OK so my party's gonna be about 8th level when they fight these guys (and yes, there are multiples of them), and as far as I know I'm only gonna have two players. I don't know what classes they're planning on yet. Also they're fighting these buggers inside, and odds are neither side is going to be aware of the other before combat actually begins. I just want to know how badly I'll murder my PCs if they dare to get into melee. Basically, should I tone them back some?
Orc Degenerate [Raging]
CR 4; XP 1200
Orc Ogrekin Barbarian 4 (Bestiary 2 204)
CE Medium Humanoid (giant)
Init +1; Senses Darkvision 60ft., low-light vision, Perception +0
DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 9, flat-footed 14 (+5 natural, +1 Dex, -2 rage)
hp 54 (4d12 + 28)
Fort +10, Ref +2, Will +1
Defensive Abilities ferocity, trap sense +1, uncanny dodge
OFFENSE
Speed 40ft.
Melee Falchion +13 (2d4 + 21/18-20), bite +7 (1d4 + 9)
Special Attacks Rage (14 rounds/day), rage powers (animal fury, raging climber)
TACTICS
During Combat Degenerates simply aren't smart enough to make use of sophisticated tactics. They charge into battle, swinging their Falchions, Power Attacking and screaming their lungs out. They will give chase to fleeing opponents.
Morale Orc Degenerates do not retreat or surrender; the thought of either never occurs to them.
STATISTICS
Str 30, Dex 13, Con 22, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 4
Base Atk +4; CMB +14; CMD 25
Feats Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Falchion)
Skills Climb +21, Survival +7
Languages Common, Orc
SQ Deformities (thick skin, weak mind), fast movement
Gear Falchion
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Ferocity (Ex) An orc remains conscious and continue fighting even if its hit point total is below 0. The creature is still staggered and loses 1 hit point each round. It still dies when its hit point total reaches a negative amount equal to its Con score (in this case -18).
That's a hefty amount of damage with a high attack bonus. It'll depend heavily on initiative when you have such punishing melee attacks. You can probably reason that 3-4 hits will bring down the tougher characters, maybe 2 for the less so. I would be cautious about not making too many. Damages do not scale very well by level-based features alone, and the damages they are doing now would be similar to what they would be doing in 4 more levels. And with that critical modifier, look out.
Would you be willing to go with more 2nd level barbarians? Less swingy that way.
Also depends on how well the pcs are equipped for melee and how strongly they are optimized. (I only mention optimization because these guys look like they have gotten the bajeezus minmaxed out of them)
Threeshades: Not as much. Just an accurate representation of their life. They were fathered and raised by an ogre, and it's tough up in the mountains.
All: I've actually gone over to 4th level fighters. They're much less...TPK prone. Their damage with Power Attack's about the same, but their HP, Will save, speed, and attack bonus all took a hit. They still don't wear armor, also, so their AC's only gone up the 2 rage took off. They actually make more sense this way 'cuz their pop's a fighter too.
Orc Degenerate
CR 4; XP 1200
Orc Ogrekin Fighter 4 (Bestiary 2 204)
CE Medium Humanoid (giant)
Init +1; Senses Darkvision 60ft., low-light vision, Perception +0
DEFENSE
AC 16, touch 11, flat-footed 15 (+5 natural, +1 Dex)
hp 42 (4d10 + 20)
Fort +8, Ref +2, Will -1
Defensive Abilities bravery +1, ferocity
OFFENSE
Speed 30ft.
Melee Falchion +11 (2d4 + 20/18-20)
TACTICS
During Combat Degenerates simply aren't smart enough to make use of sophisticated tactics. They charge into battle, swinging their falchions, Power Attacking and screaming their lungs out. They will give chase to fleeing opponents.
Morale Orc Degenerates do not retreat or surrender; the thought of either never occurs to them.
STATISTICS
Str 26, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 4
Base Atk +4; CMB +14; CMD 25
Feats Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Falchion), Weapon Specialization (Falchion)
Skills Climb +13, Survival +5
Languages Giant
SQ armor training 1, Deformities (thick skin, weak mind)
Gear Falchion
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Ferocity (Ex) An orc remains conscious and continue fighting even if its hit point total is below 0. The creature is still staggered and loses 1 hit point each round. It still dies when its hit point total reaches a negative amount equal to its Con score (in this case -18).
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Especially with most likely two characters, I would rethink the encounter. Here's why:
The encounter will be extremely swingy in the sense that the most likely ways that it plays out are that the monsters kill the PCs immediately (with damage), the PCs beat the monsters immediately (probably with a will save), or the PCs manage to avoid being hit and slowly grind out a win. None of those ways are especially fun and it is unlikely that the encounter will go a different way. The monsters are attacking for half of PC hit points in a single attack, they have an action advantage due to greater numbers, and you're not at the level where PCs can cast heal, or dominate..
Again, it's not that the challenge is not appropriate or beatable. It's just that the ways for PCs to beat it are likely to render the encounter uninteresting. Looking at it from a player's perspective, here are the ways I see to beat the encounter:
1. Focus on their obvious weakness: incapacitate them with will saves and slowly beat them to death.
2. Crank my AC up to low thirties (or maybe high 20s with DR and/or a miss chance) and slowly beat them to death.
3. Find a way to kite them and slowly kill them from range.
All of these strategies have one thing in common: they involve the monsters either never getting an attack or needing a very high number (preferably a 20) to hit. That's not generally a recipe for a fun encounter, but the alternative is to lose. If they can hit, they win.
Now, if you had more than two characters, and the battle were to take place at 9th level (where wall of force and dominate become available), there might be good ways to incapacitate or kite some of them while trading damage with one or two of them. A four person party could afford to have the wizard controlling the battlefield to keep most of them away while the cleric extended the not-unhittable fighters' lifespans from 2 rounds to 3 rounds--which might be enough to deal with the orcs as long as only a couple could fight at once. But with only two characters, you probably can't afford less than 100% success at control which turns the fight into what I described above.
To make it more likely to be fun and interesting, I would recommend giving them more defensive and mobility abilities at the cost of decreased damage. The increased will save, etc decreases the odds of scenario 1, while the decreased damage makes it possible to win without completely avoiding being hit (scenarios 2 and 3). It also decreases the odds of scenario 0: you roll a crit on each of your first two attacks and it's a two attack roll TPK.