Playing an Orcish character

[hobo386]

I've traditionally played 3rd edition, and I'm trying to switch to 4th.

I hate the race selection though? Dragonborn? No thanks. Magical Elves? Why the hell do I want elves? What I really want to play is an Orc. Tough, ugly, and savage yet noble.

How do I do this? What book do I use, and what stats do I get?

[Urpriest]

There are Orc stats in the first Monster Manual (and they might have gotten updated later?) and Half-Orcs in the Player's Handbook II (probably a better choice, since they have more feats keyed to them and feats are an important part of how races work in 4e). Note that you don't need to pay attention to which books things are in, since most 4e groups use the online character builder instead of books.

[Hyena]

Orcs are in Monster Manual. They have +2 to strength and constitution and warrior surge racial power.

[Adoendithas]

Just to clarify, in the back of the Monster Manuals are rules for converting certain monsters into PC races. Orcs are one of those in the MM1.

[Epinephrine]

As a note, there is basically no support for Orcs. Half-orc, yes.

I made a Gnoll the other day, they have some decent feats, not near what the common races have, but enough that you can get some extra flavour.

[BlckDv]

Above info is all correct;

Orc is a Monster playable as PC race from MM! which means it has thin support but in a flavour/story focused party can work fine. +2 Str/Con, +2 Dungeoneering/Intimidate, 1/Encounter attack that allows self healing, +2 speed on charge

Half-Orc is in PHB II and has fairly good mechanical support including racial feats, Paragon Paths, etc. +2 Str/Dex, +2 Endurance/Intimidate, 1/encounter add damage to an attack, gain some temp hp when bloodied, +2 speed on charge

Given what you expressed you wanted out of it, Minotaur from PHB III could also be a good choice (+2 Str/Con, +2Nature/Perception, 1/encounter charge attack that prones, ability to make a reactive attack when knocked out), and Gnoll has some support from Dragon magazines (+2 Con/Dex, +2 Intimidate/Religion, 1/encounter special charge attack, extra damage when bloody).

4e Race design is based on the idea of benefits from baseline, no race has any kind of stat penalty or level adjustment, other than Human all races get +2 to two stats, some kind of skill bonus, and usually a racial power.

[hobo386]

Thanks guys. Next question. Are there any BAD feats? In 3rd edition stuff like weapon/armor proficiency were pretty useless, but there doesn't seem to be many amazing feats or combos with lots of setup.

I found out my group will be mostly using essentials, as they started with the red box, and I'm leaning towards a warpriest (or maybe a Druid). Do I just follow along with what the book says, or is there something like Divine Metamagic that I'm gonna be missing out on?

[Epinephrine]

Thanks guys. Next question. Are there any BAD feats?
Yes, there will of course be feats that are in general suboptimal (say, a feat dominated by another feat), as well as feats that you qualify for that offer no benefit (getting a feat bonus when you already have a feat bonus), or for things that are of little value to your character.


In 3rd edition stuff like weapon/armor proficiency were pretty useless, but there doesn't seem to be many amazing feats or combos with lots of setup.
Weapon and armour proficiencies can be pretty good in 4e. There are quite a few "combo" type feats. e.g., If you use an axe, Headman's Chop lets you gain damage against prone foes, so a way to prone becomes a nice synergy.


I found out my group will be mostly using essentials, as they started with the red box, and I'm leaning towards a warpriest (or maybe a Druid). Do I just follow along with what the book says, or is there something like Divine Metamagic that I'm gonna be missing out on?
There's nothing particularly complex about essentials, you can pretty much just build your character.
Both classes you've listed are leaders (Sentinel druid, Warpriest), so your focus may not be damage (though there is nothing wrong with a leader being able to dish out a solid hit, too).

Typical feats that many people take are:

* An Expertise feat (a +1/+2/+3 bonus to attack rolls (by tier)), since often you don't get the effects if you miss with your powers.
* Superior Weapon, or Superior Implement feats (getting a better base weapon - bigger dice, more accurate, or with a benefit like High Crit)
* Armour feat. Not always, but many characters boost their AC by upgrading armour, or at paragon by getting a specialization (read: feat bonus to AC)
* Defense feat(s) - either Improved Defenses or boosts to individual defenses (e.g., Superior Will)
* Damage boosts, like weapon focus (moreso for strikers)
* Initiative boosts (nice for controllers, strikers, but it certainly never hurts to be able to act early - you can always delay if you want to be lower)
* A multiclass feat (allows you to pick up useful feats from other classes/power sources, or a different implement, or access to a paragon path that you would like)

[BlckDv]

As alluded to above, the most common "bad feats" in 4e are redundant feats, outdated feats, or only getting half a combo feats. Many feats are build dependent, but they should jump out at you, a fire mage shouldn't be taking a bonus to cold and acid damage...

If your party is mostly Essentials, strongly consider the appropriate Weapon Expertise feat once you know what type of weapon you want, they give a bonus to hit and some kind of weapon specific bonus, strictly better than the earlier generic Weapon Focus feat (back to that outdated feats bit).

Do remember that bonuses of the same type don't stack, so think ahead when deciding what feats to get for bonuses. I had a player take a feat granting a bonus to Init. and Healing Surges in Paragon, and then agonize over whether to retrain at Epic for a better Init bonus but loose the surge; if they had looked ahead and known the choice was coming they would have been happier.

Also consider your playstyle; I know some players who avoid situational bonus feats because they know they usually forget to claim the bonus when it comes up, others who love to have lots of fiddly bits and will take a mechanically less potent feat just to add a new line to their note card of When X then Y happens.