Image credit: Ilgoblin
Orcs have always been a staple of low-level encounters. They are easy to fit into many types of settings, they serve well beneath any number of wicked masters, and they are easy to scale up and down to adjust the challenge for your PCs.
Here’s a free orc generator for 5e Dungeons & Dragons and for the Low Fantasy Gaming system to make the creation of customizable bands of orcs easy and fun!
Customize Your Party of Orcs
Veteran players (and given the media saturation these days, even newbies) are familiar with orcs, but that isn’t a problem as long as you bring them to life.
- Backstory: The Maker’s Forge Foe Generator will create a backstory for your orcs that you can tweak as needed to fit into the PC’s current situation. Where did this band of orcs come from? What do they want? And most importantly: how does what they want conflict with what the PCs want?
- A name and vivid description: your orcs should each have names that are revealed during trade, negotiation, threats, or capture. And every orc should be unique when you describe it to the player that encounters it, even if the player has heard orcs described a hundred times before. Vivid description is the lifeblood of the roleplaying game. What sets this orc apart from his fellows? Separate from the band itself, what does this orc want? And what is it prepared to do to get it?
- Weapons and hit points: orcs use whatever weapons they can get their hands on. And not all orcs have the same hit points, so when you cross blades with one, you can never be sure what it will require to take them down. Even in raw combat, let each orc be unique.
- War captain: every orc band has a leader, and most have a veteran warrior that has seized his position through ruthlessness and aggression. What does this war captain want? How does he treat those that follow him?
- Lieutenants and support: many orc bands will consist of more than just a group of warriors and their captain. Perhaps shamen or war priests accompany them on their latest foray. Or cunning thugs trained in the art of stealth and subterfuge? What about savage berserker orcs that fly into chaotic rages in the midst of battle? Adding flavorful support can spice up an otherwise vanilla encounter.
- Loot: should the PCs win the day, what gear and valuables might the orc band be carrying? What small hints of further adventure might be lurking among the orc band’s possessions?
Foe Generator for 5e D&D and Low Fantasy Gaming
So what are you waiting for? Go use the Maker’s Forge Orc Generator to get a jump-start on a party of orcs. It does all the grunt work for you: stats, names, short descriptions, weapons, and HP for each orc, even the loot they’re carrying should your PCs defeat them. All that’s left for you to do is to bring the orcs’ goals into sharp conflict with the PCs and let the sparks fly!