Faerûnian Prestige Class suggestion: Orc Warlord

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Incarnate
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Faerûnian Prestige Class suggestion: Orc Warlord

Unread post by Incarnate »

Orc Warlord
Source: Races of Faerûn p. 184.
Online Source: http://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/cl ... lord.shtml

The orc warlord is a savage general of an unruly army, the leader of one of the deadly and all too common orc hordes that rampage down from the Spine of the World to savage and brutalize the civilized lands of Faerûn. An orc warlord is an imposing figure, often slathered with scars both ritualistic and all too real in origin.

Barbarians and fighter/barbarians are the best suited to become orc warlords, as they already excel in battle and often attract large armies on their own. Barbarian/clerics sometimes become orc warlords to better lead their followers into religious wars. orc barbarian/rangers and barbarian/rogues usually operate alone, although it is not unknown for one of these to become a warlord in desperate times. Perhaps the most potent of orc warlords, though, is the barbarian/bard; his natural abilities to handle large groups and inspire greatness stack quite well with the abilities granted by this prestige class.

An NPC orc warlord is usually encountered on the field of battle, commanding his horde of orcs. Between attacks, an orc warlord can be found back in his lair training his troops for the next attack, be it in a month or a decade or even farther into the future.

Requirements


To qualify to become an Orc Warlord, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:

Race: Orc, half-orc
Alignment: Any non-good.
Skills: Intimidate 8 ranks, Ride 5 ranks, Survival 5 ranks.
Feats: Blood of the Warlord or Might Makes Right, Leadership.
Base Attack Bonus: +5.
Special: Barbarian rage ability.

Class Skills


The orc warlord's class skills are Bluff, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival.

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features


All the following are Class Features of the orc warlord prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Orc warlords gain no proficiency with any weapons, armor, or shields.

Gather Horde (Ex): An orc warlord can maintain a larger force of orc followers than a comparable leader could of other creatures. When determining the number of followers allowed for a warlord, multiply the amount listed in Table 2-25: Leadership in the DUNGEON MASTER'S Guide by the listed value. These additional forces must be orcs. For example, a character with a leadership score of 15 could normally have up to twenty 1st-level, two 2nd-level, and one 3rd-level followers. A 1st-level orc warlord could have thirty 1st-level, three 2nd-level, and one 3rd-level follower, as long as at least ten of the 1st-level and one of the 2nd-level followers were ores. A 3rd-level orc warlord could have forty 1st-level, four 2nd-level, and two 3rd-level followers, so long as half of them were orcs.

Inspire Courage (Su): At 2nd level, the orc warlord gains the ability to inspire courage, which has the same effect as the bardic ability of the same name. The warlord makes an inspirational speech, bolstering his allies, against fear and improving their combat abilities. To be affected, an ally must hear the warlord speak for a full round. The effect lasts as long as the warlord speaks and for 5 rounds after the warlord stops speaking (or 5 rounds after the ally can no longer hear the warlord). While speaking, the warlord can fight but cannot cast spells, activate magic items by spell completion (such as scrolls), or activate magic items by command word. Affected allies receive a +2 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +1 morale bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls. A warlord in the midst of a rage can use this ability, but in those cases the warlord's speech is more of a rant of howls and curses than true speech.

Final Rage (Ex): At 5th level, the warlord gains the ability to incite a rage iii all his nearby allies for one last phenomenal attack. Any allies within ten feet of the warlord (including the warlord himself) immediately enter a rage, even if they could not normally do so or have used all their own rage ability for the day. If the warlord or an ally is already in a rage at the time or is capable of a greater rage, the affected creatures enter a greater rage instead (if an affected creature is already in a greater rage, this ability has no additional effect). This rage (or increase to greater rage) lasts until the warlord's next turn, and all penalties for leaving a rage apply (for example, the creatures are fatigued, and if already fatigued they become exhausted). Invoking the final rage is a free action.

Orc Warlord Hit Die: d12
CL BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1st +1 +2 +0 +2 Gather horde x 150%
2nd +2 +3 +0 +3 Inspire courage
3rd +3 +3 +1 +3 Gather horde x 200%
4th +4 +4 +1 +4 -
5th +5 +4 +1 +4 Final rage


Feat Requirement Descriptions

Blood of the Warlord - (Races of Faerûn, p. 161)

You can influence a large number of orcs.
Prerequisite:
base Leadership score of 10+, Orc,
Benefit:
You are seen as a king among kings and a natural leader of orcs. You gain a +2 bonus on all Diplomacy and Intimidate checks made to influence orcs. Additionally, as long as you are visibly leading them, all your followers gain a +1 morale bonus on their attack rolls and Will saving throws.

---------------

Might Makes Right - (Races of Faerûn, p. 166)

Your great strength draws more followers.
Prerequisite: Str 13, Leadership
Benefit: Add your Strength bonus to your leadership score for the purposes of determining how many followers you may have with the Leadership feat.
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aaron22
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Re: Faerûnian Prestige Class suggestion: Orc Warlord

Unread post by aaron22 »

check out this thread....
viewtopic.php?f=443&t=56888

then i also made this which is awesome too...
viewtopic.php?f=443&t=58438

and akroma found this....
viewtopic.php?f=443&t=58390

and there are many more as well
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Re: Faerûnian Prestige Class suggestion: Orc Warlord

Unread post by Incarnate »

I weren't aware of those you've linked.
aaron22 wrote:check out this thread....
viewtopic.php?f=443&t=56888
From what I can tell the only ones that are official in that thread poll/tread are the Eye of Gruumsh and the Orc Warlord. Personally I favor official material rather than homebrew, but thats not to say that there couldn't exist some cool homebrew based on existing Faerûnian lore.
aaron22 wrote:check out this thread....then i also made this which is awesome too...
viewtopic.php?f=443&t=58438
It looks cool, but from what I can tell its HOMEBREW - where as the Orc Warlord is OFFICIAL.

Are you familiar with the official PrC Blighter? A defiler.
Source: http://dnd.arkalseif.info/classes/blighter/index.html
aaron22 wrote:check out this thread....then i also made this which is awesome too...
and akroma found this.... and there are many more as well
viewtopic.php?f=443&t=58390
This is also homebrew. Personally I think its a much better to go with the official material, especially when its based around Faerûnian lore.

Also, the Eye of Gruumsh and Orc Warlord are thematically and mechanically very different, where I'd personally want them both in rather than having to choose between either as they both ad something different and expand upon what will be possible to play.
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aaron22
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Re: Faerûnian Prestige Class suggestion: Orc Warlord

Unread post by aaron22 »

yep.... it was about options. not everything official is good for the game's balance and offered homebrew to provide options. in the end they went another route completely and gave us...

https://wiki.bgtscc.net/index.php?title=Orc_War_Drummer

the team has a lot going on and i don't put anything past them, but i doubt i will see another orc prc... maybe ever. who knows though?

not me.
Khar B'ukagaroh
"You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice."
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Re: Faerûnian Prestige Class suggestion: Orc Warlord

Unread post by Incarnate »

aaron22 wrote:yep.... it was about options. not everything official is good for the game's balance and offered homebrew to provide options. in the end they went another route completely and gave us...

https://wiki.bgtscc.net/index.php?title=Orc_War_Drummer

the team has a lot going on and i don't put anything past them, but i doubt i will see another orc prc... maybe ever. who knows though?

not me.
You're right not everything official is good, but homebrew has a tendency to not be balanced, and especially not in relation to other classes as well, and some even might make other PrC's rendundant to take because the homebrewed ones basically offer the same and more or offer something similar and more.

I don't know if they will add any Orc PrC's in the future - personally I think they should.
The Orc War drummer doesn't seem officially from D&D - I believe it comes from Pathfinder or it has been build based on lore.

Also, a 5 level prestige class wouldn't take that long to build compared to a fully fledged 30 level deep base class.
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Re: Faerûnian Prestige Class suggestion: Orc Warlord

Unread post by Valefort »

Completely depends on the abilities of said classes and their numbers actually, anyway gather horde is out of the possibilities here.
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Re: Faerûnian Prestige Class suggestion: Orc Warlord

Unread post by Incarnate »

Valefort wrote:Completely depends on the abilities of said classes and their numbers actually, anyway gather horde is out of the possibilities here.
I think you're right, however as cohorts are possible then it could be possible if the gather horde was "re-invented to better fit what is currently possible with the engine. Lore-wise an Orc Warlord could still have the amount of followers, which would be similar to areas that lore-wise contains ex. amount of elite troops, and so on. But to reflect that the orc lord actually has followers, a replacement ability similar to animal companinion could be made that would scale with the level of the class. Or it could be made so the warlord could spawn ex. amount of orcs with ex. CR based on the warlord's class level + 3 charisma where the duration would be until killed or the very least with a long duration as they're not summons.
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aaron22
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Re: Faerûnian Prestige Class suggestion: Orc Warlord

Unread post by aaron22 »

Incarnate wrote:Also, a 5 level prestige class wouldn't take that long to build compared to a fully fledged 30 level deep base class.
i think they are taking applications.

the gather the hoard feat could be as simple as a swarm style "summons" spell that increases HD of orc "summons" as GtH progresses. obviously they should not be considered "summons" as summoning has it's own perks that would not be applicable. instead it can have number of "summons" improve with cha score.. something like d4+cha mod/2=the number of orcs called for a number of rounds equal to 5 rounds+cha mod (minimum 5).
Khar B'ukagaroh
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Incarnate
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Re: Faerûnian Prestige Class suggestion: Orc Warlord

Unread post by Incarnate »

aaron22 wrote:
Incarnate wrote:Also, a 5 level prestige class wouldn't take that long to build compared to a fully fledged 30 level deep base class.
i think they are taking applications.

the gather the hoard feat could be as simple as a swarm style "summons" spell that increases HD of orc "summons" as GtH progresses. obviously they should not be considered "summons" as summoning has it's own perks that would not be applicable. instead it can have number of "summons" improve with cha score.. something like d4+cha mod/2=the number of orcs called for a number of rounds equal to 5 rounds+cha mod (minimum 5).
It makes sense and certainly could be made into something like that. Another one that could make sense would be something similar to the summon familiar, where the amount and level of the "summoned" would be based on something like this - Character Level + CHA Mod.

The leadership feat is what makes it possible, and that requires at least level 6, and Orc Warlord would require at least level 9, because you also need at the very least the Might Makes right feat which requires you have leadership. Therefore your leadership score would at very least be 10 at character level 10 with a neutral charisma modifier, and if negative it would of course affect negatively to the point where you wouldn't gain any followers - as per leadership table here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm.

So to reflect above in a reasonable way it could be something like getting X amount of orcs with X level based on the characters Leadership score. Which basically would be the same as the character-level + CHA mod + MISC. MOD. Balance-wise I would say they should be there for a specific but variable duration and certainly also a limit to the amount of orcs gained. Another aspect to consider is that the amount also could be too much for the servers and clients to handle...

So I suggest the following:
- Follower levels be treated as a the quality of the followers
- X Followers/5 = X summoned ... Example. 5 Followers/5 = 1 Summoned.

As for the duration it seems fitting to be similar to being either 10 minutes per class level + CHA Mod or 1 hour per class level.

Another thing, the leadership also grants a cohort based on the leadership score, which could be similar to the animal companion but instead be an orc captain or similiar the Orc Warlord could summon.

So say a Gray Orc Barbarian 9/Orc Warlord 1 with a charisma modifier of 3 would gain an Orc Captain of level 9 and 3 followers (2 normal + 1 quality 2).
- of course the level of the Orc Captain could be tweaked to be better balanced if necessary.
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