D&Dtools

An orc or half-orc who heeds the call to serve Gruumsh in his image can become an eye of Gruumsh.

Requirements

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Eyes of Gruumsh gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Blind-Fight: An eye of Gruumsh gains Blind-Fight as a bonus feat. In addition, he suffers no adverse effects from the loss of one of his eyes.

Command the Horde (Ex): An eye of Gruumsh can direct the actions of any nongood orcs or half-orcs that are within 30 feet of him and whose Hit Dice are lower than his character level. Those who follow the character's orders gain a +2 morale bonus on Will saves. Any eligible orc or half-orc who willingly goes against the eye of Gruumsh's directions loses this bonus immediately.

Rage (Ex): An eye of Gruumsh can fly into a rage just as a barbarian can, with all the same benefits and drawbacks (see page 25 of the Player's Handbook). An eye of Gruumsh's class levels stack with his barbarian levels (if any) for determining the number of times per day he can use his rage ability. Add together the character's levels in the eye of Gruumsh and barbarian classes and refer to Table 3—3: The Barbarian on page 25 of the Player's Handbook to determine the number of rages per day. For example, a 6th-level barbarian/2nd-level eye ofGruumsh could rage three times per day (the same as an 8thlevel
barbarian), while a 4th-level eye of Gruumsh with no levels in barbarian could rage twice per day (the same as a 4th-level barbarian).

Swing Blindly (Ex): An eye of Gruumsh's rage becomes more powerful when he reaches 2nd level, but at the cost of lowered defenses. The character adds an extra +4 to Strength while in a rage, but his Armor Class penalty goes from —2 to —4.

Ritual Scarring (Ex): Through frequent disfiguration of his own skin, an eye of Gruumsh's natural armor bonus improves by +1 at 3rd level (or to +1 if he didn't already have a natural armor bonus). This bonus increases by another +1 for every three eye of Gruumsh levels gained thereafter.

Blinding Spittle (Ex): An eye of Gruumsh of 4th level or higher can launch blinding spittle at any opponent within 20 feet. With a successful ranged touch attack (at a —4 penalty), he spits his stomach acid into the target's eyes. An opponent who fails a Reflex save (DC 10 + eye of Gruumsh's class level + eye of Gruumsh's Con modifier) is blinded until he or she can rinse away the spittle. This attack has no effect on creatures that don't have eyes or don't depend on vision. Blinding spittle is usable twice per day at 4th level and four times per day at 7th level.

Blindsight (Ex): At 5th level, an eye of Gruumsh gains blindsight (see page 306 of the Monster Manual) out to 5 feet. The range increases to 10 feet at 8th level.

Sight of Gruumsh (Ex): At 10th level, an eye of Gruumsh gains the ability to see the moment of his own death through his missing eye. This foreknowledge gives him a +2 morale bonus on all saving throws and Armor Class from then on. He also does not go unconscious when reduced to negative hit points; however, the character still dies at —10 hit points. (Whether or not the vision is accurate is irrelevant—the character believes it to be true.)

ORGANIZATION: THE EYES OF GRUUMSH

Though orcs revere eyes of Gruumsh for their unique clarity of vision, the average eye of Gruumsh isn't particularly well qualified to think for an entire tribe—even though he often assumes leadership of a tribe early in his career. Thus, he relies on a cleric of Gruumsh for wise counsel. To discourage any unhealthy confusion among their followers about who is in charge, both the eye of Gruumsh and the cleric encourage war against other races at every opportunity.

Since eyes of Gruumsh seek to avenge Corellon Larethian's insult to their deity, most are so obsessed with the destruction of elves that they attack any elven community on sight. Inspired by their leaders' rage, other orcs often throw themselves heedlessly at elven hordes.

Multiple eyes of Gruumsh usually don't work well together be cause they commonly have competing ideas about which course of action serves their deity best. Every few decades or so, how ever, several eyes of Gruumsh get the same idea in their heads—a crusade! (After all, a holy crusade involving hundreds of tribes under the command of dozens of eyes of Gruumsh is just the thing to inspire the younger generation to the deity's service.) When this occurs, the eyes of Gruumsh meet and declare truces between competing tribes by closing their functional left eyes all at once—thus blinding them to their own bickering. Then they go out and try to eradicate some other kind of creature.

Advancement