I'm a little tired of orcs as default antagonists.
What could be some good alternatives to replace them. Can be from existent fantasy stories or entirely made up. So far I'm thinking about something like picrel.
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What are some good orc alternatives?
Goblins for a weaker alternative
Hobgoblins for a more organized alternative.
Wilder humans.
Vikings/pirates, if you have good coasts and river systems, their dungeons can be keeps they've conquered.
Steppe people, I guess the mounts can be an issue mechanically, but most of the fighting is probably in their tented camps anyway.
Goths and people from early european migration period could also be a good source of inspiration, with a bit more settled camps than tents, maybe some palisade walls.
Some wild breed of elf.
Could call them Blood Elves, but obviously nothing like warcraft blood elves.
They live long, tall muscular elves, angry and sacrifices people. Magic is common but they don't employ like high wizardry really.
alternate names to blood elves: Blade Elves, Axe Elves, Bone Elves.
>encounter steppe people
>They pepper you with arrows before retreating farther than you can move in one turn
>combat consists entirely of the players getting juked and taking damage
very fun encounter
yeah don't fight them in the open, sneak into the camp and fight them when they don't have that option
the build that filtered the entire world for centuries
Ghouls that are corrupted humans.
gnoll, hobgoblin, or sergal
Other humans (or whatever else intelligent races you have around).
Intelligent undead.
Beastmen. You get the orcish savagery and more variable physical forms
Lizard/serpentmen, separate from beastmen because they usually present fallen ancient empire rather than savage horde.
>I'm a little tired of orcs as default antagonists
Then you are a bad DM. I can do more with orcs than you can with an entire monster manual, get good.
t.D&D pro
Regular humans acting like humans.
What are you looking for as the antagonists? Are you just concerned about aesthetics or do you want creatures that give an interesting challenge?
Bugs, or bug people. Back in my 3.5 days I was partial to kython too.
Elementals. Specifically low level sprite like shit that just coalesces nearby materials into a rough form.
Like mud men, campfire porcupines, pebble crabs, Icicle elk, Mist wolves etc. Unlimited variety of form and function, and they get to be antagonists cause they are sentient non-life forms that shouldn't exist. Make sure you get a couple larger smarter ones to lead them, or cultists, or shamans, or cursed woods, or whatever to give them a reason to attack places and your golden for easy made low level fights.
In my opinion modern orcs are basically a result of trying to transform the original Orcs (invented by Tolkien) from the goblins that they were meant to be into Ogres, which are a pre-existing mythological/folklore monster.
So maybe just have folklore ogres as the default antagonists.
i have a friend who wanted to make a setting that's like Warcraft, but not Warcraft, largely due to accumulated trauma from bad lore additions; he didn't want to make non-humans in this new setting for various reasons but i've been trying to argue for demihumans who are largely just warped humans.
the stand-in for orcs that i've suggested are mostly a mixture of certain warcraft orc traits (large size, vaguely bestial appearance, more acute natural senses) mixed with a more human look (humanish skin tones and anatomy); these guys are great fighters and outdoorsmen who are naturally drawn to simpler more primitive lifestyles.
their main drawback is that they're very clannish and very loyal to strongman figures, even against their better judgment. kill their chieftains and wiseman, and the clan ceases to be a coordinated threat until someone else takes up the mantle - which is how the peoples who fight them have learned to maintain their frontiers - with incisive operations to assassinate figures who can quite literally be the fonts of any given clan's power.
in our setting, most of these not-orcs are organized into a larger warhost that's been coopted by an outsider who won them over with promises of sorcerous magic, which many of the clans eagerly adopted. one of the clans is currently squatting in the territory of an old empire they sacked ages ago, and turned the old capital into a stronghold for pyromaniac sorcerers to study the new powers.
even inside the warhost, tho, the clans don't care for each other, and within the clans there's fierce competition. bands of raiders will just as easily tear into each other as into outsiders, and won't unify unless their leaders muster them all personally.
Germans.
>As in a fantasy race based on Germans?
No, just Germans.
Which time period of Germans?
Any time period of germans work as stock-villains.
can confirm
t. german
When cooking? Long porc.
Black folk.
and everybody clapped
This. Fits similar niche as barbarian orcs from badlands
*claps*
But on the serious note, Black folk are much lower in threat rating than classic orcs, lacking bravery, discipline or significant physical strengh.
You can make the numbers, but then it would be just goblins.
For me it's pic related
I often use these guys. I flavour them evil and cunning, stealing anything but easily defeatable if faced by valorous and noble.
Which ones? Orks? Urgals? Purple orks(pictured)?
Trollocs
The answer is always skeletons
Frickmonkeys. They are essentially chimps that can organize and smith.
maybe you should re-evaluate the name
Frickmonkey is a great name.
Anything can replace them. "Orcs" exist to fill a narrative role, they can be green-skinned brutes, cowardly wretches or merciless uruk-hai and still equally orcish. A greasy Italian man in a well-tailored suit, a horde of ravening monsters or a cyborg supersoldier can be an orc if they serve as the replaceable henchmen of the game's antagonist.
Subhumanoid ape-men.
>Tax Collector
>What could be some good alternatives to replace them.
Humans.