Taking a break from the Goblin language file -- which is unusually complicated because I established in
the previous Take Their Stuff that “Goblin" is actually three related languages... whoops. So right now I've got a vocab list for Proto-Goblin and a rough draft of the sound changes required to make the three languages. Anyway, I thought I'd take some time off from that and from my
other project to do a new Take Their Stuff. The reason I've picked ogres is because of a particularly nonsensical line in the AD&D Monstrous Manual; I'll point it out when I get to it. This time around, I'm going to do a more structured look at the various editions' entries on the monster in question, and hit the major subspecies too, so let's get going.
The Propaganda
As previously established, we're starting with the assumption that everything in the original sources is bullshit colonialist propaganda. One thing to be noted ahead of time is that our opposite-alignment assumption is more flexible this time around, as some ogre subspecies (specifically, the Ogre Mage) are LE even though regular ogres are CE; so these ogres will be Usually Good (any).
AD&D Monstrous Manual -- Ogre
Ogres are big, ugly, greedy humanoids that live by ambushes, raids, and theft. Ill-tempered and nasty, these monsters are often found serving as mercenaries in the ranks of orc tribes, evil clerics, or gnolls. They mingle freely with giants and trolls.
Okay, so we're starting out harsh. Naturally, the propagandists want to immediately tell us they are ugly, greedy, ill-tempered, and nasty. Then the rest is... interesting. It looks like ogres are pretty comfortable with other species -- more so than humans, at any rate -- and primarily work as muscle for smaller folk. (Which, I mean, seems like the natural career choice for people who are naturally bigger and stronger than most groups around them.) Orcs, gnolls, giants, and trolls -- in addition to rhyming, that's a pretty broad range of people to “often" work for or “mingle freely" with. Note also that “mingling freely" with giants is almost presented as a negative here... curious. I also like that ogres work for “evil clerics", which is just asking for some logical fallacies.
“How do you know he's evil?"
“Well, he's got ogres working for him, doesn't he?"
Adult ogres stand 9 to 10 feet tall and weigh 300 to 350 pounds. Their skin colors range from a dead yellow to a dull black-brown, and (rarely) a sickly violet. Their warty bumps are often of a different color – or at least darker than their hides. Their eyes are purple with white pupils. Teeth and talons are orange or black. Ogres have long, greasy hair of blackish-blue to dull dark green.
The thing that strikes me here is that these guys are friggin' psychedelic in appearance, even though we never really see that in the illustrations.
Also, “long, greasy hair"? Motherfucker, this is a medieval world. All humanoids have long, greasy hair because haircuts are a low priority and nobody's invented shampoo! Why are you picking on the ogres for it? We can also see that ogres don't have “skin" -- real people have “skin", after all -- they have “hides".
Their odor is repellent, reminiscent of curdled milk.
Okay, so first of all, talking about how an entire people smells is kind of rude. Second, personal odor is often the result of diet, so lots of ogres smelling like old milk probably just means they eat a lot of dairy products. Third -- and I find this pretty funny -- I'm told that “spoiled milk" is actually how white Americans often smell to other cultures, so I guess ogres have a lot in common with... many of the people involved in composing this book that tells us how terrible ogres are. I have to wonder if this line about the way ogres smell is actually a subtle shot some person of color on the writing staff was taking at their white co-workers.
Dressing in poorly cured furs and animal hides, they care for their weapons and armor only reasonably well.
I'm not really sure what
“only reasonably well" is supposed to mean. There's definitely something sketchy there, but I can't suss it out.
It is common for ogres to speak orc, troll, stone giant, and gnoll, as well as their own guttural language. A typical ogre’s life span is 90 years.
Wait, it's common for ogres to speak five languages? Those are some cosmopolitan people right there, considering that their stats claim they have an average intelligence of 8. I think maybe they're being unfairly categorized there.
Ogre tribes are found anywhere, from deep caverns to mountaintops. Tribes have 16-20 males, 2-12 females, and 2-8 young. Shamans, if present, will be of 3rd level, and have access to the spheres of combat, divination, healing, protection, and sun (darkness only).
Okay, so like goblins, they pretty much live wherever they can -- even though they're big and strong, they have pretty small tribes, so an actual state can displace them easily. Hence why they live in “deep caverns" and “mountaintops" -- but, while it's not stated outright, I bet they tend not to be found on “rich farmland". Also, why the hell does every ogre tribe apparently have more men than women? Are ogre births particularly dangerous or something?
Ogres live by raiding and scavenging and they will eat anything. Their fondness for elf, dwarf, and halfling flesh means that there is only a 10% chance that these will be found as slaves or prisoners. There is a 30% chance that an ogre lair will include 2-8 slaves. Captured prisoners are always kept as slaves (25%) or food (75%). Extremely avaricious, ogres squabble over treasure and cannot be trusted, even by their own kind.
Yeah, they're slavers and cannibals again. In AD&D, apparently every nonhuman species were slavers and cannibals. (I learned on the 3e books, and only played a few games pre-3e, so some aspects of previous editions seem weirdly foreign to me.) In this particular case, I have no trouble reading this as a bald-faced lie to keep adventurers from parleying with ogres. They can't be trusted, and they want to eat, specifically, the species that traditionally ally with humans. Sure, guys, sure. That sounds legit. Not at all like you're just trying to convince your halfling, elf, and dwarf allies to not risk diplomatic relations with ogres.
Ogres consistently plague mankind, lusting for gold, gems, and jewelry as well as human flesh.
Harsh. And, I'm sorry, are you claiming that humans (or dwarves, for that matter) don't
“lust for gold, gems, and jewelry"? Oh, I see, that's different? Because...?
They are evil-natured creatures
Read: we don't like 'em
that join with other monsters to prey on the weak
Read: they cooperate with other species, which we consider to be Wrong.
and favor overwhelming odds to a fair fight.
Who doesn't?
Ogres make no crafts nor labor.
Read: It's okay to kill them because they don't produce goods or capital. Of course, they must make something, even if it's just ogre-sized clothing. And they work as mercenaries, which sounds like labor to me... oh, I'm overthinking this? This is just a line to justify using the wasteland rationale on ogres? Gotcha.
AD&D Monstrous Manual -- Ogre Mage
Not going to spend a whole lot of time on these guys, but:
The oriental ogre has light blue, light green, or pale brown skin with ivory horns. The hair is usually a different color (blue with green, green with blue) and is darker in shade; the main exception to this coloration is found in ogre magi with pale brown skin and yellow hair. They have black nails and dark eyes with white pupils. The teeth and tusks are very white. Ogre magi are taller and more intelligent than their cousins and they dress in oriental clothing and armor.
What is all this “oriental" stuff? Okay, so, we know that the ogre mage is based more on the Japanese oni than anything else, and later versions just straight-up call them Oni anyway. But... why is that relevant within the game? Are the writers just assuming that every campaign world has a pseudo-Japan? I mean, their “Climate/Terrain" is listed as “Any oriental land", for Cthulhu's sake. Leaving that alone, though, getting back into the in-universe writing...
Okay, so other than the smart, magical, and... apparently Japanese.. nature of the ogre mage, a lot of this is pretty much the same as the entry for ogres. (Though apparently ogre magi have much smaller tribes.) A couple things stand out, though:
These monsters are extremely protective of their young and will battle with savage abandon to save one’s life. If a young ogre mage is captured, these creatures will pay high ransom for its return, but they will seek revenge and will never forget the insult of the kidnapping.
Why does this need to be spelled out? That seems like pretty much a standard humanoid mode of behavior. Except the ogre mage's “very particular set of skills" include flight, invisibility, and shapeshifting.
AD&D Monstrous Manual -- Merrow
The aquatic ogre, for the three GMs that ever managed to successfully have an aquatic campaign. Anyway, they're mostly what you'd expect for “ogre but lives underwater":
Faster and fiercer than their land kin, the freshwater merrow are greenish and scaled with webbed hands and feet. Their necks are long and thick, their shoulders are sloping, and they have huge mouths and undershot jaws. Merrow have black teeth and nails and deep green eyes with white centers, and their hair resembles slimy seaweed. About 10% grow ivory horns, especially the more powerful males.
I do like that some of them have horns like the magi. That's neat. Kind of ruined with the note that “especially the more powerful males" get them, though.
Aquatic ogres are very fond of tattoos, and females may have their entire bodies inked with scenes of death and destruction as a sign of status.
Okay, that's badass. That should be standard for all ogres. I mean, really, I think it should be standard for everyone, but that's probably excessive.
In times of scarcity, or when the lure of treasure becomes too great, a war party will attack the coastal villages of man. Merrow prefer gold and jewels and often overlook dull magical items in search of glittering prizes.
Written like human imperialists never attack their neighbors to... um... what was that phrase?
Anyway. So, yeah, it happens. Though given humanity's historical relationship with marine ecosystems and indigenous peoples, I'd bet there's usually a lot of provocation that the “coastal villages of man" are blissfully, intentionally unaware of.
The goals of a merrow chieftain rule the tribe, and these power-hungry monsters seek to completely control their “kingdoms”, often leading to attacks on intruding ships.
This sounds exactly like the behavior of human states, except filtered through a writer who thinks non-human territorial claims are illegitimate.
Merrow are ignorant and superstitious and have no skills but plundering and murder.
Damn, man, tell them how you really feel. I think we can take this as just straight species-ism with no basis in fact.
Areas of the freshwater lakes and seas where they have influence are avoided by sailors and fishermen.
Nice of those sailors and fishermen to respect the territorial claims of non-humans.
These monsters are carnivores, preying on all who enter their regions, often emptying the seas of life with their voracious appetites.
Emptying the seas of life? That seems a little extreme for a tribe of a few dozen. Maybe the human fishermen just don't like the competition and it's gotten blown out of proportion.
AD&D Monstrous Manual -- Half-Ogre
When adventuring companies journey into the wilderness they often run into ogres; big, ugly humanoids. Occasionally, an ogre party will include one or two individuals that are a little shorter, but significantly smarter, wielding a weapon with more skill than might have been expected. They have a better understanding of their opponents, and they grunt commands that anticipate the adventurers’ moves. In this way half-breeds, the issue of ogres and humans, earn the respect of their kind.
Okay, so, half-ogres. The existence of these guys in sufficient numbers to justify their own MM entry is actually much less... dark... if we're assuming that ogres aren't the chaotic-evil assholes the MM claims them to be. Hey, maybe in the areas far from the centers of state power, where humans and ogres interact, interspecies romance isn't all that uncommon?
 |
| You knew a Shrek reference would have to appear in this entry, right? |
Anyway...
Half-ogres speak common (more clearly and unimpeded than ogres), ogrish, orcish, troll, and one other, usually human, language. They live about 110 years.
So, longer lifespans than either humans OR ogres. That's hybrid vigor for you. Also, just a random shot there at ogres not being able to speak common clearly... maybe it's because it's their sixth language. How many do you speak, bucko?
Half-ogres posses infravision out to 60 feet. Their sense of smell is better than an ogre’s, but it falls short of a human’s.
Wait, do ogres have a limited sense of smell? I don't think that's been referred to anywhere else.
Half-ogres have no society of their own. If they live with ogres, they are the quick-thinking members of the tribe, ever on their toes to prove themselves worthy. If a half-ogre is reared in a human community, he learns to live with suspicion and fear, and often turns to a military or solitary occupation.
Ah, human communities. So tolerant of difference. Speaking of human communities and their half-breeds, the following is the line I called out as “particularly nonsensical" earlier:
Sages have expressed much concern over the years, wondering why ogres can interbreed with humans but not with elves or halflings. When the actual answer was discovered, the sages’ concerns proved unfounded. The explanation had nothing to do with any supposed common origin of humans and ogres, but rather in a unusual characteristic that ogres share with orcs: rapidly adaptive biology. Just as orcs and ogres can adapt quickly to any terrain, from forests to the highest mountains, their genetic construction allows them breed with any humanoid race.
Read that again. They not only don't answer the question, but add additional reasoning as to why their answer doesn't work.
“Why can ogres interbreed with humans but not with elves or halflings?"
“Oh, they have adaptive biology and can breed with any humanoid race."
“Right, so... why can ogres interbreed with humans but not with elves or halflings?"
The whole paragraph reads like they're trying to cover something up. Especially that specific denial that ogres and humans definitely don't have a common origin. So I have a theory. Ogres aren't some other species that can inexplicably interbreed with humans: ogres are part human already. (Which is why they have such difficulty breeding with elves and halflings -- it's technically possible, but the odds are way longer than with other humans.)
So what's the other half? Well, ogres have the Giant creature type... and there is such a thing as half-giants. Kind of. See, in official D&D material, half-giants are specific to the Dark Sun setting, and they've never really properly percolated over to the rest of the mythology -- probably because Dark Sun was psionics-heavy, so half-giants used psionics, and nobody really wants to deal with the headache of psionics. I've put a few non-psionic half-giants in my campaign world, but they inevitably end up being rare because they're a pain to stat up and too powerful to use as a PC race.
1
So here's my explanation for the rarity of half-giants and the whole ogre situation: ogres
are half-giants. The two terms are the same, but have radically different prestige levels. If you're high-born, and impressive-looking, and manage not to be ostracized by your community growing up, you get to be called “half-giant". It also depends on what kind of giant, of course. Being able to claim your father was a cloud giant is social currency, but if your father was a hill giant, you probably wouldn't want that getting out.
 |
Top to bottom: cloud giant, stone giant, hill giant.
From the 3rd edition Monster Manual. |
Since it's so incredibly rare for someone with giant heritage to be accepted into xenophobic human society, the children resulting from such unions are usually given to the giant parents -- or, depending on how xenophobic the particular community is, exposed on a mountainside. This tendency is only reinforced by the high mortality rate among human mothers of half-giant children... for, you know, obvious reasons. (Maybe this has something to do with the weird gender proportions in ogre tribes? It's still unusually difficult even if both parents are ogres?)
Half-giants raised outside of human society, or kicked out of human society, are referred to as “ogres". They often form their own tribes, as they don't really fit into giant society either -- like, literally, everything's built for people much bigger than them and it's inconvenient, so they prefer to get together with other ogres and build homes and tools at ogre scale. (Maybe this is why ogre tribes have weird gender proportions? The male ogres are more likely to feel insecure about being tiny and go off to do their own thing? I like that better than making ogre birth difficult.)
Over time, people who don't live on the frontiers have forgotten that ogres are just human/giant hybrids, or that “half-ogre" is a silly name for someone who is a quarter-giant. It doesn't help that the ogre tendency to form their own tribes has led to a lot of crossbreeding, so the ogre gene pool has bits and pieces of every type of giant in there somewhere, preventing any of the really-identifiable giant traits from standing out.
One last bit from the AD&D Monstrous Manual before we move on:
The half-ogre shares the ogre’s place in the ecosystem: that of a plague upon demihumans and humans, lusting for treasure and making neither crafts nor good labor. The beginnings of half-ogre poetry have been around for many years, but it is exceptionally ugly and disturbing.
Good gods, the humans-as-colonialist-villains setting practically writes itself. If I thought anyone would buy it, I'd already be writing up a gigantic sourcebook for it.
3e Monster Manual
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| Ogre from the 3e Monster Manual |
The 3e Monster Manual is a heavily-condensed version of the AD&D entry, which I find annoying. Put some damn detail into your monsters! The only major change is that ogre mages are no longer “oriental" monsters with their own thing going on, but are a subtype of ogre that often takes a leadership role among regular ogres -- and if they're aware of any other ogre mages in the area, they're more likely to cultivate a rivalry than join them. That actually fits my version of ogres way better -- ogre magi are ogres born with a stronger connection to the giant side of their heritage, and can actually access a handful of their supernatural abilities. If I were to stat up ogre magi, I would take away their default set of spells and have each ogre mage roll a certain number of times on a table that contained all the abilities of different types of giant.
Also, one more thing about ogre magi -- I object to the illustration they get in 3e. It's done by the same guy who did the 3e bugbear (you can pop back to the Bugbear section at the bottom of
the previous Take Their Stuff if you don't remember the picture), and it looks like he followed the same formula and made it a giant musclebound hulk. That just... really doesn't capture the flavor of the monster, and seems painfully unimaginative. Here's the picture:
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| See what I mean? It's just all big, veiny muscles. |
Pathfinder Bestiary -- Ogre
Stories are told of ogres—horrendous stories of brutality and savagery, cannibalism and torture. Of rape and dismemberment, necrophilia, incest, mutilation, and all manners of hideous murder. Those who have not encountered ogres know the stories as warnings. Those who have survived such encounters know these tales to be tame compared to the truth.
Holy crap. That's just... messed up. The propagandists are taking their libel to new heights here.
An ogre revels in the misery of others. When smaller races aren’t available to crush between meaty fists or defile in blood-red lusts of violence, they turn to each other for entertainment. Nothing is taboo in ogre society.
Good lord. Okay, well, we can take one thing from this -- our version of ogres can be anarchists with few societal taboos. Actually, if we keep the interpretation that ogre tribes are formed by ogres who leave giant society to form their own small communities, we can envision an ogre settlement as having kind of the same vibe as a frat house. Lots of young, male ogres partying and being irresponsible. That's actually kind of a fun idea.
One would think that, left to themselves, an ogre tribe would quickly tear itself apart, with only the strongest surviving in the end—yet if there is one thing ogres respect, it is family.
Okay, so that's nice.
Ogre tribes are known as families, and many of their deformities and hideous features arise from the common practice of incest.
Never mind.
Actually, we can reinterpret that. Fraternities and sororities refer to their members as “brothers" and “sisters" -- maybe ogre communities do a similar thing, which has led humans to believe that all the members of the community are literally related, and therefore assume that the relationships within the community are all incestuous.
Regions inhabited by ogres are dreary, ugly places, for these giants dwell in squalor and see little need to live in harmony with their environment.
Pot calling the kettle black there, humans.
The borderland between civilization and ogre territory is a desperate realm of outcasts and despair, for here dwell the ogrekin, the deformed offspring and results of frequent ogre raids against the lands of the smaller folk.
The “ogrekin" are Pathfinder's version of the half-ogres. Admittedly, they're more interesting than the previous incarnations of the half-ogre, because ogrekin have to roll on Deformity tables, with beneficial or detrimental results, which is not a bad idea. Anyway, obviously ogres are also outcasts, and ogrekin are also ogres by any definition of the term, since we're saying ogres are all humanoid / giant crossbreeds.
Ogre games are violent and cruel, and victims they use for entertainment are lucky if they die the first day. Ogres’ cruel senses of humor are the only way their crude minds show any spark of creativity, and the tools and methods of torture ogres devise are always nightmarish.
Again, just... wow. The people behind Pathfinder have much darker, more dramatic imaginations than their D&D predecessors.
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| Oni, Pathfinder Bestiary |
An ogre’s great strength and lack of imagination makes it particularly suited for heavy labor, such as mining, forging, and clearing land, and more powerful giants (particularly hill giants and stone giants) often subjugate ogre families to serve them in such regards.
Bet you a gold piece that humans also enslave ogres for heavy labor. Actually, for that matter, why would stone giants, who are much bigger and stronger than ogres, want to use ogres for hard labor? I think it's much
more likely that it's humans doing this.
Skipping the ogre mage -- as mentioned, in Pathfinder, the ogre mage is rewritten as an Oni. So it's not actually an ogre, just a type of demon that prefers to take ogre form when it shows up in the material world. And there are other kinds of oni that do other things. They look cool, though.
Pathfinder Bestiary 2 -- Ogrekin
So here's material from the Ogrekin template -- i.e., the half-ogre.
At their most merciful, ogrekin prefer to take living captives that they treat with widely varied levels of hospitality.
Is it just me, or does that carry very little information? Their treatment of captives varies widely? This statement would provide zero help for someone preparing to interact with ogrekin.
Ogrekin are rarely encountered in settlements, though they often prowl close to a town’s fence or city’s gate, waiting for unsuspecting travelers. This lonely existence leads many ogrekin to tame and train wild animals, a practice ogrekin take to with ease by quickly establishing dominance over beasts with their prodigious physical strength. These pets form resilient bonds with their masters and remain fiercely protective even after their owners’ death.
That's friggin' adorable. Ogre communities have pets now, in my world. Loyal animals from species that usually aren't domesticated.
The few ogrekin who have found acceptance into more civilized groups are often used as dispensable tools, sent out as the first lines of defense to deal with potential troublemakers.
Man, it's a good thing we civilized types aren't anything like those awful monsters, amirite?
The Rewrite
“Ogre" is the term used by humans to describe the results of crossbreeding between humanoids and giants.
2 In theory, this can be any type of humanoid, but in practice, it's usually humans. The results of such crossbreeding are rarely accepted in human society -- those rare few who
are accepted are always referred to as “half-giants", never “ogres". The vast majority of these half-breeds are cast out or sent to live with their giant parent.
However, being an ogre in a giant community is rough. First, big as ogres are in comparison to humans, giants are much bigger. The ogre kind of has to get used to being the runt, and usually is born without any access to the innate magics many giants have, further setting them apart. Plus there's the whole lifespan thing -- most species of giant are much longer-lived than your average ogre, probably because of the aforementioned innate magic. As a result, it's not uncommon for ogres (usually young male ogres) to decide to strike out and live on their own.
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| Hulking Ogre, Greg & Tim Hildebrandt |
Centuries of ogres making that decision has led to a number of semi-permanent ogre communities scattered through the hills. (These communities usually have a significant male majority, as female ogres are more likely to adapt to living with their giant family.) The existence of ogre communities has allowed humans to pretend “ogre" is a separate species living out in the wilderness somewhere, and intentionally forget that those communities originally were founded by, and probably are still populated by, outcasts from human society. The further one lives from border regions where humans, giants, and ogres might actually interact, the less likely one is to be aware of where ogres really come from.
Combat
When in conflict with humanoids, ogres try to quickly overwhelm their opponents with their great strength. They don't really trust the concept of a “fair fight", because that's usually code for “let the humans outnumber you and get into strategic position". Instead, they try to avoid combat unless they're certain they can win, at which point they're liable to strike with overwhelming force.
Society
An ogre community is a celebration of freedom and self-discovery; at any given time, a not-insignificant portion of the population are ogres who have left a giant tribe behind. As a result, they cultivate a certain uninhibited nature that humans find off-putting. Ogre communities have no laws and few taboos; usually the ogre who has earned the most personal respect settles any disputes, and that's that.
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| Ghazbán Ogress, Mike Raabe |
The head ogre, who doesn't have any official title, can really be anyone. In some communities, the eldest members tend to run things -- in others, it's the person who can take anyone else in a fight. If an ogre mage is present, they're almost always in charge. In a fairly large proportion of ogre communities, however, matriarchy has taken hold; the fact that ogre communities are majority-male, often by a sizable margin, means that the few women present are able to wield a large amount of influence -- and sometimes it's wielded with enough success that the rest of the community accepts that the women run things. Hence, matriarchy.
As implied by the lack of any official government or hierarchy, personal prestige is critical to an ogre. They will perform daring deeds and feats of strength in order to win fame, taking any opportunity to prove themselves. (Part of this, of course, is a slight Napoleon complex in those who grew up around giants.) It is very common among ogres to have elaborate tattoos depicting their achievements; in fact, tattooing is the art form that the ogres have most thoroughly developed.
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| Ogre Recluse, Jim Murray |
Ogres, unlike some hybrid species, are not sterile, and are fully capable of reproducing with humanoids or giants -- reproducing with species of humanoid or giant other than the ones they were originally born from is somewhat failure-prone, but technically possible. Due to the complications inherent in this sort of thing -- cultural barriers; issues of scale; human xenophobia; difficulties inherent in impressing a potential partner who is three times your height, will live six times as long as you, and can throw lightning bolts -- any ogres who join an ogre community are much more likely to have children with other ogres. This constant mixing of heritage from so many different species of giant and humanoid gives ogres a wide variety of appearances, even within the same community; humans, for some reason, scorn these varied appearances as incest-related deformities.
3
Of course, some ogres never do join communities of their fellows. Many are able to live happily among the giants, and others make their own solitary way in the world. This latter group is usually encountered as hired muscle, since the intimidating build of an ogre is the easiest thing for them to trade on. Ogres with class levels tend to be barbarians or rangers, with the occasional druid here and there.
Ecology
Ogres are generally found on the frontier of human lands, regardless of the terrain. For obvious reasons, the natural habitat of an ogre is anywhere that humans and giants might mingle.They are omnivorous, and generally acquire their food by whatever means the nearest tribe of giants uses -- since it's likely that many ogres in the community actually grew up in the tribe.
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| Gray Ogre, Dan Frazier |
Ogres are comfortable with hunting, scavenging, and foraging, but occasionally need to engage in trade and commerce. Since they don't usually produce trade goods beyond what they need for themselves, and their most developed form of art is done on their own skin,
4 the community usually brings in money by hiring themselves out as muscle. In desperate times, they will raid human settlements. Since they're aware of how humans see them, they don't have any particular ethical issue with conducting these raids; they just don't do it often because of the risk of retaliation.
Any solitary ogre or ogre community is likely to have trained animals. Ogres have a habit of keeping pets, usually large species of animals that aren't really thought of as domesticated, but that the ogres have adopted into their family. Ogre pets are extremely loyal, and recognize the ogre community as their own pack. The bond ogres form with their animals prevents them from raising livestock for meat -- however, ogres do love cheese, so they often keep livestock for purposes of milking. Ogre cheese is generally avoided by more squeamish humanoids -- beyond the fact that it's made by ogres, the indiscriminate nature of ogre animal-husbandry means that it's often some type of cheese utterly foreign to the local humanoids. People are surprisingly reluctant to try, for instance, moose cheese.
Merrow
There are aquatic humanoids. There are aquatic giants. Therefore, aquatic ogres. I don't think more needs to be said.
Ogre Mage
There is a 1% chance of any given ogre being born an ogre mage. The child of an ogre mage has a 5% chance of inheriting magehood; the child of two ogre magi has a 25% chance.
Those individuals whom the humans call “ogre magi" are actually ogres who were born with a stronger connection to the giant side of their ancestry. This is unpredictable -- pretty much just a genetic lottery of recessive traits -- but the children of ogre magi are often ogre magi themselves. What exactly their abilities are varies widely; any power or ability a true giant has can theoretically be inherited by an ogre mage.
Due to their greater power, ogre magi are nearly always the head of their ogre community. It is, sadly, not uncommon for this authority to go to the mage's head and lead them to do foolish things like carry on elaborate rivalries with other ogre magi, or count coup against the humans just for shits and giggles.
To create an ogre magi, start with the stats for a standard ogre and do the following:
Step 1. Increase all stats except Intelligence by 1d6, rolling each stat separately. Increase Intelligence by 3d6. (Alternately, boost ogres to average-ish intelligence across the board and increase ogre-mage Int by 2d6.) Ogre mages are stronger, smarter, and all around more naturally gifted than their fellows, but the degree to which they receive these gifts varies from mage to mage.
Step 2. Advance the ogre by at least 1 HD -- more if you want this ogre mage to be a higher-level threat.
Step 3. Give the ogre mage Resistance 5 to one elemental type of your choice and Regeneration 5.
Step 4. Lengthen the ogre's lifespan. Ogre mages can live as long as your plot needs them to, but if you want to randomly determine it, roll 3d6 and multiply the result by 50. Note that the upper end of this range is longer than any known species of giant -- again, that's hybrid vigor for you.
Step 5. Roll once on each of the tables under “Appearance". Ogre magi are significantly different in appearance from other ogres and from each other.
Appearance of the Ogre Mage
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| Ogre Savant, Paolo Parente |
Skin (d20)
- Blood-red
- Flame-orange
- Grass-green
- Jade-green
- Jet-black
- Like treebark
- Metallic bronze
- Metallic gold
- Night-blue
- Pale, glows like moonlight
- Perfectly adapted for camouflage in the local environment
- Reflective
- Same color as other ogres in the community
- Sea-green
- Scales
- Shiny and black like obsidian
- Slate-gray
- Snow-white
- Striated like a rock face
 |
| Oni, 5e Monster Manual |
- Sun-yellow
Eyes (d10)
- Blank white
- Blue
- Glowing
- Iridescent
- Like sunken pits in the face
- Pink
- Purple
- Red
- Silver
- Yellow
Hair (d12)
- Blonde
- Blue-black
- Completely hairless
- Flame-red
- Like copper wire
- Normal, but grows leaves
- Pale blue
- Pale green
- Pink
- Shimmering and metallic
- Silver
- Violet
Other (d12)
 |
| Ogre Shaman, Paolo Parente |
- Born with runic tattoos
- Drools paralyzing venom
- Fur -- thick, gray, and lupine
- Gills (amphibious)
- Huge, gnarled tusks
- Ice crystals constantly form on their skin
- Ivory horns
- Long, thin nose
- Second, functional head
- 50% chance the heads have separate personalities
- Single eye in the middle of their forehead
- Skin hangs loose in folds
- Third, functional arm in the middle of their chest
Step 6. Roll six times on the “Powers" table below. All of the spell-like abilities on this list are something that some type of giant in 2e, 3e, or Pathfinder actually had, though I've dialed down the frequency on many of them. This, in my mind, makes more sense -- there's no set of powers that all ogre magi have, but instead they inherit some grab-bag of powers from giant ancestors. The ogre mage uses these abilities as if they were a caster with levels equal to their hit dice, and all save DCs are 10 + Int bonus + spell level.
| Powers of the Ogre Mage (d100) |
- Detect Magic 3/day
- Detect Poison 3/day
- Enlarge Person 1/day
- Fool's Gold 1/day
- Reduce Person 1/day
- Sculpt Corpse 1/day
- Bless 3/day
- Charm Animal 3/day
- Charm Person 3/day
- Detect Animals or Plants 3/day
- Endure Elements 3/day
- Entangle 3/day
- Protection From [alignment] 3/day
- Can summon and converse with dead ancestors 1/week
- Pass Without Trace at will
- Animal Messenger 1/day
- Blistering Invective 1/day
- Make Whole 1/day
- Spike Growth 1/day
- Tree Shape 1/day
- Animate Dead 1/week
- Augury 3/day
- Blur 3/day
- Cure Moderate Wounds 3/day
- Death Knell 3/day
- Eagle Eye 3/day
- Fog cloud 3/day
- Levitate 3/day
- Spider Climb 3/day
- Suggestion 3/day
- Scrying 1/week
- Call Lightning 1/day
- Clairaudience / Clairvoyance 1/day
- Summon Monster III 1/day
- Wall of Mist 1/day
- Darkness at will
- Gust of Wind at will
- Heat Metal at will
- Ironskin (constant)
- Speak with Animals at will
- Alter Self 1/week -- indefinite duration
- Baleful Polymorph 1/week
- Commune 1/week
- Cone of Cold 1/week
- Dream 1/week
- Passwall 1/week
- Summon Monster V 1/week -- can only summon a Large elemental (choose type when creating ogre mage)
- Wall of Thorns 1/week
- Aqueous Orb 3/day
- Bestow Curse 3/day
|
- Contagion 3/day
- Daylight 3/day
- Fireball 3/day -- cold damage instead of fire
- Gaseous Form 3/day
- Quench 3/day
- Speak with Plants 3/day
- Stone Shape 3/day
- Commune with Nature 1/day
- Confusion 1/day
- Control Water 1/day
- Divination 1/day
- Hold Monster 1/day
- Ice Storm 1/day
- Plague Carrier 1/day
- Shout 1/day
- Wall of Ice 1/day
- Chain Lightning 1/week
- Stone Tell 1/week
- Wall of Iron 1/week
- Animate Plants 1/week
- Animate Stone 1/week
- Control Undead 1/week
- Lunar Veil 1/week
- Vortex 1/week
- Waves of Exhaustion 1/week
- Control Vermin at will
- Water Breathing at will
- Control Winds 1/day
- Dominate Person 1/day
- Flame Strike 1/day
- Transmute Mud to Rock (or Rock to Mud) 1/day
- Tree Stride 1/day
- True Seeing 1/day
- Air Walk 3/day
- Modify Memory 3/day
- Demand 1/week
- Earthquake 1/week
- Mass Charm Monster 1/day
- Move Earth 1/day
- Plague Storm 1/day
- Wither Limb 1/day
- Polar Midnight 1/week
- Freedom of Movement, constant
- Control Weather 1/day
- Summon Nature's Ally VII 1/day
- Harm 3/day
- Heal 3/day
- Sunburst 1/day
- Change one ability to “at will" or “constant"
- Roll twice
|
Sample Ogre Mage (rolled using the rules above & the Pathfinder ogre stats)
Duruhsiunig and Hantzugiling, Ogre Mage(s)
CR 6, XP 2400
CG Large humanoid (giant)
Init –1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, all-around vision; Perception +3
Defense
AC 18, touch 9, flat-footed 18 (+4 armor, +5 natural, –1 size)
 |
| Hasran Ogress, Dan Frazier |
hp 45 (5d8+20)
Fort +9, Ref +2, Will +4
Special: Regeneration 5
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +10 (1d6+10)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Spell-like Abilities:
at will -- Speak with Animals
3/day -- Bestow Curse, Heal
1/day -- Animal Messenger
1/week -- True Seeing, Commune
Statistics
Str 27, Dex 11, Con 19, Int 18, Wis 11, Cha 11
Base Atk +6; CMB +12; CMD 22
Feats Iron Will, Skill Focus (sense motive), Toughness
Skills Bluff +4, Diplomacy +4, Handle Animal +3, Sense Motive +7, Survival +3, Perception +3
Languages Giant, Common, Gnoll, Orc, Goblin
Duruhsiunig and Hantzugiling have/has been the matriarch(s) of their community for over 100 years, and they still appear fairly young. Their skin is green as jade, and their hair a complementary shade of blue. Their eyes are gleaming, yellow, and constantly suspicious. Oh, and they're two heads on the same body with separate personalities.
 |
| Ettin, 3e Monster Manual |
Hantzugiling controls the left side of the body, and maintains a love for the natural world that verges on crunchy-granola-stereotype. Given her druthers, she would devote all of her time to caring for the community's growing herds of livestock, or walking through the wilderness. Much of “her" half of the body is decorated with floral tattoos and stylized images of animals.
Duruhsiunig controls the right side of the body, and is deeply spiritual. By her commands, the community has built a pretty nice temple, and she tries to spend as much time as possible there in contemplation. “Her" half of the body sports a forehead tattoo of the holy symbol of Volkmar, god of fame and strength, as well as a collection of more traditional tattoos of her achievements and the deeds she has done in Volkmar's name.
Of course, neither Hantzugiling nor Duruhsiunig gets to spend a lot of time doing what they really want, because they are so frequently called to put out fires (metaphorically... well, usually metaphorically) in the community. A couple dozen ogres are living in D/H's community at any given time, and call on them to settle every argument and dispute. They also must constantly be on the lookout for potential attacks by humans or other large, organized groups. And, finally, the one thing they always agree on -- they have to prove that they are superior to Geginsahho, an ogre mage who lives in a community elsewhere in the hills. This rivalry has been going for decades with no clear reason other than the insistence of D/H that “he's just such a dick".
On the rare occasion that D/H's community is attacked by outside forces, D/H primarily plays a support role, shouting tactical advice as she bestows curses upon the enemy and heals any seriously-wounded ogres. D/H's community is always extremely well-prepared for any coming attack, as D/H always makes sure to include questions about imminent dangers in her weekly commune.
1 For instance, in a seafaring campaign, the ship's captain was a quarter-giant named ARGUS VON SNAGGABRUST who had NO VOLUME CONTROL and some UNCOMFORTABLY KIPLING-ESQUE VIEWS on what explorers should be doing. I'd originally planned for his mother to be an ocean giant, but I had to change that to his grandmother because a half-giant would be too big and powerful by the only rules I'd managed to dig up.↩
2 It usually involves some sort of magic to get the two participants to compatible sizes.↩
3 If you want to emphasize this, you could use Pathfinder's table of ogrekin deformities, or ogre subtypes.↩
4 It's rare, but not unheard of, for a non-ogre to trade for the services of an ogre tattoo artist.↩
