Piedmon_Sama
2009-07-15, 12:04 PM
So I've been thinking about ideas for a new campaign setting, one which is a more classical take on a D&D universe---other campaigns I've done so far were almost always pastiches of different genres and highly nonstandard campains rules-wise. This time I want to stick more closely to the books and make a more FR/Greyhawk-esque setting; but of course, with my own take on things.
To that end, I want a larger role for the Orcs and their subraces; one where they aren't utterly screwed as a player race by the rules. I also took the idea of the Shara-Kim from Races of Destiny, but got rid of their origin as men cursed to look like Orcs and made them rather Orcs cursed(?) to be like men. :p
And just to break the shock and get it over with, yeah I'm reintroducing Infravision (or as I like to refer to it, Predator-Vision). Yes, I've heard all the arguments, I know it's somewhat more complicated to use logically than plain Darkvision but I'm okay with that. Really. I just want Orcs that see glowy in the dark because it looks cool, really. That aside, please let me know on what you think of these options as Player Races:
Orcs -
Orcs are the unrecognized black sheep of the “common” races. They are not much fewer than humans in total number, and certainly their population overwhelms Dwarves and all the kindreds of Elves put together. This fact is particularly remarkable, because far from the lush forests of Elves or mineral-rich halls of Dwarves, Orcs inhabit the roughest badlands, marshes and steppes, living off unyielding soil and always facing the threat of starvation save by the intervention of their priests.
In poetry, Orcs are often known as the Moonlight Demons, or the Sons of Twilight, for two reasons: they are nocturnal, with eyes adapted to see well in dim twilight and infravision that activates in pitch darkness. Secondly, because they believe the moon is the unblinking eye of their god, Father Gruumsh, who passes over the world watching and testing all his children.
Orcs should by all rights be running the show. One for one they’re tougher, stronger and badder than humans, especially the more effete and civilized varieties. Their culture emphasizes individuality to an almost absurd degree. Most Orcs live in semi-nomadic tribes, but more than a few live completely alone. They don’t have the same social, herding instincts as humans, but are ingrained almost genetically to trust and rely on their own strength first and foremost. If an Orc can’t do something himself, he will often assume nobody else can. This makes every Orc a ruthlessly hardcore survivalist, but in terms of teamwork and organization they make Elves look like Modrons. Most Orcs will submit to follow someone he personally likes (and they can grow to like individuals, in fact), someone who can thrash him, or someone who has something he wants that he can’t just take. They’re not stupid (well, they’re not Trolls), and they understand 100 Orcs can often do something 1 Orc can’t, like storm a human fortress. But in this sense, they’re more like a band of pirates than a tribe or an army; they elect the toughest or craftiest (or ideally croughiest) individual to be Chief, but beforehand draw up a charter (usually on deerskin written in blood) and swear before Father Gruumsh (the only oath they take seriously) to divide the spoils equally. Sometimes a warband only lasts for a single raid, then everyone goes home; if the venture proves profitable, it might grow into an extended campaign of pillage and plunder, sometimes lasting years, until the Orcs within start families and a new tribe is born.
If this society seems ripe for dysfunction, well, it is. It’s tough to have a civil and public works department when your whole organization changes everytime someone backstabs the Chief. Orcs may not be able to spell coup d’main but they have the concept down to an art. Not only does this not displease Father Gruumsh, he actively encourages his children to compete amongst themselves, everyday, with varying degrees of lethality. Only the nuttiest Orcs would kill someone over a trivial matter, but brawls and contests like arm-wrestling, rock-throwing, power-lifting, racing, swimming, darts, horseshoes (Orcs keep no horses but have a lot of spare horseshoes from raiding human towns), etc. as judged by Gruumsh’s priests make up their legal system.
Gruumsh isn’t a general; he doesn’t care about his Orc children being some well-oiled machine of war like those stuffy Hobgoblins. He demands they be strong; whereas other races see strength as a means to their ends, it’s an end in of itself for Gruumsh. Even if the Orcs ever conquered the fat lands of the humans Gruumsh would probably send a rain of fire down on it just to keep his kids on their toes. Why do Gruumsh’s benighted, bastard children still worship him? It’s less about loving thanks and more about propitiation; Gruumsh gives Clerics the magic they need to help Orc tribes survive in the nastiest parts of the world. He keeps his people lean and sharp, but he keeps them alive. In typical usage, Gruumsh’s name is a curse as much as a benediction; he is their errant father, but they are his loyal if oft-resentful sons.
Orcs are often portrayed as racial supremacists, who despise everything not-Orc so utterly they wish to raze it from the earth. This is a confusion; Orcs don’t naturally think in terms of race, indeed they have no conception of a pan-Orc community. Different tribes and different Orcs will compete with each other as ferociously as they will with other races. However, they are aware that other races don’t often like Orcs very much, and feel barred from entering the more fruitful lands even if they wished to do so peacefully. This breeds resentment, so when Orcs bandy about statements like “Orcs are the strongest in creation!” and “the lesser races will be crushed!” it’s more wounded pride than anything. That said, the condition of tribes varies enormously; one may be roving in deerhide lean-tos and always on the verge of starvation; another might have rich tents and plentiful goods, and actually profit from their human neighbors.
In fact, Orcs will readily work with a wide variety of partners, since they respect strength. Strength is understood to be guile, skill, luck, or more rarely intellect and spellcraft as well as brute strength. It’s a rare Orc warband that won’t accept the aid of Human or Goblin bandits and criminals, if they think they can keep up. Leadership is almost always out of the question, although you get the occasional warband cowed by a human sorcerer or with a chief “advised” by a smooth-tongued rogue.
Orcs don’t see themselves as having any particular racial enemies, as again they don’t think that way. Every individual is a free agent, after all. That said, Gruumsh and Corellon Larathion do have a millennia-old rivalry, it being the Elf-Father that put out his eye. Elves and Dwarves see themselves as engaged in one long, ceaseless war with Orcs and the rapacious Goblinoids, but that’s because they have the perspective of centuries. What seems to Orcs like a disconnected bunch of raids, counter-raids and territorial spats is to the Elder Races a long series of thrusts and feints, intermittently broken by wary truces. Relations with humans vary; sometimes Orc tribes ally with a more savage band of humans, or an independent village or city. Individual Orcs often seek their fortune in human lands, as mercenaries, assassins or more permanent retainers. By human standards they are cantankerous and unreliable, but often brutally effective as hired muscle. Gnomes and Halflings have little to interest Orcs, and are generally not worth raiding; Orcs and Gnomes have completely different senses of humor, which makes one integrating with the other impossible, and Halflings communities have little use for fighters. Ever adaptable, Orcs collect treasure because sometimes bartering with humans is an acceptable (if boring) alternative to raiding. They have no use for cash themselves and internally rely on trading tools and necessities.
Orcs are great egoists, but they are capable of friendship and love. Gruumsh is not such a fool that he would craft his children with an incomplete heart. What humans would call a common-law marriage is the Orc version: Bhupu and Ghorgh enjoy each others’ company, one invites the other into their home, and Bhupu eventually bears him children. Divorce is as simple as one partner packing up and leaving, but if the other makes some great overture like slaying a Wyvern or Dire Moose and bringing its heart before her, the social pressure to reward such a feat is immense. They are egalitarian in terms of gender, because Orc women are still brutally strong in their own right. For a race that has little conception of “fair play,” Orcs tend to be scrupulous about their word, as without it their small communities would quickly disintegrate. They accuse humans of habitual dishonesty as much as humans accuse them of savagery.
It could be said Orcs are a race of impressive individuals that is less than the sum of its parts. They are nonexistent as a military power, but individually dangerous. Diplomatic relations and conquest of their sparse, unwelcoming lands would be equally pointless since tribal leadership changes as soon as someone gains a level on the Chief, and a “conquered” tribe would simply collapse into a bunch of wayward indviduals who leave for wilder parts.
Orcs
-Medium Sized Humanoids with the [Orc] subtype. Orcs are neither goblinoids, nor an offshoot of humanity as so often thought.
-Base Speed 30 feet.
-Stat Adjustments: +4 Str, -2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha. Orcs are massively strong, but slow on the uptake, generally ill-tempered and uncouth, and rash as bulls.
-DR 4/lethal damage: Orcs are frighteningly resilient against anything less than an axe to the face. They can make forced marches that would incapacitate a human, and endure hotter and colder environments into the danger zones.
-+2 Survival, Intimidate, always class-skills. Any adult Orc will have at least some idea of how to take care of herself in the wilderness, and how to get what she wants by sheer threat rather than namby-pamby cooperation.
-Low Light Vision & Predator Vision: Orcs are most ideally situated by the faint light of stars or the moon, and see double-distance in low or murky light, but when in caves or the most impenetrable forest their “hunter’s vision” kicks in which allows them to see the bright heat of living bodies against the fainter warmth of its surroundings. Bodies not only glow with caloric heat in infravision, they give off an aura of intense color in a radius equal to their space (so a creature that takes up 15 squares of space gives off an aura 15 feet out, making it visible to infravision possibly even if concealed). Heat also lingers in the footprints of creatures for a time, allowing Orcs to follow tracks in complete darkness with a +10 Survival check bonus for 1 hour after the creature has left said tracks.
-Scent: Orcs are allowed to take the scent feat. They have a keen sense of smell, which most hunters develop until it is as good as a wild beast’s.
-Weapon Familiarity: The Orcish double-axe, and Orcish shotput are Martial, not Exotic weapons for Orc characters.
-Light Sensitivity: Creatures of the night, Orcs don't deal well with the light of day. In direct, natural sunlight (as opposed to, say, the filtered light of a forest) or within the effects of a daylight spell, Orcs take a -1 penalty to attack rolls. Most Orcs avoid coming out during the daytime, but those who must often wear visors carved from bone or made from bark pulp, with a narrow slit to see through. This item removes the penalty and can be had for 1 gp or made with a DC 11 craft [sculpting] check.
-ECL: +0.
-Alignment: Often Chaotic Evil, ones that deal frequently with humans are often Chaotic Neutral. A lawful Orc is rather an aberration, no matter how long he lives among humans.
-Starting Languages: Common, Orc. Additional Languages: Abyssal (the tongue of Gruumsh and his divine servants), Infernal, Undercommon, Dwarven, Goblin, Giant, Dwarf, Elf (though they make a hash of it)
-Favored Class: Barbarian.
-Typical classes: Barbarian, Cleric, Fighter, Favored Soul, Ranger, Scout, Rogue, Spirit Shaman, Assassin, Warlock
Shara-Kim -
The Shara-Kim are identical to ordinary Orcs in appearance, though they always groom themselves scrupulously and wear the most expensive clothes they can afford. Some even go so far as to file their tusks down, for a more nonthreatening appearance. This is because all Shara-Kim live within human lands, or sometimes in an Illumian fortress-monastery or halfling village. Their numbers are few, and they are an unusual breed indeed.
Their origins go back several centuries, to a time when some Orcs renounced the teachings and lifestyle set for them by Father Gruumsh and attempted to fully integrate themselves into human society. Other Orcs looked on this neglected band with complete disgust, and their attempts to make humans trust them were generally a failure. But an Illumian Archmage had pity on them, and offered to use powerful transmutation to change them into a new breed of creature. The outcasts accepted, and a spell changed their blood to enhance their intellect, so all their offspring were naturally more intelligent.
The spell worked completely. The descendants of those orcs are now like their ancestors only in appearance. Their minds, and thus their natures, are quite apart. Shara-Kim are studious, excellent learners with an aptitude for magic. Almost all of them have made some study of the Arcane Science, and their culture pigeonholes them into this art as much as Orc culture does for violent professions.
Shara-Kim have had success filling a niche as magicians for hire in human cities, and almost all are comfortably well-off. They place a great deal of significance on ettiquette, as if to make up for their cousins’ complete lack of it, and it is hard to find a people more decorous (or as most would say, stuffy). The archetypical Shara-Kim is quite scholarly and stiff in manner, exacerbated by the clumsiness that has come from forgetting how to use their Orc muscles, which ironically hinders their social skills as much as the barbaric Orcs’ crudity.
Shara-Kim are almost always completely effacious to their human neighbors, eager to prove they are head-and-shoulders above their barbaric cousins and ready to be of use to their adopted community. Orcs sneer at them as servile buffoons, and even some humans are embarrassed by the care they take. This has finally begun to change as the current generation of Shara-Kim, just coming into adulthood, is economically independent and highly skilled. Where before their fathers studied magic in the shelter of human society, younger Shara-Kim are more apt to take their skills and studies abroad and go adventuring, an abhorrent idea to the more prudish homebodies. This generation gap makes younger Shara-Kim, who are rightly proud of their skills, apt to disavow their homes and parents, while the latter often disown a rebellious youth.
Whereas older and more conservative Shara-Kim regard what is left of their natural Orcish strength with some embarrassment and avoid feats of crude physical power, younger Shara-Kim who become adventurers are likely to combine martial and magical professions and show off the best of both worlds. They are steadfast companions with a mix of talents useful to any adventuring company of the civilized races.
Shara-Kim still face a great deal of prejudice, particularly from humans who don’t have Shara-Kim in their own community. Elves and Dwarves regard them with undisguised hostility and usually think they are either a long-running ruse from Gruumsh or that at least their laborious civility is just a mask. Since it was an Illumian who made the Shara-Kim what they are, and both are scholarly peoples, these two often get along and make frequent friendships. Gnomes are less hostile to Shara-Kim, but find their stuffiness makes them poor sports for a prank and therefore uninteresting. The rare Halfling community that boasts a resident Shara-Kim appreciates their contribution and usually lacks the experience with Orcs that makes humans uneasy.
Shara-Kim
-Medium-Sized Humanoids with the [Orc] subtype. Shara-Kim can use magic items normally restricted to Orcs, but cannot take Orc-only prestige classes.
-Base Speed: 30 ft.
-Stat Adjustments: +2 Str, -2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha. Shara-Kim are stiff both physically and socially from their sedentary, academic lifestyles and their prudery is as bad as the Orcs’ crudeness in its own way. They have only a remnant of their once-great strength, but have gained a formidable natural intellect that makes them great learners and scholars.
-+2 Knowledge [Arcana], +2 Spellcraft. All Shara-Kim receive intense education in the Arcane Sciences from their parents and at Wizardry academies.
-Predator Vision: Though Shara-Kim are no longer hunters, and their eyes have weakened to the point where they are as blind at night as men, in pure darkness they still gain the Hunter's Vision. Bodies not only glow with caloric heat in infravision, they give off an aura of intense color in a radius equal to their space (so a creature that takes up 15 squares of space gives off an aura 15 feet out, making it visible to infravision possibly even if concealed). Heat also lingers in the footprints of creatures for a time, allowing Shara-Kim to follow tracks in complete darkness with a +10 Survival check bonus for 1 hour after the creature has left said tracks.
-EL: +0
-Favored Class: Wizard.
-Typical Classes: Wizard/Fighter crossclasses are most frequent among adventurous Shara-Kim. They make suitable Clerics, but their culture stresses education and the wonders of magic that can be achieved without relying on piety. There are folk tales (usually comical) of a Shara-Kim who once became a Knight, but nothing corroborates this.
Starting Languages: Common, Local Language; Additional Languages: Orc, Halfling, Undercommon, Goblin, Giant, Elf, Dwarf, Draconic, Abyssal, Infernal, Celestial, Sylvan, Elemental Languages
Alignment: Almost always lawful, even young and hot-blooded Shara-Kim retain the decorum and values they were raised with. Usually Neutral but often Good.
Half-Orcs and Black Orcs (the latter aren't really a PC option but will be included out of completeness) will be forthcoming. TIA for any advice or criticism!
To that end, I want a larger role for the Orcs and their subraces; one where they aren't utterly screwed as a player race by the rules. I also took the idea of the Shara-Kim from Races of Destiny, but got rid of their origin as men cursed to look like Orcs and made them rather Orcs cursed(?) to be like men. :p
And just to break the shock and get it over with, yeah I'm reintroducing Infravision (or as I like to refer to it, Predator-Vision). Yes, I've heard all the arguments, I know it's somewhat more complicated to use logically than plain Darkvision but I'm okay with that. Really. I just want Orcs that see glowy in the dark because it looks cool, really. That aside, please let me know on what you think of these options as Player Races:
Orcs -
Orcs are the unrecognized black sheep of the “common” races. They are not much fewer than humans in total number, and certainly their population overwhelms Dwarves and all the kindreds of Elves put together. This fact is particularly remarkable, because far from the lush forests of Elves or mineral-rich halls of Dwarves, Orcs inhabit the roughest badlands, marshes and steppes, living off unyielding soil and always facing the threat of starvation save by the intervention of their priests.
In poetry, Orcs are often known as the Moonlight Demons, or the Sons of Twilight, for two reasons: they are nocturnal, with eyes adapted to see well in dim twilight and infravision that activates in pitch darkness. Secondly, because they believe the moon is the unblinking eye of their god, Father Gruumsh, who passes over the world watching and testing all his children.
Orcs should by all rights be running the show. One for one they’re tougher, stronger and badder than humans, especially the more effete and civilized varieties. Their culture emphasizes individuality to an almost absurd degree. Most Orcs live in semi-nomadic tribes, but more than a few live completely alone. They don’t have the same social, herding instincts as humans, but are ingrained almost genetically to trust and rely on their own strength first and foremost. If an Orc can’t do something himself, he will often assume nobody else can. This makes every Orc a ruthlessly hardcore survivalist, but in terms of teamwork and organization they make Elves look like Modrons. Most Orcs will submit to follow someone he personally likes (and they can grow to like individuals, in fact), someone who can thrash him, or someone who has something he wants that he can’t just take. They’re not stupid (well, they’re not Trolls), and they understand 100 Orcs can often do something 1 Orc can’t, like storm a human fortress. But in this sense, they’re more like a band of pirates than a tribe or an army; they elect the toughest or craftiest (or ideally croughiest) individual to be Chief, but beforehand draw up a charter (usually on deerskin written in blood) and swear before Father Gruumsh (the only oath they take seriously) to divide the spoils equally. Sometimes a warband only lasts for a single raid, then everyone goes home; if the venture proves profitable, it might grow into an extended campaign of pillage and plunder, sometimes lasting years, until the Orcs within start families and a new tribe is born.
If this society seems ripe for dysfunction, well, it is. It’s tough to have a civil and public works department when your whole organization changes everytime someone backstabs the Chief. Orcs may not be able to spell coup d’main but they have the concept down to an art. Not only does this not displease Father Gruumsh, he actively encourages his children to compete amongst themselves, everyday, with varying degrees of lethality. Only the nuttiest Orcs would kill someone over a trivial matter, but brawls and contests like arm-wrestling, rock-throwing, power-lifting, racing, swimming, darts, horseshoes (Orcs keep no horses but have a lot of spare horseshoes from raiding human towns), etc. as judged by Gruumsh’s priests make up their legal system.
Gruumsh isn’t a general; he doesn’t care about his Orc children being some well-oiled machine of war like those stuffy Hobgoblins. He demands they be strong; whereas other races see strength as a means to their ends, it’s an end in of itself for Gruumsh. Even if the Orcs ever conquered the fat lands of the humans Gruumsh would probably send a rain of fire down on it just to keep his kids on their toes. Why do Gruumsh’s benighted, bastard children still worship him? It’s less about loving thanks and more about propitiation; Gruumsh gives Clerics the magic they need to help Orc tribes survive in the nastiest parts of the world. He keeps his people lean and sharp, but he keeps them alive. In typical usage, Gruumsh’s name is a curse as much as a benediction; he is their errant father, but they are his loyal if oft-resentful sons.
Orcs are often portrayed as racial supremacists, who despise everything not-Orc so utterly they wish to raze it from the earth. This is a confusion; Orcs don’t naturally think in terms of race, indeed they have no conception of a pan-Orc community. Different tribes and different Orcs will compete with each other as ferociously as they will with other races. However, they are aware that other races don’t often like Orcs very much, and feel barred from entering the more fruitful lands even if they wished to do so peacefully. This breeds resentment, so when Orcs bandy about statements like “Orcs are the strongest in creation!” and “the lesser races will be crushed!” it’s more wounded pride than anything. That said, the condition of tribes varies enormously; one may be roving in deerhide lean-tos and always on the verge of starvation; another might have rich tents and plentiful goods, and actually profit from their human neighbors.
In fact, Orcs will readily work with a wide variety of partners, since they respect strength. Strength is understood to be guile, skill, luck, or more rarely intellect and spellcraft as well as brute strength. It’s a rare Orc warband that won’t accept the aid of Human or Goblin bandits and criminals, if they think they can keep up. Leadership is almost always out of the question, although you get the occasional warband cowed by a human sorcerer or with a chief “advised” by a smooth-tongued rogue.
Orcs don’t see themselves as having any particular racial enemies, as again they don’t think that way. Every individual is a free agent, after all. That said, Gruumsh and Corellon Larathion do have a millennia-old rivalry, it being the Elf-Father that put out his eye. Elves and Dwarves see themselves as engaged in one long, ceaseless war with Orcs and the rapacious Goblinoids, but that’s because they have the perspective of centuries. What seems to Orcs like a disconnected bunch of raids, counter-raids and territorial spats is to the Elder Races a long series of thrusts and feints, intermittently broken by wary truces. Relations with humans vary; sometimes Orc tribes ally with a more savage band of humans, or an independent village or city. Individual Orcs often seek their fortune in human lands, as mercenaries, assassins or more permanent retainers. By human standards they are cantankerous and unreliable, but often brutally effective as hired muscle. Gnomes and Halflings have little to interest Orcs, and are generally not worth raiding; Orcs and Gnomes have completely different senses of humor, which makes one integrating with the other impossible, and Halflings communities have little use for fighters. Ever adaptable, Orcs collect treasure because sometimes bartering with humans is an acceptable (if boring) alternative to raiding. They have no use for cash themselves and internally rely on trading tools and necessities.
Orcs are great egoists, but they are capable of friendship and love. Gruumsh is not such a fool that he would craft his children with an incomplete heart. What humans would call a common-law marriage is the Orc version: Bhupu and Ghorgh enjoy each others’ company, one invites the other into their home, and Bhupu eventually bears him children. Divorce is as simple as one partner packing up and leaving, but if the other makes some great overture like slaying a Wyvern or Dire Moose and bringing its heart before her, the social pressure to reward such a feat is immense. They are egalitarian in terms of gender, because Orc women are still brutally strong in their own right. For a race that has little conception of “fair play,” Orcs tend to be scrupulous about their word, as without it their small communities would quickly disintegrate. They accuse humans of habitual dishonesty as much as humans accuse them of savagery.
It could be said Orcs are a race of impressive individuals that is less than the sum of its parts. They are nonexistent as a military power, but individually dangerous. Diplomatic relations and conquest of their sparse, unwelcoming lands would be equally pointless since tribal leadership changes as soon as someone gains a level on the Chief, and a “conquered” tribe would simply collapse into a bunch of wayward indviduals who leave for wilder parts.
Orcs
-Medium Sized Humanoids with the [Orc] subtype. Orcs are neither goblinoids, nor an offshoot of humanity as so often thought.
-Base Speed 30 feet.
-Stat Adjustments: +4 Str, -2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha. Orcs are massively strong, but slow on the uptake, generally ill-tempered and uncouth, and rash as bulls.
-DR 4/lethal damage: Orcs are frighteningly resilient against anything less than an axe to the face. They can make forced marches that would incapacitate a human, and endure hotter and colder environments into the danger zones.
-+2 Survival, Intimidate, always class-skills. Any adult Orc will have at least some idea of how to take care of herself in the wilderness, and how to get what she wants by sheer threat rather than namby-pamby cooperation.
-Low Light Vision & Predator Vision: Orcs are most ideally situated by the faint light of stars or the moon, and see double-distance in low or murky light, but when in caves or the most impenetrable forest their “hunter’s vision” kicks in which allows them to see the bright heat of living bodies against the fainter warmth of its surroundings. Bodies not only glow with caloric heat in infravision, they give off an aura of intense color in a radius equal to their space (so a creature that takes up 15 squares of space gives off an aura 15 feet out, making it visible to infravision possibly even if concealed). Heat also lingers in the footprints of creatures for a time, allowing Orcs to follow tracks in complete darkness with a +10 Survival check bonus for 1 hour after the creature has left said tracks.
-Scent: Orcs are allowed to take the scent feat. They have a keen sense of smell, which most hunters develop until it is as good as a wild beast’s.
-Weapon Familiarity: The Orcish double-axe, and Orcish shotput are Martial, not Exotic weapons for Orc characters.
-Light Sensitivity: Creatures of the night, Orcs don't deal well with the light of day. In direct, natural sunlight (as opposed to, say, the filtered light of a forest) or within the effects of a daylight spell, Orcs take a -1 penalty to attack rolls. Most Orcs avoid coming out during the daytime, but those who must often wear visors carved from bone or made from bark pulp, with a narrow slit to see through. This item removes the penalty and can be had for 1 gp or made with a DC 11 craft [sculpting] check.
-ECL: +0.
-Alignment: Often Chaotic Evil, ones that deal frequently with humans are often Chaotic Neutral. A lawful Orc is rather an aberration, no matter how long he lives among humans.
-Starting Languages: Common, Orc. Additional Languages: Abyssal (the tongue of Gruumsh and his divine servants), Infernal, Undercommon, Dwarven, Goblin, Giant, Dwarf, Elf (though they make a hash of it)
-Favored Class: Barbarian.
-Typical classes: Barbarian, Cleric, Fighter, Favored Soul, Ranger, Scout, Rogue, Spirit Shaman, Assassin, Warlock
Shara-Kim -
The Shara-Kim are identical to ordinary Orcs in appearance, though they always groom themselves scrupulously and wear the most expensive clothes they can afford. Some even go so far as to file their tusks down, for a more nonthreatening appearance. This is because all Shara-Kim live within human lands, or sometimes in an Illumian fortress-monastery or halfling village. Their numbers are few, and they are an unusual breed indeed.
Their origins go back several centuries, to a time when some Orcs renounced the teachings and lifestyle set for them by Father Gruumsh and attempted to fully integrate themselves into human society. Other Orcs looked on this neglected band with complete disgust, and their attempts to make humans trust them were generally a failure. But an Illumian Archmage had pity on them, and offered to use powerful transmutation to change them into a new breed of creature. The outcasts accepted, and a spell changed their blood to enhance their intellect, so all their offspring were naturally more intelligent.
The spell worked completely. The descendants of those orcs are now like their ancestors only in appearance. Their minds, and thus their natures, are quite apart. Shara-Kim are studious, excellent learners with an aptitude for magic. Almost all of them have made some study of the Arcane Science, and their culture pigeonholes them into this art as much as Orc culture does for violent professions.
Shara-Kim have had success filling a niche as magicians for hire in human cities, and almost all are comfortably well-off. They place a great deal of significance on ettiquette, as if to make up for their cousins’ complete lack of it, and it is hard to find a people more decorous (or as most would say, stuffy). The archetypical Shara-Kim is quite scholarly and stiff in manner, exacerbated by the clumsiness that has come from forgetting how to use their Orc muscles, which ironically hinders their social skills as much as the barbaric Orcs’ crudity.
Shara-Kim are almost always completely effacious to their human neighbors, eager to prove they are head-and-shoulders above their barbaric cousins and ready to be of use to their adopted community. Orcs sneer at them as servile buffoons, and even some humans are embarrassed by the care they take. This has finally begun to change as the current generation of Shara-Kim, just coming into adulthood, is economically independent and highly skilled. Where before their fathers studied magic in the shelter of human society, younger Shara-Kim are more apt to take their skills and studies abroad and go adventuring, an abhorrent idea to the more prudish homebodies. This generation gap makes younger Shara-Kim, who are rightly proud of their skills, apt to disavow their homes and parents, while the latter often disown a rebellious youth.
Whereas older and more conservative Shara-Kim regard what is left of their natural Orcish strength with some embarrassment and avoid feats of crude physical power, younger Shara-Kim who become adventurers are likely to combine martial and magical professions and show off the best of both worlds. They are steadfast companions with a mix of talents useful to any adventuring company of the civilized races.
Shara-Kim still face a great deal of prejudice, particularly from humans who don’t have Shara-Kim in their own community. Elves and Dwarves regard them with undisguised hostility and usually think they are either a long-running ruse from Gruumsh or that at least their laborious civility is just a mask. Since it was an Illumian who made the Shara-Kim what they are, and both are scholarly peoples, these two often get along and make frequent friendships. Gnomes are less hostile to Shara-Kim, but find their stuffiness makes them poor sports for a prank and therefore uninteresting. The rare Halfling community that boasts a resident Shara-Kim appreciates their contribution and usually lacks the experience with Orcs that makes humans uneasy.
Shara-Kim
-Medium-Sized Humanoids with the [Orc] subtype. Shara-Kim can use magic items normally restricted to Orcs, but cannot take Orc-only prestige classes.
-Base Speed: 30 ft.
-Stat Adjustments: +2 Str, -2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha. Shara-Kim are stiff both physically and socially from their sedentary, academic lifestyles and their prudery is as bad as the Orcs’ crudeness in its own way. They have only a remnant of their once-great strength, but have gained a formidable natural intellect that makes them great learners and scholars.
-+2 Knowledge [Arcana], +2 Spellcraft. All Shara-Kim receive intense education in the Arcane Sciences from their parents and at Wizardry academies.
-Predator Vision: Though Shara-Kim are no longer hunters, and their eyes have weakened to the point where they are as blind at night as men, in pure darkness they still gain the Hunter's Vision. Bodies not only glow with caloric heat in infravision, they give off an aura of intense color in a radius equal to their space (so a creature that takes up 15 squares of space gives off an aura 15 feet out, making it visible to infravision possibly even if concealed). Heat also lingers in the footprints of creatures for a time, allowing Shara-Kim to follow tracks in complete darkness with a +10 Survival check bonus for 1 hour after the creature has left said tracks.
-EL: +0
-Favored Class: Wizard.
-Typical Classes: Wizard/Fighter crossclasses are most frequent among adventurous Shara-Kim. They make suitable Clerics, but their culture stresses education and the wonders of magic that can be achieved without relying on piety. There are folk tales (usually comical) of a Shara-Kim who once became a Knight, but nothing corroborates this.
Starting Languages: Common, Local Language; Additional Languages: Orc, Halfling, Undercommon, Goblin, Giant, Elf, Dwarf, Draconic, Abyssal, Infernal, Celestial, Sylvan, Elemental Languages
Alignment: Almost always lawful, even young and hot-blooded Shara-Kim retain the decorum and values they were raised with. Usually Neutral but often Good.
Half-Orcs and Black Orcs (the latter aren't really a PC option but will be included out of completeness) will be forthcoming. TIA for any advice or criticism!