Ogres

Ogres are huge and powerful, at least 9 feet tall and built more heavily than dwarves. They have about 6 times the strength and toughness of humans. They aren't as agile though, about 25% less dexterous than humans. Ogres grow and age at about half the human rate, have one child per pregnancy, and have a 18 month gestation period. Ogres aren't very intelligent, an equivalent of a 75 IQ in human terms.

Ogres low intelligence means that they tend not to be good with technology or even basic agriculture. Most ogres communities, however, do have access to basic iron tools and farming techniques - mostly because the leaders of ogres tend to more intelligent than their kin and can manage to organize groups of ogres to work on farms or to refine ore or other actions that ogres tend not to be intelligent enough to complete without direction. Even when ogres have an intelligent leader with foresight, they will still sometimes forget to plant crops or unwisely east what should be saved, and so ogres sometimes face economic difficulties because of this. Iron weapons are fairly common among ogres, though metal armor is quite rare as it is prohibitively expensive for such large creatures with relatively little metal working skill.

Ogres are only a diminutive version of a relative of theirs - giants. Giants are gigantic creatures, twice the height of an ogre and built like a fortress. Their bones are as dense and steel and their flesh like toughened rawhide, they are as strong as 15 men. Giants are somewhat slow and clumsy, having about half of the dexterity of a human. Their intellectual abilities are about on par with ogres, though they tend to have less self control and ability to work with others. Giants tend to associate with ogres as mercenaries or as on again off again allies, they tend to be undependable - though they make up for this with their shear power in combat. Giants seldom wear armor or wield forged weapons, they more frequently hurl large boulders or swing uprooted trees at their enemies. In a raw few cases, a giant may be equipped with some enlarged version of a weapon or makeshift armor made of many medium sized pieced of armor tied together. Because of their undependability, giants will only be available 50% of the time for battles.

Among the ogres there is a class, a subrace of ruling elites, typically called ogre tyrants. Tyrants are much like other ogres but have the average intelligence of a human instead of a typical ogre. This naturally makes the tyrants natural leaders of their people, and as their name implies, they often have to harshly enforce discipline to keep other ogres in line. Tyrants tend to be a bit larger than normal ogres and fat as well, they are 10 feet tall and are 8 times as strong as humans, though only half as fast or dexterous. Ogre tyrants frequently use well forged weapons or even iron armor, sometimes made by themselves or their ogre servants or often bought or stolen from other races. Sometimes ogre tyrants like to huge gigantic versions of long bows with draws of over 500 pounds, a weapon which allows them to shoot arrows as large as spears with deadly speed.

Ogre shifters are a subgroup of tyrants, they have the magical ability to shape shift into different forms. They can change their shape into any non-magical creature of their own size or smaller with a minimum size of one pound. This shape changing ability allows the shifter to assume the shape of any creature he can imagine that is about his own size and doesn't violate the laws of physics or biology - this can include combat forms with huge claws, multiple limbs, armored plates, or a variety of other natural weapons including venom. Changing shape takes between 1 and 10 seconds based on the size change. The downside is that the shifter becomes as vulnerable as the shape he takes, meaning that if he becomes a rat he could be killed by a cat before he has the chance to change back into an ogre.

Behemoths are a kind of feral ogre, one even less intelligent than their brethren but more ferocious. They are about 9 feet tall and with 6 times the strength of a human but with 25% more dexterity. They have vicious claws and razor sharp teeth. Unfortunately, their intelligence is quite low, only about an IQ of 50 each, meaning that they can barely follow orders or interact with other ogres. When found in an ogre army, they are frequently slaves of the ogre tyrants and used as shock troops or cannon fodder. Behemoth females have tow children per birth instead of one, meaning that they can replace their numbers more quickly than normal ogres.

As leader of the ogres, you can be an ogre mage. As an ogre mage, you have the same physical abilities as an ogre shifter, including the ability to change forms. You also have a number of magical abilities. You can shoot electricity from your fingertips in a cone shape, this attack 100 foot length and a 20 foot width at the end of the cone. Ogre mages can effect a sheet of magical energy to protect themselves from harm, this sheet of energy is semi-transparent and crackles with magical energy - it only protects the front but it an block any physical attack (including magic ones like fire) that comes from that direction. The ogre mage must concentrate to keep this shield up and can't take any other action, though if he knows an attack might be coming he has a 50% of erecting the shield fast enough to protect himself. Ogre mages cannot use their magic when shape shifted, though they can make their skin as hard as iron plate armor without losing their powers as long as no other changes are made.

Another kind of ogre leader is a champion. A champion is an ogre tyrant is excels in close combat and in strategy. The champion has peak tyrant strength (8 times as strong as the strongest human!) and peak human dexterity and fighting prowess. The champion wears plate armor, bought either from more skilled races or made by the greatest of tyrant smiths. This plate armor is 4 times as thick as that worn by humans, it is able to stop bullets and even protect the ogre champion from light cannon shots or the blows of might creatures like giants. Even swords that can magically pierce armor treat an ogre champions armor like normal plate. The ogre champion has a close combat weapon that is enchanted to be supernaturally sharp and to never break and his shield can deflect magical attacks directed against him 50% of the time. Also, when an ogre champion rules an army of ogres, each ogre in the army is better trained and drilled in tactics, increasing the fighting skill of each ogre by 10%.

Instead of being an ogre tyrant, you can be a titan. A titan is a very powerful and intelligent giant who has decided to lead a nation of ogres and giants. The titan is massive, 20 feet tall with the strength of 20 men, bones like adamantite, and skin as strong as bronze armor. Titans will often have their servants construct giant weapons for them, such as a 10 foot long sword or a shield as large as a castle wall. Sometimes too, a titan can wear armor, such as scale created from numerous metal plates the size of human breastplates. In addition to his great physical might, titans are resistant to magic as well, taking only a fourth of the normal effect of any magical attack, meaning that it will likely take several instant death spells to kill a titan. When a titan rules over a nation of ogres, he has the respect of his giant subjects, therefore they will always be at the battle and obey orders.

Sometimes an ogre army will be composed of tyrant supremacists - ogre tyrants who believe that they are the superior race of ogres and refuse to associate with their less intelligent cousins. In this case, the army will be composed purely of ogre tyrants and ogre shifters. Such an army does have some advantages over the more diverse ogre armies - namely each ogre is more intelligent. Not only are such nations more intelligent on average, but they have better technology - basically 11th century European technology for the entire army with a few officers and elites having plate armor.

Normal ogre nations start with 20,000 ogres, 2,000 tyrants, 200 shifters, 200 giants, and the leader. Tyrant supremacist nations have 10,000 tyrants, 1,000 shifters, and the leader. Shifters will always be equal to about 10% of the total number of tyrants in an army.