This week we conclude our exploration of ancestry in Realm of Runes with the Half-Orc, and its art by Nikki Smith-Cielo. As a hybrid ancestry, Half-Orc is added to another basic ancestry by using one of your ancestry feats. This means that anyone can become a Half-Orc, whether your non-Orc parentage is Human (as is the typical baseline in many settings) or something more unusual, like Gnome, Goblin, or even Elf. By unshackling Half-Orcs from specific parentage, players gain the freedom to explore many different possible pairings all while using the same easily understood rule set.
From the rulebook: "A half-orc is the offspring of an orc and a creature of another ancestry, or two half-orcs. Because many see orcs as more akin to monsters than people, they sometimes hate and fear half-orcs simply due to their lineage. This commonly pushes half-orcs to the fringes of society performing hard labor or working as mercenaries, or facilitating an avoidable fall into crime or cruelty. Those unable to stand indignities heaped on them in society find a home among their orc kin or trek out into the wilderness to live alone.
"Most assume half-orcs are unintelligent or uncivilized, and half-orcs rarely find acceptance among societies with a large concentration of such folk. To an orc tribe, a half-orc is usually considered intelligent enough to make a good war leader but is seen as weaker than other orcs, regardless of actual physicality. Consequently, many half-orcs end up having low status among orc tribes unless they can prove their strength.
"A half-orc has a shorter lifespan than others of their parentage, only having a life span of about three-quarters of the average when compare to others with the same heritage as those without their orc blood."
One of the intrinsic benefits of possessing Orcish blood is unfettered access to three different pools of ancestry feats. Half-Orcs can freely use their remaining feats to pick options from their initial basic ancestry, from those available to full-blooded Orcs, and from a few available exclusively to Half-Orcs. This true blending of distinct ancestries sets Half-Orcs apart from even other hybrid ancestries, though the strange nature of Orcish similarity to Elves in turn causes some fuzzy reflection between Half-Orcs and Half-Elves.
Half-Orc ancestry feats tend to focus on the power and versatility that comes from an infusion of Orc blood, and thus are especially useful for characters that want some of the Orcish durability grafted onto an ancestry that might lack inherent might or stamina. A Half-Orc's blending of ancestries already gives them great synergy with many different character concepts in general, but they tend to pair exceptionally well with more martial variants of typically less combative classes, such as Bards, Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers and Wizards. Let's take a closer look at each of the Half-Orc specific feats.
HYBRID ANCESTRY (HALF-ORC) ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Biology, Half-Orc, Hybrid]
Prerequisites: You are not an orc
You have a green tinge to your skin and other signs of orc heritage. You gain the orc trait, and add all orc and half-orc ancestry feats to those available to you. Choose two of the following benefits:
Intimidating Visage: You have a +2 un-typed bonus to Intimidation.
Orcish Language: You are fluent with spoken or signed orcish.
Orcish Toughness: Treat your Endurance modifier as 1 higher when gaining Class HP.
Orcish Vision: You have low-light vision.
This is the basic feat required to be a Half-Orc, and serves as a prerequisite for all of the other feats we're going to take a look at. It has the additional prerequisite that you are not already an Orc, which is there mostly for common sense reasons. The Half-Orc exists to add Orcishness to something else, and therefore isn't necessary for those that are already Orcs. This feat also gives you some freedom to customize how your Orcishness manifests in you, with a choice of several options which can all be quite helpful.
FEIGNED SAVAGERY ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Half-Orc]
Prerequisites: +0 Intelligence
Others are quick to assume you are brutish and simple due to your heritage, and you use that to your advantage. When you attempt a Deception, Diplomacy, Performance, Religion or Society check against a creature, you can treat the result as one step better after discovering the result. Once used, this ability can never be used against the same target again.
Being constantly underestimated is unpleasant and unfortunate. Being able to surprise those that write you off when you want to can be huge. Just make sure that you use this trick when you really need it, because once others realize that you're more than you seem they won't be fooled again later.
ORC SIGHT ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Biology, Half-Orc]
Prerequisites: low-light vision
Your orc blood is strong enough to penetrate full darkness. You have darkvision, but are dazzled in areas of direct sunlight.
While all Half-Orcs have some ability to see in dim light thanks to their Orcish parentage, some are lucky enough to inherit the full darkvision from their Orc parent. As with Orcs, however, this full darkvision comes with the price of being less well acclimated to areas of bright light in the harsh sun.
ORCISH STAMINA ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Biology, Half-Orc]
You have a +1 un-typed bonus to Fortitude. If you have a Stamina Pool, increase the pool by 1.
Fortitude is an important save, and having a flat bonus to it can truly be a life-saver against critical dangers like poison, disease, and extreme weather. Check out the blog on the Fighter class for more information about Combat Stamina, and what Vanguards (or those that use Vanguard Dedication) can do with it to turn the action economy of combat to their advantage.
SOCIAL PARIAH ANCESTRY FEAT
[Ancestry, Half-Orc]
You were never accepted in your community, and others generally feared and mistrusted you for your differences. You have a +2 circumstance bonus to Intimidation checks against creatures with whom you share a trait, but take a -1 circumstance penalty to Deception, Diplomacy, Religion and Society checks against them.
This feat is for those that have regularly had unfortunately unpleasant interactions with their parent ancestries. While everyone hopes to be loved and accepted by those around them, learning to turn the absence of that nurturing into an advantage can be an important adaptation for survival.
Whether your character shows only minor indications of Orc heritage or is thoroughly Orcish, Half-Orcs make for interesting and flavorful characters with a unique perspective on the world. While all Half-Orcs might share some amount of Orcish blood, they are nonetheless capable of incredible diversity. This concludes our art-filled exploration of character ancestry in Realm of Runes. Next week we'll start taking a deeper look at the monster creation rules, and the Menagerie line of rule supplements, including some example stat blocks.
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