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Your take on charismatic half-orcs
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<blockquote data-quote="BVB" data-source="post: 918281" data-attributes="member: 12155"><p>As a player or DM, how do you play a half-orc with a high charisma rating? Must they be brutish and ugly? One could assume that any cross-race offspring has a chance to inherit a wide variety of attributes mixed between the two parents, and yet the PHB and other materials would suggest there are no handsome or refined half-orcs.</p><p></p><p>For example, I'm looking at a set of original attributes that included an 8, 16 and 18 (the other attributes aren't notable for this discussion), and the player decided to play a half-orc by arranging them so that the 8 was boosted to a 10 for strength, the 16 dropped to a 14 for intelligence, and the 18 dropped to a 16 for charisma. As for background, he decided that the character was raised in human society by a loving, considerate woman (possibly the result of rape during an orc raid) who simply chose to ignore racial stereotypes and bring out the best potential in her son.</p><p></p><p>Although the player has established that the character is clean, well-spoken and intelligent, at least two other players end up speaking in character with "dumb orc" conversation cues. I've suggested that the orc-player simply use their reactions as motivation for his own characterization -- a constant struggle against society's assumptions based on his heritage and appearance alone -- but it still bothers the player who happens to be of mixed racial heritage himself.</p><p></p><p>(By the way, the character is a bard. He's boosted his charisma at fourth and eighth level so that it's now at 18.)</p><p></p><p>How would you handle the character and the gaming situation?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BVB, post: 918281, member: 12155"] As a player or DM, how do you play a half-orc with a high charisma rating? Must they be brutish and ugly? One could assume that any cross-race offspring has a chance to inherit a wide variety of attributes mixed between the two parents, and yet the PHB and other materials would suggest there are no handsome or refined half-orcs. For example, I'm looking at a set of original attributes that included an 8, 16 and 18 (the other attributes aren't notable for this discussion), and the player decided to play a half-orc by arranging them so that the 8 was boosted to a 10 for strength, the 16 dropped to a 14 for intelligence, and the 18 dropped to a 16 for charisma. As for background, he decided that the character was raised in human society by a loving, considerate woman (possibly the result of rape during an orc raid) who simply chose to ignore racial stereotypes and bring out the best potential in her son. Although the player has established that the character is clean, well-spoken and intelligent, at least two other players end up speaking in character with "dumb orc" conversation cues. I've suggested that the orc-player simply use their reactions as motivation for his own characterization -- a constant struggle against society's assumptions based on his heritage and appearance alone -- but it still bothers the player who happens to be of mixed racial heritage himself. (By the way, the character is a bard. He's boosted his charisma at fourth and eighth level so that it's now at 18.) How would you handle the character and the gaming situation? [/QUOTE]
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