Homebrew Elf-Orc Race Details
Few races share a hatred of each other like the orcs and elves. In many ways they are opposites. One beautiful, the other grotesque. One strong, and one agile. One intelligent, one that could not think its way out of a parchment satchel. The truth is this contempt runs deeper than their differences, their blood and their history. This is a hatred that weeps from their very gods, and any pitiful creature born of an unthinkable union between them is doomed to a life of anguish.
Strong, agile and utterly unpredictable, an elf-orc is formidable yet despised by both their parent races. Those born to elven mothers are sometimes raised in secret, or taken to human lands and raised there instead. Those born to orc mothers aren't usually allowed to live. The loathing between these races cuts to the very core of their being, and the rare child sired between them is condemned to the life of an outcast.
Dexterous Yet Durable
Elf-orcs are blessed with the beauty of elves, marred only by jutting jaws, prominent teeth and a slight hunch to their build. Elf-orcs stand between 6 to 7 feet tall yet lack the broad, bulky bodies of their orc parent, instead having slim builds with their natural muscle wrapped tightly beneath the flesh. Their skin tones tend to reflect that of their elven parent tinged with a grayish, dulling hint.
There is an almost elegant quality to their purposeful movements, reminiscent of lion or tiger—powerful, yet precise and fluid. Elf-orcs are not as strong as full orcs, nor as agile as pure elves, they instead embody a near-perfect balance between might and speed. They are impulsive and erratic, making them all but impossible to anticipate in battle; a trait which earns the respect of some of their parent races, if not their acceptance.
Turmoil Within
The elf-orcs are a people that not only struggle with others, but also conflict with themselves. The whispers of the orc god Gruumsh do not directly reach their minds, kept at bay by their fey ancestry, yet his influence still burns in each and every elf-orc. It's this influence with amplifies their already chaotic tendencies, a gift also of their elf blood, and sees them act on instinct—unpredictable but often reckless, with little regard for law and order. It drives them to violence, and only the fine control granted by their elven heritage allows them to—mostly—rein in these urges.
Likewise, their elf blood steers them toward doing good—a task made difficult by the fact that they are widely shunned, along with their vicious cravings and aloof nature. These often futile desires commonly lead to frustration, and see more elf-orcs maintain a neutral or evil alignment than any form of good.
Misunderstood by their parents and almost every other race, including other part-orc people, elf-orcs feel most at ease among tieflings who know what is to be scorned by the masses. The few elf-orcs in existence often find a home among the slums of human cities or wander the lands as lone drifters. Those with power who come to accept elf-orcs find them to be both capable and efficient, often employing them as personal bodyguards, lethal assassins, bounty hunters or shock troops.
Elf-Orc Names
Elf-orcs are given names fitting to where they were raised. Those raised by a reclusive elf will have an elven name, whilst one raised by an exiled orc will bear a more gutteral sounding, orc name. Alternatively, like tieflings, some elf-orcs adopt a "virtue" name based on a word that they feel signifies their struggle to survive, or an important goal to them.
Look between elf names, orc names, and tiefling "virtue" names and choose one for your character.
Those given away to be raised by others, whether to guardians from another race, a monastery or faction order, or otherwise, could have any name relevant to those.
Elf-Orc Traits
Your elf-orc character has certain traits deriving from your mixed ancestry.Ability Score Increase
Your Strength, Dexterity and Constitution score each increases by 1.
Age
Elf-orcs combine the strange mixture of maturing quickly and yet living long lives. They reach adulthood by the age of 15, yet live up to 150 years.
Alignment
Nearly all elf-orcs are wildly chaotic, inheriting traits of chaos from both sides of their parentage. Elf-Orcs can be of any alignment but they are almost always conflicted; their orc blood drives them towards violence and evil, whilst their elven heritage exerts a strong influence toward good.
Size
Elf-orcs are taller than humans but just as slim, ranging from 6 to 7 feet tall. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision
Thanks to both your elf and orc blood, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Elven Gift
The type of elf your elf-orc is descended from will determine what they have inherited:
• An elf-orc of moon elf or sun elf descent can choose the high elf's Cantrip.
• An elf-orc of wood elf descent can choose Fleet of Foot, or Mask of the Wild.
• An elf-orc of drow descent can choose Drow Magic.
• An elf-orc of aquatic heritage can choose a swimming speed of 30 feet.
Fey Ancestry
You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
Aggression
As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward an enemy of your choice that you can see or hear. You must end this move closer to the enemy than you started.
Erratic Dodge
Born from conflicting races, with an unknown story and your very blood chaotic; no enemy can predict you. You may use your reaction to either give yourself advantage on a Dexterity saving throw, or force a creature to reroll an attack against you, taking the lowest of the two rolls for their attack. You can use this trait once per short or long rest.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish and Orc. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Orc is a harsh, grating language with hard consonants.
Comments
Love this! General theme and application is really nice, however, the problem I have is that it feels like it has too many 'active abilities' I guess?
I feel that Elven Gift, Aggression, Fey Ancestry and Erratic Dodge are individually great, but provide too much? Whilst standing at a 6 on the Musicus scale (relatively balanced), I feel that one of those abilities should be removed or changed? Perhaps Fey Ancestry - too diluted by Orcish blood. Or changing Aggression to Savage Attack might work. Perhaps also some form of Proficiency (Intimidation, Athletics?), or other out of combat ability, such as Brave?
I really like your idea. I think ill ask my DM if I can use this for a character!
I know I'll probably get lambasted for this, but this is one of those rare (very rare) cases where I think dandwiki actually did it better. Mechanically it's alright, though probably too many actives. Their version where you had to choose three abilities between the elf and orc racial bonus list felt more balanced.
The main issue I have with this is the flavoring. Their flavor was more blase about it. This just...feels like bait for every player who want to do the much hated edgelord loner that nobody understands. While obviously not everyone will play it that way, a race with a default "dark and troubled past" seems unwise for a generally cooperative game.
I agree with your point on the mechanics of the race. Dandwiki's version seems more balanced. I might, however, make the suggestion to give a penalty to charisma to either of the two versions of the elf-orc, this being due to the fact that both their elven and orcish kin feel hate/fear/revulsion towards them.
If the race had a cha penalty like this, the other features might be more excusable.
This is soo cool! I made a character similar to this before seeing this useing a mainly Orcish character with a few things like knowing elvish and being less violent
I believe this was called a Voldur in 3.5
A nice race, but I feel this build is imbalanced. 3 extra starting stats from the get go? I would say pick either DEX&CON or DEX&STR.
This will show the duality better. Also the amount of passive bonusses seem abit much, I would suggest to balance that out abit more. Maybe dilute the Fey Ancestry due to not being pure. so just the charmed OR sleep part.
Erratic Dodge should just do 1 thing, either give enemy disadvantage on 1 attack roll OR the advantage on a DEX saving throw, which can be reused after a short rest.
The elven-gift choice I like alot with the different flavors. Mabye also sometehing for the orc side?
I have heard your cries for balancing and so i shall! :)
Check me out I just released a new potion a race and two subraces.
This is a cool race, but Erratic Dodge feels a little too OP right off the bat. Maybe have that option opened up in later levels like around the end of T1 or for a T2.
I love this character idea, but I feel he wouldn't be shunned by his parents; I feel if anything his parents would be the only ones to love him (if he came from a loving orc/elf couple who defied the odds to make this relationship work).
Now if this child was the result of say *non-loving means* then I could see the parent turn away from their child (Likely this would be an elf mother, left to raise a orc-elf child and being cast out of her elf village for bearing birth to that monstrosity.) Then He would feel alone in the world looking for comfort or acceptance in others like him that are cast aside by the world around him (Tieflings).
I think this character provides great roleplay/storytelling potential. So, I for one would love to see it come alive in a game and live through that redemption arc; that hails him a hero in the end.
elfo?