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ThelaGinjeet
2020-08-12, 07:52 PM
I have recently rolled up a new character for an ongoing campaign I've been involved in and I was hoping to get some advice on how the pros here would approach a specific type of character.

I will be playing an Orc Chieftain whose tribe was destroyed after he refused to join an evil horde of hobgoblin slavers that were marching on the civilized nations to the south. After learning of the success of the PC Party in protecting the borders to the south against a recent invasion, he infiltrated their land, sought the party out, and offered his services as a warrior in exchange for their assistance in aiding him in getting revenge. I've decided that this character is ultimately going to want to free the Orc tribes that have been forced into servitude to the hobgoblin war machine and he wants to form a mighty horde as the first Orc nation (obviously inspired by King Obould).

That said, I'm struggling considering an approach on roleplaying this figure. My instinct is to play up the Orc tropes. He will only see the martial value in NPCs and other PCs and will use brutal tactics to further his agenda. He'll be loyal to the party so long as their general goals don't come to odds against his own. Needless to say, I'm considering Chaotic Evil as an alignment.

As of right now, I've rolled his stats as follows...

Str 18 (22 after racial bonuses)
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 8
Cha 7

My DM has presented the opinion that a would-be conqueror king needs to have a reasonably high Int, Wis, and Cha in order to lead a people. I suppose I'm looking for RP advice on how to play this concept with the stats listed above. He's said I can move the points around if need be, but I'm also playing with a Ranger/Fighter, Sorcerer, and Cleric and I need to perform as the primary meat shield/front line fighter. I'm not worried about the build, but I am somewhat at a loss on how to approach RPing this guy. The rest of the characters are of a Good alignment and I admittedly have never played an evil character. I've watched some videos and read some posts about playing evil and I realize it doesn't have to necessarily be antagonistic to the good PCs as the character will need the others to achieve his goal and does not want to have them stand in his way. Personality traits suggestions based on his goals and stats would be much appreciated.

Bartmanhomer
2020-08-12, 08:00 PM
I have recently rolled up a new character for an ongoing campaign I've been involved in and I was hoping to get some advice on how the pros here would approach a specific type of character.

I will be playing an Orc Chieftain whose tribe was destroyed after he refused to join an evil horde of hobgoblin slavers that were marching on the civilized nations to the south. After learning of the success of the PC Party in protecting the borders to the south against a recent invasion, he infiltrated their land, sought the party out, and offered his services as a warrior in exchange for their assistance in aiding him in getting revenge. I've decided that this character is ultimately going to want to free the Orc tribes that have been forced into servitude to the hobgoblin war machine and he wants to form a mighty horde as the first Orc nation (obviously inspired by King Obould).

That said, I'm struggling considering an approach to roleplaying this figure. My instinct is to play up the Orc tropes. He will only see the martial value in NPCs and other PCs and will use brutal tactics to further his agenda. He'll be loyal to the party so long as their general goals don't come to odds against his own. Needless to say, I'm considering Chaotic Evil as an alignment.

As of right now, I've rolled his stats as follows...

Str 18 (22 after racial bonuses)
Dex 12
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 8
Cha 7

My DM has presented the opinion that a would-be conqueror king needs to have a reasonably high Int, Wis, and Cha in order to lead a people. I suppose I'm looking for RP advice on how to play this concept with the stats listed above. He's said I can move the points around if need be, but I'm also playing with a Ranger/Fighter, Sorcerer, and Cleric and I need to perform as the primary meat shield/front line fighter. I'm not worried about the build, but I am somewhat at a loss on how to approach RPing this guy. The rest of the characters are of a Good alignment and I admittedly have never played an evil character. I've watched some videos and read some posts about playing evil and I realize it doesn't have to necessarily be antagonistic to the good PCs as the character will need the others to achieve his goal and does not want to have them stand in his way. Personality traits suggestions based on his goals and stats would be much appreciated.

Those stats aren't bad though. I think his traits and personality should be very mean, nasty, bigoted, narrowed-minded, and feral.

Gavinfoxx
2020-08-12, 08:06 PM
The thing is, you need a character that:

1.) Wants to adventure with the adventuring party
and
2.) Won't backstab the adventuring party

So you will need reasons for him to treat the fellow adventurers as blood-brothers.

Bartmanhomer
2020-08-12, 08:13 PM
Gavinfoxx is right. Playing an evil character is very difficult especially when joining the adventuring party is good-aligned.

ThelaGinjeet
2020-08-12, 08:29 PM
I’m in agreement. Full disclosure, I’ve already played a couple of sessions with this guy, but they’ve been such that I haven’t had a lot of time to develop him at the table. Initially, I was going to play him as being obsessed with killing Shargaas (Orc God of shadows and the undead) and the party cleric is a cleric of Lathander, so my guy needs the cleric of light to destroy the god of shadow, but when it got brought up the cleric was sort of shocked and a couple of NPCs kind of laughed it off. I spoke with the DM and killing a god isn’t in the scope of this campaign, but because we’re doing a lot of political stuff, having him aspire to free the orcs and unite the tribes may be.

If you can suggest any generic reasons an evil power hungry Orc might team up with the good guys I’d appreciate if.

Gavinfoxx
2020-08-12, 08:31 PM
Some kind of blood debt, due to them saving his life and the life of his family line, perhaps?

Bartmanhomer
2020-08-12, 08:38 PM
I’m in agreement. Full disclosure, I’ve already played a couple of sessions with this guy, but they’ve been such that I haven’t had a lot of time to develop him at the table. Initially, I was going to play him as being obsessed with killing Shargaas (Orc God of shadows and the undead) and the party cleric is a cleric of Lathander, so my guy needs the cleric of light to destroy the god of shadow, but when it got brought up the cleric was sort of shocked and a couple of NPCs kind of laughed it off. I spoke with the DM and killing a god isn’t in the scope of this campaign, but because we’re doing a lot of political stuff, having him aspire to free the orcs and unite the tribes may be.

If you can suggest any generic reasons an evil power-hungry Orc might team up with the good guys I’d appreciate it if.
Try to convince the good team that he changed his ways and wants to redeem himself.