Gray Orcs are open?

[c2k]

Orc tribes don't really get along with one another unless they 1) Both gain something from the alliance or 2) One is completely subjugated by the other.

[Azulfae]

Alignment/religion/orc politics is just sucha complicated thing to consider before making a PC.

I've found with experience that when playing a basic half-orc you just go for the 'mother was human and was raised by her but have always had it hard amongst humans' option and then try to fit in as best you can and make some good non half-orc friends.

I've done the Evil half-orc gruumsh worshipper gang thing and it was awsome fun hacking around a server with half a dozen other barbarian multiclassed half-orcs always getting in squabbles and having fights. Really fun but at the end of the day you don't live very long.

With a pure blood orc like a Gray orc, where do you start? I mean you don't have a human parent, so you don't have that tie, that reason to be wandering around inside human society.

Whether Neutral or Evil *spits on good* why on earth are you trying to integrate? It just doesn't make sense, unless you have a tribe or small following that you are trying to settle down with in the region and it's a case of you want to get good relations going with the other humanoids so that you don't get raided by adventurers and pecked off as a result of your similarity to the less cerebral breeds of orc.

This would mean if anyone wants to play a gray orc that can intertact with other races and settle in Sundren really it is going to need to be part of some sort of Orcan group right?

This goes back to the old Orc group issue I mentioned before. You got to be ready for serious Dwarven and Elven group prejudice and hostility.

[Saulus]

I've been considering making the Hands of Gruumsh a playable faction now that they have a significantly larger place as a safety net in the vast forests of Mossdale with many existing fortifications with the Bloodmaim.

[Product of Void]

Nice to see someone else figuring out the reasons behind their charactors actions. During hunts I typically ponder the charactors past, and why they are how they are.

Why would a pure orc attempt to be part of human society?

1. after being spared by a human they become more curious about humans.
2. A captured human cleric feared not their fate only request a return of their holy symbol to their temple. Impressing the orcs with how they took the torture that lead to death.
3. Greed drove the orc to seek leadership of the tribe. Leading to a beating and banishment.
4. Grumush has given a vision of conquest requiring them to learn human ways to better train orc hordes to defeat them, and study their defenses.

that help?

[Azulfae]

Or perhaps a uniquely 'wise' gray orc, dispite his low academic achievements and his evil intentions sees opportunities amongst the complex structure of human civilisation to gain in life what he could not amongst the orcs.

If there is gonna be a Gruumsh worhipping orcan faction on this server Saulus I will be right in there from the second it can exist. This sort of thing is the real deal, you don't get this kind of opportunity very often as an Orc player.

[Saulus]

Bloodmaim Orcs = Hands of Gruumsh. But they include Grey Orcs as well.

[Mattachine]

My suggestions wasn't for an automatic association with any group, but, as I said, a DM-created association.

Here's a few more reasons a Gray Orc might be wandering on its own:

1. Has some personality trait that makes it unable to fit into its tribe, and it escaped or was exiled--homocidal with respect to own tribe, psychopathic, over-ambitious, wanderlust, etc.

2. tribe was destroyed by humans and it was taken in as a slave--escaped slavery somehow (such as killing master) and fled or earned freedom somehow (such as a being a successful gladiator)

3. orc has a vision to follow a non-orcish deity, so it leaves to find a human order of that deity that will take it in; this doesn't have to be a good deity

4. orc was found as child by an church/order of monks/ranger outpost and raised instead of killed; grew up in a border region with humans and half-orcs

[Azulfae]

Only fear is to start playing a rather unique gray orc that is different to the normal gray orc on a significant level, and then as that becomes the most playable type. Then you end up with everyone playing gray orcs as something completely different to how they are or should be and the authenticity of the race becomes lost.

I spent a few hours trying to create a really great gray orc concept yesterday, messing with classes and level up variations and then trying to think of the background for such a character and after it all i just went and re-made an old PC I'd played in NWN1 who was a basic half-orc and to be honest he was far more solid and less wishy washy than anything else i could come up with for the gray orc. Plus the benefit of not being ECL +1 Which really sucks.

Gray orcs are not real orcs, this is my problem. They are a docile, and contemplative race evolved from orcs. Mixing human blood with a regular orc is still far more orcish in every way.

The regular half orc has more of a piggy face snout look than the gray orcs too.

I'm sorry but I'm throwing Gray orcs in the bin and sticking with half-orcs. Unless pure 100% real deal orc becomes playable of course

[Thief Of Navarre]

The grey orcs do play out nicely as a conteplative shamanistic/clerical character..

They might be more often then not a leader of a band of regular orcs serving their spiritual needs (if any) would they not?

[Mattachine]

Though one should definitely be concerned is the server ends up with half a dozen gray orcs walking around in Sundren City, consider this:

Wouldn't an orc PC in Sundren most likely be an exceptional case? One with an unusual background? Otherwise, why would it be there at all?


Here's an analogy: There are about 60 staff members at the school I work at. I am the only former marine on staff; it is fairly unusual for marines to become school teachers. So, how did I end up in that career? Perhaps it was because I was an unusual member of the USMC in the first place, having a chemistry degree before enlisting, and enlisting rather than going to Officer Training School.

What I'm saying is that, to me, it actually makes sense for a gray orc PC on Sundren to have an unusual background. Otherwise, why would they have gone away from their tribal lands in the first place?

[Phantom Lamb]

We understand your point Matta, but it's putting the cart before the horse.

IF we see too many orcs, or too many orcs being used like normal people, THEN we'll react and make them restricted. So far, it's not the case (mostly because the race needs fixing at login).

Let's not keep repeating the same points. We understand the concerns, but until we SEE them manifest, we won't make a change.

[--chupacabra--]

Gray orcs are not real orcs, this is my problem. They are a docile, and contemplative race evolved from orcs. Mixing human blood with a regular orc is still far more orcish in every way.

The regular half orc has more of a piggy face snout look than the gray orcs too.

I'm sorry but I'm throwing Gray orcs in the bin and sticking with half-orcs. Unless pure 100% real deal orc becomes playable of course

I don't think Gray Orcs are soft and fuzzy, nor are they charlatan Orcs, but instead a separate race of Orcs.
Here's an informative excerpt from 'Races of Faerun' about the Gray Orcs: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20030301a

According to FR lore, the ancestors of the Gray orcs entered Faerun from another plane via the Orcgate. This was a dimensional portal resulting from the Theurgist Adept Thayd, last surviving apprentice of the ancient Imaskari wizards, experimenting with dangerous magic. The Orcs flooded the area around the Moonsea and sparked off the Orcgate wars. Eventually defeated, the Gray orcs dispersed and spinter tribes of Gray Orcs inhabited areas East of the Heartlands.

The mountain Orcs are the other race of Orc in Faerun, and live primarily in the Northern and Western Heartlands.

Gray Orcs share the mountain Orcs' barbaric nature, but constant strife amongst the various nomadic tribes prevented them from ever achieving the same organization they had had during the Orcgate wars. They are religious zealots whose Clerics wield significant power within their tribal society.

[Azulfae]

There you go.

I think they are pants personally, why couldn't we have real orcs in this stupid expansion

[rustediron]

Never mind orcs, we have half-orcs already, which are good enough substitutes. WHERE'S MY GOBLIN!?

[Azulfae]

I've always fancied playing a hobgoblin fighter/weapon master