Vision: low-light
Abilities: +2 Str +2 Wis
Skill bonuses: +2 Insight, +2 Intimidation
Tenacity: Select one extra feat at first level from any class, or human or orc. You must meet its other prereqs.
Dual Heritage: Can take feats that are either Orc or Human, as long as meet other reqs.
Group Cunning: You grant allies within 10 squares of you a +1 racial bonus to Insight.
Why Wisdom? The same reason the half-elf has Cha, to survive the 1/2 Orc has had to learn to be cunning. Where the 1/2 elf gets by on charm, the 1/2 orc gets by on being one step ahead.
Like the 1/2 elf of 4E, this 1/2 Orc is based on the idea of taking a little bit of the good of each ancestral line, along with the perks of coming from mixed heritage - namely being forced to survive in two very different worlds.
The half-elf mixes between communities through charm and grace and learning to master the social game. By contrast the half-orc mixes between communities by learning to stay one step ahead of other's motives and enmity and learning to put forth a strong front of bravado and bullish manners. Charm keeps the half-elf welcome, wits keep the half-orc alive.
At home in the back alleys of a great human city, or dark pits of an Orcish horde, or alone in the wilds, cast out from both, the half-orc is a survivor. Whether born from violence, a frontier truce, a romance doomed to tragedy, a slaver's breeding pit, or the descendant of a half-orc clan, this individual is a person born of two world, and at home with being welcome in neither.
PS: I have found memories of trying to pass a zombie off as a Dwelf in a basic game once. It's a long story, the less asked, the better.
Something to mull over.
As far as his past goes, his step-father has worked to teach him the ways of the elves and is respected enough in the village (he's the local lord!) that nobody gives the kid a hard time. How would you build this guy?
I -am- concerned that the bonus feat is more powerful than the half-elf's bonus power. The half-elf gets one other class's at-will as an encounter. I've given these half-orcs one feat. In my mind a power is more potent than a feat by far, but I fear I am wrong on that bit of intuition...
Something to mull over.
Well, I think that the feat is stealing the thunder from the human race. That is their "thing". Since most half-orcs usually keep to themselves or are always trying to prove their worth to either ancestry, perhaps an encounter power that deals with that could be a good idea. I'd make one right now but its late and I should get going to bed. Ill sleep on it and try to respond tomorrow.
Ancestral Blood - 1/2 Orc Racial Power
The fury of your orcish ancestors takes over your senses for a second.
Encounter
Immediate Reaction - Personal
Trigger: You take damage.
Effect:The next attack you make before the end of your next turn deals +1d6 additional damage. Increase the extra damage to +2d6 at 11th level and +3d6 at 21st level.
Special: If you are bloodied when you activate this power, add an additional +1d6.
As a design note: Im still unsure if having so many d6's fly around is a good idea. I'd have to see it in play vs the other powers.
I'm stealing your template to use in my game! BWAHAHAHAHA! (That is, if you don't mind...:D )
I like it. I think I'll use it. In the case of this character I'm trying to make, I think I'll make it something involuntary, however. The character can either try to supress it (this guy is trying desperately to distance himself from his orcish background) with some kind of Will save, or he can decide that "it's time to get mean green" and just let it go (voluntarily fail the save).
I'm stealing your template to use in my game! BWAHAHAHAHA! (That is, if you don't mind...:D )
Well since it is an immediate reaction, you can choose not to use the power which would be "containing" his inner rage. No need to make a save.
As a further note, I just wanted to say great job arcady, you pretty much covered all the bases of the 1/2 orc and kept its flavor. I'm actually going to use this in my 4th edition campaign when it starts. (still got a long way to go.)
But how would you handle trying not to go orcish on somebody but losing control? This particular character is trying to distance himself from his orcishness, but in certain circumstances "the orc within" howls too loudly and he flies into a blind rage. When he's done, I was thinking it would be a matter of having no idea who he hurt or how badly. It just takes over. The saving throw number would be fixed, so that as he advances in level he can learn to control it. I was thinking it would be a condition that he would have to save against in the bloodied condition, otherwise he could control it easily enough. Controlling it would mean that he attacks the target he was aiming for. Losing control of it sends him after whoever is closest, friend or foe, save ends. Maybe I should be thinking of two different effects here. One is the power as written, the other is a race feature, similar to the 3e barbarian's rage.
I still think you could rp it like I said before. But if you wanted to make it uncontrollable, I'd suppose an immediate save might be in order. Perhaps add half your level as a bonus on the save. But you also have to consider, orcs are reckless, but not entirely insane. I would think that an orc usually unleashes his fury upon those he fights and who harm him, not his allies unless he wants to make an example of them.
An uncontrollable power seems more in order for a "class" rather than a racial one. Perhaps a barbarian.
A blind rage would have to target random people when it happened which you'd have to add as another roll. That means each fight you'd most likely have to roll at least 2 extra rolls. Maybe more depending on how often you wanted to make a save not to lose control.
Since I am terrible at building races, how would you handle a cross elf/orc?
I've always assumed that was what a human was.
Elf - 1/2 E - Human - 1/2 O - Orc
Always seemed a natural pathway to me.
For me, that encounter power posted above is the right feel for a mixed heritage individual. I'm more keen on taking an inspiration from the same design philosophy of the 1/2 Elf. I might consider limiting the feat to a racial feat - take a second feat at first level that is either Orc, Human, or Half-Orc in design. The encounter power you posted could then be tweaked into something more like a feat.
---> Norg <---
I still think you could rp it like I said before. But if you wanted to make it uncontrollable, I'd suppose an immediate save might be in order. Perhaps add half your level as a bonus on the save. But you also have to consider, orcs are reckless, but not entirely insane. I would think that an orc usually unleashes his fury upon those he fights and who harm him, not his allies unless he wants to make an example of them.
An uncontrollable power seems more in order for a "class" rather than a racial one. Perhaps a barbarian.
A blind rage would have to target random people when it happened which you'd have to add as another roll. That means each fight you'd most likely have to roll at least 2 extra rolls. Maybe more depending on how often you wanted to make a save not to lose control.
You're right. I'll leave it as an RP thing. I got to thinking about it and I barely remember from my introduction to the game back in '81 how frustrating it could be to lose control of your character. Not game-ruining frustrating, but it was still like "Agh! No! Don't attack him! He's your best friend!" In one 2e case, the bard got his mandolin busted over his head by the cleric, who was under a spell effect. (The fighter and druid applauded.) This meant no help from the bard until the party could replace his mandolin.
arcady- Great build! Thanks, all. I'm going to use the suggestions on this thread to craft this character and see how he plays out.
As far as half-orcs being half-human, in the 1e MM, it says "As orcs will breed with anything, there are any number of mongrels with orcish blood, particularly orc-goblins, orc-hobgoblins, and orc-humans." (It goes on further to say that orcs cannot breed with elves and that half-orcs tend to favor the orcish strain, but as I said, the character is the result of unnatural influences in a campaign, which is why I felt free to toss those two particular details out.) This is why I've always assumed that "half-orc" meant that the other half could be just about anything, but are most commonly half-human.
Not that one of my players will mind terribly, he'll play a half orc just because it's a half orc and be damned to any min/maxing.
Half Orcs:
Not of one world or another they travel the lands trying to find their place in it.
RACIAL TRAITS
Average Height: 5’10” – 6’6”
Average Weight: 160-300 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Wisdom
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Low Light
Languages: Common, Giant
Skill Bonuses: +2 Intimidate, +2 Insight
Orcish Weapon Proficiency: You gain proficiency with the great axe and battleaxe.
View From The Outside: You grant allies within 10 squares +1 on Insight.
From Two Worlds: You gain an extra feat at first level selected from Human or any class as long as you meet the other requirements.
Dual Heritage: You select feats from human or orc.
Ancestral Blood Fury Half Orc Racial Power
“He’s getting killed!” “No! He’s getting mad!”
Encounter
Immediate Reaction Personal
Trigger: You take damage
Effect: Your next attack in this encounter deals an additional +1d6+Str damage. Increase the damage done to 2d6+Str at 11th level and +3d6+Str at 21st level.
Special: If you are Bloodied when you activate this power, add an additional +1d6.
Born of a pairing of human and orc, half-orcs are a strong race drawing from the strengths of both. The cunning and strength of body of their orcish blood mingles with the strength of will and compassion of their human side to form a whole greater than the parts.
Play a half-orc if you want…
to be in the front lines.
to lend your hard won wisdom and insight to a group
to be a member of a race that favors the fighter, warlord and ranger classes.
Physical Qualities
Half-orcs tend to be of bulkier build than their human ancestry although they range from an average sized human in build at the low end to a truly massive build indeed. Their features at best are going to be considered coarse for a human but aren’t nearly as unformed as those of their orcish blood at least among the males. They seldom if ever have facial hair although it’s not completely unknown for it to occur. Their skin color ranges from a medium brown to a dark brown with greenish tints. Most have larger than human norm canine teeth although some have been known to file those down to better pass among some societies. Half-orc woman tend to favor their human ancestors more than their orcish ones although they still fall on the bulkier side of the human norm.
Half-orcs typically dress in plain but serviceable clothing and many will have a personal pattern of tattooing or face paint that they wear although this is more normally found in those that grow up at the outmost edges of society.
Playing a Half-Orc
Half-orcs are more than just a thug or brute as they might appear at first glance. In reality half-orcs are quite introspective and insightful and on several an occasion has been a close advisor to nobility and more than once to royalty. Where their cousin the half-elf gets by on charm, diplomacy and grace, the half-orc gets by on their wits and confidence that they are in fact the biggest kid on the block. They tend toward a wisdom that comes hard won in their life on the fringes of society and have a wide breadth of insight and natural cunning and more than their fair share of uncommon sense.
They’re equally at home alone in the wilds of some long forgotten forest to the docks of some large city hauling cargo to the diplomatic chamber of a king down to living among the savage orcish tribes. They get by on knowing when to bluff, when to listen and when to give way without giving offense. And when to bare their teeth and go for the throat.
Half-orcs tend to be faithful friends and implacable enemies although once a slight has been forgiven they seldom hold a grudge. They are a quiet race among strangers and boisterous with those they hold close.
Half-orcs have an inbred longing to belong somewhere and as a result tend to be wanderers until they find that place and were once called by famed storyteller Lushus of Derrymaul as The Race That Watches From Without. Their quiet manner and often time’s brusque personality make them less than universally loved although those that look past the surface can find relationships that better stand the test of time than most.
As a generality since most half-orcs that survive much past birth are those that are brought up by humans they tend to take human names although some see pride in both sides of their blood and adopt names more suited for a full blooded orc than not.
Half-Orc Characteristics: Generous, dependable, brusque, confident, and loyal to the death; with their friends at least. Their enemies know them as something out of nightmares and learn to fear them beyond even death.
Half-Orc Names: Typically human based although some do take more orc like names which tend to be more descriptive than most racial names. One Fang, Wolf Killer, and Long Runner are some examples of some more well known half-orcs through history.
Half-Elf Adventurers
Three sample half-orc adventurers are described below:
Trask is a half-elf ranger and wanderer. He feels more at home in the solitude of the forests, secure in his ability to either outfight, outthink or outrun the dangers he might find outside the safety of the light of civilization. He cares not for material gain and truly only feels at home in the deep woods, staring up at the star filled skies above and the closest town a distant memory on the trail.
Chuk Redblade follows the path of the warlord and is a leader of great renown on the battlefield leading one battalion of King Rogar’s Foot into war. During times of peace he has direct access to the King and is a valued advisor and works hard to insure that that peace lasts as long as possible before he must once again take up blade and cleave the life from a soldier, troop or city.
Sheela Talon walks the path of steel. Every day is a challenge to her to further hone her skills with everything and anything with a blade or point. She makes a very lucrative living as a caravan guard, typically as the leader of the caravan’s security forces and is highly sought after by every caravan that can afford her fees. Sheela’s life plan is to open a dojo where she can train herself and others in the perfect form of steel and edge.
Credits:
Half orc image copyright © PMZG - Game Studio, 1992-2007
Original idea for half-orc courtesy of arcady on 4th edition forums: http://forums.gleemax.com/member.php?u=153248
Original idea for racial power courtesy of Saric on 4th edition forums:
http://forums.gleemax.com/member.php?u=177034
Orcish Berserker - When Bloodied Strength increased by 2.
Mob Tactics - Adjacent Allies gain +1 to hit and +1 damage against target hit by critical hit.
Crush them All - Shift as free action after dealing death blow on target.
These are off the 'cuff' so to speak and may overlap or compete with existing class or generic feats as well but they're in here as flavor if nothing else. I've tried to balance them based on a quick overlook at someone's book (waiting for the second run to avoid having to mark mine up with errata). The ancestral fury only occurs when damaged unlike say the dragonborns breath weapon, requires the 1/2 orc to hit the target so I added in the strength bonus unlike the OP's version. If that turns out OP'd I might just take out the randomness of the dice roll and make it a flat str bonus? Needs playtesting.
Mob Tactics is like the ranger feat I saw that grants a bonus to hit to allies after the ranger scores a critical hit. Because I limited it to adjacent allies I upped it to adding a point of damage as well.
Crush them all is just mine although there might be something RAW just like it but I haven't had a chance to see it yet. But as adding orcish flavor that's what an orc would do, kill one and rush the next. Or that's how I see it.
In regards to the racial, I'm still debating the bonus feat. I'm now thinking a bonus feat is pretty powerful in and of itself if drawn from Orc, Human or the chose class and that making it able to be drawn from any class might make it OP'd.
I did broaden the fury racial to the next attack in the encounter, again because the dragonborn can pick and choose when to breath without any trigger necessary so broadening the scope makes it more equitable. I had thoughts though of limiting in a fashion like thus "on your next attack against your current target or the one that damaged you." That whole hold a grudge thing coming into play, "You made me bleed my own blood! No one makes me bleed my own blood! DIE!" or something like that.
Only one minor hiccup. Instead of describing Half-Orc adventurers, you describe Half-[b]Elf[/i] adventurers, and call Trask a half-elf as well. Other than that, it is printed and is now slipped into the pages of my 4ePHB! Thanks much to everyone who built this race!
The ancestral fury only occurs when damaged unlike say the dragonborns breath weapon, requires the 1/2 orc to hit the target so I added in the strength bonus unlike the OP's version. If that turns out OP'd I might just take out the randomness of the dice roll and make it a flat str bonus? Needs playtesting.
I did broaden the fury racial to the next attack in the encounter, again because the dragonborn can pick and choose when to breath without any trigger necessary so broadening the scope makes it more equitable. I had thoughts though of limiting in a fashion like thus "on your next attack against your current target or the one that damaged you." That whole hold a grudge thing coming into play, "You made me bleed my own blood! No one makes me bleed my own blood! DIE!" or something like that.
The problem with adding +str to the damage dealt is that it seems too powerful in comparison to other racial powers. I balanced the 1/2 orc power with the minotaur and bugbear racial power which each get +3d6 at best but require certain conditions to pull off. However since this trigger requires the 1/2 orc to be hit which is a very costly trigger, I gave them an additional +1d6 when bloodied. Also bear in mind, this power also works on ranged attacks and powers. So if you were a 1/2 orc ranger and a wizard hits you with a fireball, you aim your bow and hit him for additional damage at a long range.
Now considering that the dragonborn does indeed get to blow people up in a blast and gains an additional + to attack roll and damage equal to con modifier, I see your point. Granted he can't choose to not hit his allies unless he maneuvers the blast or they get next to him. Either way, perhaps my mistake was balancing the race against mm monsters rather than phb races. Maybe adding a bonus to the attack roll seems in order.
My next crack at it will be as so.
Ancestral Blood - 1/2 Orc Racial Power
The fury of your orcish ancestors takes over your senses for a second.
Encounter
Immediate Reaction - Personal
Trigger: You take damage.
Effect:The next attack you make before the end of your next turn gains a + 2 racial bonus to the attack roll and 1d6 additional damage.
Increase to +4 bonus and 2d6 damage at 11th level, and to +6 bonus and 3d6 at 21st level.
Special: If you are bloodied when you activate this power, add an increase the attack bonus by +2 and 1d6 additional damage.
Im still unsure about your adding +str modifier as it could get kind of redundant if you ever used a melee attack and added str modifer twice to the damage. I will think about it some more later.
I've thought of several options and none of them really strike me as 'great'. I didn't write it out but I didn't even really consider it was additional ranged or spell damage as that seems outside the flavor of the power? I saw it as striking harder in battle based on anger increased strength.
A bonus to hit also seems a little out of flavor to me? It might be the appropriate balancing factor though. My initial leanings against that is that I, again, see it as being a surge of anger born strength damage and in general anger isn't to my mind conducive to accuracy?
The next option if this turns out over the top that I have lined up in the wings to try is simply making it a additional str bonus or +3 bonus ( x2 for 11th, x3 for 21st). But that can get over the top as well if stats truly astronomical compared to the older editions where a (18/xx) / 19 was considered high in my group (depending on version). If someone had +5 or even higher then at 21st that's +15 damage, +20 if bloodied. Of course at 21st level how big a chunk is that actually out of a appropriate encounter creature?
Heh, off topic but I notice no one's done anything about bringing back the gnomes... In over 29 years of GM'ing I've only had one player play a gnome and that was in a neverwinter's night online campaign I ran for a few months. I even wrote them out of my homebrew campaign as the majority having been killed off by the Grey Death and the few that remained were very insular and afraid of contanimation and that's why they weren't around in the world.
The problem with adding +str to the damage dealt is that it seems too powerful in comparison to other racial powers. I balanced the 1/2 orc power with the minotaur and bugbear racial power which each get +3d6 at best but require certain conditions to pull off. However since this trigger requires the 1/2 orc to be hit which is a very costly trigger, I gave them an additional +1d6 when bloodied. Also bear in mind, this power also works on ranged attacks and powers. So if you were a 1/2 orc ranger and a wizard hits you with a fireball, you aim your bow and hit him for additional damage at a long range.
Now considering that the dragonborn does indeed get to blow people up in a blast and gains an additional + to attack roll and damage equal to con modifier, I see your point. Granted he can't choose to not hit his allies unless he maneuvers the blast or they get next to him. Either way, perhaps my mistake was balancing the race against mm monsters rather than phb races. Maybe adding a bonus to the attack roll seems in order.
My next crack at it will be as so.
Ancestral Blood - 1/2 Orc Racial Power
The fury of your orcish ancestors takes over your senses for a second.
Encounter
Immediate Reaction - Personal
Trigger: You take damage.
Effect:The next attack you make before the end of your next turn gains a + 2 racial bonus to the attack roll and 1d6 additional damage.
Increase to +4 bonus and 2d6 damage at 11th level, and to +6 bonus and 3d6 at 21st level.
Special: If you are bloodied when you activate this power, add an increase the attack bonus by +2 and 1d6 additional damage.
Im still unsure about your adding +str modifier as it could get kind of redundant if you ever used a melee attack and added str modifer twice to the damage. I will think about it some more later.
(By providing a half-orc race that looks balanced)Crush them All - Shift as free action after dealing death blow on target.
Shift a number of squares equal to your Strength modifier (if positive) as a free action after dealing death blow on target. You shift at least 1 square.
I feel this goes well with the flavor of the race and feat - you gain a physical momentum after slaying your opponents, bolstered by your strength.
Otherwise, I have nothing to add. Great work and a wonderful contribution to the community.
Heh, off topic but I notice no one's done anything about bringing back the gnomes... In over 29 years of GM'ing I've only had one player play a gnome and that was in a neverwinter's night online campaign I ran for a few months. I even wrote them out of my homebrew campaign as the majority having been killed off by the Grey Death and the few that remained were very insular and afraid of contanimation and that's why they weren't around in the world.
I've had that same kind of experience but with halflings, not gnomes. My groups have always been more fond of gnomes.
In any case I think the reason we've seen little done with gnomes is because they have PC-ish stats at the end of the MM. All that really needs to be done for gnomes is racial feats.