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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2009803" data-attributes="member: 9860">This is not a playtest review.Wrath & Rage: A Guidebook To Orcs & Half-Orcs is another in the OGL Interlink series from Green Ronin & Paradigm Concepts, currently focusing on racial sourcebooks.Wrath & Rage is an 80-page softcover mono sourcebook, costing $16.95. Margins are fairly standard, and there is little wasted space. Font size is good in the main text though chapter and subtitle headings are fairly large. Artwork ranges from average to good. Writing style and editing are good (though Chapter Five's chapter heading is wrongly labelled Chapter Four).Chapter One: The Way Of The ScarGives general advice on playing an orc or half-orc character, with some ideas for orc archetypes (e.g. noble savage, battlerager, etc.). There is a discussion of the core classes in relation to orc and half-orc characters, followed by five alternative orc racial concepts, each with some encounter ideas and alternative racial abilities for the optional concept:* Savage Horde - a monstrous look at orcs, less intelligent and more aggressive than standard concept* The Created - genetically engineered (through magic or divine intervention) to be survivalists* The Betrayed - historically betrayed by the elves explains their rage and hatred of elves* The Cancer - sent as a divine plague to the Material Plane* The Conquerors - a world where orcs ruleChapter Two: FeatsThis chapter offers over 50 new feats, including two new feat types: rage channeling (spending daily rages to create a specific effect such as the ability to strike incorporeal creatures) and 'Eye' feats, metamagic feats enabled by sacrificing the orc's own eye to improve clerical spellcasting. Some of the feats are usable by non-orcs/half-orcs.Chapter Three: Prestige Classes* Bride Of He-Who-Watches - 10-level female warrior/clerics of orc cult god* Cutthroat - 10-level vicious assassin* Honored Host - 10-level victim of extreme parasitic infestation with some truly gross abilities such as the ability to spew  a parasitic soup into the mouth of a victim to infect them with a deadly disease.* Mother Of Rage - 5-level female PrC with the ability to birth monstrous mutants.* Orc Sapper - 10-level expert in undermining fortifications* Rage Smith - 5-level PrC with the ability to channel rage into creating magical items* Soul Gorger - 5-level PrC who steals energy from eating the still warm body parts of his victimsEach of the prestige clases includes a sample NPC character.Chapter Four: CreaturesAfter a brief discussion of allies and mounts for orcs, seven creatures/templates are offered:* Anathema Creature - template describing creatures affected by being around the rage of orcs for a long time. An example anathema nymph is given.* Dire Animals - Axebeak and Dire Rhinoceros* Half-Orc - not the core race as such, but a template allowing orc crossbreeding with other creatures - a half-orc/half-owlbear example is given* Rabid Creature - another template, with a rabid dire boar as an example*  Giant Vermin - giant leech and a giant slugChapter Five: The Gods & Their ServantsGives two alternative orc pantheons. The first is a typical pantheon known as The Great Warband and is headed by the great orc god He-Who-Watches, with the very Tolkienesque symbol of an unblinking eye. The second is a pantheon called The Patrons, actually very powerful evil outsiders rather than deities, and as such can be taken on by high-level parties providing a very real symbol of the evil of orcs that can actually be faced by an adventuring party. An option is given where these Patrons cannot actually grant spells as normal, allowing the cleric to only cast summoning spells related to creatures linked with the patron.Chapter Six: Spells & MagicThe chapter offers nine new domains (blight, breeding, command, curse, lycanthropy, murder, poison, savagery, and treachery) and over 20 new spells (including endure sunlight, mass curse, and stinking bolt).Chapter Seven: EquipmentOffers five new exotic weapons, some new special items such as painkillers and trance smoke, ten new special abilities for armor and shields (such as fleet, pack mule, and wild shape), eight new special abilities for weapons (including furious, sickening, and rusting), and a selection of specific weapons, totem rings, rods, staffs, wondrous items, effigies (when burnt, the effigy releases a spell-like effect such as rage upon surrounding orcs), scars (much like magical tattoos only less artistic), and artifacts (both minor and major). The chapter ends with some examples of various orcish siege equipment. An appendix gives stats for typical NPCs.Conclusion:Maybe I was spoilt by Bad Axe Games' sourcebook on half-orcs, but I found Wrath & Rage a bit lacking in comparison. Little of the book stimulated me to want to include aspects in my campaign, though I did like the Patrons section with the demonic overlord concept. And it did have some interesting ideas for playing around with the standard archetypes of orcs (which Bad Axe Games' version deliberately avoided).</blockquote>

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