Orcs often struggle to gain acceptance among other communities, who frequently see them as brutes. Those who earn the loyalty of an orc friend, however, soon learn that an orc's fidelity and honesty are unparalleled. Orc barbarians, fighters, and rangers are prized as gladiators and mercenaries. While some human settlements might be hesitant to accept an entire orc community into their midst, a small handful of orc mercenaries can do the job of an entire squad of human conscripts, so long as the orcs are well fed and well paid. Though the belief that orcs are only suited for battle is pervasive among other humanoids, the harsh orc mentality comes from a long history of conflict rather than a lack of ability in other areas.
Orc culture teaches that they are shaped by the challenges they survive, and the most worthy survive the most hardships. Orcs who attain both a long life and great triumphs command immense respect.
Physical Description
Orcs are tall and powerfully built, with long arms and stocky legs. Many orcs top 7 feet in height, though they tend to adopt broad, almost bow-legged stances and slouch forward at the shoulders. The combination makes for a seeming contradiction, sharing an eye level with most humanoids while simultaneously towering over them. Orcs have rough skin, thick bones, and rock-hard muscles, making them suited to war and other physically demanding tasks. Despite the roughness of their skin, orcs scar easily, and most orcs take great pride in the scars they have accumulated. Orc skin color is typically green and occasionally gray, though some orcs have other skin colors that reflect adaptations to their environments.
Orcs consider powerful builds and heavily scarred skin attractive, regardless of gender. A powerful orc makes the hold stronger, and scars are signs of victories won or hardships survived. Similarly, many orcs consider large, jutting tusks to be more attractive than smaller tusks, since the former make more effective weapons. Many orcs also find tattoos to be attractive, particularly large or painful ones that cover a significant amount of skin.
Orcs reach adulthood around the age of 10. Orcs can live 60 years or more, but without anyone to protect them from each other or themselves, few live past 30 years of age.
Society
Most orc communities define themselves through two things: pain and glory. Each earns respect in near equal measure, so long as the pain is borne with stoicism. An orc with many scars who walks uncomplaining with a broken leg draws as much admiration as one who wins a great victory on the battlefield.
Power in an orc hold comes from strength or family lineage. The structure tends to be feudal, with weaker orcs working at the behest of the strong. One mighty orc dying in battle can shake up an entire power structure, leading to squabbling and duels to decide control. Many orcs who tire of being subservient split off to form their own warbands, traveling to new territory.
Young orcs are typically raised by the entire community. Indeed, it would be almost impossible for orcs to raise their young any other way, since twins, triplets, and even quadruplets are quite common in orc families, as are deaths among orcs in their child-rearing years. Many orc holds conduct ceremonies when a young orc comes of age, typically around their tenth or eleventh birthday, during which the new adults are told what their role in the hold will be. For communities that practice ritual scarification or tattooing, this is often when the young orcs receive their first hold-scar or tattoo as well.
Orcs fear very little, but most distrust magic. Magic is seen as a tool that bypasses the physical and allows the weak to contend with the strong, a belief that runs at odds with orc values. While they respect the physical might of warpriests, and even druids who take on the forms of great beasts, they find arcane and occult magic questionable at best and unethical on the whole. All but the most depraved orc communities see necromancy as a foul art that steals glory from the dead, and their growing struggles against the undead have given them newfound common ground with their humanoid neighbors.
Religion
Orcs, traditionally, worship no gods. Instead they view them as equals, or the ultimate adversaries to test their mettle against. For those that do worship a deity, The Hunter, The Dread Wolf, and The Elemental hold some appeal to orc sensibilities.
Adventurers
A common orc saying is, “You are the scars that shape you.” An orc's drive to overcome challenges and prove themself spurs many orcs to become adventurers, though orcs are more likely to set out on their own or with other orcs than alongside adventurers of other ancestries.
Common orc backgrounds include gladiator, hunter, martial disciple, nomad, and warrior from the Core Rulebook, plus bandit, outrider, and refugee from this book. Orcs thrive in martial classes like barbarian and fighter.
Names
Orcs have a harsh, guttural language, and their naming conventions are no exception. Many orc names are simply the Orcish word for a particularly desirable trait, such as great strength, height, or ferocity. Orcs commonly use either their hold name or a name referencing a particularly memorable accomplishment as their surname.
Sample Names
Arkus, Ausk, Durra, Grask, Grillgiss, Krugga, Mahja, Murdut, Ollak, Onyat, Thurk, Uirch, Unach
Orc Mechanics
Traits
Orc, Humanoid
Hit Points
10
Size
Medium
Speed
25 feet
Ability Boosts
Strength, Free
Languages
Common, Runic
Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it's positive). Choose from Elemental, Undercommon, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Darkvision
You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
Versatile Heritages
You select a heritage at 1st level to reflect abilities passed down to you from your ancestors or common among those of your ancestry in the environment where you were born or grew up. You have only one heritage and can’t change it later. A heritage is not the same as a culture or ethnicity, though some cultures or ethnicities might have more or fewer members from a particular heritage.
Badlands Orc
You come from sun-scorched badlands, where long legs and an ability to withstand the elements helped you thrive. You can Hustle twice as long while exploring before you have to stop, and you treat environmental heat effects as if they were one step less extreme (incredible heat becomes extreme, extreme heat becomes severe, and so on).
Battle-Ready Orc
You descend from a line of terrifying battlefield commanders. You become trained in Intimidation, and you gain the Intimidating Glare skill feat.
Deep Orc
Your calloused hands and red eyes speak to a life spent in the deep darkness of mountain caverns, where you learned to battle on rocky cliffs and survive with minimal resources. You gain the Terrain Expertise feat for underground terrain and you are not flat-footed while Climbing and can Climb with a hand occupied (you must still use another hand and both legs to Climb).
Hold-Scarred Orc
You are part of an orc community that participates in ritual scarification or tattooing. The marks on your skin show your exceptional hardiness and vitality. You gain 12 Hit Points from your ancestry instead of 10. You also gain the Diehard feat.
Rainfall Orc
You were born in a rain forest with only tangles of trees providing protection from torrential rainstorms and flash floods. You've learned to move adeptly through jungle terrain and resist the various ailments common in humid environs. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Athletics checks to Climb or Swim and a +1 circumstance bonus to saving throws against diseases.
Winter Orc
Your ancestors survived in cold climates. You become trained in Survival, and you treat environmental cold effects as if they were one step less extreme (incredible cold becomes extreme, extreme cold becomes severe, and so on).
Orc Feats
At 1st level, you gain one ancestry feat.
Iron Fists (Feat 1)
Orc |
Your fists have been forged by battle, your naturally tough skin and dense bone further hardened by conflict. Your fist unarmed attacks no longer have the nonlethal trait and gain the shove weapon trait.
Orc Ferocity [R] (Feat 1)
Orc |
Frequency once per day
Fierceness in battle runs through your blood, and you refuse to fall from your injuries. You avoid being knocked out and remain at 1 Hit Point, and your wounded condition increases by 1.
Orc Lore (Feat 1)
Orc |
The hold elders taught you your people's histories, told tales of great athletic feats, and shared with you the hardships your ancestors endured so that you can pass this wisdom down to future generations. You become trained in Athletics and Survival. If you would automatically become trained in one of those skills (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in a skill of your choice. You also become trained in Orc Lore.
Orc Superstition [R] (Feat 1)
Concentrate | Orc |
Trigger You attempt a saving throw against a spell or magical effect, before rolling.
You defend yourself against magic by relying on techniques derived from orc cultural superstitions. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to your saving throw against the triggering spell or magical effect.
Orc Warmask (Feat 1)
Orc |
You paint your face to create a warmask, an invested magic item of negligible Bulk with an item level equal to your level and a usage of worn (mask). It has the divination trait and a magical tradition trait depending on its type. Donning or removing your warmask requires 1 minute of work, though you don't need to Invest the mask each time. The warmask is unique to you and might signify your hold, your accomplishments, or your faith. While creating your mask, you must choose the source of your warmask's power from the options below. This source determines the mask's associated skill as well as magical tradition.
Once you select this source, it can't be changed. You become trained in the associated skill. You can spend 1 hour performing a ceremony that costs 50 gp to attune yourself more deeply with your warmask. If you do, you gain a +1 item bonus to the associated skill whenever you wear the warmask.
- The Gods Religion, divine tradition
- The Land Nature, primal tradition
- Magic Arcana, arcane tradition
- The Unknown Occultism, occult tradition
Orc Weapon Familiarity (Feat 1)
Orc |
In combat, you favor the brutal weapons that are traditional for your orc ancestors. You are trained with the greatsword and greataxe. In addition, you gain access to all uncommon orc weapons. For the purpose of determining your proficiency, martial orc weapons are simple weapons and advanced orc weapons are martial weapons.
Whenever you gain a class feature that grants you expert or greater proficiency in certain weapons, you also gain that proficiency for greatswords, greataxes, and all orc weapons in which you are trained.
At 5th level, whenever you critically hit using a greatsword, greataxe, or an orc weapon, you apply the weapon's critical specialization effect.
Read the Signs [A] (Feat 1)
Concentrate | Orc |
You recall the signs’ predictions about your current situation. If your next action requires you to attempt one or more skill checks, roll 1d8. On a result of 6, 7, or 8, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to the first such skill check you attempt. On a 3, 4, or 5, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus. On a 2, you gain nothing. On a 1, you take a –1 circumstance penalty to the skill check.
Tusks (Feat 1)
Orc |
You have particularly long, jagged tusks perfect for tearing meat from bone. You gain a tusks unarmed attack that deals 1d6 piercing damage. Your tusks are in the brawling group and have the finesse and unarmed traits.
Special You can take this feat only at 1st level, and you can't retrain into this feat. You can retrain out of this feat only through drastic measures such as breaking or filing your tusks.
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