Half-Orc Scholar NPC

[nakedonmyfoldin]

In an effort to buck stereotypes, I’m trying to integrate a half-orc scholar into my setting.

He’s an archaeologist who’s studied himself out of poverty and into a reputable university. As such he’s a bit conservative, he doesn’t want to risk everything he’s worked for. Of course, he’ll assumed a more traditional human name to fit in a bit more.

I was hoping the playground would have some more ideas on how to portray this guy: quirks, traits, etc.

Thanks in advance!

[firelistener]

Sounds good to me so far. If he's an academic, he should be pretty skilled in whatever the relevant field is, but also pretty well-rounded and advanced in just about anything academic unless your setting has more advanced education standards. If you're going for the typical pseudo-medieval setting, he should still be comparatively more knowledgeable than most people in mathematics, natural sciences, literature, philosophy, and engineering. Up until very recently in IRL human history, it was pretty common for any serious academic to have studied things like Calculus even if they were focused in a completely unrelated field while most other "educated" people had only the skills to read, write, and perform basic arithmetic. Thus the difference between career academic and simply someone who might be wealthy enough to have their children undergo an education, like a land-owning noble or successful business owner.

I'll encourage you to try and keep him more orcish than human though, since you want to "buck stereotypes". The stereotype is that half-orcs struggle with Intelligence and Intelligence-related skills because of their orcish ancestry. If you want to subvert that, show that he can be very orcish and still have high intelligence. Here's a few ideas off the cuff I think could accomplish this:

He's a professor of archaeology and religion that specializes in orcish and half-orcish people groups and cultures. Give him proficiency in Religion, History, and very informative when it comes to orcs and their gods, such as Gruumsh. Perhaps you can even make him a worshiper of Gruumsh that gives some more well-reasoned arguments for his faith, such as having collected a lot of archaeology indicating Elvish regimes of cruelty and aggression against orcs (whether he's right or wrong can be mostly irrelevant, but he'd probably stand out in the players memories).
He researches combat and sports medicine, and won a prize for his thesis combining traditionally orcish remedies, discovered as part of his archaeology, with scientific approaches that result in very cutting-edge healing techniques for battlefield injuries. He can teach the players or provide them with some prototype healing poultices that both heal and provide a few rounds of damage resistance. Has proficiency in Medicine and Nature.
He's renowned for his advances within the field of chemistry (or alchemy if you prefer) for his fearless approach to testing his own dangerous substances on himself. His tough hide and Relentless Endurance (the actual feat) have allowed him to withstand toxins, harsh acids, and explosives when his advanced experiments went awry. He has a reputation others for being "too dangerous for anyone but other half-orcs to do research with, regardless of how much everyone wants in his lab." He could have access to some powerful and rare combat items like grenades and poisons.
He's the premier academic specializing in cryptography and has proven invaluable to numerous war efforts against orc raids and wizard-controlled orc armies by decoding ciphers to reveal battle plans and military orders. He credits this to being a native speaker of orcish and his knowledge of orcish customs that are necessary for discovering the ciphers, algorithms, and pass-phrases more common in orcish cultures. This could let you give the players some encoded messages relevant to other quests that they need to pay him to translate and decode.

[Finback]

He's renowned for his advances within the field of chemistry (or alchemy if you prefer) for his fearless approach to testing his own dangerous substances on himself. His tough hide and Relentless Endurance (the actual feat) have allowed him to withstand toxins, harsh acids, and explosives when his advanced experiments went awry. He has a reputation others for being "too dangerous for anyone but other half-orcs to do research with, regardless of how much everyone wants in his lab." He could have access to some powerful and rare combat items like grenades and poisons.


And all I can think of from that are the Izzet engineers from the Ravnica sourcebook - they are VERY much "SCIENCE!" with explosives, chemicals and crazy weaponry like portable lightning cannons with large tanks strapped to your back containing live lightning elementals.

[nakedonmyfoldin]

Sounds good to me so far. If he's an academic, he should be pretty skilled in whatever the relevant field is, but also pretty well-rounded and advanced in just about anything academic unless your setting has more advanced education standards. If you're going for the typical pseudo-medieval setting, he should still be comparatively more knowledgeable than most people in mathematics, natural sciences, literature, philosophy, and engineering. Up until very recently in IRL human history, it was pretty common for any serious academic to have studied things like Calculus even if they were focused in a completely unrelated field while most other "educated" people had only the skills to read, write, and perform basic arithmetic. Thus the difference between career academic and simply someone who might be wealthy enough to have their children undergo an education, like a land-owning noble or successful business owner.

I'll encourage you to try and keep him more orcish than human though, since you want to "buck stereotypes". The stereotype is that half-orcs struggle with Intelligence and Intelligence-related skills because of their orcish ancestry. If you want to subvert that, show that he can be very orcish and still have high intelligence. Here's a few ideas off the cuff I think could accomplish this:

He's a professor of archaeology and religion that specializes in orcish and half-orcish people groups and cultures. Give him proficiency in Religion, History, and very informative when it comes to orcs and their gods, such as Gruumsh. Perhaps you can even make him a worshiper of Gruumsh that gives some more well-reasoned arguments for his faith, such as having collected a lot of archaeology indicating Elvish regimes of cruelty and aggression against orcs (whether he's right or wrong can be mostly irrelevant, but he'd probably stand out in the players memories).
He researches combat and sports medicine, and won a prize for his thesis combining traditionally orcish remedies, discovered as part of his archaeology, with scientific approaches that result in very cutting-edge healing techniques for battlefield injuries. He can teach the players or provide them with some prototype healing poultices that both heal and provide a few rounds of damage resistance. Has proficiency in Medicine and Nature.
He's renowned for his advances within the field of chemistry (or alchemy if you prefer) for his fearless approach to testing his own dangerous substances on himself. His tough hide and Relentless Endurance (the actual feat) have allowed him to withstand toxins, harsh acids, and explosives when his advanced experiments went awry. He has a reputation others for being "too dangerous for anyone but other half-orcs to do research with, regardless of how much everyone wants in his lab." He could have access to some powerful and rare combat items like grenades and poisons.
He's the premier academic specializing in cryptography and has proven invaluable to numerous war efforts against orc raids and wizard-controlled orc armies by decoding ciphers to reveal battle plans and military orders. He credits this to being a native speaker of orcish and his knowledge of orcish customs that are necessary for discovering the ciphers, algorithms, and pass-phrases more common in orcish cultures. This could let you give the players some encoded messages relevant to other quests that they need to pay him to translate and decode.


Holy cow, I’m glad I consulted you before pigeonholing him as an archaeologist. These suggestions are dope and the cryptography thing fits seamlessly into my setting. Thank you

[malachi]

*He's the premier academic specializing in cryptography and has proven invaluable to numerous war efforts against orc raids and wizard-controlled orc armies by decoding ciphers to reveal battle plans and military orders. He credits this to being a native speaker of orcish and his knowledge of orcish customs that are necessary for discovering the ciphers, algorithms, and pass-phrases more common in orcish cultures. This could let you give the players some encoded messages relevant to other quests that they need to pay him to translate and decode.



Holy cow, I’m glad I consulted you before pigeonholing him as an archaeologist. These suggestions are dope and the cryptography thing fits seamlessly into my setting. Thank you

If you go this route where he's using his heritage to side against his people (regardless of whether orcs are acting of their own accord or are being manipulated / enslaved / paid to take part in the raids or war), I'd suggest having him highly conflicted about his work, but only show that side of himself to people he trusts. On the one hand, he considers himself a part of his new culture (despite being smart enough to know that he's really only accepted because of what he brings to the table) and works tirelessly to prove that he is "one of the good ones". On the other hand, he feels guilt for being instrumental in the deaths of his people (even if it's for the greater good, or even to free his people), and he hates that he is seen as the exception that proves the rule of orcish brutality rather than as an example of what orcs could rise to if they were treated like equals.

I'm not certain how much detail I could get into on this forum, but you could listen to this podcast episode (http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/26-the-hug-heard-round-the-world) for some more ideas.

[nakedonmyfoldin]

I’m curious what kind of quirks an orcish scholar might exhibit. He’s trying to fit in the university, but I feel like something from his ancestry may rear it’s head occasionally.

Like he’s very reserved and speaks as properly as he’s able most of the time, but even a slight inconvenience and he bellows out, cussing, and spitting.

[denthor]

Quirky behavior.

In real life had to do with eating.

It could be over eating,
showing you manhood with spicy foods,
eating only certain food locusts, honey.
No adult beverages ever.

A 1/2 Orc who is a vegetarian would surely raise eyebrows.

He could constantly be leaving out large gaps of information.
Or
Talk so much no one listens.

Only like written word as this is the best way to organize.

He is constantly fiddling with hair we have all seen girls that have long hair chew on it.

Quirky behavior is closely associated with phobias and superstition.

[malachi]

Constantly smiling and being extra-gracious if anyone thinks they might have offended him (even if they did offend him).
Constantly slouching to minimize his size / strength, to the point that it's actually difficult for him to stand up straight anymore - except for when he starts engaging in a specific aspect from his home culture that he particularly enjoys (such as a sport, dance, or song), at which point he stands up to his full height (subconsciously) and gets extremely physically active.
He won't drink alcohol, because he knows that if he ever loses control, he'll be seen as an uncivilized barbarian.

He's trying to fit in in a place that doesn't respect him, and probably actually fear him, so he has to look as non-threatening as possible.


Any time he comes to a doorway he pauses because he has to consciously decide if he has to turn sideways to fit his shoulders through the door or not. (As a 6'1" tall guy, I sometimes have to duck doors in older buildings and things. Half-orcs are about 52 lbs heavier while only being about 2" taller than humans on average, according to pg. 121 in the PHB, which probably comes across in broader shoulders and the like)