Uruk-Hai (4e Race)

Uruk-Hai

By Josh Corpuz

A brutal subrace of orcs, spawned from the ground and combining the best elements of Orcs and Goblins in to a monstrous form of a beast.

Racial Traits

Average Height: 6'2 to 7'2

Average Weight: 240 to 350 pounds

Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution or Dexterity

Size: Medium

Speed: 7 squares

Vision: Dark Vision

Languages: Common, Giant

Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Intimidate, +2 Endurance

Savage Ancestry: You move at your normal speed even when it would normally be reduced by a heavy load or armor. Other effects that limit speed (such as difficult terrain or magical effects) affect you normally. When determining your normal load, heavy load, or maximum drag load, treat your Strength score as 5 points higher.

Unnatural Toughness: Uruk-Hai only need to sleep 4 hours in every 72 hours to gain the same benefits other races gain from an extended rest. While asleep, you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal. For the purposes of resisting the effects of exhaustion, fatigue or sleep deprivation, you gain a +5 bonus to endurance checks.

Warrior's Blood: You qualify as both a half-orc and an orc for purposes of qualifying for prerequisites (such as for feats or paragon paths).

Warrior’s Vigor: You gain 5 extra hit points at character creation, which increases to 10 at level 11 and 15 at level 21.

Race Description

Uruk-Hai are as strong as they are fast, being breed explicitly as great warriors designed specifically with the purpose to wage war. Selectivity breed, most Uruk-Hai are spawned from the ground as a result of an unnatural, magical fusion between Goblins and Orcs, granting both incredible speed and power, and incredible senses, at the expense of a normal upbringing. They are unnaturally strong, designed specifically to battle their enemies and engage in combat relentlessly, and possess and unusual toughness and strength not seen by most races. A very combat oriented race, Uruk-Hais are naturally geared towards fighting, especially physically, and generally tend to possess immense size and strength, as well as daunting speed. Despite their emphasis on battle and the warrior ethos, not all Uruk-Hai are mindless savages, although due to the circumstances that often lead to their existence, they often are put to use by evil entities. Unlike Orcs or Goblins which have strong familial or tribal ties, Uruk-Hai are not born in to the world naturally, and thus have no true familial bonds, outside of the bond they share with their fellow warriors. They start off their life in complete adulthood completely mature, and live their entire life until death virtually without aging. Despite their upbringing and racial ancestry, their instinctual sense of empathy and compassion often come through at times, which can make them surprisingly compassionate despite their often blood thirsty ways. While in general they are not known for their intelligence, a few among them distinguish themselves with more sophisticated abilities, becoming rogues or monks. Uruk-Hai are not necessarily inherently evil or violent, although their environment tends to lead them to being used for evil ends; they tend be very straightforward, laconic, and warlike. Due to their warrior mentality they are constantly seeking the next battle, and they thirst after battle with an insatiable hunger for blood, often literally due to their cannibalistic tendencies. However most Uruk-Hai possess a distinct and very strong sense of honor and valor, with a very fatalistic outlook on like an a willingness to die in combat. While their code of ethics is often somewhat different from that of other races, there are many among them that distinguish themselves with more admirable qualities, despite their race's common use for savage and brutal purposes. They do not lack compassion, but as their society values strength and toughness, and satisfies their desire for battle and never ending bloodlust, along with their general association with nefarious figures, they can appear as a very brutal and violent race, and are largely feared by most other races.

• To be a tough, brutal, and intimidating hero who is feared by many.
• To excel in physical combat.
• To play a unique character that will literally turn heads in every city you come to.
• To be a character with a dark past, breed for combat as a slave.

Physical Qualities

Uruk-Hai are tall, broad and muscular, lacking most of the grace and subtlety of other races. Taller than humans, the skin of an Uruk-Hai are overwhelmingly black or dark in nature, but can range in color from gray to a dark green (with some "cursed" variants possessing a reddish brown skin). Most male Uruk-Hais shave their heads in order to enhance their battle-readiness and for aesthetic reasons; however, some females may keep their hair long. Females are virtually non-existent in the race and natural births are exceedingly rare, although they do exist. Despite their unnatural origin, Uruk-Hai can still breed with other Orc races and even humans, creating Half-orcs when they do so, or Orcs or Uruk-Hai's when breeding with other Orc races or Half-Orcs. Thus it is possible that if an Uruk-Hai successfully has children, that female offspring with traits of the Uruk-Hai over a regular Orc will be produced in this incredibly rare series of events. Few female Uruk-Hai exist, as most Uruk-Hai are spawned from an ancient ritual after incubating goblins in the ground. Uruk-hai tend to have tattoos covering their chests and backs, with axes, skulls and Orc symbols being very common. An Uruk-Hai will normally receive or place these on his own body when he has proven himself in defeating a powerful opponent stronger and superior to another beings, of which the more of these an Uruk-Hai has on their body the more powerful they are likely to be. They don't live quite as long as humans, maturing to adhulthood at birth, with most not living much past 55. There are some exceptions to the rule however, as some are known to live up to 100 years.

Uruk-Hais are relatively large, and significantly larger than most humanoid races, with men generally being larger than woman, as they are sexually dimorphic, however woman are exceedingly rare. Despite generally being relatively large in comparison to most races, Uruk-Hais vary widely in size, although generally are slightly smaller than regular orcs. With gigantism being more common in males, ranges from anywhere from 300 to 400+ pounds are not uncommon, and Uruk-Hais have been known to range between 7 to 8 feet tall, with some being much larger than this. It is thought that Orcs value on size and strength, particularly in breeding partners, of which the Uruk-Hais are descendants from, has over time developed a latent sense of hereditary gigantism, that manifests itself at random throughout the population. Most Uruk-Hai will continue growing their entire life, getting larger as they age, and thus remain healthy, fit adults up until their death. Partially as a means to compensate, Uruk-Hai, like orcs, also possess two oversized hearts which dramatically increases their endurance, although these generally tend to wear out very quickly. Uruk-Hai are also capable of living on a diet almost exclusively of meat, and unlike most other races do not get sick from eating other humanoid races, or even each other. While their cannibalism is considered frighting or disgusting by most, the sad logic behind their design to eat humanoid races is the ability to literally eat their enemies after combat, to sustain them in the field without needing logistic resupply. Uruk-Hai literally brim with Hunger in combat, which in part drives their bloodlust in combat not only for the thrill of battle, but to quench their undying hunger, and their instinctual predator nature. Their senses are far more developed than most humanoid races, which grants not only superior vision, but also superior smell and hearing as well, with a sense of smell only approximately half as weak as a dog.

This gigantism, like with many animals, in general tends to result in Uruk-Hai living much longer than expected. Particularly old Uruk-Hai tend to be the largest among them, as if they never stop growing (like Koi Fish or Greenland whales), their life expectancy can increase dramatically. The oldest, and thus wisest among the Uruk-Hai, tend to also be the largest. On top of this, combined with the Uruk-Hai's usually short life span relative to other humanoid creatures, it compounds the relative age of the Uruk-Hai even greater. Uruk-Hai that might live as old as 150 are not just old, but 3-5 times older than most Uruk-Hai in existence, or dozens of times older than Uruk-Hai that have only lived a few years and were breed for battle, and thus have that many more life time's of experiences, and have seen many generations of people come and pass. As a result, size is even more revered among Uruk-Hai, as though it does not necessarily indicate intelligence or skill, it's reflective of the resulting age of the Uruk-Hai, and thus their likely skill as a result. Many mythic Chieftain leaders continued to grow larger as they aged, and could reach epic proportions of both wisdom and size. Most Uruk-Hai are between 6'2 and 7'2 and 200-340 pounds, but some have been known to range much larger than this. Uruk-Hai as tall as 7'8 and weighing up to 450 pounds are not unheard of, but Uruk-Hai tend to be much smaller than this due to their emphasis on speed as well as strength. When mixed with other races, most find them disturbing, brutal, and prone to fits of rage and anger, although this is seen as normal in Uruk-Hai groups. While often accepted in to human or Orc groups, they nonetheless are always watched suspiciously for fear they might "snap" one day in a fit of rage.

Uruk-Hai Feats

Uruk-Hai have three key feats meant for this build. Savage Mastery allows them to gain proficiency with all axes and provides a +1 feat bonus to damage rolls with them. Orcish Vitality allows the Orc's constitution modifier as bonus hitpoints to their healing surge value. Uruk-Hai allows the Orc to gain darkvision, although this feat is not necessary due to the Uruk-Hai already possessing dark vision.

Heroic Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description
Orc Ironblood	Add one-half your Constitution modifier to the temporary hit points granted by your Battlerager Vigor.
Orcish Slayer	You gain proficiency and a +2 feat bonus to damage rolls with axes and maces.
Orcish Vitality	You gain a bonus to your healing surge value equal to your constitution modifier.
Savage Mastery	You gain proficiency with all axes, the Uruk-Hai Pickaxe, and a +1/2/3 scaling feat bonus to damage rolls with these weapons.
Tribal Mastery	You gain proficiency with all spears, and a +1/2/3 scaling feat bonus to damage rolls when using them.
Uruk-Hai	You gain Darkvision, and a +2 bonus to vision based perception rolls made in complete darkness.

Heroic Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description

Heroic Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description

Uruk-Hai Utility Powers

By Josh Corpuz

When your Uruk-Hai character gains a class utility power after 1st level, you can forgo taking a power granted to you by your class. Instead you gain an Uruk-Hai utility power of the same level or lower.

Warrior's Strike	Uruk-Hai Utility 2
The thrill of combat fills you with tremendous vigor, giving you a second surge of power.
Encounter
Free Action	Personal
Trigger: You hit an enemy with an attack
Effect: You gain temporary hitpoints equal to your level + your constitution modifier.

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Seething Rage	Uruk-Hai Utility 6
You thrive on victory and the thrill of battle, savagely exploiting any advantage you gain in combat.
Encounter
Free Action	Personal
Trigger: You deal damage from an encounter power
Effect: You deal an additional d10 extra damage.

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Notes

The race is sort of intended to be a hybrid between the half-orc and the Orc, with a few minor changes. While vaguely based on the Lord of the Ring's orc, it is not identical, especially in regards to the race largely living underground.

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