Homebrew Uruk Species Details

Uruks are not bred my friend, they are forged from demonic rituals performed on the strongest of orcs. You can try fire, decapitation, drowning, hell even cut the bastards in two and they’ll still come back for yer head in a couple of days. The only thing more unrelenting than an Uruk, is the wrath of hell itself.

—Anonymous 

Due to the nature of their birth Uruks are exceptionally rare as most orc tribes don’t have access to a powerful enough warlock to perform the vile ritual that they spawn from. Nearly all Uruk are either captains, war-chiefs, or overlords in orc society. This is due to the fact that they were made to fill these roles, they are born faster and stronger than the average orc, they age faster and live longer than orcs, and most of all they are very difficult to bring down for good.

Scarred and Strong

Uruk’s grayish pigmentation, sloping foreheads, jutting jaws, prominent teeth, and towering builds make the fact that they are superior to orcs in every way plain to see. Uruks stand between 5 and 7 feet tall and usually weigh between 180 and 250 pounds.

Orcs regard battle scars as tokens of pride and ornamental scars as things of beauty. Other scars, though, mark an orc or half-orc as a former slave or a disgraced exile. Any Uruk who has seen battle has scars, whether they are marks of humiliation or of pride, recounting their past exploits and injuries. In addition to this they often perform self mutilation to further intimidate those around them. Some prefer to embed their armor into their flesh, making every movement excruciatingly painful, others prefer to get crude deep body piercings, and scarification is a very common practice among Uruks.

Tribes and Leadership

Uruks most often hold high ranks among their tribes and very seldom leave said tribe to go on their own. It is rare for any other race to trust or accept Uruks into their city, and with good reason too. Uruks despise weakness of any kind and will often beat orcs half to death in order to strengthen them. The leadership that an Uruk provides is one of a tyrant who will only spare other orcs that they deem strong. Uruks also hate others of their kind and will often have bloody skirmishes with other Uruks in an attempt to gain more power and renown.

Uruk Names

Uruk names are very similar to that of the orcs. They are harsh and guttural and always followed by a title that describes an act of cruelty that they accomplished.

Male Orc Names: Dench, Feng, Gell, Henk, Holg, Imsh, Keth, Krusk, Mhurren, Ront, Shump, Thokk

Female Orc Names: Baggi, Emen, Engong, Kansif, Myev, Neega, Ovak, Ownka, Shautha, Sutha, Vola, Volen, Yevelda

GRUDGING ACCEPTANCE

Uruks rarely partner up with others of different races, such as humans or elves, but if they do it is because that individual beat them in bloody combat.

 

Uruk Traits

Your Uruk character has several unique traits due to their bizarre physiology.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity scores all increase by 1.

Age

 Uruks are mature the second they are made. They age noticeably faster and rarely live longer than 75years.

Alignment

Uruks are nearly always chaotic evil, but some can become more lawful in their vile tendencies.

Size

Uruks are as tall as orcs but are a bit more lean in their builds when compared to orcs, your size is medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 35 feet.

Darkvision

Thanks to your 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.

Menacing

You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill.

Unyielding durability

When you are killed flip a coin, if it’s heads you will cheat death and return to your party after 1 day but you will be changed in some way depending on how you died.(for example if you were killed by fire you will return horrifically scarred but will now have a resistance to fire) If it’s tails you will then make the regular death saving throw. Discuss with your DM to see the extent of the buffs you gain with each successful coin flip, you can only use this ability three times regardless of whether or not you succeed the coin toss. Alternatively you can start with two uses instead and gain the benefit of one death escape, if you choose to do this incorporate how you nearly died into your backstory and have your DM decide your benefits from said narrow escape with death.

Brutality

When you attack with a weapon you are proficient with you can add your strength and dexterity modifiers together and add that number to your damage. This can only be used 3 times per long rest.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Orc. Orc is a harsh, grating language with hard consonants. It has no script of its own but is written in the Dwarvish script.