ORC

Orcs appear particularly disgusting because their coloration—brown or brownish green with a bluish sheen—highlights their pinkish snouts and ears. Their bristly hair is dark brown or black, sometimes with tan patches. Even their armor tends to be unattractive — dirty and often a bit rusty. Orcs favor unpleasant colors in general. Their garments are in tribal colors, as are shield devices or trim. Typical colors are blood red, rust red, mustard yellow, yellow green, moss green, greenish purple, and blackish brown.

Orc tribes are fiercely competitive, and when they meet it is 75% likely that they will fight each other unless a strong leader (such as a wizard, evil priest, evil lord) with sufficient force behind him is on hand to control the orcs. Being bullies, the stronger will always intimidate and dominate the weaker. (If goblins are near, for example, and the orcs are strong enough, they will happily bully them.) Orcs are cruel and hate living things in general, but they particularly hate elves and will always attack them in preference to other creatures. They take slaves for work, food, and entertainment (torture, etc.) but not elves whom they kill immediately.

Orcs dwell in places where sunlight is dim or non-existent, for they hate the light. In full daylight they must deduct 1 from their dice rolls to hit opponents, but they see well even in total darkness (infravision).

Orcs are accomplished tunnelers and miners. They note new or unusual constructions underground 35% of the time and spot sloping passages 25% of the time.

If a subchief is with a group the tribal standard will be present 40% of the time. The standard is always present when the tribal chief is. The standard will cause all orcs within 6" to fight more fiercely (+1 on hit dice and morale check dice).

For every 30 orcs encountered there will be a leader and 3 assistants. These orcs will have 8 hit points each (being the biggest/strongest/meanest in their group). If 150 or more orcs are encountered, there will be the following additional figures with the band: a sub-chief and 3-18 guards, each having armor class 4, 11 hit points, and fighting as monsters with 2 hit dice (doing 2-7 hit points damage). 

If the orcs are not in their lair there is a 20% chance they will be escorting a train of 1-6 carts and 10-60 slave bearers bringing supplies and loot to their chief or to a stronger orc tribe. The carts will hold goods worth from 10 to 1,000 gold pieces, and each slave will bear goods worth from 5 to 30 gold pieces. If such a train is indicated, double the number of leaders and assistants, add 10 normal orcs for each cart in the train, and a sub-chief with 5-30 guards will always be in charge.

Orc lairs are underground 75% of the time, in an above ground village 25% of the time. There will always be the following additional orcs when the encounter is in the creatures' lair: a chief and 5-30 bodyguards (AC 4, 13-16 hit points, attack as monsters with 3 hit dice and do 2-8 hit points damage), females equal to 50% of the number of males, young equal to 100% of the number of males. If the lair is underground, there is a 50% chance that there will be from 2-5 ogres living with the orcs. If the lair is above ground it will be a rude village of wooden huts protected by a ditch, rampart, and log palisade. The village will have from 1-4 watch towers and single gate. There will be 1 catapult and 1 ballista for each 100 male orcs (round to the nearest hundred).

The weaponry of orcs is shown typically below:

Leaders and above will always have two weapons.

The majority of orcs speak goblin, hobgoblin, and ogre in addition to the languages of orcs and Lawful Evil.

Environment. Temperate/sub-tropical, uninhabited/wilderness areas (plain, scrub, forest, rough, hills, mountains, marsh); Temperate/sub-tropical, inhabited and/or patrolled areas (plain, scrub, forest, rough, desert, hills, mountains, marsh)

Elite orcs, or orogs, are a race of great orcs, possibly mixed with ogre blood. Orogs range between 6 and 6 feet tall. They are highly disciplined warriors and have their own standards and banners which they display prominently—it is usually easy to tell when orogs are present among common orcs. Orogs can be found at the vanguard of large orc armies, but rarely on patrol.

There is a 10% chance that an orc tribe will have orogs, whose number equals 10% of the male population. (Thus a community of 3,000 male orcs has a 10% chance of having 300 additional orogs.)

Small bands of elites (20-80 orogs) will hire themselves out as mercenaries. Orogs have 3 Hit Dice, plate mail (AC 3), and have a +3 Strength bonus on damage dice. For every 20 orogs, there will also be one leader with 4 Hit Dice (THACO 17). There is but one orog chief, who has 5 Hit Dice (THACO 15).

Orogs use weaponry common to orcs, but will typically possess two weapons apiece.