Half-Orc The Savage Side of D&D 5e| Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Races

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5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Races| Half-Orc The Savage Side of D&D 5e
Nerdarchy walks on the wild side with the D&D 5E half-orc. This is one of the most brutal incarnations of the half-orc of all the editions of dungeons and dragons. Half-orcs in 5e ar one of the ultimate races when it comes to martial melee characters. In the thick of the fray is where these guys and gals really shine. Let us know in the comments below how you feel about this D&D race.
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• Half-Orc The Savage Si...
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[@tonyhacker5980]

Just subscribed, this shits great. I love that theres a place to listen to someone talking about d and d in this kind of setting, its nice

[@MastertheGamerpg]

A video series the wife and I will be doing is D&D5e Races soon. Listening to this in the background while I work on some stuff. Thanks!

[@timfrancisco7640]

I am currently running a Chaotic Good Half Orc Paladin. He is awesome as I wrote my own background story and have written him almost as a fighter when we started but is learning about his "religious" side and strives to be good but is drawn to evil. Picking the Oath of Vengeance as well is really helpful for how I play him, and yes the savage attacks bonus is awesome. I have only once gotten savage attacks with divine smite but when I did it was instant death for the boss we were up against, which really confused our DM as he thought it was going to be a hard fight.

[@mikegould6590]

Love the Half-orc. My last D&D character waaaaaaaaay back in 2nd Edition was a Half-Orc, and despite their mental social abilities back then, they were a lot of fun. Now, with those removed, they are awesome. Really looking forward to getting my Orcness on.

[@Nerdarchy]

Go get your s brother. Orc it to the max! -Nerdarchist Dave

[@therandom802]

This might be nitpicking, but the word melee is pronounced "maylay". Beyond that, the video is informative in its own way and I enjoy the format that Nerdarchy provides.

[@Nerdarchy]

Thanks for the kind words. We are from south jersey and get nitpicked over quite often on our pronunciation of words. We accepted as just being what nerds do :) -Nerdarchist Dave

[@thevoidcritter]

"so I'm thinking a bladelock half-orc would be cool" - years later and Critical Role has a half-orc bladelock

[@abec666]

EDIT(I corrected some values)There is another way to double your critical range.The recless attack from the barbarrian.Advantage doubles your chances to crit.So a champ3/barb2 will have 20% chances to hit.If he is half orc and barbar 9+ things get wacky damage wise. With twf barbar 9champ3 will have a good 60% chances to crit for 3d8 per round or with GWstyle 40% for 3d12 rerolling 1-2s

[@Nerdarchy]

Good call. Giving up those high levels of barb kind of hurts, but who really gets to those higher levels in campaign anyway. I might have to do a character build article on this over on the nerdarchy website at some point. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@abec666]

Nerdarchy Yeah barb 20th feature is very nice but who gonna get to 20 lvl anyway.Champ/Barbar combo was nice at the picture but once i made the calculations i was shocked on how good this combo is DPR wise compared to clean barbar or clean champion, Also if you are totem TWF is much better than 2hander for you. The berserker is an ANIMAL this 1 minute.I was ok fighter has 3 attacks too at 11 level too but...Oh ssst this guy is WOW this minute. fighting Style/action surge is a nice bonus for a barbar too. To check this calculations go to anydice .com/program/5357 For easier view I highly suggest choose this view options on the page (its under the codebox): View:Graph , Data: At least All the calculations include misses/crits

[@Nerdarchy]

BalorGr Hondatech Duuuude! Don't take this the wrong way but you make my head hurt. Between the sorcerer and now the barbarian calculations I feel like I've been mentally attacked by a berserker, lol. I choose to take your word for it you've obviously put a lot of effort into figuring out so now I don't need to. Thanks for your diligence. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@abec666]

Nerdarchy Haha its ok Dave.I hope my english "sound" ok by the way! But yeah no matter how tempting and nice it may seem to put a couple of berserkers for the party to kill, lvl6 and above zerkers are EXTREMELY lethal. You cant mind controll/fear them, they have physical weapon resistance, they have a good 60% chance to hit a 20AC PC at level 6(18STR,recless attack) and they deal tons of damage. A video for DMs DOs-DONTs would be nice! Keep up the good job guys.

[@Nerdarchy]

BalorGr Hondatech We will look into your video suggestion we really enjoy doing requests. As for your English it's probably better than mine and I only speak one language barely. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@redfeildre349]

Half-Orc Monk: Savage Attacks + Flurry of Blows = Pain

[@badguy5]

If you can get advantage on the attacks for some reason (prone or stunned), then you start getting advantage and hooray!

[@Nerdarchy]

badguy5 Stunned shouldn't be to hard with a way of the open hand monk. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@Nerdarchy]

Yea I think Ryan is dying to run one of his old half-orc monk character concepts. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@rangerroy641]

For S&Gs I rolled up a 20th level Half Orc Barbarian...... it's a frightening machine.

[@Nerdarchy]

I imagine it is. All the I'm sure the 20th fighter champion orc will quite scary as well. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@rangerroy641]

A 20th level Half Off anything is a frightening concept.

[@aarlavaan]

I played a half orc paladin. it is fun, but the character was super conflicted because he was always angry and trying to fight his own nature.

[@jonjenka]

What would you guys think about a Half-orc Bard? I was thinking a back story where he was the son of a prostitute and was really fat. The fact that he was brought up in human society and mocked because of weight, prostitute mother, and his Half-orc blood, made him turn to music. He is a gentle giant for the most part, but when enraged he losses control.

[@Nerdarchy]

Absolutely we've seen all kinds of crazy and interesting character concepts at our gaming table. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@krunchyfrogg]

I want to see a Half Orc Assassin with 3 Levels of Fighter for the Champion Archetype.

[@Nerdarchy]

It would work the other way as well. Just three levels of assassin, but either way nasty stuff. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@krunchyfrogg]

True, it would work either way.

[@Comicsluvr]

Wow...this is EARLY days!

[@christianoliver25]

Half-orc bard FTW! (for the win or f!@# the world, your choice).

[@TheDMGinfo]

NerdOrcy!

[@badguy5]

OrcArchy! ORCORCY!

[@Nerdarchy]

Nerdorcy new subrace for Gryphongaff. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@Nerdarchy]

badguy5 OrcArchy for orcs, by orcs! :) -Nerdarchist Dave

[@marlonribeiro8351]

Still could not get the book, 2 days ago bought 2 books of storytelling system and saw in the store a introductory kit of the new D & D. I'm really curious to read the basic book.

[@Nerdarchy]

Have you downloaded the free rules from WOTC yet? -Nerdarchist Dave

[@gergernzero6904]

a orc-gnome!

[@timothye.2902]

Greatsword vs Greataxe I'm running a Half-Orc Fighter right now, and I've spent probably too much time than needed comparing the two. And even though I'm currently going Battlemaster, Champion was another option I considered highly Early game (2 or fewer attacks), GS takes the cake in my book, it makes better use of GWF and your crit chance is low (few attacks and no enhanced crit with Champion). Once you get above 3 attacks per Main Action and/or get the enhanced critical from Champion, Greataxe is going to start coming out better. They have the same median damage on 'standard' attacks, with GS able to more consistently hit their median damage thanks to their bell curve damage. However, at 3-4 attacks (or 6-8 with Action Surge) and a double (or triple) crit chance, your chances of getting a critical can rise to above 50% (4 attacks at 15% crit chance = 60% crit per round, almost guaranteeing 1 crit during Action Surge). Being able to crit for 3d12+5 at lvl 20 (average damage 23 for that single strike, which doesn't factor in GWF pseudo damage boost) is HUGE. GS crits at that level are 4d6+5 (average damage 17 plus GWF pseudo damage boost). That's 6 extra points of damage with basically little drawback. At 3-4 attacks (6-8 w/Action Surge), your 'sample size' so to speak of damage rolls becomes large enough to consistently reach median damage. You essentially create a bell curve of 'damage per round', it's like rolling 3d12. Early levels, when you get maybe 2 attacks with Action Surge, you don't have that type of bell curve on your 'damage per round' statistic off of attacks alone, and therefore I run a GS because it has a bell curve built into each weapon roll, ven if it means my early game crits aren't quite as 'savage' as they could be.

[@timothye.2902]

Update: I just did two sets of 20 rounds, 10 with a GA and 10 with a GS. 4 attack per round, 14 roll was a hit, 18-20 was a crit (Champion). Wielder had Savage Attacks and GWF. Both sets of ten rounds hit 15 times and crit 6 times, oddly enough, and the GA dealt an additional 3.2 damage per round on average (32 damage total) from roll alone. the highest single turn damage from GA was 65 and from GS it was 54. Also worth mentioning that the GA missed completely twice, and the GS missed completely once. Second round of 10 rolls each saw a worse accruacy for the GA with only 14 hits and a measly 5 crits, again with two completely missed turns. This time the GA produced only 179 damage (17.9 damage per round) with a highest single turn damage of 56. the GS second round went much better with 16 hits (including 1 round where all 4 attacks hit), 6 crits, and only 1 round where no hits landed. The GS out damaged the GA this time around with 194 total roll damage (19.4 per turn average), and a highest turn damage actually under the GA at 55. That said, when comparing round 1 GA to round 2 GS, we can see that even though the GS hit an additional time and cirt the same, it under damaged the GA by 1 point total. Overall, the difference is low, but it seems that given equal accuracy and crits, the GA will out damage, potentially quite a bit, late game. This is due to the fact that Savage Attack crits triple GA damage, but only double GS damage (with regular crits providing a 100% and 50% damage boost respectively). Of course, the second you take away Champion's superior crit chance and/or half-orc Savage Attacks, the Great Axe loses it's edge. TL;DR Great Axe deals more damage with Savage Attacks and Superior Critical

[@danpit2001]

Half Orc paladin,Oath of vengeance was made for them imo add in savage attacks with a great sword and great weapon fighting style plus all the other good pally stuff it becomes very viable and for flavor Acolyte background ........BAM half orc paladin oh and just for fun choose a peaceful deity lol one thing i cant find in the books is an alignment restriction seems any good is ok for a pally thoughts on this?

[@Nerdarchy]

There isn't an alignment restriction. I'm digging the oath of the ancients for a half-orc. - Nerdarchist Dave

[@Vigilluminatus]

Now that you're claiming a Champion is the greatest Fighter type for Half-Orcs, I REALLY need to play my cultivated, witty Half-Orc Battle Master, who only becomes a raging beast with Tourette syndrom when he's Savage-Attacks-critting. And he'll be very ashamed of his unfitting behaviour after that. But yeah, a Champion would be BRUTAL... It would be nice if we got Alternate Racial Features sometime, so that a Half-Orc-spellcaster didn't seem THAT wasteful.

[@Nerdarchy]

Sounds like fun. You just have to go draconic sorcerer and have a bunch hp for a caster or go bladelock warlock. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@MastertheGamerpg]

I don't have much desire to play as a Half-Orc much. If I did I think playing them as a Fighter would be ok but to use them for things like a spell caster and such seems like a waste. Still a good race and great as a Barbarian.

[@Nerdarchy]

A waste as a spellcaster says the guy that plays a halfling barbarian, lol. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@MastertheGamerpg]

Nerdarchy I am maximizing my unarmored defense! Halflings make great Barbarians!

[@Nerdarchy]

Tabletop Gaming with Juce More like trading it. Because you are going lose other features. There are several barb features that only work with str based attacks. That being said I love playing against type it's a lot of fun. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@MastertheGamerpg]

Nerdarchy a lot of feats bump str too. Eventually my str will be higher. Ring of Ogre str may find its way into my possession too.

[@Nerdarchy]

Tabletop Gaming with Juce I wanna see the mini Arnold Schwarzenegger come out to play. :-) - Nerdarchist Dave

[@MC-gj8fg]

Scorching ray can't be critting. It's already an incredible spell, at least in the hands of a Sorc. In fact, along with Hex acquired through feat, its one of the only two offensive spells that class even needs. Cast as an 8th lv spell with a 20 chr and hex on scorching ray is dishing out 9 rays at 3d6+5 per ray. That's 27d6+45 damage. I am absoluely not allowing any of those 9 attacks to crit!

[@over18irish]

Yeah but they could also all miss, and if you have 8th level spells you're supposed to be capable of incredible power anyways.

[@MC-gj8fg]

over18irish They *could* all miss...almost anything is possible no matter how statistically improbable. 5E relies more on hit points than AC to protect targets. This is more true than in 2E or 3.5, and my only major criticism of the edition. Even the strongest of the ancient dragons have but an AC of 22. At the level you'll be fighting these creatures, you'll almost certainly have a minimum bonus to hit of +11, and odds are, some other magical boons will be in effect to make it even higher. So, we're 50/50 to hit at worst against one of the hardest things to hit in the game. Against almost anything else your attacks will almost be layups. Just doing a little math using averages, without crits, a lv 20 Sorc would 1v1 a CR23 ancient blue dragon, simply rolling average damage, and with only a 50/50 to hit, while empowering Scorching Ray as well as quickening in Firebolt, in 6 rounds. That's without the help of any other party member. Now, of course this fight is taking place in a vacuum. Both the Wizard and Dragon will have defensive magics that will needless to say be in effect, but frankly my money is on the Sorc...that is an atrocious amount of van-damage he's tossing out there, and I don't think a 20th lv Sorc qualifies as a CR24+ creature. Critical hits in relation to spells would just take what is already kinda strong and push it into the territory of the absurd. If you don't mind a particularly deadly campaign however, may I suggest picking up Combat and Tactics and Spells and Magic. Both are 2nd edition book, and both contain critical hit charts that I use to this day. The critical hits do not necessarily entail extra damage, but rather a (sometimes grievous) effect brought on by a critical hit in addition to the damage. The latter book, Spells and Magic, relates to critting with magic, and in regards to fire, as you might guess, will often have enemies running around screaming while engulfed in flame. Of course, bear in mind, these rules swing both ways... :) EDIT: I went into saying all this based on what I thought the rules were. Upon re-reading the PHB however I see nothing that states that we cannot crit with spells. OMG, who wouldn't want to be a Sorc...

[@Nerdarchy]

over18irish agreed! -Nerdarchist Dave

[@Nerdarchy]

I have to agree if you need to make an attack roll then you get to crit. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@Nerdarchy]

Michael Covello The DMG has a crit hit chart in it. :) Probably not as extensive as those books but it was cool that is was thrown in there. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@RoundRobin0]

Half-orc + Half-elf = Gelfling ?

[@jgr7487]

Dragonborn with boobs is the weirdest thing ever!

[@LonasStart]

I see they let y'all out of Ted's basement. That was nice of them.

[@Nerdarchy]

We slipped out the back while the warden looked the other way. -Nerdarchist Dave

[@jgr7487]

"fo(u)r nerds by nerds"