Bloodlines for Orogs

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backlands
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Bloodlines for Orogs

Post by backlands » Sun Jun 04, 2023 9:22 pm

With the confirmation from Irongron previously that other Orc races will not be made into playable races I have been wondering if the new bloodlines feature that has been used for other races may have an opportunity to expand the options available for the Orog race.
The reason I see this as a valuable step forward is that currently the Orog race is sub-par for wisdom based classes due to the steep -4 WIS modifier that they receive. While most of the WIS classes are not that big of a deal the loss of access to Shaman is out of place from my perception of Orc/Orog lore. In addition the Wiki itself notes that more Orog’s are becoming Rangers, which is unlikely to be seen with the WIS modifier as it is.

Most orog characters are fighters or barbarians, but recently more orogs are becoming rangers and rogues as they explore the surface world.

I think that introducing new bloodlines to a few races may be beneficial to the server overall to allow a broader range of RP opportunities with varying races and classes. I am familiar with the Orog more than others so that is why I am mentioning it.

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One example of RP enabled by a bloodline for WIS classes centers specifically around Shaman’s and the tales from lore about Orcish shamans. Specifically in their channeling of great heroes of the past to fight alongside their great warriors. I see this tying in well with the lore of Gruumsh and Shamans of Gruumsh being a thing for interested players to RP as Orogs.

Overall the lore about Orogs is a bit lacking but based on the context around other orcish races I think it can be justified that Orogs would have offshoots of varying types of Orogs in their society as they are the sort that has roles that are filled as needed, such as shamans, clerics, leaders, and wisemen (wiseorogs I guess) or otherwise. In addition there are mentions of offshoots of the primary pool of Underdark Orogs that follow Ghaundaur instead of Gruumsh which could lead to varying Orog forms.

It would also be beneficial to treat some other races in the same fashion Half-Giants have been treated, with a few options to their racial stat spreads allowing more versatility in the race. Orogs could have their +2/+2/-4 shifted around to a few variants, such as:

  • Ghaundaurian Orog (noted earlier): DEX -4 / WIS +2 / INT +2

  • Luthician Orog: INT +2 / CHA +2 / STR -4

Note: these are just idle thoughts and I am not great at balance so the stat spreads may need work to be considered “fitting”. I think the Ghaundarian Orog is most fitting to introduce and perhaps others could give their thoughts on this or other bloodlines for Orogs.

Edit: Just wanted to add that the naming of these could be more ambiguous, someone else noted that perhaps naming them things like "Bloodline of the Cave Mother" and "Bloodline of the Strategist" may be better and I think this would be good, and cause less expectation of worshiped deities from the bloodline.

Edit: An image from the Races of Faerun book and another from Monster Mythology are included below, this came from some discussion in the Discord lore channel.

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Kalopsia
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Re: Bloodlines for Orogs

Post by Kalopsia » Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:04 pm

Makes sense thematically, although the suggested numbers might need another look. Approved!


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