| Racial Traits | Effect |
|---|---|
| Bonus Attribute: | At creation, the charater gets a +2 bonus to an attribute of their choice. |
| Skilled: | Half-Orcs gain an additional skill rank at 1st level, and one additional rank whenever they gain a level. |
| Intimidating: | Half-Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus on Intimidate checks due to their fearsome nature. |
| Orc Weapon Familiarity: | Half-Orcs are proficient with greataxes and falchions and treat any weapon with the word “orc” in its name as a martial weapon. |
| Orc Ferocity: | When a Half-Orc is brought below 0 Hit Points but not killed, he can fight on for 1 more round if disabled. At the end of his next turn, unless brought above 0 Hit Points, he immediately falls unconscious. |
Like the half-elf, the half-orc has a blend of their human parent’s versatilty, and their other parent’s traits. In this case they’ll get an orc’s fearsome countenence, giving them a +2 bonus to Intimidate (Persuasion) checks, Orc Weapon Familiarity - generally focusing on heavy weapons - and Orc Ferocity, which allows the half-orc to fight on for an extra round even when reduced to 0 Hit Point or less… provided they’re not slain outright.
These abilities heavily favor warrior classes (especially Barbarian, Fighter and Ranger), as the weapons they gain proficiency with are of dubious value to non-warriors, as it the ability to stagger through another round of combat. That said, they can relatively freely focus on whatever vocation they wish, as they can allocate a two-point bonus to any attribute and gain one skill point per level, just like humans. Whether their orcish traits are more or less valauble than having a human’s bonus feat is debatable, but nevertheless their versatility is only somewhat diminished by it.
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