Cadrius
3rd of February, 2004, 15:14
Orcs aren't a big fan of bright light, hence the minor light sensitivity penalty present in their Monstrous Manual description. They tend to live underground and have adapted to their surroundings via darkvision.
Here's the thing, Izrador's orcs have lived above ground for thousands and thousands of years. That's a small increment on an evolutionary scale, but given the magical nature of the world I think some adjustments are in order. If orcs don't like bright light then they'll want to travel at night. How hard is it to travel across land, at night, with only sixty feet of black and white vision to guide you? I bet it's pretty damn rough and easy to get lost or fall off a cliff face if traveling with a large group of your fellow goblinoids.
My proposal? A variant of orcs to reflect their time spent on the surface. They still don't like bright light, but they have low-light vision instead. So they need to bring torches with them in order to see but at least it makes more sense than having them be color-blind and stumbling around in the darkness.
There will likely still be other breeds running around that have spent much of their time underground and retain their darkvision. They're more useful in the campaigns with the dwarves in the east than the elves in the west. Ogres and hobgoblins will be left alone due to fewer breeding programs attempting to select vision traits.
Thoughts?
Here's the thing, Izrador's orcs have lived above ground for thousands and thousands of years. That's a small increment on an evolutionary scale, but given the magical nature of the world I think some adjustments are in order. If orcs don't like bright light then they'll want to travel at night. How hard is it to travel across land, at night, with only sixty feet of black and white vision to guide you? I bet it's pretty damn rough and easy to get lost or fall off a cliff face if traveling with a large group of your fellow goblinoids.
My proposal? A variant of orcs to reflect their time spent on the surface. They still don't like bright light, but they have low-light vision instead. So they need to bring torches with them in order to see but at least it makes more sense than having them be color-blind and stumbling around in the darkness.
There will likely still be other breeds running around that have spent much of their time underground and retain their darkvision. They're more useful in the campaigns with the dwarves in the east than the elves in the west. Ogres and hobgoblins will be left alone due to fewer breeding programs attempting to select vision traits.
Thoughts?