Hill Orc
This page is about the player species. For the monster, see Orc.
Hill Orcs are a subspecies of orcs - ugly, crude, and warlike humanoids whom the more civilized races often consider monsters. They have descended into the Dungeon in search of adventure and plunder, even if it comes at the expense of their cousin cave orcs - or anyone else who gets in their way. Like elves and deep dwarves, their species has their own style of equipment, which they receive bonuses for using, especially if they worship their malevolent god Beogh.
Hill orcs are more robust than humans, and their aptitudes are weighted in favor of brute-force melee rather than ranged combat, stealth, or magic. The religious path is also viable for them, as they perform well as servants of the chaotic gods, the Shining One, Trog, and especially their own Beogh, the latter of whom can make dealing with the Dungeon's many cave orcs easier. They can also become passable spellcasters, at least in the realms of Conjurations, Necromancy, and most of the elemental realms. Hill Orcs advance in level as quickly as humans.
Contents
Innate Abilities
- Saprovore 1: Hill Orcs can tolerate rotten meat if they are hungry or worse.
- Bonus when using orcish equipment. For Hill Orcs, orcish armour impedes spellcasting less than other armours, and improves their effective Armour skill. They do slightly more damage when using orcish weapons.
Preferred Backgrounds
Hill Orcs prefer to become Fighters, Gladiators, Monks, Berserkers, Abyssal Knights, Death Knights, Priests, Healers, Skalds, Necromancers, Fire Elementalists, Earth Elementalists, and Artificers.
Level Bonuses
- Hill Orcs gain a Strength increase every 5 levels starting at level 5.
- Hill Orcs have 10% more HP than average.
- Hill Orcs have average MP.
- Hill Orcs gain 2 magic resistance per level.
Starting Skills and Equipment
Hill Orcs receive the skills and equipment listed for their background, with these exceptions:
- Bread rations are replaced by meat rations.
- All weapons and armor are orcish quality, where such variants exist.
Difficulty of Play
| Simple • Intermediate • Advanced |
Hill Orcs are an easy species to play, because of their high HP and good aptitudes for combat-related skills. Having the Saprovore trait also makes staying well-fed a little less of a hassle for them, too. Hill Orcs can worship Beogh to make the orc-filled early game and Orcish Mines significantly easier. The orcish gear bonus is also notable, as orcish equipment is much more common than dwarven or elven equipment.
Skill aptitudes
The higher the value, the better the aptitude.
| Skill | Aptitude | Skill | Aptitude | Skill | Aptitude |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack | Miscellaneous | Magic | |||
| Fighting | 2 | Armour | 1 | Spellcasting | -3 |
| Short Blades | 0 | Dodging | -2 | Conjurations | 0 |
| Long Blades | 1 | Stealth | -1 | Hexes | 0 |
| Axes | 3 | Stabbing | 2 | Charms | -1 |
| Maces & Flails | 1 | Shields | 1 | Summonings | 0 |
| Polearms | 1 | Traps | 0 | Necromancy | 0 |
| Staves | -1 | Translocations | -2 | ||
| Unarmed Combat | 1 | Transmutation | -3 | ||
| Fire Magic | 1 | ||||
| Throwing | 0 | Ice Magic | -1 | Invocations | 3 |
| Slings | -1 | Air Magic | -2 | Evocations | 1 |
| Bows | -1 | Earth Magic | 0 | ||
| Crossbows | -1 | Poison Magic | -1 | Experience | 0 |
