prestige classes, all pretty much for orcs, and some are pretty gross. There's the Bride of He-Who-Watches (the main orc god), for female orcs. Kind of dumb, I thought. There's the Cutthroat, which is something of a spy-rogue. Then there is the Honored Host, which is an orc that lets vermin and such live on him. Ick. Then there is the "Mother of Rage", which is also gross - it's a class for orc women who give birth to a Cthulhu/Gore-ish monstrosity. Ick. Then the Orc Sapper, which is an orc who is experienced in siege mining. Then the Rage Smith, which is a Barbarian class in which the character gives up his ability to rage to make magical items. Lastly, there's the Soul Gorger, which basically is a cannibal. While many are quite novel, none are really suitable for players. And some are more like background classes than classes you'd want to give villains or NPCs your players fight.Chapter 4 is on new monsters. Some are a bit dubious to me, like how Orcs can (and do) apparently breed with every sort of animal or living creature (except elf). But it's well done, despite this. And it has an old favorite, the Axebeak (or Dire Ostrich). Pretty short though, and mostly templates with an example of each.Chapter 5 (though it's labeled as Chapter 4 in the heading) is on the Gods of the Orcs. This is done very interestingly - two different, separate pantheons are given. There's a standard Orc Pantheon given, more or less that of the traditional D&D orc family, though with generic names. Then there is a pantheon of mortal critters that the orcs worship as gods and the PCs can oppose directly. These range from Black Oozes to Dark Nagas to Death Slaads. Interesting group. Chapter 6 introduces several new spells (23 by my count) and some new clerical domains. It's nice in that it starts with a listing of what's introduced. Some of the new spells are also for the Adept class, though most are pretty orcish in nature. It's something of a grab bag - most aren't too useful for players, and some seem quite a bit overpowered. For instance, the ability to permanently sterilize someone is a 1st level spell. Chapter 7 is on new equipment. While Green Ronin apparently doesn't think Assassins have lots of cool equipment and gear, they do think that Orcs do. There's also several new magical abilities for weapons and armor, all orcish in flavor. Lastly, there is an appendix (though it's labeled as Chapter 6 on the top graphic of the pages) for typical Orc NPCs for Warrior, Adept, Cleric, Barbarian, and Rogue, like what is found in the DMG. Quite useful, though it only goes up to level 10 for Warrior and Adept.The artwork is generally also excellent (and appears about every other page), though I tend to prefer the orc babes of Sovereign Stone to the rather hairy, noseless, grotesque orcs in this product. There are some minor editing problems, but nothing major - most are just cosmetic. I'm also glad to see that Green Ronin has gone to grey boxes instead of the black boxes with white text (which I hate).All in all, this is a pretty good product, if you're looking for info on an evil or savage sort of orc or possibly politicians. It's also mostly useful for DMs, despite what it says on the back. B-* Green Ronin finally added this info in the web 'enhancement' to this book. It also makes a very very important correction to the "Gullet" feat. I guess they have trouble with Imperial measurements.</blockquote>

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