Orc

Medium humanoid (orc), chaotic evil

Armor Class
13
hide armor
Hit Points
15
2d8 + 6
Speed
30 ft.
  • STR +3
  • DEX +1
  • CON +3
  • INT -2
  • WIS 0
  • CHA 0
Skills
Intimidation +2
Senses
darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages
Common, Orc
Challenge 1/2 100 XP · Proficiency +2

Traits

Aggressive

As a bonus action, the orc can move up to its speed toward a hostile creature that it can see.

Actions

Greataxe

Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d12 + 3) slashing damage.

Javelin

Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage.

How to run it

Aggressive is a bonus action dash toward a hostile creature, which means an orc closes 60 feet on its first turn and is in melee before the party has finished its opening round. Open with it every time. An orc that spends turn one walking has been played wrong.

Orcs do not retreat and do not flank cleverly. They pick the nearest target, usually whoever hurt them last, and swing a greataxe at it until one of them stops moving.

Building the encounter

One orc is a fair fight for two level 1 characters. Four is a serious encounter for a party of four at level 2 or 3, largely because Aggressive means they all arrive at once.

Open ground favours them, which is the opposite of most low-level humanoids. Give them a clearing or a road ambush rather than a corridor and the charge does its work.

What to pair it with

An orc war chief or an ogre gives the pack a target to rally around. Worgs match their speed so the whole force arrives together instead of trickling in.

Orcs plus a caster of any kind is dangerous out of proportion to the CR, because the orcs close the distance that the caster needs the party to spend turns crossing.

Reskins

A big, fast, hard-hitting brute with no subtlety and no self-preservation. Reflavour as berserker raiders, blood-mad cultists, awakened statues that charge on sight, or a hunting pack of something with tusks.

The greataxe is the only really orcish detail. Change the weapon and the fiction moves a long way.

Commonly played wrong

Aggressive requires a hostile creature the orc can see, and it moves toward that creature, not anywhere it likes. An orc cannot use it to reposition or to flee.

The javelin is a melee or ranged weapon attack, so an orc that has closed can still throw it at someone else. Most tables forget the melee half of that entirely.

Compared to others at this CR

At CR 1/2 the orc trades defence for offence against the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin has AC 18 and the orc has AC 13, but the orc hits for 9 where the hobgoblin hits for 5 or 6 without an ally adjacent.

A level 2 party will hit an orc almost every round and feel powerful. They will miss a hobgoblin repeatedly and feel frustrated. That difference matters more at the table than the identical challenge rating suggests.

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