Orc

Orc

Str:+4 Dex:-- Con:-- Int:-2 Wis:+2 Cha:-2 Luc:--
Favoured Classes: Barbarian, Priest
 
  Brutal, crass and stupid, orcs are commonly seen as a plague upon the land by the more civilized races. Huge, muscular humanoids with faces crossing the features of men and swine, the orcs reinforce this connection with their savagery and their willing contentment to accept the lowest common denominator in all things. Orc society tends to be militaristic, patriarchal and driven by selfishness first and foremost.
  Orcs are very, very rapid breeders, giving birth to litters and breeding frequently and casually -- along with their recent focus on the development of black-powder weapons, this may be the only factor that has allowed them to survive against dwarven prowess and human sociological development. On the other hand, this could be exactly what humanity wants -- for ages untold, it has been a human warlord or necromancer who gathers and leads armies of orcs, usually as a distraction or tactical edge that ends in their near-extermination. Recently, however, this has changed. Orcs were instrumental in the slave revolts in Mohandi, and their forces were responsible for the liberation of slaves from all the goodly races and central in forming the anarchistic 'government' that now rules there. Further, while only a very small percentage of the orcish race leaves the great fortresses and communes that house their armies and breeding pits, that's still a staggering number by human demographic standards, and now orc merchants, craftsmen and soldiers are a ubiquitous part of nearly every human city.
  Taken out of the oppressive squalor of their own natural society yet allowed to live according to their racial nature, the orc peoples prosper. Many orcs become great soldiers and war-heros, while others rise to positions of power in theives' guilds or merchant houses. Mostly, though, they form a silent underclass that members of all the 'goodly' races are quite content to exploit for cheap labour and fence into ghettos and slums. Some scorn the stereotype, striving to be as intellectually developed as humans and elves, but most find more of corruption than virtue in the very qualities that humanity chastizes them for lacking. It is from this quarter, these 'city orcs' that most orcish adventurers rise. Sometimes these orcs return to the great orcish cities, working in resistance cells to overthrow the human or baatezu overseers.
  A rising movement is the desire to reconstruct the true tribal customs of the primevil orcs, understanding how their people lived before they were actively bred and honed by human and daemonaic powers as cannon fodder. More and more now legendary orcs are rising to positions of great power over their people. Split in a three-way racial schism between the city orcs, (neo-)tribal orcs and the traditional orcs hordes, the fate of the entire species may very well rest in the hands of its few, brave heroes.
 
 ORC RACIAL SKILLS
   As a race the orcs are not a skilled people; in game terms their Intelligence limits their skill points, and in cultural terms little emphasis is put upon most orcs to develop a trade. The only racial skills orcs possess are Athletics and Intimidate.

 ORCS RACIAL TRAITS
   * +4 Strength -- The strength of orcs of legendary; they are the strongest creatures the average human or elf will ever meet. Orc strength, unlike that of lizardmen or wood elves, is clearly visible -- orcs tend to be bulky in build, with clearly visible muscles.
   * -2 Intelligence -- While orcs are not the comical retards that human narrative often makes them out to be -- they are quite capable of cunning plans and foresight -- their language is limited, their culture scorns education and they have a very limited grasp of analytical reasoning.
   * +2 Wisdom -- Orcs tend to be determined survivors with a canny cunning, have a developed awareness of the world around them, tend to have led harsh lives that lead to stronger-held personal convictions and ideals and are more in tune with the primal, visceral element of nature that their shamans and clerics revere than the more civilized races.
   * -2 Charisma -- Orcs tend to be viewed (visually and culturally) as vile by members of most more refined races (and honestly, everyone is more refined than orcs are). Their love of crassness, and their neglect of hygene combine with prejudice to ensure that orcs have to make an active effort not to get a negative response in most social situations. Their anatomy, while not as groteque as it is commonly made out to be, is also less appealing to the typical human aesthetic than, say, an elf's.
   * Militarism -- The orcs are a warlike race, and every orc receives some degree of training in war, often from a very young age. All orcs, regardless of class, are proficient with the impact weapons group, the blades group, the spears group and the polearms group. In addition, the sporting competitions and training of youth grant orcs a familiarity with the orcish shotput.
   * Toughness -- Orcs are not a hardy people; their typical lifespan is thirty to forty years, disease takes a heavy toll on their numbers and their abject living conditions limit the strength of their constitutions. What they are, however, it tough, and absolutely unwilling to give in on the field of battle. As a result, all orcs receive the Toughness feat for free at 1st level.
   * Devouring -- Orcs are much reviled for eating the bodies of their slain foes, but few are aware that this practice has a mystical component as well as a cultural one -- once, millenia ago, orcs would eat the bodies of elderly members of their tribes as a sign of respect, supernaturally allowing some small part of their ancestor's wisdom to live on within them. Now, it is an act mostly practiced only for the more worldly desire of claiming a fallen enemy's strength for oneself.
   In game terms, an orc that eats the corpse of a creature that has an innate elemental resistance to a given damage type may develop or increase that resistance himself, provided that the creature's resistance level is greater than the orc's current inherent rating in that type of resistance.
   Furthermore, certain rare monsters that are the allegorical representation of a given ability score can convey an inherent bonus to that ability when their corpses are devoured. Giants are so tied to Strength, elves to Dexterity, trolls to Constitution, mind flayers to Intelligence, nagas to Wisdom, faeries to Charisma and mythic hybrids to Luck. Dragons can convey increased mana when their bodies are eaten, being creatures of pure magic.
   Finally, any living creature whose corpse is eaten provides a moderate boost in experience points, provided that its Challenge Rating compares well with the devourer's character level.
   * Scent -- Orcs have a highly acute sense of smell, and are able to track their enemies by scent. They receive the Scent ability with a range of 30 feet.
   * Darkvision -- Dwelling underground and upon the surface with equal ease, orcs have Darkvision to a range of 60 feet.
   * Spell Fury -- Orcs are not particulairly adept at magecraft overall, but the sheer primal anger they bring to magical workings lends them a certain power as mages. In game terms, orcs double their Wisdom modifier on arcane spells that inflict direct physical damage.
   * Light Aversion -- Just as orc eyes are adapted to darkness, however, they suffer in light. More than just biology, orcs suffer an instinctual psychological aversion to daylight; it weakens their morale, limits vision and brings a sense of claustrophobic panic upon them. Orcs suffer a -4 penalty to hit and to their defense class in brightly lit terrain squares (such as the area of effect of a priest's call light spell).
  * Starting Equipment -- Orcs start with a medium backpack, a longspear or ranseur, some cured meat and a knife.

 ORC SUBRACES (Unimplemented)
   Cave orcs are the most fecund, and most common, of the orc subraces. Adapted to Underdark life, the cave orcs have superior darkvision, a racial aptitude for climbing and the ability to scale even sheer surfaces easily, along with an understanding of swarm tactics and an aptitude for underground survival, but they are even more craven than the majority of the orcish race, and more intellectually stunted.
   Hill orcs are the subrace that most surface orcs bear the primary blood of, being the result of centuries of breeding and Darwinian selection. Pureblood hill orcs have a stronger tie to nature through a tiny aspect of racial memory; they have a limited empathy with predatory beasts and an aptitude for wilderness survival.
   Blood orcs are bound by a blood oath to their race, and are the newest orc subrace. Fierce and unconquered, blood orcs draw strength both mystical and psychological from their declared jihad against the peoples who have dominated their race throughout the years. They tend to be more violent, zealous, ambitious and driven than most orcs.
   Black orcs were bred and engineered by Azakram the Black millenia ago in his campaign for conquest of the Kinlands during the Mage Wars. They have a heightened affinity for blood magic, a limited empathy with the undead and a small degree of innate mystical power, but are not as strong as their compatriots and suffer from an suceptability towards enchantment spells. In the modern age, the most frequently serve as shamans and other spiritual authorities in an orc tribe.