D&D 5E So,whats up with those half orcs?

[GameOgre]

Amongst my group there has been a realization for a while now that half orcs are overpowered. With the racial bonus to crit damage as well as the ability to keep on keeping on(drop to 1 hit point instead of falling unconscious once per long rest).

Both of those abilities have been front and center in our games as game changers during rough battles. At first it was just considered the best race for being a barbarian but since then we have had half orc clerics,fighters,paladins and wizards.

Slowly, it's turning into a all half-orc party.

Now partly I'm willing to believe it's just my half crazed group. These guys are nuts! When I look at the races though the half orc does stand out as being the best at melee combat!

This is a small issue and not that big a deal. In fact simply roll playing racial bias against the half-orc would probably go a long ways towards curbing this tendency. I noted that for instance our half-orc paladin's (played by my daughter in law) was a beautiful picture of a super model and asked I was told, she is a half-orc but you can't tell she isn't human. I replied "You mean other than the green tinge to her skin,tusk stubs jutting out of the sides of her mouth and the Klingon like skull ridges? That got a reaction let me tell you!

What are you guys seeing at your tables?

 

[Fralex]

Nobody at my games has ever wanted to play as a big ugly green thing, though the racial features are really cool. I might try it sometime. I'll do something weird and counter intuitive, like a half-orc wizard. Hmm, or actually, a half-orc druid might be interesting...

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Nobody at my games has ever wanted to play as a big ugly green thing

Yeah, in my over 25+ years of DMing, one player in one campaign chose to be a half-orc, groovy character.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Half-orcs are good at melee combat. I wouldn't quite say that they're the best, but they're definitely up there.

A lot of it comes down to playstyle, though. Half-Orcs don't fall unconscious when they're supposed to, which is a worthless ability to a cautious player who never gets into that kind of a position to begin with. They also do extra crit damage - which is entirely unpredictable, and thus unreliable. Honestly, I would take a Halfling over a Half-Orc any day of the week.

I would be careful about telling players what their characters look like, though. There's no reason why any given half-breed can't take significantly after one side of the family, after all. Of course, nobody with Strength 20 is going to look like a waif-ish supermodel, either, unless there's some sort of magic involved.

 

[PnPgamer]

I hear half-orc fighter with champion path for critical triggering can be quite spiffy.
Anyone have experience on it?

 

[Carlsen Chris]

What are you guys seeing at your tables?

I'm seeing that the players at my table are much less focused on "win" than yours seem to be.

 

[CapnZapp]

All my players chose half elf.

Go figure...

 

[transtemporal]

What are you guys seeing at your tables?

One HO, one half-elf, one lightfoot halfling, three humans. The extra feat is difficult to beat.

 

[Minigiant]

Elves, half elves, dragonborn, and half orcs.

Everyone wants a ranged option or AOE: elves and dragonborn.
If that have that, skills: halfelves
if they have that, HP: halfelves, dwarves, and genasi
If they just wanna smash: half orcs

 

[Jeff Albertson]

What are you guys seeing at your tables?

Aasimar, Drow, Dwarf, Elf, Genasi, Gnome, Half-Orc, Human, Thri-Kreen.