KYPW: Orcs - Dungeons and Dragons 5e
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- Let's talk about the mighty Orc. This is a classic monster from Dungeons and Dragons 5e, and one we've cherished for years in our monster manuals. But how can we as Dungeon Masters and Game Masters continue keeping classic monsters fresh? Let's dive in and talk about Orcs.
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Taking20 awesome job man. Stumbled upon you and love every minute of your videos; good structure and flow. Awesome topics keep me interested
if your are power full maybe there is an obi wan kennobi sand people relation sure he can destroy all them down to the war chief but then the lich king of thantonia will know you are there and destroy the village for harbouring you.
i dont mean to be off topic but does any of you know of a trick to log back into an instagram account..?
I was dumb forgot my password. I love any tricks you can offer me!
@Jad Bowen Instablaster :)
@Holden Briggs Thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site through google and im trying it out now.
Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
Something fun to point out: most Orcs in D&D and Pathfinder have decent Wisdom scores. I love using the idea that Orcs have an "animal cunning" over intelligence. An Orc may not be a strategist, but he can always tell when a fight is going poorly. Loved an old boss I had for a low-level campaign, Grushnik. He was just a raid leader when the PCs got some admittedly badass rolls and mollywhomped the raiding party. Grushnik got his ass kicked pretty hard, but I did a little bs and gave him a couple hit points in "reserve," so after he got brutalized, he ran off into the wilderness. Once the players hit around 10th level, Grushnik came back, now a Blighter and had a new warband. The players essentially ran a village as a side project, when this massive horde (somewhere around 1,000 Orcs with assorted corrupted beasts) marched on their town, lead by a big orc with a notable scar the Rogue who "downed" him gave him. My players had a panic attack when he waved his fingers and the forest west of the town rotted to dust, and he simply pointed his cudgel to the town and muttered, "Wipe them out. Leave the ones I told you about. Let them suffer as I suffered." My players freaked, and the party wizard started using the Craft skill to hastily protect the town with frankly mundane siege equipment. Eventually, the players were forced to leave the town and Grushnik rode up on his Half-Fiend Dire Boar and fought the PCs, eventually being downed by the party's Cleric (Cleric of Bahamut) who nearly died, but with a swing of his Great Scimitar, took the beast's head off. My players all cheered and the party Barbarian nicked the Cudgel of Grushnik, a +3 Greatclub that was essentially a permanent Ironwood and Shileleigh stats, but dealt Negative Energy damage. My players still brag about that moment to this day
Want to mix things up? How about TWO orcs in a hallway, guarding a treasure chest? It's so crazy, it just might work.
r/madlads
I run orcs in my setting inspired by Mongols. It added some dimension and mounting up large numbers of orcs was serious fun. Orcs even saved the party as they were being chased by some not so great paladins (the enemy of my enemy sort of situation). They we taken in by the tribe and the story of Gruumsh getting screwed made the party do what they can to help them out
kirkish001 I always see Hobgoblins that way. Horse masters and mounted archers.
kirkish001 my favorite setting want to pull out.
Orc master heavy calvery.
Goblin infintry.
Kobald light calvery.
Hobgoblin Alexander the Great.
From lvl 1 - 15 that is the plot ^
Nothing the party fights is over level 5.
@@Giganfan2k1 It will all have to be about strategic movement and planning. I would probably beef up the alexander the great though.
Same
Somewhat adjacent to what you've done, try to find "Stranded in Fantasy" online and read it. My favorite depiction of Orcs I've seen yet.
Remember, if Orcs are constantly living a life of pillaging and waging war, they would be much, much better at fighting in military formations then your PCs would.
Smeagol the Vile exactly right that is why when it comes to Orcs I like going the Warhammer route involving goblins and it's not snotlings
@Flamboyant Warlock I disagree. The reason Europe was able to rise above the rest of the world was because the various nations were constantly at war, and constantly needing to innovate to get an edge over their enemies. Orcs would be the same way, always trying to invent new ways of warfare to defeat their foes, be it rival orc clans, or armies of human, elf or dwarf nations trying to stomp them out. Orcs would be a very tactical people. I usually make them very expansionist in my campaigns, trying to conquer and maintain the lands around them, rather than simply pillaging.
Formation fighting takes a lot of teamwork and discipline that I would find out of character for a chaotic race so I wouldn't give them much of that.
Orcs would more likely win by a few underhanded tricks, and hitting where/when they're not expected and withdrawing if they ever loose the initiative. Formation is only one element of good battle tactics afterall.
They'll also often seem fearless in groups, between the rage, trying to one-up each other's feats of individual power, and being not likely emotionally hurt by the loss of those alongside them (being inherently evil and selfish creatures). Of course that could often flip on their head if they feel personally cornered by something they recognize as more powerful than themself.
I'd honestly make orcs MORE powerful than humans on a 1v1, and it being only sound battlefield tactics that allows other races to dominate (supposing they do).
I usually have orcs in my campaigns form a Sparta-like nation, staunchly militaristic and brilliant strategists, but without a technologically advanced infrastructure. They usually don't have skilled stonemasons, however they have rams designed to take down castle gates.
Has anyone thought about making Mongol Orcs?
Compound Short bows +4 str damage riding what ever they can get a large mounts....
Party can never meaningfully engage in melee in open terrain.
Their culture only has three meaningful skills. Fetching, bowyar and riding. You ride when your born, make arrows when you can hold an antler, and make bows by 12 yo...
Please, please, please do more videos like this.
The examples of different ways to use the orcs by pairing them with other non-standard creatures is a terrific spark to help get creative ideas flowing.
One of my favorite (and my party's favorite) orcish NPCs is an orc Named Zinzbog which was a low level bard with some monk/barbarian abilities. He's weak compared to the party, but gave them a lot of trouble, but never doing anything sadistically evil or terrible. All he did was catch the artificer of the group off guard and throw a sack over his head and stole one of his sending stones to mess with the artificer.
The reason why Zinzbog the orc did things like this is because a monk that they had met earlier in the campaign that was living near the stronghold had beaten Zinzbog and used his orcish pride against him into training with the monk, thus learning to reign in his anger. Although, one time he was outclassed by the monk in the ways of music, so he angrily practiced for a long time, breaking hundreds of perfectly good quality instruments and learning to make his own. Zinzbog also learned to use magic to lace his words with a magical force to soften up and taunt his enemies, but also highly values the calm emotions spell.
Since he is an orc though, he's loyal to the group, but will always seem to explode if things go wrong. At one point, he was sitting in his room and the PCs heard yelling, screaming and things being smashed. They rushed in, expecting to see the orc fighting some intruder, but in reality, he had smashed every furnishing in his room because he couldn't figure out the perfect verse in his epic saga of Gruumsh, frustrating him to no end.
That's fantastic. Especially the last bit.
Orcs are often depicted as green, right? So orcs that’re symbiotic with a species of plant, either with the plant living in/on them. Gives the orcs a deeper connection with druidism.
Really Interesting I always forget about how Gruumsh got screwed over.
Congrats you made me feel bad for Orc's!
here here... I played and orc in a homebrew game in which the world was being attacked by a fledgling god and his mega horde of undead... worked with the party to unite bickering races and got them to sorta work together... helped I was a rogue and had decent Charisma. Good times.
#Notallorcs ?
FOR THE HORDE!
Obligatory W.O.W Reference aside, so hyped for this series. As a goblin fan I'd love to see your take on the plucky little assholes
Yes, lets talk about their plucky little assholes. oh.... i mean... nevermind.
I am about to run my first homebrew on an isolated island chain, and this video is making me seriously think about swapping the near by Druidic Elves for Shamanistic Orcs. I definitely dig how Blizzard differentiated their orcs from others, Brutal when necessary, however most are peaceful.
kyubii972 you probably won't get to them in time for your campaign, but you may enjoy the take on shamanic orcs in the Dominic Deegan webcomic....if you enjoy webcomics and puns...so many puns.
www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2002-05-21
In a recent game I was playing, I was a half orc. While walking through misty mountains, during a random encounter, the party encountered two young orcs that were lost in the mist. We decided to help them find their way back to their camp. On the way, we encountered the father of those young orcs along with his hunting party. Rather than fight them, we were thanked and got information about something we were trying to find. It was a nice way to have an orc encounter than wasn't combat related and actually helped move the story along.
Personally, I like the idea of honorable Orcs, or Orcs who genuinely enjoy a challenging fight and will show respect to a foe they deem to be worthy of their respect, possibly to the point that if the Orc(s) are impressed enough and they still defeat (but do not kill!) the party, they may choose to allow them to live out of respect for their combat prowess (perhaps in the hope that they may someday get to have an exhilarating rematch against the party).
Orcs are my favorite race, I 99% of the time I play a half orc.
I like the idea of making them more a part of the natural world, having them embrace the non evil aspects of Gruumsh to worship. Make a tribes Shamans/clerics view him as a Tempest God a la Thor.
To me they are noble savages, their customs are different than humans but that does not necessarily make them evil.
The way I figured is Orcs are very impulsive creatures. This makes them easy to anger but also very easy to befriend.
“There is nothing more terrifying than an Orcish enemy, and there is nothing more wonderful than an orcish friend.”
Loyalty, honor, and strength play a huge thing in orcish culture.
You've inspired me to weave orcs into my current campaign.
Awesome! This has me grinning from ear to ear right now.
Yea you already know you've changed my upcoming homebrew as well so yea thats a good video if it can inspire DM's that way.
Great look at the ubiquitous orc. It really can be tricky to make these beat-stick monsters into something interesting and memorable. The most interesting thing I ever did with them was in a homebrew campaign, called Valderia.
The setting is a renaissance theme game where the empire of Valderia occupies 1/3 of the continent where it resides. Along the way, much territory has been taken from wild orc tribes. In most cases the orcs were wiped out or pushed west, but there are those that remained in human lands or that have returned. These "settled" orcs have become a part of the landscape and often live peaceful existences on farmsteads or in the cities here they work menial jobs or as artisans. The plight of the "black bloods" (wild orcs refer to them as "grey bloods') as they are often called, by humans, has been a major social issue among the human empire.
The Black Blood League is a guild and advocacy group for the orcs within Valderia, helping to improve the standards of living for orcs. The empire, also has an elite fighting unit called the Red Legion which is made up entirely of elite orc shock troops. The unit is prized by the Empress of Valderia and goes a long way to improve the overall perception of orcs in the empire. Orcs on the frontier are often savaged by their wild cousins, right along with their human neighbors.
I also like that you have the orcs divided here, Elf Bait. Too often, people assume that because two monsters are evil, they'll naturally team up to fight the party (even if one is lawful and one is chaotic). Your setting is a good example of how even the same kind of monster can be on both sides of the conflict, just the same as humans can. I've been working on a viking-esque campaign idea for a while now, and watching the video gave me a great idea for a city with peaceable orcs living among them (first encountered as workers on the docks) which comes under threat from an orcish horde.
I like it! Very logical. Do you have a setting Bible that you could share?
Jake M.
Bungli the Dwarf will keep an eye on this tiefling while on his shop all the same 🤣
Valtur
Not only That, the horde could have Spies and collaborators on the docs, or so the Watch would think, so the orcs should have to get permits to leave town, have ID's and plenty of questionings like "where were you last Wednesday?"
I love this idea! It also is a great way to incorporate more half-orcs into the setting (which honestly half-orcs are an amazing race option and I'd love to encourage my players to make more of them--this is an excellent way to do that!)
Cody, your timing is impeccable. I have been thinking about a campaign centered on an orc threat. Thanks for all of the great ideas. And yes, please make this a series.
Charles Mars. He must be reading your mind. Quick think of something else!
Why did Yo-Yo's just pop into my head?
I like the idea of an Orc empire that can form every so often when a strong enough leader can unite all of the clans. It does draw from Obould Many-Arrows some, as well as the Mongol empire, but the idea of what is mostly a nomadic race being brought together by a single leader or small group of leaders into an empire that could equal the likes of the other races is epic to me. You can have a beginning where the clans are mostly singuar, but as the campaign goes on the players can witness the orcs becoming more organized and disciplined. They begin claiming territory and subjugating cities and villages for their empire, as well as building their own cities. They don't kill off all of the citizens they have conquered, instead using them as a worker class or a class of tutors who teach their people certain crafts and professions. And the motivation behind this can be more than just world domination. Maybe this Orc chieftain who has united the clans wants to lift his people up above their lot of being nomadic raiders. Maybe he or she believes that the will of Gruumsh is actually to lay claim to some of the land originally denied them when the lots where drawn and provide their race a chance to flourish like the others had. This style also allows the DM to have the PCs be questioned on whether this act of expansion is truly evil since the histories of the PCs' nations follow similar patterns of development and expansion, or if it's just the nature of time that empires rise and fall.
This also gives a great excuse for expanding their pantheon beyond just Gruumsh and allow the DM to showcase unknown sides to Orc culture. Maybe they do have a strong tradition in art and music, but the purpose behind such things are more practical or religious in meaning as reflected by their pantheon. Do the Orcs assimilate any of the cultures they see in the lands they take? If so, how much of them get assimilated and how does it look?
Does this expansion even wind up working out at all? It may be that this aspiration of an empire falls apart due to the actions of the PCs. Then again, maybe this Orc empire ends up lasting for a generation or two (i.e. campaign or two) which is just long enough for a story to happen where the Orcs chaotic nature leads to schisms and revolts within the empire after the founding leader or leaders die and now a civil war is about to happen.
Just some thoughts. What do you guys think?
troabarton69 i like your idea, but I almost always steer clear from ambiguous storylines. The orc chieftain building the orcs into a civilized society, albeit at the cost of destruction and conquest, makes a fuzzy line players don't always like to dance along.
They want to know what their doing is right, so they can feel good doing it. Forcing them to make tough moral decisions where both decisions are awful makes for some downer game sessions.
For instance if you have a demon or monstrous being in a cage being tortured by some cultists, what do you do after the cultists are cleared out? If you let the thing go, it will hurt people. But if you just kill the thing your a murderer. Sure you murdered the thing to save innocent lives,but the blood is still on your hands.
Story like that is good every once in a while, but having it front and center in your campaign, that's a rough patch to hoe, sir.
I see your point. Might be able to make them more tyrannical or evil to lower the amibiguity.
Or stellaris with the marauder update 🤔
if the thing in the cage is something you know is gonna hurt people then the only moral thing to do it kill it even more so if it is a demon
On the other hand, if your players are the thinking type(s), tension can also be good. I tend to play my orcs less evil than canon. More chaotic than evil.
I really like this new format and these new line of videos. Even as a veteran GM I learned a lot about orcs I didn't know.
Glad you dug it!
Yes, definitely needs to be an ongoing series. I rather appreciate your take on Orcs, and the way you refer to "Source" as the "Default" condition of the game... It sounds a little more like allowance for making alternative rules without "stealing" anything from the D&D canon...
Although, I was personally told from the start of playing "Never let the rules get in the way of the game..." Lolz... So...
Personally, in regards to Orcs... When I'm not just chucking another random encounter with a small "detachment" to wander into the party, or whatever... I generally refer to "literature" or "historical accounts" about interactions with natives of various lands... Some of it's of course, just fictional crap, even in the supposed "authentic" tales, but there's some reasonable descriptions of cultures and economical workings to consider... AND there's a litany of text on some of the "tribals"... Like the Native Americans (for instance) could be studied and watered down with some stereotypical assumptions, toss in a little Conan the barbarian, and maybe add to the technical limit a bit... You can dummy what you end up with up or down to suit the party and otherwise storyline at the time.
I've rarely paid much attention to the "alignment" assigned to species or races in Source material... Rather I guess that it's a relative view from those who have interacted (and lived to tell about the ordeal) so it's better a "crude" guess as to a most likely attitude than a real assessment of core-values-and-motivations alignment. Who really cares what motivates the dragon trying to barbeque the player? It's even more rare that anyone asks at that point...
Sometimes, I like to put together alliances... Like between the orcs (big, durable, strong) and others like Tinkergnomes (small, relatively feeble, and really smart)... So the gnomes can build better tech' (usually destructive) and the Orcs can do heavy lifting as needed... so a convenient trade. And it plays hell on Players while they try to figure out how the hell an Orc tribe got a hold of full-automatic machine-crossbows! (hilarious)... :o)
Orcs are never stale, I was actually looking exactly for a video like this for tomorrow morning (am European) so this had perfect timing
Well how bout that lol
Cody! I am a new subscriber, I stumbled upon this video and LOVED it! I was disappointed to find there were no other KYPW videos, please do more!
Now excuse me while I watch ALL of your other videos
Welcome Adventurer!
Yea its a brand new type of video he made. I'm hoping he will continue the series, seems like he got alot of people talking in the comments so Im sure he will do more.!
In my setting orcs were once extremely intelligent, and lived as four factions in a unified nation before being cast apart into tribes after a war. Elder orcs/chieftains are high int and capable of great conversation and casting.
I statted giant scorpions for a tribe of orcs to ride in one of my campaign. the huge ones were uses as battle transports holding like 10 orcs plus extra supplies and large ones were used as mounts where 1 would steer and the other would shoot using compound bows. plus they had poison and were trained as battle mounts and the rider(s) would jump off and the large scorpion would enter the fray. it was an intense battle that they negotiated their way out of.
Hey man...just started watching you...this is by far my fave vid...absolutely fantastic exploration. I'd say, "totally do a whole series on monster tactics" ... Personally, I'm still at the very basic knowledge for combat tactics and encounter building...this was awesome...esp the different motivations stuff. great vid
Thanks a ton Tony. I spent some time on this, and it makes me feel good to see such great feedback so early.
I once ran a pathfinder homebrew where i created a race of orcs that were central to the campaign. They were called Blood Orcs and they were actually highly intelligent and charismatic, specialized in summoning and had derived a society based on enslaving summoned demons and lesser species like goblins. My players really enjoyed that arc of the story and at one point almost chose to join them because they found them so interesting.
New dungeon master here with new players. Nothing is stale for these guys yet. However the ideas for being able to 'flavor' my Orcs for my campaigns to come and heck, even to build a whole story arc with them is exciting, thank you. I will leave you with a little nursery rhyme my half-orc NPC's mother used to chant to her.
Gnash and slash,
Smash and mash,
Up the hill and down the dale, everything we own.
Knick, knack, squash the rat, give the dog a bone.
I have just thrown a Orc hunting party with an Eye of Grummsh with 5 orcs. A few of the party members were captured and brought to a hut in the woods were an Annis Hag revealed herself to be the leader. That was a fun twist to throw at a party. :)
I agree with the requests for more monster vids. How about a series on event building? Maybe some favored monster encounters and puzzles.
Keep up the fantastic vids. Thank you for taking time to make them.
Idea, weaponised Tanaruk, tortured and caged, metal armour, spikes and blades nailed/scalded to their bodies, they’ve gone entirely insane from the torture and are basically just feral animals in constant pain, a dangerous enemy, and makes the orcs seem more dangerous and despicable, turns them from basic mooks to really memorable enemies
Something I havent really heard about a lot in many DnD campaigns is the orc subrace known as the Scro. Intelligent, spelljammer piloting orcs. Upset everything your players think they know about orcs when they use advanced military tactics, high level spells, and even technology
Currently my Orc are part of the Frozen Take. They have resistance to cold, and Orges have immunity. They serve a White Dragon that needs to be fed constantly but live in a frozen like plane and use portals to punch into the world. Pretty useful. And so far has a huge build up as they keep coming across more and more terrifying ranks of the orcs with cold spells, and such.
It's interesting that you bring this up because defeating a marauding orc warparty is the first story arc I want to try out when I get a chance to DM my first campaign.
Players invading a hobgoblin/orc 'keep'. (Technically, it WAS a human keep, but that was weeks ago... and things changed).
The players enter a kitchen, an orc sees them and runs into the pantry.
The orcs are busy pouring grain onto the floor and the players try to give chase.
The orcs escape, tipping a table as a barricade on one side. The hobgoblins that gave route to them a few rooms prior block off the entrance they just came in with a phalanx of large shield.
Then they start throwing alchemists fire.
Chaos ensues.
Tight corridor, AOE spells are a death sentence to the party, the grain allowed the fire to spread quickly. Rogue can't get in position for a sneak attack. The party was two rangers, a rogue, a wizard and druid. The druid ended up using a summon to put fire badgers behind the phalanx to try to give a ranger the edge he needed to bull rush the shields.
Fantastic encounter. Try it out sometime.
Been a fan of D&D for over 20 years, but had no idea that Spelljammer was a thing until the books were announced for 5e. Never DM'ed a campaign before (only DM'ed one 2nd edition game and one Mutants & Masterminds game before), but when I heard about Spelljammer and how you can use a seafaring ship to travel the stars and go from campaign setting to campaign setting really caught my attention. Bought the books and decided to run a campaign. Finished Spelljammer Academy and Light of Xaryxis, but the adventures were pretty short and the 5th edition Spelljammer stuff was kinda lacking, so I had to look for old 2nd edition books to learn more. Found out about the scro and loved the idea of these highly militaristic and intelligent spacefaring orcs who had some major beef with elves, so I had the party come across wrecked Star Moths floating through space and dead bodies of elves found in the streets of the Rock of Bral and sightings of orcs who are much larger than normal fleeing the scene and leaving in weird ships that nobody recognized. Turned into a pretty fun few sessions while the party tried to figure out what was going on.
The campaign im running with my friends used orcs until now very heavily because they are in Cormyr while there is a war between Cormirians, the goblins led by the Goblin King and the Orcs that comes from the north. Im happy to see some of the ideas i used being spoken of in the video, and i'm denifitely going to look for cool mounts. Good video! Also sorry for bad grammar, english is not my native language.
My favorite orc-centric Adventure that I've ever run was actually completely non-combat. My players were invited by a half orc PC to his full orc uncle's funeral. This particular tribe where Horsemen, in the tradition of the Mongols or the Dothraki. They believed that when you died, you joined the Great Hunting Party in the Sky (the Milky Way's golarion equivalent), and that your rank in the afterlife was determined by how many people attended your funeral. So the NPC invited my players to come to the funeral for more people. Ran it kind of halfway between a viking Festival and a Dothraki wedding.
I like the channel! I was running OotA and made a template for fiendish orcs. This was before Volo's came out. I gave the chieftain some warlock levels and not only baffled my players but gave them the first legitimate challenge, other than surviving the underdark, that they had had in a while.
Loved a game where we took over an Orc tribe from a Fire Giant that took control over it. Quite few diplomacy rolls happened to even get to this point.
I had an entire campaign that lasted over a year and a half centered around orcs and Tiamat. Instead of Grumsh, they worshiped Tiamat. The party spent the entire campaign gathering allies and uniting the land against a orc horde of roughly 100,000~. In the end, the war was devastating as Tiamat was almost full powered, but the party and the land was able to prevail in the end. A LOT of people died however, springing up the hook for my current campaign set 20 years later: the party made an adventuring guild to prevent something this devastating from happening again.
We've got a campaign where Orcs are underlings to a faction of Drow within Undermountain, working as their brute force, with sometimes mixed members of Drow and Orcs ambushing us. The interesting thing about it is, because of their alliance, they have access to Drow equipment and every Orc we run into has their weapons coated in Drow sleep poison. They're known in the dungeon by other denizens as the Black Bladed Orcs. So if an attack by one lands on a PC, they not only take the physical damage, but they have to make a CON save to not end up poisoned...EVERY. TIME. Once poisoned, it's the DMs discretion when it wears off or until we take a long rest. Our group just recently made an alliance with the goblin faction, The Silver Axe, to work as a united front against them.
Thank you for making the video - I have been introduced to D&D after 30 years - playing with a group that has asked me to DM, 5e rules are a new but getting the hang of it. Planning a Orc battle tonight and wanted to see read up on tactics - so I will be changing it a bit. Great information.
rightous paladin wants to get rid of neir by orc camp but he needs a catalyst so he steals the tribute the village gave them
I always liked the idea of a nomadic desert tribe of orcs that primarily subsisted on trade that is supplemented with pillaging (which they'd use as an implied threat to get the kinds of deals they want).
I like using Orcs as foils for the characters. Best example is when one of my players rolled up a ranger with favored enemy Orc. I had made an Orc monk NPC who was to be the exact opposite of what her mental image of an Orc was/acted. To the point that if she shot him with an arrow, he would walk up to her, pull the arrow out and return it to her.
I love the approach to orcs that they used with Warhammer Fantasy.
They have the savage orcs for shamans and magic, with magical glowing tattoos.
They have the regular orcs for cannon fodder, (which is still needed sometimes).
They have the Black Orcs for more intelligent soldiers with better armor, and tactics.
And they have the Big Uns for just big beefy dumb versions that tank hard and hit hard.
They also ride sweet ass giant war boars, and can use catapults.
In my campaigns, I usually use them (and hobgoblins) as a military that is conquering the different keeps and strongholds of the map and actually holding them unless they are defeated. The goblins are just used to raid helpless villages and steal food and women for the army.
My orcs have generals and warlords and some of them even ride manticores and war mammoths.
Another neat thing is they can be adapted to every environment, so you can have snow orcs, or swamp orcs, or desert orcs..etc. They are very versatile.
My party is going to aid a fort that stands on the edge of orc territory, with a warband ready to siege it. I was having trouble thinking of a roleplay encounter on this situation, but now i got the idea of an orc emissary offering a stand off under some conditions. that will be awesome
love the video.
D&D lore is always very interesting, especially Faerun lore.
I love detailed explanation on the races and history of the Realms.
Been thinking about doing an orc encounter for my party and this vid helped flesh out different options. I’m planning for the group to enter a completely destroyed village, only to find it be raided by Orcs. Down the road, they’ll encounter a few of orcs/orc shamans, who are trying to kill the camp leader, who turned into a tanaruk, which the demon orc then forced the once peaceful tribe into raiders. I think it’s a nice way of showing the good and the bad that can come with orcs. But anyways, love the series!
Fantastic! Love this as a series, can't wait for more
I used a party of orcs as a social encounter for my players in the Lost Mines of Phandelver, that were an envoy to the Cragmaw goblins containing the cheiftains daughter (1/2 orc) as the ambassador. They were enroute to Cragmaw to negotiate safe passage and possible settlement in the valley for their tribe. At the time, I only had the lore from the Starter Set, which implied the orcs always had a reason to raid and therefore life was not easy for them. Once I bought the Essentials Set I retconned this to be the White Dragon had driven them from their mountain home and they were looking for a new home to the South West. The scene opened during the day as the orcs were moving through the forest at a ranger's step. They, as a random encounter, could be discovered by the party moving along the road. The encounter, as mentioned, was intended to be a social encounter. The orc princess would negotiate safe passage with the party. Aside from the princess the other orcs in the party had the sole mission to protect and deliver the princess to Cragmaw Castle, so they would be very agitated or belligerent.
In my homebrew world, orcs are modeled after the Mongol horse archers, but they ride six-legged steeds. Hit and run tactics are a way of life. Great video!
I usually have orcs in my campaigns form a Sparta-like nation, staunchly militaristic and brilliant strategists, but without a technologically advanced infrastructure. They usually don't have skilled stonemasons, however they have rams designed to take down castle gates.
I'm starting my homebrew in the new year. The orcs in my setting are kind of like the Huns, they have their own kingdom and waged a brutal war against the dwarvish empire. There is technically now a peace treaty but there are still frequent raids.
Sometimes you're a chaotic villain and so is the party.
My Divine Sorcerer Orc: Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living usually ends up on the run when things go sideways, and they always do when you switch things up with an evil party for a change. But, then again after wrecking a world in an evil campaign, you can attempt to heal it with another.
GNOLLS! Great video, man. This really put everything into perspective as far as clichés and tropes for Orcs.
When I created my own world I changed orcs a bit. Two main types to start off with, mountain orcs (more like the buff orcs from assorted games/stories that are pretty impressive, and higher hit dice... as well as being more neutral overall) and common orcs (more D&D standard, but with a little higher percentage of groups that might not be all that evil). Works very well and my players have loved them, had a paladin make a few treaties with a few LARGE tribes of mutual defense and trade between kingdoms.
Currently writing a campaign for my players with lots of orcs, I homebrew a bit by changing stats slightly or switching the orcs’ weapons around. This also differentiates the orcs between different tribes
I've used Orcs to serious effect in my campaigns before. Negan like Orc villians executing a favorite npc, or even a PC after a failure to an encounter. Leaving the other PC's alive , then telling them in my best orc voice "You know now that Bralgrash Blackeye is merciful" after having literally just smashed their friends skull into pudding. The PC's, now emboldened by this need for vengeance, really spice up the passion, and roleplay. I recommend orcs to new groups with people that haven't played together much or at all. I love orcs, period. From ultimate evil, to favorite bad guy, orcs are awesome.
The hook with the Tanaruk was really inspiring to me, and i'll totally use it in my current campaign.
My sandbox campaign has a part of the map called The Badlands by the civilized people, there different tribes of goblinoids and orcs fight for power. The orcs I'm adopting a Mongol-like behaviour while the goblinoids adopt more of a raiding party of vikings approach. My players are now at a crossroads and they may very well end up in the Badlands getting clogegd up in the tribe's politics.
By the way, this wouldn't have been possible without your great video on How to Kill your Party with Goblins, one of the players on my table is also a GM (she was the GM of the last campaign the group played, now it's my turn), and she said that she loved the goblins the way I presented them and she said that she can't wait to see the orcs. I basically almost killed a party of four lvl 6 players using only Hobgoblins, a Hobgoblin Captain and a few goblins.
Thank you, Cody :)
I've once created a campaign with an Orc child, my team consisting of 2 Paladins, a cleric, and a rouge. The rouge out weighed in votes helped the child on a long journey, that went in a large circle. By the time they got back to the village it had been burned to the ground, at this time the child blew a whistle, leading 27 Orcs to them...was a fun game, they hated me, but it was fun
I found this just in time, I just started working on a small campaign where the BBEG is a priestess of Luthic.
I like to use Orc's in tandem with Half-Orcs (PC, NPC, Story, whatever have you). There can be a lot of fun times when a party learns that Orcs are going berserk on a nearby village for possibly magic reasons and everyone turns towards the Half-Orc NPC/PC with weapons drawn and lack of trust
Another setting that uses Orcs in both traditional and non-traditional ways is Palladium Fantasy, much like Elder Scrolls, this setting allows for the glorious Scrupulous (Lawful Good) Orc Palladin, and the cannibalistic, illiterate, savage, minions of evil to coexist. Also like Elder Scrolls Orcs are playable, allowing for a scenario where the hook you mentioned of an orc being hunted by his own tribe can be an intro for a new PC.
I'm currently running a campaign where an orcish war plot is the central tension (at least, for now), and this was just the thing I needed. I definitely don't want them to seem stale! Love the big demon dude. The party is definitely going to find one of those among some nasty siege weaponry back at the main orcish encampment. ;D
Old video, but a geeat one. Reminded me of a recent game where the player stumbled into a small village that was conveniently located on the main road, but was mostly avoided during the winter, but the players had no info as to why. There was a massive orc tribe nearby, the players asumed that it was why. They head into the village, see a small trade caravan being put away. Upon investigation the villagers said it was thiers and just returned. But the players had seen blood. The bard also noticed there were few young adult women, and no ugly ones. He was excited. A few days later the players woke up to the sound of cries for help. Turns out the village paid tribute of a young woman a year which they now took from travelers. The players jumped into action. After they followed the group back to the camp, they saw human women with thier orc husbands and half orc families, and most seemed pretty happy. The players had a morale predicament, a couple really. And the next week til next session was filled with discussion about it. It was great
In the campaign we play on orcs accepted curse of lycantrophy for the clan. Making them werewolves
In my game, orcs are clan-minded, and most of the time too focused on clan feuds and "retaking the stronghold of X for my ancestors". As such they're very lawful and answer - and submit - to force, which means they make perfect minions for badder guys, be it great warchiefs or anyone else. They're pretty adept at smithing and warfare too!
This man is a true genius. I have yet to play D&D and now I'm even more excited. Just need to find a group D:
A gang of bandits steals something valuable to the orcs and thus gets the orcs to raid the neighboring village to find the stolen valuable, making it easier for the bandits that stay maybe 1 to 2 miles away to come in and take whatever isn't already taken while robbing a few survivors.
That's just my off the top of my head little interaction with orcs, never used them but looking forward to it and testing this little idea out
As always, great video. How about an orc horde that comes not to raid and pillage but to colonize? Trying to get away from an ever bigger threat. A barbarians at the gates fleeing from the Mongols inspired idea.
One of the Orcs from Volo's apparently DO ride Giant Bats, which I'm planning to use soon enough. Players will soon meet up with Centaurs, who have an intense feud with Orcs. There'll be a Tanarukk leading the charge, having overtaken the tribe, but if it gets too low on HP and there're other Orcs nearby and still alive, they will turn against it and fight with the players. And surrender, leaving their fates to the PC and the Centaurs.
I love how you gave the Tanarukk the label of "campaign boss" when my party just used suggestion to send one away, told him to run until he dropped and so he is running until he drops. Concentration might have been broken though, I did not tell the party :p
I love the idea of an orc based campaign.
Maybe not the main point, but a large amount of encounters
My son is playing a dragonborn ranger that was raised by orcs. His egg was found by them in a cave. His father was a war-chieftain that was killed on a raid. He went out to avenge his father's death. He wrote a bunch more to the story but that is the most relevant part to this video.
I'm resurrecting this because I just saw it and had to say that you're spot on about the tactics, but you don't even need magic using orcs to make even a smallish group dangerous. Orcs are below average int, but they aren't completely stupid.
If you have a group of orcs that develop the sense to use cover, corners, and the environment in their fights what could be a standard encounter with around 6 - 8 orcs can become deadly in a hurry.
Orcs should know to set fires, to knock over tables (if indoors) to use as cover, to try to flank, and to withdraw/run if overpowered. They can really be underestimated (as in TPK for even mid level adventurers) in even scouting party size, if used appropriately.
My standard orc patrol (6 orcs) are: 3 warriors (melee combatants with a two handed axe and javelins), a couple archers (composite short bow and a one handed axe), and a caster/leader that directs the others and provides some variety (each is different, but most are martial or divine focused). They open from range (javelins and arrows to soften enemies up and take down obvious wizards and sorcerers) then the melee guys close and mop up. If two or more of them fall, they will retreat (they are not suicidal, after all).
Have the Orc's engage the party at a decent range (60-80 feet) and pepper the party while slowly falling back when the party tries to close the gap. Orcs will focus those without armor with their javelins. Doing a fighting retreat (at the end of which they fight the players in melee) and trying to get the party to divide themselves is an excellent way to make them more dangerous.
i am loving your "how to use monsters" series..idea/request..monsters with potential symbiotic relationships...like in 3.5 ...shocker lizards in shabling mounds....
I like using goblins and orcs together, the orcs using the goblins as canon fodder and maybe a higher power providing special weapons and augmentation to the stronger members. I feed small bits to players as they go along, starting with a small goblin band leading up to the dragon building a grand army kind of thing.
Its great that you bring up Tolken; his orcs are mainly the type I think of.
Stupid because they are not taught; not stupid because they cannot think. I am far more a goblin user than an orc one because I think of orcs as being far less in number.
all those extras you brought up I had not seen yet; though Ogre Magi vs Ogres is the best comparison I can think of. Ogres being Barbaric and every so often having a talent for sorcery that is rather troubling to deal with.
I really liked the World of Warcraft orcs so I gave the group an orc follower after they rescued him from capture and he told them he was abandoned by the tribe as they moved on to new territory once he was injured. They essentially gained an Orc Druid after I messed with the stats a bit.
Hey. I am The Orc Guy from Monster-A-Day: And I have a few suggestions:
Allies: Never be afraid to throw some interesting allies into your orc tribe. Orcs often team up with ogres, frost giants, dragons, and other creatures. In addition, they tend to have some wereboars among their tribe. Turn some orcs into wereboars. Add some human barbarians or pirates to their warband. Never be afraid to mix it up and give them some non-orcs working in tandem with them. Maybe they hired a bunch of bugbears as mercenaries after becoming flush with gold after a raid.
NPCs: There are a bunch of NPC stat blocks out there, and many, including the warlord, the gladiator, the champion, and others all are ripe for use with orcs. Alter an assassin to also be a Red Fang of Shargaas.
Magic items: Perhaps a major orc in the tribe got his hand on a magic item, or several. Maybe a war chief got his hands on a hammer of thunderbolts, gauntlets of ogre power, and a Belt of Storm Giant Strength. Suddenly, you’re dealing with an orc with 30 Strength and a massive To Hit bonus.
Hybrids: D&D has a long history of orc hybrids. You can easily take advantage of these. What comes to mind is the losels: Orc-baboons that can attack from the trees and have Pack Tactics in addition to their aggression. And regular half-orcs have always been known to be natural leaders.
There are many things to do with orcs, so it really is worth experimenting
Keep posting videos like these. They are a really helpful and you had a lot of great ideas.
This really gave me some great ideas and inspiration for future campaigns and encounters, please keep this series going!!!
Kinda wanna take inspiration from the new Black Panther movie, and give my Orcs armored Rhino's as mounts. I feel they just mesh thematically really well with Orcs, these large, powerful creatures, trained to charge down enemies. And the sound of 2 dozen rhino mounted Orcs thundering over the hills to raid or demand tribute of a village could give a party a hell of a fright.
Awesome vid! I don't think a lot of dm's do Orcs justice, which is a shame cause they're classic!
I like videos on running monsters, hopefully something on dragons. Love me some dragons!
Keep up the good work!
Danke!
i ran a short campaign a couple of years back: the group's alchemist was looking for an incredibly rare flower that is most common (but still super rare) in the orc's homeland.
there they encountered a small group of orcs. after "befriending" them, they got invited to the great "wedding" of two orc-tribes that have been in war for decades. tensions are high among the orcs, trusting neither the outsiders, nor the orcs from the opposite tribe. but things go relativly smooth, until the alchemist spots his super rare flower ontop of the bride's wedding-bouquet ...
I've been messing around with the idea of Warhammer 40k/ age of sigmar style orks/oruuks giving them a sort of rage ability where one orc (presumably the leader) would scream and go Into a rage (you could also add an action surge and inspiration) causing the other orcs within earshot to rage as well, so you have this chain reaction of orcs with a barbarian Rage..... I just think it's a cool idea
My pcs surprised me once when they had an orc npc tagging along with the party. He had been mean towards some of the other npcs and the pcs as well. When one of the npcs double crossed the party (should have seen that one coming...) they party gave chase to the npc and when they finally cornered the turn coat, the orc charged in when the party asked for help because they weren't doing to good. Taking the full brunt of the turn coat's only lightning bolt, the orc fell. The party then built him a small tomb. Too long of a story to type out everything that happened, also module spoilers. I love having my party meet various creatures from the monster manual and giving them choices other than, "draw weapons and roll initiative."
More KYPW? Yes please.
This feels like a great idea for a series of videos.
Pure gold! I could watch and learn from you all day! Thank you!
One thing I like to do is to make Orcs into the original ''Adaption Species'', kind of like a precursor for the Human. In D&D 5th edition, I give Half Orcs a fluff based bonus that they are hardy throughout any type of weather, and I give Orcs Resistance towards Fire and Ice, as they travel the realms. Since they were not allowed a domain to claim, they claimed warfare and conquering, and thus they are forged to take on new enemies in new lands, and in a desperate search for a land to call their own. I also give both species an additional 10 ft. movement, because they are to hunt down prey on foot, because civilization ain't their schtick.
Whereas Humans are adaptive at everything, Orcs are the adaptive survivors, as they can go on for many-a-days before succumbing to hunger, they can run down prey with minimalist tools or their bare hands and they can survive in lands deemed inhabitable by others such as the furthest of icy plains to that of volcanic ridges. Thus, the Half Orc is the most optimized survivor of them all, as they forge both the universalist progression of the Human and the natural survivalist of the Orcs into one.
In addition, I love to, in general, grant species a odd spectrum of emotions. Humans would be the one species to be able to feel all emotions equally potent, whilst Elves might have a lack of empathy but an increased sense of pride or acceptance, Dwarves might pose a decreased sense of happiness and joy but a great ideal bond of friendship and unity. In the same way, I make the Orcs the most passionate of all species, a reason as to why they dwell on emotions more than logic most of the time, why they boast about things so vividly and why they are like they are. For if a Human can feel every emotion, Orcs have straight out lost certain emotions and ways of thought such as being contempt, calmness and peace, but gained hatred, love and dedication to that of levels beyond what any other species could imagine. Hence why Half Orcs tends to be interesting in my campaigns, whereas they combine the two and basically feel every single Human emotion, but cranked up to 11 due to the Orcish mind. This is specifically interesting to invoke when a Half Orc player attempts to do something orderly, logical and cold-hearted, like leaving their friends to die to save their own hide, or let the corrupt politician continue to rule with an iron fist. I think it adds a lot to a Hero, and to both Half Orcs and Orcs as a species.
I'm probably late to the party but please keep this series going! I'm a new DM and your videos have helped so much
I personally have been doing a bit of a rework for orcs in my recent campaigns. I have given them a more Mongol horde feel, substituting wolves and... other creatures for horses as appropriate to location. I also added a cultural thing to them where they only wear 1/10th of their personal wealth into battle, and have a tradition of taking and ransoming others based on their carried value. My players were really surprised the first time they got in too deep, and instead of a tpk, were ransomed for a major fortune back to the city they worked for, and then given a debt to pay off at all costs. Also, the horde leaders wearing rags and carrying ancient artifacts was a great misdirect, the party assumed the lieutenants with all the gold and such were in charge, and the let the actual leaders, with their magic items and gear escape to chase the gold decked middle managment.
Great Vid! I've been namedroppng about an Orc tribe building an army to invade the Kingdom in my running Campaign. The players are already scared without even having encountered a single Orc. Definately will take advantage of your input, to flesh them out more.
My current campaign features a distinction between the horse-riding hill orcs inspired by Mongol and Scottish cultures, and the mountain orcs that adhere more towards the orcs described in the Monster Manual and Volo's. I've already set up a dynamic amongst the hill orcs, with some nomadic tribes forming a confederacy and working with the hill dwarves to gain legitimacy, while other hill orc tribes are content with raids and bullying to get by. All the while the mountain orcs are responsible for the reputation that orcs are brutal, sadistic killers. Recently they have taken to wearing pelts that make them resemble members of the confederacy during their brutalities as they view the confederacy as an affront to 'the sacrifice of Gruumsh'. It's been a blast so far!
I once DM'd a campaing that started with goblins>bugbears>hobgoblins for the first 5-6 levels and for 6-11 into 2 battling orc tribes and allowed them to pick a side with the one side not chosen turning to demonic help for around lvl 15 or so and then ended with a full on hellish invasion.