Post/Author/DateTime	Post
evilgenius 12-20-06, 09:04 PM	Hey all. I'm a DM, but another player will be taking over our game in the new year, and I've got to make up a player-character. I've settled on a character concept, but I need to figure out how to make him in terms of a build... I can build a pretty monster optimized character, but I want to stay as true as possible to the character's history and concept. I want to make a half-orc emancipator. Think Malcolm X, Nat Turner or David Ben-Gurion of the Half-Orcs. Stats are undetermined at this point (they won't be rolled for a few more weeks yet) so I unfortunately can't provide any elaboration there. The character's history: He was raised in an orcish tribe until he was around 10 or so. However, he was the rare son of two half-orcs himself, not the spawn of two different races. He saw how his parents were considered "weaklings" by the tribe, and that they were not treated well. As with many lives in an orcish tribe, his father's life ended violently, at the hands of a stronger (and stupider) orc. His mother, and he, became this orc's property - but they fled to a human city after that. There, his mother couldn't adapt to life in a human city; she wasn't strong enough for typical "half-orc work" (back-breaking labour) and was ultimately too ugly and unsophisticated to get any work as a servant. They survived by scrounging, and she eventually fell to disease. So, our half-orc (now in his early teens) decided that his kind could not live with humans, or orcs. They were between two worlds... They needed their own society, not a tribe and not a nation/city. He decided that they needed a society of all halfbreeds, who would create their own bloodline, and breed true within themselves. So, the character is here at this point; a first level something. His ambition is to be a vocal advocate for half-orcs, lead them away from orcish tribes and human cities, and eventually establish their own nation somewhere. I figure that he could be a number of class combos, but I'm having a tough time deciding. Ranger stands out... He grew up outdoors (with the orc tribe) and observed them for years, seeing how they fight and how they interact... Resulting in his first favoured enemy being orcs of course. Rogue is of course a solid choice... With an adolescence on the city streets, it would help, and he also needs the social skills to have any chance of succeeding in his long-term goal. The problem with these two is the multiclassing XP penalty (no barbarian levels since he never achieved "orchood" in the tribe). Bard seems a natural choice for a leader type character, but I can't rationalize it with the character's history. Are there any half-orcish PrCs that spring to mind? I know that trying to make an half-orcish leader will be a real challege in terms of attribute penalties and so forth, any advice to help out this character would be appreciated. Oh, and any name suggestions would be kewl too! Many thanks!
JulesCARV 12-20-06, 10:29 PM	One thing is that you could be a scout, which is sorta like a mix of rogue and ranger. Another idea, of course, would be to level up equally between rogue and ranger (neither are classes too weakened by multiclassing with each other) so that experience penalties don't apply. I don't have Races of Destiny, but if you do, it sounds like he'd make a good Outcast Champion, a half-elf/half-orc/half-ogre prestige class. It requires either 8 diplomacy or 8 intimidate, though, so you'll need levels of rogue to get in before level 13, barring blowing a feat on skill knowledge, since neither scouts nor rangers have either diplomacy or intimidate. Since I don't honestly know much about the Outcast Champion class, besides the fact that it seems to fit your character, I can't tell you how good it is mechanically.
Apupunchau 12-21-06, 09:14 AM	Bards don't all have to be musicians or singers. One of the many performance types is Oration. If you see your Orc as a "vocal advocate" then a bard is perfect using Oration for speech giving. It will allow you to buy ranks in all the social skills you'll need particularly Diplomacy. And then yes I agree with Jules go outcast champion not because it'll make a monster optimized class combo but because it seems like the natural progression of the character.
evilgenius 12-21-06, 11:58 PM	Excellent suggestion on the Outcast Champion; it's just the ticket!!! I think the build will end up Ranger / Rogue / outcast champ. Not optimized in the least (he'll have to take Iron Will just to mitigate his horrible Will save), but it is a solid addition to the concept. An Orator bard level or two may do the trick in terms of the character's concept, but he wouldn't have had any chances in his backstory to become a professional orator. Final build? Perhaps something like Ranger 6, Rogue 5, Outcast Champ 5, with his later class levels to be determined through the character's development within the game... Thanks all!
Boshi 12-22-06, 08:29 AM	I made a similar character Fighter 2/Half-Orc Paragon 3/Outcast Champion X Was a very fun character. Insanely high strength and high intimidate modifier (half-orc paragon ability and skill focus: intimidate) and with Improved Sunder and Combat brute he could snap enemy weapons like twigs and then yell at them until they surrendered. His moment of glory was in a war adventure in which while the party was thinking about how to butcher the orc army he infiltrated the orc army RPed/intimidated/fought his way into a position of power and got a chunk of the orc army to run away in the midst of battle to save them from getting slaughtered by the rest of the PCs :) Oh and outcast champion is a really fun build. But you've got to use half-orc paragon, that would just fit beautifully with your concept. Maybe take that instead of ranger.