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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Madfox" data-source="post: 2009696" data-attributes="member: 1714">Wrath and Rage is a soft coverbook from the Races of Renown Series. It is a book about half-orcs and orcs. At the first page of the book the author immidiately points out that orcs are a violent and evil race and that this book is not going to change that. It promises to add depth to the race though. This was a bit of a downer for me, since I had hoped a product that would be more useful for my players. I don't like evil PCs and as such I feared the book would be less usefull then expacted.The art within the book are black-and-white simple but evocative drawings. I especially like the drawing about the orc being pestfered by pixies, the kiss of live given by the honored host to a poor and soon to be dead elf and the poor orc flying in the runt glider. The puctures do not dominate the book and that is exactly how I like it.The book consists out of 7 chapters. Starting in Chapter 1 with some one alinea advises on how to role-play both half-orcs and orcs, suggesting some archetypes to play, the various core classes in combination with the race and finally some suggestions for changing the orc race and culture slightly to make them more unique and to add depth to the race as a whole. It is a short chapter which offers some neat advice, though to be honest it does not contains much new for the experienced D&D gamer. Personally, I would have hoped to see more new twists to the race as has been done in Hammer and Helm. It also falls short on giving information on roleplaying half-orcs other then as orcs.The 2nd chapter is all about new feats. Two new feats are introduced: rage channeling feats and "Eye"-feats. The first are about using a rage use of that day for a special effect. The eye-feats are for divine spell casters of "He-Who-Watches", a general name of the leader of the Orc pantheon. By sacrificing an eye and a feat the cleric will gain the ability to convert a prepared spell into a specific other spell dependent on the feat taken (and level of the prepared spell). Besides these two special type of feats there are also more general feats. Some of which are IMO a bit too strong, disruptive to the game when placed in the hands of PCs or silly. Why would you for example use a feat to make a character richer then others (and a whole level at that)? Or the feat 'Brain damaged' that reduces the intelligence of the possesor of that feat to 3, the wisdom and charisma to 1 in return for being immune to mind-affecting spells? On the other hand, there are also some pretty cool feats, like 'mighty throw' (power attack for thrown weapons) and 'spoilsport' (a feat that allows somebody to get an AOO of opportunity against tumbling opponents, though their attack roll must defeat both the tumbling check result and the AC of the tumbling opponent).It is in chapter 3 that you will find some real pearls. It contains several PrC and I really like several of them. For example, the Brides of He-Who-Watches are part of a sisterhood to which they are so dedicated that they lose their individuality. The Honored Host is about a semi-undead orc that has been blessed by the orcish god of death and disease. Finally there is the Soul Gorger who learns to harness the power of creatures by eating parts of their body. The cutthroat on the otherhand is a bit too simular to the assassin though without the magic and combined with the d8 HD and 8 skill points a bit on the powerful side as well. The sapper is specialized in destroying equipment and tunneling, not particular interesting for an adventurer or even as an opponent for the PCs.Chapter 4 is about monsters, though except for the rabid creature template there is not much I really like. Especially the idea that orcs somehow can procreate with anything alive including beasts like owl-bears goes a bit too far for me. The create spawn of the anathema creature is also a bit weird. I can understand the corruption orc waste can have on fey like creatures (though officially the template would fit any creature it works much better on fey imo), why would only elves killed by these creatures become anathema?In chapter 5 we get the orcs point of view on the battle between the elves and orcs. I like it, since it puts the blame for the whole fight at the doorsteps of the elves, giving more depth to the hatred between the two races. After this creation story the orc pantheon is described. The book also offers a less traditional pantheon for the orcs to worship for a DM looking for something different. It offers seven demi-gods with statistics which PCs could beat at real high levels to destroy the orc menace once for all. I like some of the ideas behind some of these seven, but to me the idea of fighting gods goes a bit too far. To each his own I guess...Chapter 6 is about spells and it contains several really cool spells. Especially the new more powerful versions of bestow curse are great and not only for orcs. I am currently running a campaign in an ancient Egypt like setting and having more powerful curses are great in such a setting just as much as in the hands of the hags of orcs. The only spell I have real trouble with is the multiply spell, while the impact on an adventurers level is null, the impact on a campaign level is way too high for a mere second level spell. Can you imagine the impact of an 10x higher growth rate of 20 medium sized or smaller children per casting or an increased fertility by 50% for 100 females? Imagine children being born in 4.5 months and growing up in 1.5 years? This miscast spell is a bit too complicated for my taste. I don't like spells that force me to grab my books each time I cast a spell just to remember the effects.The final chapter is about orcish equipment and not surprisingly it is about weapons and armor mostly. Of particular interest are the effigies and the magical scares. Effigies are small doll like things that are destroyed in special rituals which gives orcs who take part in that ritual special bonuses for the upcoming battle. Magical scars form part of ritualized scaring, which gives some benefits in addition to hindrances. Drilling holes in your skull for instance is bad for the intellect, but great for the raging ability. The final part of this chapter is about some new siege engines.All in all, I really like the book for the depth it gives to orcs. By giving several game mechanics they add depth and surprise to the typical orc. The only downside to the book is that it is not really useful for players. It did raise my interest in orcs as villains though and considering I have not used orcs in several years it made up for the lack of use for players. If you as a DM like to use a lot of orcs and want to add some depth and uniqueness to the race this is the book to buy. So that next time your players face orcs and dismiss them as just orcs you can make them realize their mistake when the Honored Host vomits in their face with deadly result, or the barbarian suddenly resists all spells or when the scarred orc actually shows some strange new magical powers it did not had the last time he met the PCs.This is my first review, so feel free to make comments on the review and how I can improve my skills.</blockquote>

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