Fleshing out Orcs... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Fleshing out Orcs... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Ryltar Thamior
10-31-06, 07:46 PM The Orcs given in the core books are pretty .. um .. cardboard if I may say so. Sure, they've got a god, and a few other notes, but yeah. You know hwat I mean...

So, fleshing out generic orcs..

Let it begin.
Ics
10-31-06, 08:25 PM How you 'flesh out' a race really depends on how you want them to be in a given setting. The standard orc fits the big ugly brute niche well, but if you want more, you'll probably have to change the flavor of the race itself.

to expand on the theme above, orcs seem like a spartan, survivalist race. Maybe racial bonuses on Fortitude saves or survival checks. If you want to expand on their bestial/primitive nature, maybe you could give them a claw or bite attack (this would probably boost them up to a LA +1 race though). If you want to play up a martial theme, perhaps some sort of weapon familiarity or racial bonus on attack rolls against certain races (again, prolly at the cost of LA +1). If you want to give them a good ability while maintaining a LA +0, you might make their ability score bonuses/penalties a bit more moderate.

Another way to make orcs a bit more flavorful would be to create a few racial feats to give them a bit more character.
robertliguori
10-31-06, 08:30 PM In my campaign world:

Orcs reach maturity really early; eight-year-olds are capable of using martial weapons, and ten-year-olds are full-grown adults. Orcs also have higher-than-average incidents of twins and triplets.

These two facts give orcs an enormous population growth rate. This, combined with the fact that orcs don't have the cultural propensity to farm, means that every 20 or 25 years, the population of orcish lands has swollen to the point where orcs need to gather a great deal of outside resources and kill off a great number of their own. This means an orcish horde, pouring over the outsiders.

Orcish language, while derided as primitive and barbaric, is actually surprisingly elegant at discussing medicine. As they frequently lack even the most rudimentary clerical healing, orcs often are forced to resort to other methods. This repeated exposure to a multitude of bodies with various degrees of injury has evolved the orcish language to the point where a three-word taunt may well express "I am going to inflict spiral fractures on both of your femurs" or "I am going to crush your seventh vertebra with my bare hands"; those uneducated in the nuance of orcish language will simply interpret these as generalized threats of physical injury. For this reason, many battlefield surgeons get in the habit of learning certain words and phrases in Orcish, as they can quickly express certain concepts that have no analogue in common.

Conventional orcish military tactics call for sending all of your troops charging at the main body of the opposing force. If the opposing force can hold disclipline and maintain tight formations and is of sufficent numbers and training, then they may weather the storm. More likely, lines break in enough places for the orcs to swarm into the main body of troops. As such, many commanders prefer to harry orcish hordes with archers and calvary before leading them into a charge against a massed formation of pikemen.

Orcs are very much creatures of the moment. It is very difficult to maintain any form of disclipline on a group of orcs; even the infliction of severe pain or physical injury fails to make any lasting impression unless it is frequently repeated. An orc being tortured will scream, wail, moan, and beg with absolutely no shame, but in less time than it takes for the branding iron to cool, the orc will have most likely forgotten all about whatever prompted the torture in the first place.

Orcs are, for a certain value of the word, egalitarian. They will cower before those stronger than them and bully those weaker, but don't particularly care overmuch who the stronger and the weaker ones are. Orcish females have been known to cast off their ordinary place in orcish society as slaves and trophies and become feared warriors themselves; such war leaders are exceptionally feared by competing war bands. This is because all of the other male war leaders will try twice as hard to capture this exceptional female for their own personal harems; any orc who can survive such continual assault is by definition a force to be reckoned with. Of course, this simply makes this female all the more of an attractive slave.

Orcs will fight at the behest of anyone stronger than they, as long as this force can maintain either hold over the war leaders and horde leaders or can personally intimidate or inspire the common orcs. This is considerably more difficult than it appears; an orcish horde that is not continually looting and pillaging may well decide to attack their own command structure, completely heedless that the last three times this was tried, all of the offending orcs were slain. However, a war leader with strong physical presence (such as a giant or demon) that can keep the orcs sated with loot and conquest will have relatively few attempted coup attempts.

Due to the hoarding of females by the higher-ranking orcs, incidental dominance-based homosexuality is very high among the orcish troops. This is also another reason why many troops fear capture more than death at the hands of invading orcs.

A recurring facet of orcish psychology is that something that has been destroyed is a testament to the destoryer. Cleft and shattered skulls are popular trophies for this reason, as are the remnants of famous or recognizable weapons or armor. Orcish armies inflict massive carnage and property destruction, simply to show that they can. Some orcs also show strength through less tangible but just-as-real destruction. For orcish leaders, breaking the faith of a captured cleric or the will of a newly-caught slave in front of their tribe is an excellent way of asserting their dominance without having to slay more of their warriors.
CroBob
11-01-06, 12:46 AM Another option is to make them a former slave-race. After a mighty rebellion, only the strongest survived, and the conditions of their original survitude wasn't quite conducive to a good or lawful alignment, meaning the biggest, most unpredictable guys are the bosses... because they say so, what are you gonna do about it? They hadn't garnered any civilisation or technological advancement from their servitude, and found their best method of survival after finding their freedom to be taking what they don't have from others.
Ryltar Thamior
11-01-06, 10:09 PM Wow! Now THAT is fleshing something out! That really is brilliant! Especially that Medical useage for Orcish!

And the slave race idea is also a good bit.

I"m not quite into modding races, and I meant fleshing out the b0g-standard MM orc, which you gentlemen have done an admirable job of! ANy other ideas, anyone?
CroBob
11-01-06, 11:55 PM They could be the youngest of the major humanoid races, being newly created by the gods... any recent time you're comfortable with, really. So, they didn't really have any land to call their own, and are conquering any land they can get. The gods who created them may be new, themselves, and fighting, through his minions and indirectly, the other gods. Perhaps that would breed a superiority complex within orcish society. They are the newest, the best, this time the gods got it right, and deserve the lands to themselves, the other races being rightly taken as slaves when the orcs feel like being nice (and need stuff built). It would even give good reason for little infighting among the orcs. It would still probably happen, but less, being that orcs would view themselves and other orcs as being the chosen of the gods, the perfect humanoid being, and infighting might offend the gods that blessed them thusly. Too, this would create a highly spiritual/theistic race, most orcish leaders would probably be clerics to their creator god.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Ryltar Thamior 10-31-06, 07:46 PM	The Orcs given in the core books are pretty .. um .. cardboard if I may say so. Sure, they've got a god, and a few other notes, but yeah. You know hwat I mean... So, fleshing out generic orcs.. Let it begin.
Ics 10-31-06, 08:25 PM	How you 'flesh out' a race really depends on how you want them to be in a given setting. The standard orc fits the big ugly brute niche well, but if you want more, you'll probably have to change the flavor of the race itself. to expand on the theme above, orcs seem like a spartan, survivalist race. Maybe racial bonuses on Fortitude saves or survival checks. If you want to expand on their bestial/primitive nature, maybe you could give them a claw or bite attack (this would probably boost them up to a LA +1 race though). If you want to play up a martial theme, perhaps some sort of weapon familiarity or racial bonus on attack rolls against certain races (again, prolly at the cost of LA +1). If you want to give them a good ability while maintaining a LA +0, you might make their ability score bonuses/penalties a bit more moderate. Another way to make orcs a bit more flavorful would be to create a few racial feats to give them a bit more character.
robertliguori 10-31-06, 08:30 PM	In my campaign world: Orcs reach maturity really early; eight-year-olds are capable of using martial weapons, and ten-year-olds are full-grown adults. Orcs also have higher-than-average incidents of twins and triplets. These two facts give orcs an enormous population growth rate. This, combined with the fact that orcs don't have the cultural propensity to farm, means that every 20 or 25 years, the population of orcish lands has swollen to the point where orcs need to gather a great deal of outside resources and kill off a great number of their own. This means an orcish horde, pouring over the outsiders. Orcish language, while derided as primitive and barbaric, is actually surprisingly elegant at discussing medicine. As they frequently lack even the most rudimentary clerical healing, orcs often are forced to resort to other methods. This repeated exposure to a multitude of bodies with various degrees of injury has evolved the orcish language to the point where a three-word taunt may well express "I am going to inflict spiral fractures on both of your femurs" or "I am going to crush your seventh vertebra with my bare hands"; those uneducated in the nuance of orcish language will simply interpret these as generalized threats of physical injury. For this reason, many battlefield surgeons get in the habit of learning certain words and phrases in Orcish, as they can quickly express certain concepts that have no analogue in common. Conventional orcish military tactics call for sending all of your troops charging at the main body of the opposing force. If the opposing force can hold disclipline and maintain tight formations and is of sufficent numbers and training, then they may weather the storm. More likely, lines break in enough places for the orcs to swarm into the main body of troops. As such, many commanders prefer to harry orcish hordes with archers and calvary before leading them into a charge against a massed formation of pikemen. Orcs are very much creatures of the moment. It is very difficult to maintain any form of disclipline on a group of orcs; even the infliction of severe pain or physical injury fails to make any lasting impression unless it is frequently repeated. An orc being tortured will scream, wail, moan, and beg with absolutely no shame, but in less time than it takes for the branding iron to cool, the orc will have most likely forgotten all about whatever prompted the torture in the first place. Orcs are, for a certain value of the word, egalitarian. They will cower before those stronger than them and bully those weaker, but don't particularly care overmuch who the stronger and the weaker ones are. Orcish females have been known to cast off their ordinary place in orcish society as slaves and trophies and become feared warriors themselves; such war leaders are exceptionally feared by competing war bands. This is because all of the other male war leaders will try twice as hard to capture this exceptional female for their own personal harems; any orc who can survive such continual assault is by definition a force to be reckoned with. Of course, this simply makes this female all the more of an attractive slave. Orcs will fight at the behest of anyone stronger than they, as long as this force can maintain either hold over the war leaders and horde leaders or can personally intimidate or inspire the common orcs. This is considerably more difficult than it appears; an orcish horde that is not continually looting and pillaging may well decide to attack their own command structure, completely heedless that the last three times this was tried, all of the offending orcs were slain. However, a war leader with strong physical presence (such as a giant or demon) that can keep the orcs sated with loot and conquest will have relatively few attempted coup attempts. Due to the hoarding of females by the higher-ranking orcs, incidental dominance-based homosexuality is very high among the orcish troops. This is also another reason why many troops fear capture more than death at the hands of invading orcs. A recurring facet of orcish psychology is that something that has been destroyed is a testament to the destoryer. Cleft and shattered skulls are popular trophies for this reason, as are the remnants of famous or recognizable weapons or armor. Orcish armies inflict massive carnage and property destruction, simply to show that they can. Some orcs also show strength through less tangible but just-as-real destruction. For orcish leaders, breaking the faith of a captured cleric or the will of a newly-caught slave in front of their tribe is an excellent way of asserting their dominance without having to slay more of their warriors.
CroBob 11-01-06, 12:46 AM	Another option is to make them a former slave-race. After a mighty rebellion, only the strongest survived, and the conditions of their original survitude wasn't quite conducive to a good or lawful alignment, meaning the biggest, most unpredictable guys are the bosses... because they say so, what are you gonna do about it? They hadn't garnered any civilisation or technological advancement from their servitude, and found their best method of survival after finding their freedom to be taking what they don't have from others.
Ryltar Thamior 11-01-06, 10:09 PM	Wow! Now THAT is fleshing something out! That really is brilliant! Especially that Medical useage for Orcish! And the slave race idea is also a good bit. I"m not quite into modding races, and I meant fleshing out the b0g-standard MM orc, which you gentlemen have done an admirable job of! ANy other ideas, anyone?
CroBob 11-01-06, 11:55 PM	They could be the youngest of the major humanoid races, being newly created by the gods... any recent time you're comfortable with, really. So, they didn't really have any land to call their own, and are conquering any land they can get. The gods who created them may be new, themselves, and fighting, through his minions and indirectly, the other gods. Perhaps that would breed a superiority complex within orcish society. They are the newest, the best, this time the gods got it right, and deserve the lands to themselves, the other races being rightly taken as slaves when the orcs feel like being nice (and need stuff built). It would even give good reason for little infighting among the orcs. It would still probably happen, but less, being that orcs would view themselves and other orcs as being the chosen of the gods, the perfect humanoid being, and infighting might offend the gods that blessed them thusly. Too, this would create a highly spiritual/theistic race, most orcish leaders would probably be clerics to their creator god.