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View Full Version : Half-Orc Qs (3.5 E)



Scarey Nerd
2010-04-02, 09:22 AM
OK, first thread on GITP, here goes.

I play a Half-Orc Barbarian, and our party is very much a role-playing group, we try to give our characters voices etc. Most people have a fairly strong idea of what their character looks/sounds like, but I am stumped. I don't want to go with the stereotypical bald half-orc that sounds like it has an IQ of 1 (I have 12 int), but equally don't know what I SHOULD be like.

Any thoughts?

tdjewell
2010-04-02, 09:25 AM
BRIAN BLESSED!

(Hawkman from Buck Rogers movie, various Shakepeare movies)


Edit - link added
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitleijqobqvle9an?from=Main.BRIANBLESSED

Zach J.
2010-04-02, 09:30 AM
If you can do it without hurting yourself I imagine that a half-orc barbarian would always have a bit of growl in their voice. I imagine a character like that would always be a little ticked off. You don't have to try to sound like anyone else, just try to sound a little deeper or more angry. That's just a suggestion though.

Scarey Nerd
2010-04-02, 09:30 AM
BRIAN BLESSED!

(Hawkman from Buck Rogers movie, various Shakepeare movies)

LOL I'm not so good at Brian Blessed impersonations (I know him from Blackadder series 1 :smalltongue:) Good idea though :smalltongue:

Dogmantra
2010-04-02, 09:31 AM
Just have him talk like a regular dude, p'rhaps with a slightly raspier voice (I just always pictured Half-Orcs as having kind of raspy voices). I mean, the reason most talk without any semblance of grammar is because they have low INT, and your character doesn't. As for looks, just go with whatever you think is kinda cool. Have him look like a character who just happens to be a Half-Orc. Remember that in real life, not all Scottish people, for example, wear kilts and have incomprehensible accents. Your character's race is just a small aspect of the character, not the whole character.

EDIT: But, y'know, if you want to make him a teenager with braces, glasses, short black hair and tends to wear a white shirt and a red tie, that's a really good idea too. :smallwink:

Scarey Nerd
2010-04-02, 09:37 AM
These suggestions are all good, the only things that are definite about Graek (hence the username) are that he is 6'7", very muscular, quite serious and lived rough for almosta decade as a bounty-hunter on the western continent. I'm thinking mainly of his face, as I am unsure what half-orcs look like specifically, the PHB essentially says "They are teh half-orcs" :smallconfused:

Eldariel
2010-04-02, 10:24 AM
Well, much like Orcs...see page 11 in the PHB for an illustration. They have rather broad faces, lots of facial hair all over the place, those teeth in the lower jaw (though if you don't want 'em, well, you can just have 'em knocked off in some fight), they don't really have a pronounced nose as much as two nostrils and they have very wide jaws.

Given their physical structure, they probably have rather bass voice, especially a particularly large and muscular individual such as yours. Overall, I'd imagine low voices are common for them, and Orc Barbarians probably tend towards some animalistic sounds when raging.


How you roleplay your smarts is, of course, your business; he might try to get around the natural racial stigma with his quick wits. He'll probably be aware of how much trouble being a half-orc can be and thus probably tries to work around that somehow.

Obviously he's a bit faster than average to pick up on things and most likely has at least some intellectual pursuits when not fighting or practicing fighting. I'd definitely make him literate and maybe make him a bit careful of saying anything (unless he has abnormally high charisma too) and more like to observe conversations than to jump straight on in, rather than make a fool out of himself. Of course, he may be acting against his Int initially just from habit/tradition (while constantly wondering why he's doing what he's doing), but that could change over the campaign - this is all up to you, of course. Just throwing around some ideas.

But yeah, for his heritage, you'll obviously want to decide whether he embraces or shuns it and tries to work against or with it, and which side of his heritage does he prefer; does he consider himself a human or an orc? Or does he accept his half-orchood? And what are his relations with his parents; what kind of a match was he the results of, etc.

For a literary example, Wulfgar (from Salvatore's books before he died) is actually a rather well-written example of Barbarian-with-Brainz-and-tradition-to-work-against-them.

mastermind
2010-04-02, 10:29 AM
A deep, gravelly voice would be good. Maybe even a few orc curses. (Smart people still swear)

Optimystik
2010-04-02, 10:35 AM
If you have it, NwN has great voices. You can imitate them yourself (particularly ones like "Boisterous Bruiser" or "Vicious Fighter",) or play snatches of them from a voice recorder when you want to speak.:smalltongue:

Superglucose
2010-04-02, 10:38 AM
Man this makes me want to play a smart barbarian and lead my whole party on. A soft-spoken and quiet individual who thinks before he acts and rarely say anything who the party thinks is quite unintelligent and doesn't understand society, but the truth is the reason he's a barbarian is because he does understand society; specifically, he understands how crappy it is.

the humanity
2010-04-02, 10:39 AM
have him talk like V.

but high pitched and nasal.

"Yet again, idiots like you have put me into a rage, and now I shall swing my weapon and smite you in the most painful of ways, you horrid gnoll. begone!!!!"

marjan
2010-04-02, 10:45 AM
If you have it, NwN has great voices. You can imitate them yourself (particularly ones like "Boisterous Bruiser" or "Vicious Fighter",) or play snatches of them from a voice recorder when you want to speak.:smalltongue:

Just don't try High-struck evangelist. :smallbiggrin:

LibraryOgre
2010-04-02, 10:53 AM
Generally, with a half-orc, I'd go with a deeper voice, a bit of a growl, and using a lot of colloquial language. Drop g's from the end of gerunds. I might skip "y'all" and go with "yeh" in place of you. "Gonna" instead of "going to".

Yeh gonna be droppin' by?

It provides the appearance of a lack of formal education (not necessarily stupidity, but didn't spend much time in classrooms), and of size and ferocity.

Ganurath
2010-04-02, 10:56 AM
Even if you have him speak intelligently, he should still take his time speaking. The prominent lower canines of orcs and half-orcs get in the way of some of the consonents outside their language, so he'd likely take his time to avoid tripping over his teeth while talking. Gs and Js would be big ones, as would the Qs.

Scarey Nerd
2010-04-02, 11:08 AM
Thank you soo much guys, this feedback is really helping me! :smallbiggrin: I have always imagined him as sitting out of conversations for the most part, preferring actions to words, but speaking with fair intelligence when he chooses to. I love the idea of speaking slowly, as not only does it help me organize my thoughts, but its quite intimidating for a large barbarian to slowly and quietly speak.

Tiki Snakes
2010-04-02, 11:38 AM
Just to chime in, I recall in 3.5, any half-orc art usually seemed to have had a pretty generous helping of the ugly-stick. Which is fair enough, perhaps, but their more recent incarnation has had some of that "They're half monster so they should look stupid and ugly" removed.

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/7572/72845768.jpg

Personally, were I to play a half-orc, I'd probably prefer this kind of representation to most of the older ones I've seen.

Optimystik
2010-04-02, 11:45 AM
Just don't try High-struck evangelist. :smallbiggrin:

I haven't done a half-orc with that one, but I did do a Dwarf. :smallwink:

Eldonauran
2010-04-02, 12:10 PM
...but I did do a Dwarf. :smallwink:

Off topic, but I had to do it. Giggity!

However, I do agree with lower register of the voice and slower speech. Over enuciating on particular letters as well, with respect to their larger lower jaw.

Weirdlet
2010-04-02, 12:52 PM
Considering he's been a bountyhunter on the western continent for a decade, you might want to try a sort of world-weary cowboy attitude, which- prettymuch amounts to what everyone else has been saying.

Scarey Nerd
2010-04-02, 12:57 PM
Considering he's been a bountyhunter on the western continent for a decade, you might want to try a sort of world-weary cowboy attitude.

That is in fact one of the only core parts of his personality, his father was killed in front of him, and he lost any sense of morality in the world (He's CN), kind of amounting to the world-weary attitude you describe :smallsmile:

FoE
2010-04-02, 12:57 PM
Communicate entirely in meows.

Zergrusheddie
2010-04-02, 01:10 PM
Break the stereotype: play as Daelan Red Tiger from Neverwinter Nights.

Be an educated Half-Orc (an intelligence higher than 8 or 9) and put points into learning how to read and write. Either way it would be funny to go from "You know, I feel globalization is going to be limited by our natural xenophobia" to "KRUNK SMAAASH!"

LibraryOgre
2010-04-02, 03:15 PM
Communicate entirely in meows.

"Meow, we've got a problem here. We need to take them out meow, or they're going to kill everyone in this town. We need to leave meow, right meow.... tonight at the very latest."

ericgrau
2010-04-02, 03:38 PM
If you can do it without hurting yourself I imagine that a half-orc barbarian would always have a bit of growl in their voice. I imagine a character like that would always be a little ticked off. You don't have to try to sound like anyone else, just try to sound a little deeper or more angry. That's just a suggestion though.

Like a klingon? Worf?

I think that's really where they got the Star Trek Original Series races. Humans are humans, vulcans are elves, romulans are drow and klingons are orcs.

gallagher
2010-04-02, 05:43 PM
ever watch full metal jacket?

have him sound like the drill sgt.

not unintelligent, but very violent, very forceful, and very mean

Starbuck_II
2010-04-02, 05:45 PM
Communicate entirely in meows.

Nah, go Smurf them. Say Smurf in place of some words.

Scarey Nerd
2010-04-08, 09:31 AM
OK guys, thank you so much for the feedback, its helped out my character development no end, all I have left to decide on is an accent. Within our group, its more or less decided that Dwarves are Scottish and Gnomes are Irish, but apart from that we have no clue.

Thoughts?

Starbuck_II
2010-04-08, 09:33 AM
1/2 Orcs:
Yiddish?
Russian?
British?

Zach J.
2010-04-08, 09:33 AM
Like a klingon? Worf?

I think that's really where they got the Star Trek Original Series races. Humans are humans, vulcans are elves, romulans are drow and klingons are orcs.

Exactly. :smallwink:

Subotei
2010-04-08, 09:37 AM
You've gotta go Geordie - they're all desended from Vikings so the accent fits barbarian...

Nidogg
2010-04-08, 10:04 AM
Have him speak All snooty. Go for the orc "Im superior cos of my giant muscles" combined with the human " cos Im superior you have to do my bidding, fnah fnah."

Amphetryon
2010-04-08, 10:25 AM
Have him speak like Admiral Ackbar. After all, he's a Half-Orc, one of the known traps in 3.5.

http://upsidedownhippo.com/archives/ackbarmotivationalsm.jpg

Edit: Nitpicks on the basso profundo voice suggestions based on being a big muscular dude; I'm 5'7" and have one of the deeper voices I've encountered or heard on movies/tv. Mike Tyson is a big, muscular dude, and nobody says he has an especially deep voice.

Theodoxus
2010-04-08, 10:50 AM
If you can, speak with your lower jaw jutted forward - for me at least, it creates an almost british accent, plus it causes me to speak slower - fairly decent representation of the lower jaw of orcs.

The only drawback is it hurts after a short while. But, if you try it and like it, you can probably simulate the same thing without the jaw wrenching.

Beowulf DW
2010-04-08, 11:02 AM
If you can pull it off, I'd recommend going with a slight rumble in the voice rather than a growl. I've grown up around tall, muscular men, and I don't really hear much of a growl in their voices. It's more like a low resonance that you can feel and hear at the same time.

Additionally, proper grammar isn't a sign of intelligence, merely education. I've known plenty of very smart people who never quite got the hang of writing and speaking like an academic.

Sillycomic
2010-04-08, 05:27 PM
I would say tail it after Kelsey Grammar when he played Beast in X-3. It was deep and low, but also very smart. Something of slower speech do to the large teeth in his mouth.

Perhaps Hellboy as well? They both have low and somewhat gravelly voices. And they could both pass for... colorful... half orcs.

As far as accents go, a nice cockney would be brilliant for a half orc. Something like Michael Caine in the Batman movies, or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Lots of cockney in there.

Or irish? That dirty gutteral irish is a wonderful accent. Brad Pitt did a really wild one in Snatch, but perhaps you could tone it down a bit. Colin Farell has a good irish... even if most of his movies he's using an american accent.

In Brughess I think he uses his regular voice.

Kosjsjach
2010-04-08, 05:44 PM
You're a half-orc with 12 Int. You're officially smarter than the average human, yet anyone who meets you will automatically assume you fit the 6-int half-orc barbarian stereotype. You could play that to your advantage. Pretend to be the stupid brawler, then at their most socially vulnerable, cease your act and speak knowingly and scathingly.

You're smart, but you're assumed to be stupid. Play for it.

Scarey Nerd
2010-04-09, 09:08 AM
Guys, I want to thank you all, this is helping Graek become a PC, not just an NPC that a player controls, if you get what I mean :)

I was surfing google, and randomly typed in "Half-Orc Bounty Hunter" to google images, not expecting anything to come up, but lo and behold, a picture that matched all my hopes and desires for Graek appeared:

http://www.enworld.org/Pozas/Pictures/Oddballs/horc_ranger.jpg

I'm building on this picture, using it as a reference point, and am now weighing up whether it should be a russian accent, a gruff irish accent, or a deep american drawl. I'm leaning away from Irish, but its still in the picture.

AbyssKnight
2010-04-09, 09:21 AM
One of my best friends played a Half Orc Fighter/Wizard with a pretty high Int.

He still spoke in the traditional non-grammer of half orcs. His reason for doing so was simple. IC, he would have learned to speak from people with low Int. So he would learn to speak like they did. His Int let him understand much more complex ideas though, so a time went on he developed better speaking skills through exposure to other races.

So, that's another idea to remember. If you developed around other half orcs/orcs you could be emotionally and socially stunted for that cultural socialization, at least initially. Your high Int can be reflected in learning and adapting to other cultures overtime. This can be a great character building experience.

My favorite part of the character was he named his Great Axe "Present," and when NPC's made him angry he would threaten (though the NPC's did not understand it as a threat), "You want me give you Present?" (unspoken, give you Present to the face)

paddyfool
2010-04-09, 09:35 AM
The following two webcomics contain a thinking barbarian (http://guildedage.net/) and a half-orc barbarian (http://www.weregeek.com/) respectively. Granted, neither of these seems that similar to your character otherwise, and the latter is played for laughs, but you might find them interesting.

Tiki Snakes
2010-04-09, 09:44 AM
I like the idea of a Drawling texan / Cajun / Something accented half-orc bounty-hunter.

It amuses me. :smallsmile:

BadJuJu
2010-04-09, 11:12 AM
Man this makes me want to play a smart barbarian and lead my whole party on. A soft-spoken and quiet individual who thinks before he acts and rarely say anything who the party thinks is quite unintelligent and doesn't understand society, but the truth is the reason he's a barbarian is because he does understand society; specifically, he understands how crappy it is.

I've done it. It's very hard to be a Barbarian and talk your self out of raging. Was a pretty fun character who always tried to use logic, then had to say f*** this and raged.

Optimystik
2010-04-09, 11:18 AM
Was a pretty fun character who always tried to use logic, then had to say f*** is and raged.

It's not hard - Go to Escapist forums and argue politics, you will go through that process every time.

BadJuJu
2010-04-09, 11:55 AM
It's not hard - Go to Escapist forums and argue politics, you will go through that process every time.

I don't go to any pollitical forums. The idiots come out of the wood work and from all sides and it makes me sad that so many people in the world think the way they do and are so ignorant/stubbornly and cling to those beliefs come hell or high water.