Orcs

Orcs are bad news, but they can be talked to. Elves are alien and will murder and burn with reckless abandon, no matter what you say. Orcs can be reasoned with. Orcs have families and children. Even though they do have a culture of violence and don't understand death, they are much more likely to not kill you and your family if you talk to them.

Orcs worship gods that are constantly warring. Their priests drape themselves with bloody spines and crawl through the remains of battles, reading the future through the gore and viscera. All orcs carry weapons, except for the infants, who hunt with their claws and their fangs. Orc currency is skulls and teeth that they take from corpses and their fellow orcs. They make goblins work for them with intimidation, but still treat them better than humans do. They are allies with the hobgoblins, and orchestrate great war campaigns.

Orcs are obsessed with violence, but they see it as more of a game. They think that after they die, they are reborn as another orc, ready to crawl through the gore and claw at anything it sees with its new baby claws. They see death as only an obstacle, and the orc afterlife is either a gauntlet of combat that you must fight through to come back to life (if you were a good orc and murdered as many people and things as you could) or a small village, filled with seemingly friendly people who are actually extremely judging and prejudiced. You must survive in that hell of toxic people with no murder and arson for a few years, and then you come back.

Since orcs are actually extremely innocent and trusting, but love violence and war, they are taken advantage of my more tactically-minded creatures, such as hobgoblins. Even though the Church of Bog has made it so that most people today regard the orcs as some verminous sort of human, many past human societies, as well as non-Boggian cultures throughout the world, graciously accept orcs into their armies and societies. However, special systems have to be made to make sure that these orcs do not kill and burn things that they don't want killed and burned, and so they are usually drafted as low-level cannon fodder in armies, or as gladiators in arenas, where they can be told what things are okay to destroy easily. If an orc child is brought up in another society, they will become like a normal member of that culture, but when an infant they will still hunt for food. There are several cases of elves stealing orc babies and beating them into some unstoppable military force. And by beating, I mean literally beating and abusing them to do their terrible bidding.

Orcs are actually much nicer than the dwarfs and those human cultures touched by the Church of Bog. If you encounter them, they will probably help you if you are in danger, or accompany you through the wilderness. You just have to get used to them catching themselves on fire or storing their swords in their torso and be accompanied by the frenzied, cannibalistic infant orcs.

Orcs never stop growing. Some of the older orcs reach heights of 10 feet or higher, and some rumor that there are 25 foot tall orcs that fight dragons and giants deep in the wilderness.

The Orc (Race)
Class Restrictions Orcs can play every class
Special Abilities Orcs have the following special abilities and features:

• +Strength, -Intelligence (orcs switch their Strength and Intelligence scores, but only if Intelligence is higher than Strength)
• When you reach 0 HP, you can choose to go back up to 1 HP, rather than making the saving throw. You gain an injury from doing this, however. This can only be done once per day.
• Your attack bonus is equal to half your level, rounded up, rather than what is normally indicated for your class (unless you are playing a fighter).
• Orcs save at +3 to paralysis and +4 to poison.

The Orc (Monster)

HD: 1+1

AC: 16

Attacks: 1

Damage: 1d6+2

Movement: 120'

Intellect: 4-7

Morale: 7

The typical orc will have the abilities of a level 2 fighter. 50% of all orcs will be of the typical variety, with 15% being higher level fighting-types, 15% being clerical types, 15% being magic-users, and 5% being of the thief class. They will almost always be found in groups, accompanied by baby orcs, as well as goblins. They will almost never check morale, only if there is extreme danger.

A very dirty baby orc. Just give it sharp teeth.

Orc, Baby

HD: 1-1

AC: 14

Attacks: 2 (claw/claw or claw/bite)

Damage: 1d4 claw, 1d6 bite

Movement: 115'

Intellect: 3

Morale: 12

Their claw attack has a +3 bonus to hit, and their bite attack has a +2 bonus to hit. They never, ever check morale, and will only run away if taken by the older orcs. They can climb up walls at the same speed that they can crawl on the ground. These orcs are much more likely to be found alone, but their presence typically heralds a camp of orcs not too far away.