I am interested in finding alternative subraces for half-orcs, especially those with less-terrible ability scores. I am aware of the Unearthed Arcana environmental variants (aquatic, arctic, desert, and jungle half-orcs) and elemental variants (water half-orc), and I’m aware of the frostblood half-orcs from Dragon Magic, but these are literally the only examples I can find.1
It must “be” a half-orc (have “half-orc” in the race name), or qualify as one for requirements. Full-blooded orcs, sadly, can’t apply (looking to use half-orc paragon). Sources can include any Wizards of the Coast-published 3.5e material, or Dragon or Dungeon magazine content. LA +0 vastly preferred, but since I’m grasping at straws here, I’ll happily take a look at stuff with a higher LA or even unplayable stuff, so long as it is some variant half-orc and not just a template applied to half-orcs.
- For the record, the sharakim from Races of Destiny are not an answer here. Despite their introduction being “Humans assume all orcs are the same […] one group in particular stands apart from all others,” sharakim aren’t orcs, half- or otherwise. They’re “tainted humans;” they have the human subtype, and not the orc subtype. Orcs were already an offensive caricature, but honestly the way this write-up dangles even a little bit of redemption for the race and then re-assigns it back to humanity is beyond the pale. I hope whoever wrote this description has learned better since and is ashamed of it.
Best Answer
Scablands Half-Orc
I hunted around every race list that I could find, and, aside from Chet Erez's outdated work, this one was the only one that did the job. As far as I can tell, your only omission is the Scablands Half-Orc from page 43 of Sandstorm. Everything else is either homebrew, 3rd party, or Pathfinder.
Frankly, the subrace isn't notable for anything. Its only changes from the base half-orc are:
I think that you've got everything else. Neither my own regex work nor Chet Erez's old index had any more to say.