Homebrew Verdant Orc Species Details

History

  Verdant orcs are orcs intrinsically connected to their original creator deity. When he was sundered, the Orc Father lost his essence, turning him into a god-like monster, but part of his original self keeps fighting within the monster, and this is the part that reached out to his children and created verdant orcs.

  Verdant orcs are what orcs were meant to be at their creation. They have an intrinsic connection not only to their creator, but also to nature. They retain the green tint to their skin that gives them their name, but their connection to nature is not just skin deep. Verdant orcs can literally sustain themselves through photosynthesis like a plant would, and their connection to their creator god allows them to be creators themselves, excelling in all tasks that require equal knowledge and control of nature and civilization, such as farming or woodworking.

  To assume their natural connection or their crafting abilities makes verdant orcs less fearsome warriors than their other orcish siblings would be a mistake, as they retain the powerful bodies characteristic of the orc race. Verdant orcs excel at combat, both in all-out brawls and covert ambushes in their forests. Their connection to their divine Father enhances their resilience, allowing them to gain a surge of energy when pushed to the brink of death.

  Verdant orc communities tend to live in the forest, where they thrive, but many leave these bastions of nature. Some do so for personal reasons, but many others go on a quest larger than themselves. Many verdant orcs believe that their Father can be saved and restored to who he formerly was, and it falls onto them, those who have received the blessing that was once afforded to all orcs, to save their creator.

Creating Your Character

At 1st level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of a fantastical race. If you select a fantastical race, follow these additional rules during character creation.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. Follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy. The “Quick Build” section for your character’s class offers suggestions on which scores to increase. You can follow those suggestions or ignore them, but you can’t raise any of your scores above 20.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of languages to choose from. The DM is free to modify that list for a campaign.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including each player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race tells you what your character’s creature type is.

Here’s a list of the game’s creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, Undead. These types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the cure wounds spell doesn’t work on a Construct or an Undead.

Life Span

The typical life span of a player character in the D&D multiverse is about a century, assuming the character doesn’t meet a violent end on an adventure. Members of some races, such as dwarves and elves, can live for centuries. If typical members of a race can live longer than a century, that fact is mentioned in the race’s description.

Height and Weight

Player characters, regardless of race, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world. If you’d like to determine your character’s height or weight randomly, consult the Random Height and Weight table in the Player’s Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best represents the build you imagine for your character.

Verdant Orc Traits

As a verdant orc, you have the following racial traits.

Verdant

 Your body is equal parts plant and flesh. You can regrow any limb you lose in 1d8+1 weeks. Additionally, you can go without food or drink as long as you spend an hour per day in direct sunlight.

Verdant Surge

Once you’ve used your Relentless Endurance Trait, you gain temporary hit points equal to double your proficiency bonus, you double your proficiency bonus when making any attack roll, and you gain 10 feet of movement to your speed. This effect lasts until you regain any hit points or until you take a long or short rest.

Creature Type

You are a Humanoid.

Size

You are Medium.

Speed

Your walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

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 discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.

Relentless Endurance

When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. Once you use this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.