Several months ago, I made a thread detailing a homebrew race of Elf and Orc. This came about after a suggestion on a character I was creating made me wonder about the various races and if they could have kids together.
That thread was about a race that came from an elf and an orc having a child. Now I'm wondering what it would be like if the parents had been half-elf and half-orc. In other words, a race that was half human and only a quarter each of elf and orc.
This is the thread I had made: Elf-Orc
Now, without using subraces or alternate traits, here are the basics of the half-elf and half-orc.
Half-Elf:
+2 to any single stat.
Medium size, 30 Speed. Humanoid with Human and Elf subtypes.
Low-Light Vision.
Adaptability: Gain Skill Focus as LV1 bonus feat.
Elf Blood: Count as both human and elf for effects related to race.
Elven Immunities: Immune to magical sleep and +2 racial to saves against enchantment spells and effects.
Keen Senses: +2 racial to Perception.
Multitalented: Choose a second favored class.
Languages: Begin with Common and Elven. Bonuses are all languages except secret ones like Druidic.
Half-Orc:
+2 to any single stat.
Medium size, 30 Speed. Humanoid with Human and Orc subtypes.
Darkvision 60.
Intimidating: +2 racial to Intimidate.
Orc Blood: Count as both human and orc for effects related to race.
Orc Ferocity: Once a day, when brought below zero HP but not killed, can fight for one round as if disabled. The next round, unless brought back to positive HP, falls unconscious and begins dying.
Weapon Familiarity: Proficient with Greataxes and Falchions. Any weapon with Orc in the name is treated as a Martial weapon.
Languages: Begin with Common and Orc. Bonuses are Abyssal, Draconic, Giant, Gnoll, and Goblin.
This might be harder to make than a pure elf-orc race. To compare, this is how that race worked out for me:
Medium size, 30 Speed. Humanoid with Elf and Orc subtypes.
Stats: +2 Con, +2 Int, -2 Cha. 0 RP
Low-Light Vision: 1 RP
Keen Senses: 2 RP
Dual Minded: 1 RP
Orc Ferocity: 2 RP
Quick Reactions: 2 RP
Weapon Familiarity: Proficient with bows and greataxe, and Orc and Elf weapons are treated as Martial. 2 RP
Languages: Begin with Common, Elvish, and Orc. Bonuses are Celestial, Gnome, Dwarven, Goblin, Halfling, and Giant.
Alternate traits:
Stats: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Int.
Swordtrained: Replacing Weapon Familiarity and Orc Ferocity.
Focused Study: Replacing Quick Reactions and Keen Senses.
You've made some decisions about it I don't really understand.
Basing elf-orcs on half-elf and half-orcs may be misleading - some parts of their racial abilities come from their human ancestry, of which elf-orcs have none.
I don't know how you decided to give it a bonus to Constitution. Orcs don't have it, and elves have a penalty. For Intelligence, elves have a penalty, and orcs have a bonus - it should cancel out. For the penalized stat I would choose Wisdom rather than Charisma - elf capriciousness and orc savagery is a bad mix. In total, I'd suggest:
Racial ability scores: Elf-orcs are all-around physically fit, but rash and impulsive. +2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Wis
They definitely should have the ability:
Mixed Blood: Elf-orcs count both as elves and orcs for effects related to race.
For the weapon familiarity, I'd give them falchions rather than greataxes. That's just something that better fits my imagination though.
I don't see a reason to give them Dual Minded or Quick Reactions. Instead, I'd suggest to let them inherit Elven Immunities.
If you give them two bonus Languages at the start, the list of additional languages should be shorter - I'd throw out Celestial. Also, neither Elves or Orcs have Halfling as a possible bonus language - I'd give elf-orcs Draconic instead.
Alternatively, I'd let them choose either Elven or Orc as a racial language, and they could pick the other one as a bonus language.
There should be an alternate racial trait that would give them Darkvision. I suggest one that replaces Low-Light Vision with Darkvision and Light Sensitivity.
The stats at the bottom of the post were from the other thread, where I made a race that was from a elf having a child with an orc. No human blood whatsoever. I just forgot about the Mixed Blood thing.
I figured that being part Orc would loose them the magical protection but having to carve their own place in the world would make them stubborn.
I imagine the result would be still-born (if conceived at all) as the half-blanks are all half human due to their adaptability but lets say a happy miracle happens. The Elf-Orc would likely not have weapon familiarities at all since those seem to be cultural and their don't seem to be many Elf-Orc communities just yet but an alternative would be a variable weapon familiarity depending on which race trained the Elf-Orc. Half-elves don't get weapon familiarity so there're some precedence. Darkvision seems accurate as even half-orcs get it even though humans don't have low light. Adjoint's stat block looks appropriate.
Just to be clear, I had finished the elf-orc and put the stat block up there for comparison. I am now trying to do one that is half-human and a quarter of elf and orc.
In that case, basing it on half-elves and half-orcs is the right idea. Humanoid with Human, Orc and Elf subtype, lowlight, +2 to any stat, speaks common orc and elven, weapon familiarity of both types with some alternate traits for better spell use or out of combat skills.
Yeah. I want to try to have this race viable without being broken, but still distinct from the elf-orc.
I'm thinking of giving them the human racial trait Skilled since they're more human than either elf or orc.