Half-Ogre

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The Half-Ogre is, as its name suggests, the fruit of the inevitable union between an ogre and a member of some other species. The resultant creature is tall, strong and hardy, if not quite as brawny as its ogre progenitor, but also possess considerably more brains than its pureblooded ogre kin - admittedly, it may still seem somewhat dimwitted by human standards.

Dungeons & Dragons

In Dungeons & Dragons, the half-ogre's history is a rather unglamorous one. See, they've been around since the days of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition - and none other than Gary Gygax himself wrote up an article on half-ogre PCs in Dragon Magazine #29, with Roger Moore posting a follow-up expansion article in Dragon #73. But, at the same time, the half-ogre's been pushed to the background, save for warranting a place in the Monster Manual.

The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, the "big dumb ugly monster-blooded bruiser" niche is already amply filled by the half-orc. Secondly, given that an ogre is stronger than an orc, you'd expect a half-ogre to be likewise stronger than a half-orc - this makes half-ogres extremely hard to balance.

And yet... they've clung on for dear life. Even if the goliath may have shoved them out of the limelight forever since it got promoted, the half-ogre was a PC option in the first three editions of the game.

AD&D 1e

As mentioned, the 1e version appeared in two parts in Dragon issues #29 and #73. This version, by the archaic and nigh-incomprehensible rules of the time, looked like this:

Strength 14-18

Dexterity 3-12

Constitution 14-18

Intelligence 3-12

Wisdom 2-12

Charisma 2-8 (double when dealing with ogres & half-ogres)

Infravision 60'

Two hit dice at first level, then regular progression

Class & Level Limits: Fighter (unlimited), Cleric (4), Thief (2), Assassin (2)

Can use a bastard sword one-handed but still receive full damage.

Can never possess psionics.

Double or triple cost for clothes and armor.

Immune to therianthropy

If slain, can only be revived with a Wish or through a Rod of Resurrection, as per half-orc of the same class.

Always take damage as a Size L being.

Size impacts on use of magical items other than rings, bracers and amulets.

Treated as full-blooded ogres for magical weapons specialized against giant-kin.

Suffer the same "to-hit" penalties against dwarves and gnomes as full-blooded ogres.

AD&D 2e

The AD&D 2e Half-Ogre appeared in the Complete Book of Humanoids, alongside both its Ogre progenitor and its Oni cousin. In comparison to its pure-blooded kinsfolk, the 2e half-ogre looked like this - which was at least a better deal than they had in 1e!

Ability Score Range: Strength 14-18, Dexterity 8-12, Constitution 14-19, Intelligence 3-12, Wisdom 2-12, CHarisma 2-8

Ability Score Modifiers: +1 Strength, +1 Constitution, -1 Intelligence, -1 Charisma

Class & Level Limits: Fighter (12), Cleric (4), Shaman (4), Witch Doctor (4)

Natural Armor Class 8

+4 hit points at 1st level

A half-ogre Shaman has access to the Spheres of Combat, Divination, Healing, Protection and Sun.

Takes damage as a Large creature.

-4 penalty to attack rolls vs. gnomes and -2 penalty to attack rolls vs. dwarves.

Weapon Proficiencies: Club, Goblin Stick, Halberd, Spear, Two-Handed Sword, Voulge

Non-Weapon Proficiencies: Drinking, Eating, Fire-building, Hunting, Intimidation, Religion, Tracking, Wild Fighting

3e

There are actually three versions of the Half-Ogre in 3rd edition; one in Dragon #313, one in Races of Destiny, and the Kyrnnish Half-Ogre in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting, which was reprinted in Races of Ansalon.

The Dragon #313 half-ogre is a template that can be applied to Giants, Humanoids and Monstrous Humanoids. Per its own lore, most half-ogres are actually ogre-orcs, followed by ogre-bugbears and ogre-gnolls. Ogre-humans are the least common of their kind, and ogres mating with anything else is almost unheard of.

Small or Medium creatures with this template increase in size to Medium and Large, respectively.

If Size increases, boost speed by +10 feet.

+2 natural armor bonus

Darkvision 60 feet

Giant Blood: Treat as a Giant typed creature for special abilities, effects, magic items, etc that key off of race/type.

+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma

Level Adjustment: +1 if size increased, otherwise +0

Both the Races of Destiny and the Krynnish Half-Ogre is instead treated as a race in its own right. Of the two, the RoD version is definitely the more powerful:

+6 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma

Giant type

Large size

Base speed 30 feet

Darkvision 60 feet

Natural Armor +4

Favored Class: Barbarian

Level Adjustment: +2

The Krynnish Half-Ogre is weaker, but t the same time, it has much better support. See, in the Dragonlance setting, ogres are actually pretty big deals in terms of the evil humanoid races, in no small part because orcs don't exist on Krynn. As such, half-ogres actually have a free niche to fill on their own, giving them a freedom they lack in other settings.

+4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma

Medium

Humanoid (Ogre)

Base Speed 30 feet

Low-Light Vision

+1 Natural Armor Bonus

Favored Class: Fighter

Level Adjustment: +1

Pathfinder

In Pathfinder, things are slightly different. There, ogres are disfigured horrors right out of a hillbilly slasher flick - distorted monsters mutated through generations of incest, Lamashtu worship, toxic food and who knows what other foulness. Of course, as a species of killer hillbillies, Pathfinder's ogres love them some rape. Most of the time, they don't remember to stop before their victim dies, but when they do - or when it's a horribly mutated ogre gal snu-snuing some unfortunate guy - the result is a horrible mutant. See, ogre genes are so foul and polluted that any creature with ogre blood in its veins winds up a disfigured abomination in their own right, and that's one gene-pool that won't ever come right. As a result, these ogre-blooded freaks tend to be just as nasty and inbred as their ogre progenitors - maybe more so.

In Pathfinder, though, these unfortunates are called Ogrekin; a "half-ogre" is what you get when an ogre mates with a giant, and whilst such critters are still deformed, they come off a lot better than the poor ogrekin do.

Ogrekin status is handled as a template that can afflict Medium sized humanoids. There's two separate versions, but the idea remains fairly consistent.

Ogrekin Template, mk 1

This is the first version of the ogrekin template, which appeared in the original printing of "The Hook Mountain Massacre".

Ogrekin Template, mk 2

This is the finalized version of the ogrekin template, which appeared in the Bestiary 2 and gained further mutations in the Inner Sea Monster Codex.