With an attack bonus of +18 to hit, i think that Taraks are similar to ogre's rather than Orc's, why not just play as a Tarek, as Tarek's dont have the same social stigma associated like orcs are in alot of mainstream media. just a thought..........
Very clearly that +18 vs AC attack is a typo. It's a level 3 creature. It's attack bonus should be +8 vs AC. They accidently added a '1' before the '8'.
Wow, I'm glad the +18 was brought up, I didn't notice that and I was planning on running Marauders of the Dune Sea, the encounter with Tareks who would only miss on a natural 1 could of resulted in a TPK!
I've got 3 players who are old school DS veterans so I'm not worried about them but two players have never played D&D let alone any other table top RPG before so I don't want their introduction to the game be a DM that says "NO!"
Looking at the back of MM1 the option for Orc PCs have +2STR & +2CON, since Minotaurs have the same stats and are official PC options in the PHB3 that can't be too game breaking. The DSCC mentions using Orcs as Tareks and just removing their bonus to charge and Furious Assault with Deathless Warrior.
So a character with +2str and +2con who has a 50/50 chance of staying up for another turn instead of falling unconscious, reasonable or OP? I'm not an experienced DM but I am aware that little things have the potential to turn a player into an unstoppable juggernaut which would really defeat the harsh feel of DS.
I've got 3 players who are old school DS veterans so I'm not worried about them but two players have never played D&D let alone any other table top RPG before so I don't want their introduction to the game be a DM that says "NO!"
Looking at the back of MM1 the option for Orc PCs have +2STR & +2CON, since Minotaurs have the same stats and are official PC options in the PHB3 that can't be too game breaking. The DSCC mentions using Orcs as Tareks and just removing their bonus to charge and Furious Assault with Deathless Warrior.
So a character with +2str and +2con who has a 50/50 chance of staying up for another turn instead of falling unconscious, reasonable or OP? I'm not an experienced DM but I am aware that little things have the potential to turn a player into an unstoppable juggernaut which would really defeat the harsh feel of DS.
Tareks are the orc-analogues for Dark Sun, they're medium sized, more balanced in the "size vs numbers" department. Just a high attack bonus (typo or not) isn't quite enough to shove them into ogre territory (although orcs have been shoved there, so...).
"Tareks are valued arena combatants, making them popular quarry for slavers. To create an additional variety of tarek, take an orc and replace its bonus to speed when charging and warrior's surge with deathless warrior."
So:
Flip it backwards and you have an orc (or half orc). Deathless Warrior is not quite as usful as half orc racial but everthing else should match up pretty well.
the tareks are in 2 separate suppliments as +18 to hit. i think its just a brutal world lol
They had to have copy/pasted the monster straight from the CC. Or from the Marauders adventure to the CC. The point is they are really f'ing sloppy editors.
Hah I caught the +18 to hit typo too. The one that baffled me though in marauders, was the stat block for the human wasteland raiders in the tarek encounter. The description of the "barbed spear" attack makes no sense at all. They really screwed that one up.
One idea, though, is to create a feat that provides "Deathless Warrior" as an encounter power for the Half-Tarek write-up