Wizards is located in Seattle and doesn't use Orca? What the fudge man. 

DM TIP: Have a caster in the encounter that knows polymorph and use it against the party. Use this even if your on land. It has a zero speed. I find this particular good on druids to waste their wild shapes. Just hit them after they've used their first one.

Really really delighted to read this theory! Better or worse than being a bowl of petunias?

Lots of creatures deserve or don’t deserve certain parts and abilities in their stat blocks.

for instance, orcas are some of the smartest creatures in our seas, only surpassed by dolphins maybe, and also maybe some cephalopods. 

They’re also pact hunters, smart enough to knock seals and sea lions off their icebergs with artificial waves generated by the whole pod swimming towards the iceberg at once. Pact tactics 

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Yeah - these should be Orcas.  BTW, they currently have pack tactics against sailing and fishing boats off the coast of Spain as many have been sunk in the real world.  So, I'm homebrewing them.  Making them more intelligent and have pack tactics.

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Why is it’s intelligence so low? All cetaceans are damn smart. I mean in the real world orca pods have individual languages so it should be way higher.

 Yeah. 3 is kinda the max for nonmagical beast in D&D though.

 Dolphins have an intelligence of 6, I would say Orcas would have the same or even higher... 7?

 most animals in D&D are very... weird. many of the normal animal stats are nerfed, elephants are also very smart but they got nerfed too. I don't think the creators of D&D know much about animals and focus more on magical creatures. its unfortunate but just homebrew a more accurate representation.

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Quote from Beastflich >>

Why is it’s intelligence so low? All cetaceans are damn smart. I mean in the real world orca pods have individual languages so it should be way higher.

 Yeah. 3 is kinda the max for nonmagical beast in D&D though.

 Dolphins have an intelligence of 6, I would say Orcas would have the same or even higher... 7?

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Quote from Beastflich >>

Why is it’s intelligence so low? All cetaceans are damn smart. I mean in the real world orca pods have individual languages so it should be way higher.

 Yeah. 3 is kinda the max for nonmagical beast in D&D though.

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Why is it’s intelligence so low? All cetaceans are damn smart. I mean in the real world orca pods have individual languages so it should be way higher.

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Why is it’s intelligence so low? All cetaceans are damn smart. I mean in the real world orca pods have individual languages so it should be way higher.

 Their intelligence is not of the same type as humanoids. The smartest orca still just isn’t wired for speech as we know it, and assumedly that extends to things like spell casting.

 

A more personified/magical sub-race would be cool though. 

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Beyond 20

 

 

 

 

 

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Why is it’s intelligence so low? All cetaceans are damn smart. I mean in the real world orca pods have individual languages so it should be way higher.

 Yeah. 3 is kinda the max for nonmagical beast in D&D though.

 Apes are 6, as are dolphins

Quote from KingOfTheMoonlitShore >>

General agreement that orcas have been significantly underestimated. Of course this is what homebrew is for.

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Why is it’s intelligence so low? All cetaceans are damn smart. I mean in the real world orca pods have individual languages so it should be way higher.

 Yeah. 3 is kinda the max for nonmagical beast in D&D though.

 Dolphins have an intelligence of 6, I would say Orcas would have the same or even higher... 7?

  People are so obsessed with dolphins these days, but they don't consider killer whales are just as intelligent. I would give them a 5-7. 

 What's important to keep in mind is that while 5e is a relatively newer system, alot of it is carried over from older editions of DnD; which is almost half a century old. I'm not a marine biologist (and I doubt anyone who works on the game currently is either) but I'm pretty sure that alot of our modern knowledge on the animal kingdom doesn't go back that far, and is a relatively recent development in the scientific community. The killer whale statblock appeared in 3.5e, and I think it's intelligence was even lower back then; and it might have even appeared in earlier editions than that. (I'm not old enough to remember) So while we in a modern context understand these beasts to be (arguably) as intelligent as we are, their statblock was pretty much copy-pasted from older editions, which had no way of accounting for that. I believe this concept applies to alot of other beast statblocks as well, and seeing as how they are mostly just copied over from edition to edition I don't think any of the people who make the books even really notice such details.

It’s an outrage that a killer whale (orca) is said to have such tiny intellegence. In many ways they are better than humans

Should be an Orca

Quote from PurplePeppr >>

First of all: Thank you.

Second: We could consider that the missile turned sperm whale was a juvenile and could therefore have much less HP than the average whale. Or maybe it was a thursday, those never go as you'd want them to.

Quote from PurplePeppr >>

First of all: Thank you.

Second: We could consider that the missile turned sperm whale was a juvenile and could therefore have much less HP than the average whale. Or maybe it was a thursday, those never go as you'd want them to.

Quote from ElZoof >>

So.

Rules as written. Admittedly, this is a killer whale rather than a sperm whale, but assuming the whale were to suddenly be summoned into existence several miles above the surface of the world by an unfortunate twist of fate, then using the average HP of 90 and the average damage of a fall from a great height maxing out at 20d6 (which works out to about 70), then the whale should have survived the fall to Magrathea!

 First of all: Thank you.

Second: We could consider that the missile turned sperm whale was a juvenile and could therefore have much less HP than the average whale. Or maybe it was a thursday, those never go as you'd want them to.

Trying to use one for Shadow of the Dragon Queen: I found in a book I bought a Killer Whale with a +1 Spear stuck in its side, probably by a merrow.  The party has just fled the fishing town of Vogler, they are now on the Vingaard River, about a day's sail from the beautiful city of Kalaman.  (Kalaman harbor opens into the Blood Sea, so the river is at least partly selenic.)  The party is also protecting about 400 refugees from Vogler, after everyone saw the town go up in flames from a horde of Red Army soldiers, including two-score draconians (which were just recently created dragon-men, from corrupted metallic dragon eggs, by the evil renegade mage Harriwell Dracart.  He's a mid-rank villain, whom even Ladonna wants dead; she being a very powerful wizardess of 19th Level.  I figure Dracart must be about 15th to 16th Level Black Robe.)   Anyhow, these draconians have never been seen before, and the red dragon--an actual, fire-breathing dragon! that nobody's seen for about 1,000 years--flew overhead for a few rounds, and set a half-dozen buildings on fire, terrifying everyone.  In Krynn, by the way, dragons are creatures out of legend.  Nobody's seen hide nor hair of gods either, with the sole exception of the 3 Moons, which are the 3 gods of magic.

Having gotten a wee bit off topic here!  History of Krynn/Dragonlance in a nutshell.  Anyway, I wanted something interesting for the characters to do during the night.  Along swims a killer whale, injured, with a +1 Spear in its side.  IF the party can manage to help the poor thing somehow, and remove the spear without killing the whale (and getting themselves killed in the process) they end up with a +1 Spear as a weapon, as well as the good tidings of a dolphin delighter, and fey creatures later on in the adventure.  And yeah, they end up meeting a bunch of sea elves later on in the Northern Wastes.  

In case they can't figure things out on their own with a successful Survival Roll, I plan on having the NPC young White Robe, Alurian, inform them about the +1 Spear sticking in the whale's side, and offering helpful suggestions.  The party consists of an evil sorceress, a Squire of Solamnia, and a Kender Ranger.   

Any suggestions?

These things should be called Orca and should have 6-8 int and Pack tactics. Just stating facts

Yes I know, 3 years later. I agree!

Party is coming up to a villain that has seen them fight so she knows the group fighter outputs LOTS of damage. Her tools are limited, but she has polymorph.