Half-Orc Playable Race Guide for D&D 5e

Strength before beauty; learn how to play as a Half-Orc and how to optimise one for D&D 5e

What are Half-Orcs?

Much like other half Human races, Half-Orcs are beings of 2 worlds with one part of their lineage belonging to Humans and the other belonging to Orcs. For this reason, Half-Orcs tend to be more balanced individuals than the often aggressive and combative Orcs. They retain much of the strength and bawdiness the Orcs possess, but with a more measured and considered approach inherited from their Human side.

While often enemies, Humans and Orcs have at times seen peace among each other and when this has happened, interbreeding has been more common, producing Half-orcs. Those born to Humans and Orcs share attributes of both races and while during times of peace, they are generally accepted among both races, during times of war, they can find themselves shunned by both races too.

Half-Orcs were introduced to D&D 5e in the Player’s Handbook and are one of the more common races of the Forgotten Realms. Our guide has everything you need to know to play as one of these gnarly characters.

Os a Half-Orc the right race for me?

Dungeons and Dragons lets you take a flexible approach to building a character, but if you’re going to stick to typical culture and the best-optimised build for a Half-Orc you might consider the following:

Choose a Half-Orc if you like…

Being a tough race
Dealing lots of melee damage
Intimidating people to do what you want

A Half-Orc might not be for you if…

You want to stay near the back of combat
Want to be very polite
Don’t like being green

If you think a Half-Orc isn’t for you, not to worry, there are dozens of playable races for you to pick from, just check out our races guide to find out about all of them. For an alternative tough race, you could consider an Orc or a Goliath.

Half-Orc Racial traits

Ability Scores	Strength +2, Constitution +1
Creature Type	Humanoid
Size	Medium
Speed	30ft
Languages	Common and Orc
Traits	Darkvision, Menacing, Relentless Endurance, Savage Attacks
Proficiencies	Intimidation
Resistances	None
Darkvision	Yes
Innate Spellcasting	None
Book found in	Player’s Handbook

If you want to play as a Half-Orc, your character will have the following traits (as found in the SRD for D&D 5e):

Darkvision – Thanks to your orc blood, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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 can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Menacing – You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill.

Relentless Endurance – When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Savage Attacks – When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

Tactics

Half-Orcs have a few really useful traits that make them tougher and better in melee combat than many other races. I’d suggest using the following tactics when playing as a Half-Orc:

Take a bruising: Being able to drop to 0 hit points and continue is at 1HP (even just once per long rest) is hugely useful and generally great for anyone. It’s better for tanks though, allowing you to be a tad more reckless. It works better against fewer enemies though, lots of enemies will have more chances to kill you off with that 1 remaining HP before you have a turn to heal or run away. It also protects you once from potential instant kill effects as even damage that would have dropped you below 0 by more than your HP, will still leave you standing. For this reason, Half-Orcs work great for tanks, plus the idea of surviving a meteor storm is pretty cool!

Melee specialists: If you want to take advantage of savage attacks, you’ll need to be landing melee attacks. Full casters and ranged specialists are much less likely to land a savage attack and can render this trait useless. +2 strength also means that Half-Orcs are going to be best dealing out melee damage.

Increasing the odds of savage attacks: Half-Orcs are at their best when landing critical hits as they’re doing more damage than other races when they do this. The idea here is to increase the odds of landing critical hits with your melee attacks and there are a few ways to do this:

Make more attacks – The more attacks you make, the more likely you are to land a critical hit. Consider characters with the extra attack feature, especially fighters and monks who can get a ton of attacks (though monks are problematic for Half-Orcs due to their heavy need for dexterity over strength). This does mean that even classes that can favour melee attacks like rogues with their single attack, can be less useful.

Gain advantage – A 2nd roll of the dice means you’re more likely to land a critical hit so find ways to make sure you attack with advantage.

Class features – Some classes have features that make you more likely to land a critical hit (landing a critical on a lower dice roll for example). A fighter champion is an example of one of these subclasses.

Which classes work well for Half-Orcs?

As you’ll have seen in the tactics section, Half-Orcs work well as frontline melee combatants. With boosts to strength and constitution, an ability that makes you tougher and an ability that makes you do more melee damage means a Half-Orc’s best classes are strength-based martials.

Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Half-Orc based on how well the ability scores and racial traits work with each class:

Artificer⭐⭐

Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Bard ⭐⭐

Cleric ⭐⭐⭐

Druid ⭐⭐⭐

Fighter ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Monk ⭐⭐

Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ranger ⭐⭐⭐

Rogue ⭐

Sorcerer ⭐

Warlock ⭐⭐

Wizard ⭐

*Star ratings scored out of 5

Best classes for Half-Orcs

Barbarians, fighters and paladins are the absolute best options for a Half-Orc. Both benefit highly from a strength and constitution increase and both will gain benefits from extra melee damage and extra toughness. For bonus points, consider a champion subclass for your fighter who eventually land critical hits on an 18-20 making your savage attacks even mor effective.

Fighters are particularly effective in this regard as with multiple extra attacks, are the most likely to land a critical hit and ain the extra damage benefit from savage attacks.

Paladins deserve an honourable mention for their increased charisma which is likely to make intimidation more valuable. Of course, if your DM allows ability checks with varying ability scores, you may be able to use your strength to intimidate a target (which feels very appropriate to be honest).

Worst classes for a Half-Orc

Basically any class that isn’t strength-based and doesn’t want to be in the thick of combat. Sorcerers and Wizards lose out a lot here. Relentless endurance is fairly universally useful, but less so for classes out of the way of combat. And a sorcerer might get something out of intimidation, but this isn’t enough to compensate for a Half-Orc’s high strength reliance.

Even some martial characters make less than ideal options for a Half-Orc like Monks who will benefit from some extra toughness and get a lot of attacks (increasing the chances of a savage attack) but really lose out on so much that is strength-focused. Rogues have similar issues but are an even worse option as they make very few attacks (and can be more ranged based anyway).

About Half-Orcs

Appearance

Half-Orcs tend to be a bit larger than most Humans, standing anywhere between about 5-6.5ft tall. While they have many basic Human features, they do tend to inherit certain Orcish features too. Often this manifests as a greyish skin tone and prominent teeth, but some Half-orcs may look more or less Orcish than this.

Orcs glory in battle and those Half-Orcs raised among Orcs will often acquire the battle-scars associated with this lifestyle. Such scars are seen as things of beauty, to be proud of. Some scars though, may mark a Half-Orc’s time as a prisoner and these are seen as a disgrace. Depending on your Half-Orc’s treatment among Orcs may depend on the kinds of scars your character has.

Personality

Half-Orcs, like their Orc relatives, tend to burn with passion and emotion much more strongly than Humans (though a little less than full-blooded Orcs). Sadness brings with it a heavy depression, anger is unleashed as rage, but equally, joy is felt with incredible mirth and happiness with unbridled delight. Half-Orcs will do little to hide these emotions and are inclined to sulking and fighting when emotions negatively affect them or feasting, wrestling and dancing when overcome with positive emotions.

How to roleplay as a Half-Orc

While all Orcs are different, many possess similar personal traits and circumstances which will shape who they become. Below I’ve provided some suggestions for how you could roleplay your Half-Orc, but feel free to use your own ideas too:

Battle-hardened – Raised among Orcs, you’re naturally less physical than your half-relatives. You’ve taken a beating on many occasions, but you’ve risen stronger and tougher each time. Being less physical taught you to win by being clever. Your strikes and parries are clinical, giving you the edge over foes. You apply that same keen mind to all battles (including those of words and of the mind), seeking out weakness and striking where it will hurt most.
Outcast – You weren’t accepted by your community. They had no place for anyone born with the genetics of an Orc, and so you were cast out. You learnt to fend for yourself, trusting no-one for fear of disappointment, or that they might take what little you have. You keep your thoughts to yourself for the most part, and open up to others slowly, guarding all you have, even your knowledge.
Ruffian – You learnt to use your power to your advantage. No one wants a Half-Orc around, unless it’s to give them an edge in a fight. You learnt to use this and became a mercenary for hire, a thug in a gang, a guard or some other place that values muscle over mind. But perhaps there’s more to you than just power, perhaps those capabilities could be used for a bigger purpose, you just need to find that purpose.