New Racial Option: Mountain Orcs

[muneshige]

Mountain Orcs
Orcs are a race of survivors. Able to thrive dwelling in places that no man would dare to even travel, they have proven to be unbreakable, regardless of how much they have rallied the world around them. Filled with a nearly bottomless well of rage and armed with brute physicality, Orcs will smash and crush anything that stands in their way. Few match their primal brutality and none match their raw aggression.
Description: Mountain Orcs have bodies chiseled by the chilling, icy winds, nourished on raw meat, fungus and anything else that can manage to grow in their habitat. Their bodies seem made up of pure, raw muscle that seems ready to burst out of their grayish-green tinted skin at any time. Although they stand only a bit over five and a half feet tall, those who encounter them always remember them as larger. They have small, cauliflower ears, torn up by both the frost and countless battles, tough hides almost always covered with distinct scars—each of which tells the story of a fierce fight. Their eyes are small and beady, their noses stubby and usually upturned. However, their most prominent feature is a pair of large tusks jutting from their bottom jaw.
Personality: Strength is everything in the Orc culture. The males compete with one another to prove who is the strongest, either by directly fighting, taking down the largest beasts or conquering the most difficult enemies. The strongest of the males gets the best women, food, drink and command of the tribe. The leadership of such an orc is often challenged and so any single chieftain does not last very long.
The value of the women is similar determined by strength, both of body and of will. Those who prove themselves against the others become part of the chieftain’s harem. However, since the position of chief can change so frequently, they often care little about their current mate and instead focus on their children, raising them to be the future chief. In fact, the position of mother of the chief may well be the most powerful position in any tribe.
There are two other kinds of Orcs that are valued by their society. The first is the eldest of the tribe. This is a position of great influence, for not only do they serve as the chief’s advisor, but they are also put in charge of educating the children with all the tales of the tribe’s history. Orcs do not usually respect people merely for being older, but anyone who has lived a proper Orc’s life and managed to survive the longest certainly has something of value to impart.
The other type of Orc that is valued in the tribe is those who can hear the voices of the “spirits” and communicate with them. No matter how weak they may be, an Orc who has the mystical abilities to summon the spirits to heal others, create fire out of the frosty air and calm the storms is an extremely valuable member of any tribe. It is important, once again, to note that they usually deem magic among other races as horrific, but within the context of their belief in the spirits they see it as a great blessing and gift to their tribe.
Mountain Orcs have unusual beliefs about the spirits; they believe there are spirits in the wind, the rocks, the trees, animals and pretty much everything else. They show respect to those that help them and challenge and seek to destroy those that hinder them. They also believe that engaging in unusual rituals passed down through the ages in their tribe will cause certain spirits to take their side rather than that of their enemies. Since these belief systems don’t match those of other races and there is no real proof their rituals are effective, many are quick to label Orcs insane or superstitious.
Orcs live fast and live with a fierce passion. Patience, humility, charity, kindness and temperance are virtues they simple do not possess. If they want to do something, they do it. If someone makes them angry or challenges them, they respond immediately regardless of consequences. In general, Orcs are not particularly clear thinkers. Instead, they are rather simple and direct in their approach to everything. It can be said that an Orc has two solutions to any problem—their fist or their axe. While this is not always the case, for there are many things they must do for their tribes to have survived as long as they have that create more planning, forethought and patience, it is certainly a lot truer than with other races.
Because the Orcs always feel the need to challenge others, they are quickly at odds with anyone around them. They see it as proving their worth to make war with all those around them, regardless of race or allegiance, without any actual provocation or reason. Since they believe all spoils should go to the strongest and they believe they are the strongest of all race, they feel it is justified to take whatever they want from others. This inevitably leads to great conflicts, especially with the most common neighbor of Mountain Orcs—the Dwarves. And though the Dwarves hate Mountain Orcs with a seething passion, Orcs see Dwarves as nothing more than just another opponent—perhaps a challenging one, but no different from any other.
This means that anyone who allies with an Orc tribe knows that eventually the tribe will turn on them. Not in a way that Orcs would see as betrayal, but rather that once the more hated enemies have been vanquished it is only natural that those who remain challenge one another to see who should rule. Even when beaten and subdued, the tribe will eventually feel it has regained enough footing and strength to challenge the leadership once again. Thus, any sort of lasting peace with Orcs is impossible. At least as long as their cultural values remain intact.
Racial Affinities: Orcs prefer the company of Orcs. They have no trouble seeing other Orcs as equals and their shared cultural values go a long way towards understanding one another. Half-Orcs are generally more acceptable than other races, though they are likely to receive some disrespect from their full Orc peers until they prove themselves. Although Orcs despise them to no small degree as the race practically embodies all the qualities Orcs hate, they do find themselves working with Goblins more often than any other race. Beyond this, Orcs can find temporary alliance with Hobgoblins and Humans.
Of course, it should be noted that Dwarves hate Orcs with a passion even beyond their dislike for Goblins, so an encounter between the two races is almost certainly not going to end peacefully. Orcs generally dislike Elves, seeing little difference between them and Goblins other than unearned arrogance on the part of the Elves—but Mountain Orcs occasionally ally with Elves (usually Drow). Halflings and Gnomes are rarely encountered, but such small peoples wouldn’t receive much respect from the Orc and they know to be wary around such violence humanoids.
Environment: Mountain Orcs generally live on high, frosty peaks covered with snow and ice or the valleys between them. They also spread out into frosty tundras. They are differentiated from Lowland Orcs who live on open plains and in forests often competing with barbarian tribes and Deep Orcs who live entirely in underground caverns and never emerge except at night. It is the presence of these kinds of Orcs as well as other races who make their homes in more temperate, less hostile areas that keep Mountain Orcs contained in some of the harshest environments in the world. But it is these very same harsh environments that make them as strong as they are.

Racial Traits
Animosity (Dwarfs) – Dwarfs hate all Orcs with a passion and they find Mountain Orcs as often as they fight any other kind. This means that it is nearly impossible for the two to cooperate. Although the hatred is almost entirely one-sided, nonetheless Mountain Orcs suffer a -2 penalty to Charisma checks involving Dwarfs.

Dusk Vision – Although Mountain Orcs don’t have the best eyesight or hearing of most races, their eyes and ears having become small to protect them in their environment, many also live in places that don’t see sunlight for months on end every year. As a result, they have developed the ability to see under moon or starlight with about the same accuracy a human can see at dusks.

Wilderness Survival (Wisdom) – Mountain Orcs are able to survive in environments that no one else. With a scarcity of resources in their area, they nonetheless are able to find enough to allow their tribe to continue to live and thrive. They can find food, water and shelter in any wilderness area, but are most adept in snowy areas, much like a Ranger, but with a few small differences. They can only provide for half as many people and the food and shelter they find is probably fit only for orcs, meaning that other races will likely find it anywhere from disgusting but useable to simply woefully lacking.

Enhanced Sense of Smell (Wisdom) – Although Mountain Orcs have poor ears and relatively poor eyesight, they have extremely good noses. As a result they have a +2 bonus on chance to detect any hidden creatures within 30’ or those with particularly strong odors within 60’, the same as if they were rolling for a Spot check. Also, they get a +2 bonus to searching an area for an object that gives off an odor.

Iron Bellies – Mountain Orcs can and do eat just about everything and virtually never suffer any ill effects from it. Their digestive track is able to handle and break down things that would make other races violently ill. As a result, they have a +2 bonus on saving throws to resist all toxics or diseases from anything they have either eaten or breathed. This doesn’t offer resistance against poison delivered by, for instance, an arrow or a dagger nor to diseases spread by the bite of an infected creature. But it does protect against gas clouds or moving through plague-infected areas.

Cold Tolerance – Mountain Orcs have grown up in a snowy, ice-filled environment and they have far fewer issues dealing with bone-chilling environments than other races. Whenever they must make a saving throw to resist the effects of cold, whether from a natural or magical source, they have a +2 bonus to their saving throws.

Weapon Training – All Orcs know how to use both Battle Axes and Hand Axes. These are about the only weapons that Mountain Orcs make for themselves and are used as key tools for survival for all Mountain Orcs from a young age.

Languages: Common, Orc, Goblinoid, Dwarven
Size: Medium
Movement: 30 feet
Typical Classes: Barbarian, Fighter, Shaman (or Druid), Ranger, Monk, Rogue
Attribute Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Intelligence, -1 Charisma
Ranger Modifiers: +2 Survival, +2 Track