5E (Forgotten Realms inspired home-brew setting)
I want to avoid having 20 encounters of X many orcs. What are creatures I can add or mix in to keep it interesting and keep them on their toes?
Posted Aug 11, 2019, 2:50 PM UTC
The big thing is environment. If its 30 fights in the same cave itd be boring, but there are some games where orcs are almost exclusively the only enemy and its kept interesting with other facets of combat. So have different objectives (freeing slaves, getting info, killing quietly) and it shouldnt be too bad.
Can use other creatures that orcs have captured or intimidated into fighting for them. Orcs have made alliances or bought mercenaries.
look up volo's.... or just use npc stats and orc them up. add boars and dire boars as pets, or something nastier. add ogres or goblin minions, slaves, etc. use the terrain and dynamic elements like collapsing bridges, machinery, siege weapon targets, etc.
Tanarukk and orogs go hand-in-hand with orcs. The orcs could field captured trolls or ally with ogres or ettins.
They could keep an ooze (or oozes) in a pit that unsuspecting party members might fall into. Similarly, they may have otyugh corrals in their offal pits.
They could possibly have guard drakes. Maybe even some demons.
Make interesting ways to fight them. Let them take advantage of orcs being big dumb meat heads.
Vary their tactics, and have them fight intelligently. Hit-and-run attacks, ambushes, traps... basically anything except the usual "charge in and fight to the death".
Tucker's Kobolds are a great example.
Mounts. Or Warbeasts. Don't even have to be trained, they could just have a chained up owlbear or something (any large beast or monstrosity will probably do) that they sic on enemies. Aurochs are nice mounts for orcs, as do Giant Goats if you want a lower CR mount. They might have dogs or something that fills the same niche. Otyughs are a nice way to get rid of trash in a cave and also potentially guard back entrances. They might have something like cattle that is hardy, like boars or something, which can be set alight and driven into the enemy.
Different equipment and different training. Give some orcs different weapons and feats. Have some be wrestlers with big gauntlets that act as unarmed weapons and give advantage on athletics when grappling. Giving class levels or even just class features or abilites derived from class features to orcs. Or just re-skin NPCs: The Knight from the monster manual makes for a nice, heavily armored juggernaut. Just give him the Aggressive trait from the Orc statblock.
Magic items. Maybe some have a different assortment of exciting potions, like invisibility or enlargement or fire breath. Even just a bunch of orcs that use healing salves (healing potions that you can apply to allies) on their comrades can make the fight interesting, since your players will try to take those out first.
It depends how difficult the fights are meant to be. Is every encounter dangerous or are they there for your party to cut down as they make their way through this?
Instead of making every fight "orc leader + standard orcs", make every fight unique. Utilize class levels if you need to.
For example, make a fight one orc Battlemaster and X orc champions. Give the leader superiority dice and maneuvers, and the minions expanded crit range and a fighting style.
Make another fight two orc warlocks and some orc acolytes. Give two of them Hex, and give one a +1 weapon and hexblade abilities, and the other Eldritch blast and fiend abilities. Give the minions sacred flame and healing word.
Have a transformed orc druid charge in with a bunch of tigers, which are actually polymorphed orcs.
Keep adjusting statblocks like that so each encounter feels unique. Feel free to adjust their ability scores to match their new classes, like boosting the charisma for the orc warlocks and paladins, and boosting wisdom for the acolytes and druids.
Give them magic items, like an axe which drains 1d8 health from any non-orc it hits. Or a bow that uses Strength.
Allow the leaders to make Death Saves instead of dying immediately. Give the minions healing spells and potions to get the leaders back in the fight.
And of course, add non orc creatures. An orc leader riding a T-Rex could be loads of fun. Maybe an orc ranger with a legion of gnolls. Even an orc wizard who made a pact with a mind flayer arcanist to work together. Be creative, or just roll randomly!
Add objectives to combat besides, "kill everything".
Protect the npc
Steal the object
Disable the device
Stop the ritual
And so on.
I like the idea of the Orc Warchief having a retinue of specialist Champions, like a party in and of themselves. I'd suggest two specific Champions, one, an Orc War Cleric of Gruumsh to buff the horde, heal the worthy and interpret Gruumsh's will to ensure the Warchief retains his favour. And two, a Half-Orc Gloom Stalker or (UA) Beastmaster Ranger to stalk, harass, spy and generally cause headaches for the PCs from afar, this guy could easily show up to snipe the heroes while they're busy dealing with a mob of ordinary Orcs, suddenly spiking the difficulty as hellishly accurate missile fire starts picking off the squishier or worse-for-wear PCs.