Half-Orcs
Players Handbook/Homebrew
Half-Orc
The result between the machinations of a human and an orc, Half-orcs take on the physical appearance of their orc parents while inheriting the cunning, ambition and self discipline of their human side. Half-Orcs tend to live either within their orcish parent's tribe or within human societies as the other races cant separate them from their savage orc heritage. They do well within orc tribes; as long as they are physically as strong as their full blooded brethren, a half orc has the right mix of brute strength and human cunning to rise to the top of a tribe and become a war chief. Orc tribes live in harsh environments having been shunned by society for their ferocity and tendency to raid instead of cultivate, as such they live a nomadic life within The Badlands and the wasteland region of Western Midasfjall where tribes raid the nearby societies and themselves for sustenance and trophies. Half Orcs that are born or chose to live in the human settlements bear a calmer temperament, they are still prone to fiery bursts of anger brought on by their savage orc blood but are able to control it thanks to a more civilised upbringing. These Orcs typically find jobs as labourers as they inherit a natural strength and stamina from their orcish bloodline. Some are taken on as apprentices and go on to become skilled craftsman where they can take jobs as smiths, carpenters or builders. A Half-Orc inherits innate abilities which differ with the ancestry of their orcish parent.
ability score increase:
Your Strength score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.
age:
Half-orcs mature a little faster than humans, reaching adulthood around age 14. They age noticeably faster and rarely live longer than 75 years.
alignment:
Half-orcs inherit a tendency toward chaos from their orc parents and are not strongly inclined toward good. Half-orcs raised among orcs and willing to live out their lives among them are usually evil.
Size:
Medium
speed:
30ft
Languages:
You can speak, read, and write Common and Orc.
race features:
- Darkvision. Thanks to your orc blood, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
- Relentless Endurance. When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
- Orc Ancestry. Half-Orcs gain a proficiency and a feature which varies on what colour of orc their parent was. The different options are given in the table below.
| Skin Colour of Orc Parent | Proficiency | Feature |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Intimidation | Savage Attacks. When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon's damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit. |
| Blue | Vehicles (Water) | Sea Orc. You gain a swim speed equal to your walking speed. In addition you can breath underwater for up to 10 minutes |
| Red | Athletics | Boiling Blood. When you take slashing or piercing damage your burning blood splashes back at your attacker, dealing fire damage equal to your Constitution modifier if they are within 5ft. |
| Ebony | Stealth | Ambush Predator. When you hit a creature that is surprised with an attack, the attack is an automatic critical hit. |
| Pale | Survival | Cold Blooded. You gain resistance to cold damage. In addition slippery ice is not considered difficult terrain for you and you automatically succeed on checks required to stay standing while on slippery ice. |
A towering build, protruding lower fangs, and a sloping forehead are all traits shared by half-orcs of all ancestries. Their eyes are almost always black, brown or very dark yellow and their hair is black or dark brown which is braided or tied up so as to not get in the way. The differences between half-orcs come from their skin colour which they inherit from their orcish parent. Orcs come in skin tones of green, blue, red, ebony and pale with all of the skin colours ranging from dull grey with a hint of the colour to a vivid hue, the human blood in a half orc does not dilute the colour of the half orc's skin; they have the exact same colour as their orcish parent.
Geographic Distribution
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