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Solaris
2009-10-29, 11:27 AM
Orc
"Wraargh!" - Orc
Though they were the first creations of the gods, orcs are by far the most primitive and savage. They were not always so; early in their history, the demonic Garuush stole the orcs away from their creator, Gammerond, and enslaved them to his destructive evil. Because of Garuush's influence, orcs lost their birthright as civilized, thinking creatures and became savage monsters incapable of more than the most rudimentary civilization. Even so, some orcs are better than their kin and maintain a more advanced tribal culture. These tribes have ventured forth from the caves and burrows that their kin haunt and even live in tents, domesticating wolves and beginning to demonstrate something resembling a culture not focused entirely around the next meal.

Personality: Orcs have little in the way of personalities. The more intelligent ones are highly pragmatic creatures, focused on more mundane concerns than matters of good and evil. The less intelligent ones have trouble grasping that they need to eat until hunger strikes. They have little concern for matters of civilized subtlety, bound as they are by their endless rage and need to survive. Orcs view creatures physically weaker than they as either food or slaves. Exceptions to this paradigm are rare almost to the point of impossibility.

Physical Description: Orcs are brutish-looking hunchbacked humanoids who stand about 5'4" to 5'10" and weigh about two hundred pounds, with females being about six inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter. They have skin ranging in green, yellow, orange, crimson, or black, copious body hair bordering on fur and spiky manes running from just behind their sloped brows, down their almost nonexistent necks, and over their hunched backs. An orc's shoulders are almost three feet broad, and their arms are just about long enough for the orc to walk on all fours. They are powerfully-muscled creatures, easily the match of just about any human in hand-to-hand combat. The orc's head is about twice the size of a human's, with lupine ears, beady little bloodshot eyes set deep under their sloped brows, a muzzle filled with carnivorous fangs, prominent tusks that grow throughout the orc's life, and a porcine snout that has made the orc the butt of many pig jokes. As orcs age, they tend to gain weight, developing a potbelly that only helps the comparison between the carnivorous, cannibalistic savages and wild boars.
Orcs garb themselves in rude, untreated furs and smelly hides. They haven't developed needle and thread, so their outfits can only be described as 'crude and primitive'. Orcs don't bother washing their garments, instead just replacing the hides as they wear out. Orcs decorate themselves with bones and other trophies claimed from creatures they've killed, preferring the skull, fangs, and claws.
Orcs are physically mature by age thirteen, and rarely live more than forty years. They have a forty-year cycle in what passes for a society among them, wherein they spend twenty years killing each other and anything else bipedal before they spend the next twenty years killing and breeding with each other and anything else bipedal.

Relations: The only relationship orcs have with the civilized races is one of mutual raiding and slaughter. Unfortunately, sometimes this raiding involves orcs taking prisoners as slaves, particularly among the more advanced tribes. This sometimes results in half-orc offspring.
Orcs have a deep hatred for all that lives, but their bloodlust seems particularly potent when they raid wildsmans. Some have theorized that wildsmans are descendents of orcs who evaded Garuush's 'blessing', and the two race's deep hatred for each other seems to support that theory.

Alignment: To an orc, only the strong deserve to survive and the weak deserve only slavery or death. They keep only what they can maintain by force. As such, they are paragons of Chaotic Evil. Exceptions are rare and often short-lived.

Orc Lands: Orcs live anywhere they can survive, from the desolate wastes of the north to the burning deserts and sweltering jungles of the south. They dwell in caves and primitive dwellings scraped from the ground, always near enough to settled lands that they can raid them for supplies and slaves. The orc population swings wildly, from as many as a couple hundred million to as a few hundred thousand orcs worldwide. When orcs are many, they outnumber nearly all of the other races and would overrun the world if they weren't busy killing each other off.

Religion: Orcs revere their dark master, the satyr-like demon prince Garuush, also called the Black Goat. Garuush is thought to be an aspect of Shub-Niggurath, 'The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young', or perhaps the two are wed in some unholy mockery of mortal couplings. Shub-Niggurath is a fertility goddess of sorts, the one who drives the orcs during their breeding cycles before Garuush drives them to give in to their violent urges and wreak destruction across the world.

Language: The orc language is a primitive, debased form of Sylvan that the civilized races call the Savage Tongue. Every tribe has a dialect of its own, and orcs from tribes far removed from each other might find it impossible to understand one another.

Names: Only male orcs have names. Female orcs are simply called 'Ovak', the orc word for a weakling or a slave - if they're called anything at all. Naturally, female orcs who don't like this arrangement often leave - after cracking a few skulls.
Male Names: Dench, Feng, Gell, Henk, Holg, Imsh, Keth, Krusk, Ront, Shump, Thokk.
Female Names: Ovak.

Adventurers: The rare orc adventurer is often one raised by sympathetic foster parents of other races after having been abandoned by his parents as an infant. A quick-tempered bully very different from those around him, this outcast usually abandons his foster parents to wander alone or in the company of fellow outcasts. These orcs often represent the best hope for their race, as while they're often quick-tempered and aggressive they've been known to apply a little thought before they act.

Orc Racial Traits
- Abilities: +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma. While only semi-sentient, orcs are astonishingly strong.
- Medium-Sized: As Medium creatures, orcs have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Type: Orcs are humanoids with the orc subtype.
- Speed: An orc's base land speed is 30 feet. An orc running on all fours has a base land speed of 40 feet.
- Darkvision (Ex): Orcs see in the dark, negating concealment from poor illumination (including total concealment). Darkvision is black-and-white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and orcs can function just fine with no light at all. (For people who insist on range limitations, 60 ft)
- Light Sensitivity (Ex): Orcs are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
- Leaper (Ex): An orc takes no penalties for not making a running start before a jump. The orc has a +4 racial bonus on Jump checks. During a rage, the bonus increases to +10, the orc gains a +10 ft increase to its land speed, and if the orc can leap onto an opponent during the first round of combat it can take the full attack action even if it has already taken a move action.
- Automatic Languages: Savage Tongue (Orc + Goblin + Sylvan). Bonus Languages: Tradespeak (Common), Cacor (Abyssal), Gut-Tamaug (Dwarven Common), Old Tradespeak (Other Common).
- Favored Class: Barbarian.

Temotei
2009-10-29, 04:28 PM
- Leaper (Ex): An takes no penalties for not making a running start before a jump. The orc has a +4 racial bonus on Jump checks. During a rage, the bonus increases to +10, the orc gains a +10 ft increase to its land speed, and if the orc can leap onto an opponent during the first round of combat it can take the full attack action even if it has already taken a move action.

Hmm...this looks familiar. :smallwink:

There's a small typo at the beginning of the ability. It should be "An orc takes..."

Also, maybe you should give other classes a chance to gain the extra bonuses--give some incentive to be anything but a barbarian. Although, I'm not sure how you would implement that.


Orcs have a deep hatred for all that lives, but their bloodlust seems particularly potent when they raid wildsmans. Some have theorized that wildsmans are descendents of orcs who evaded Garuush's 'blessing', and the two race's deep hatred for each other seems to support that theory.

I take it wildsmans is a homebrew of yours? Otherwise, it should be wildmen, wild men, or wild-men.


Shub-Niggurath is a fertilty goddess of sorts...

Fertility.

Also, good job. It's an interesting new take on the orc.

Solaris
2009-10-29, 04:57 PM
Hmm...this looks familiar. :smallwink:

There's a small typo at the beginning of the ability. It should be "An orc takes..."
I really wanna say I cribbed it from somewhere, but I don't remember where. Perhaps a third-party book on orcs, but they had it as a feat instead of racial ability.

Good catch.


Also, maybe you should give other classes a chance to gain the extra bonuses--give some incentive to be anything but a barbarian. Although, I'm not sure how you would implement that.
... Someone playing an orc wouldn't want to be a barbarian?
I should homebrew a feat that enables someone to rage. I know there are other ways to get the ability to rage besides being a barbarian.


I take it wildsmans is a homebrew of yours? Otherwise, it should be wildmen, wild men, or wild-men.
It is, and scholars in the setting get bent out of shape if you say wildsmen. Same logic as humans, not humen. I'll have to post those guys soon - they're based heavily on the Clan of the Cave Bear (what I've heard - I never managed to muscle through the book).


Fertility.

Also, good job. It's an interesting new take on the orc.

Thank you. I appreciate your taking the effort to correct spelling and grammar in addition to crunchy bits.

Temotei
2009-10-29, 06:06 PM
During a rage, the bonus increases to +10, the orc gains a +10 ft increase to its land speed...

Does this stack for bonuses to jump? The speed along with +10 would be juicy. :smallbiggrin:

Oh, and by "familiar," I meant it looks similar to the ability discussed in your sealtuan thread.

Solaris
2009-10-29, 06:11 PM
Does this stack for bonuses to jump? The speed along with +10 would be juicy. :smallbiggrin:

Oh, and by "familiar," I meant it looks similar to the ability discussed in your sealtuan thread.

You mean the bonuses from enhanced speed? Yes.

Ahh. Actually, I think I typed this up about eight months ago, give or take. I hadn't even drawn the connection between the abilities until you mentioned it.
Huh.

Lappy9000
2009-10-29, 06:54 PM
I like these guys. And I'm really discriminating when it comes to orc fixes :smallbiggrin:

I've always wanted my orcs to be really fast and these guys are definitely speedy! Great work!

Solaris
2009-10-29, 07:31 PM
I like these guys. And I'm really discriminating when it comes to orc fixes :smallbiggrin:

I've always wanted my orcs to be really fast and these guys are definitely speedy! Great work!

Hee, thanks. Fast gorilla-boars just seemed to suit much better than... whatever it is that picture is in the MM.

Temotei
2009-10-29, 08:53 PM
You mean the bonuses from enhanced speed? Yes.

Yum. :smalltongue:


Ahh. Actually, I think I typed this up about eight months ago, give or take. I hadn't even drawn the connection between the abilities until you mentioned it.
Huh.

Oh. Haha that's actually kind of funny. :smallamused: