Ogre
"SomeBODY once told me the world is gonna roll me..."
- – The opening line of Smash Mouth's All Star, used in the opening credits of the animated movie Shrek. Will inevitably be used as a reply whenever ogres come up.
A staple of fantasy settings, the Ogre derives from various European and Asian lores relating to giants. (There's also old-school wargame of tanks by the same name). Typically, ogres are the smallest, ugliest, dumbest and crudest of the variant giants; this justifies their frequent alliances with goblins and orcs due to a similar distaste for making an honest living and love of fighting. Generally, when your party is capable of killing orcs easily, ogres are the next step up. Generally the only real common thread among ogre legends is that they are large and that they eat the flesh of men. Tusks or fangs are also common, but not required.
Exactly just how crude they are varies from setting to setting. Pathfinder infamously made its ogres into inbred, cannibalistic, depraved rapist monsters straight out of some hicksploitation horror film. Picture a cross between The Hills Have Eyes and Deliverance played out by giants and you got the basic idea. Ogres from Warcraft, meanwhile, are still generally crude and stupid but have had their lore revised many times over the years to add more detail and nuance, including the reveal that they once had a grand empire and now-lost practice of fusing magic with flesh to create magic-immune soldiers called Breakers.
Shrek
Brought to you by Dreamworks. This infamous ogre was created by animators who were kicked off of animating 'Prince of Egypt'. While the movie was low budget and above average at best, it is somehow one of the highest grossing franchises of all time, spawning a lot of fucking movies (though the second one is pretty good). It is also such a well known meme on the internet that it even has it's own chan and a million other shopped joke pictures. There's even an infamous short story that spawned the phrase "Shrek is Love. Shrek is Life."
Shrek's ogres are very unique compared to other franchises; they're Scottish-accented, green-skinned louts with strange-looking ears and they live in swamps. And aside from their strange choice of food (onion, pumpkin, fish, jellied slug eyes, etc) and questionable hygiene, they're not too different from regular blokes. Apparently have a constellation in the Shrek universe named after a renowned ogre named Bloodnok the Flatulent.
Warhammer Fantasy
Warhammer Fantasy Battle has the Ogre Kingdoms, a race of semi-Cossack Stone Age giants who live in frigid mountains full of primeval megafauna and have a culture that revolves around fighting and eating, since they have a magic curse that prevents them from ever being able to feel full. They're known for taking up mercenary work to expand their list of victims.
Warcraft
In Warcraft, Ogres are race of brutish barbarian-like humanoids organized into clans similar to the Orcs in Draenor. The Orc warlock Gul'dan developed two-headed Ogres to be slightly smarter than the average Ogre, he also made Ogre Magi who are smart enough to use magic. Two-headed ogres have also always been natural. They are descended from earth giants that got smaller over many generations. For being dumb brutes, they are still the smartest of their kin. With actual education and slaves to take out their aggression on, they became as advanced as the Roman Empire back on Draenor, their shared homeland with the Orcs. On Azeroth, they rarely get anywhere and just congregate into tribes of marauders, sometimes allied with other bandits. The Horde has a few ogres in its ranks.
Kings of War
In Kings of War, Ogres are a warrior race who make their living as mercenaries, kinda like in Warhammer. There are a number of differences between the two, however; Mantic ogres, rather than being shirtless sumo wrestlers like they're portrayed as in most media, are athletic and muscular (if a little top-heavy) and use proper weapons and armour, fitting for a race whose entire livelihood is their business as professional soldiers. They also have no central leadership, so clans will fight as allies for just about any army between them. Not much is known about their background.
Glorantha
Ogres are a race of Chaos-tainted humans, who look normal until they open their mouths to reveal rows of daggerlike teeth, used for cannibalistic murder. Function somewhat like Genestealer cults, picking off individual victims and reproducing in the community in secret to amass enough numbers to revolt outright.
D&D
The D&D Ogre is perhaps the iconic example of a fantasy ogre. Formally considered "giant kin", they are the least of the various giant races, due to their comparatively small stature (9 to 10 feet tall), brutish natures, and savagery. D&D Ogres are basically described as either smaller, more active and (comparatively) intelligent Hill Giants, or else as bigger, lazier, less sociable orcs: they live nomadic existences in the wilderness, eating whatever they can catch and supplementing it with acts of banditry and thuggery; they are readily enticed into the hordes of evil humanoids or swayed by powerful warlords and mages to serve them.
This depends slightly on edition and somewhat more on setting; in Dragonlance, for example, whilst many ogres do live the primitive bandit lifestyle, they are actually civilized and have their own empire far to the east of Ansalon. They're still savage and violent, but they're far less stupid and dull-witted than in other settings, even if they pale to the intelligence and magical might of their Irda ancestors. On the other hand, the ogres of Golarion are some of the nastiest monsters in the game, hands down. Built up using Hillbilly Horror as their theme - you know, movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Wrong Turn, etc? - they're hideously deformed, savage, sadistic brutes whose "culture" boils down to incest, necrophilia, torture, murder, rape, violence, cruelty, rape, bestiality, getting drunk, making "art" out of corpses, demon-worship, domestic abuse and rape.
For the Dungeons & Dragons creature called the Ogre Mage, see the Oni page. For the ultimate extension of their Orc-like nature, see the Half-Ogre page.
PC Stats
BECMI
Ogres are amongst the multiple races presented with race-classes in the Mystara splatbook The Orcs of Thar, with the following mechanics:
- Ogre Ability Modifiers: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -1 Dexterity, -1 Wisdom
- Ogre Minimum Strength: 16
- Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Ogre has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar Intelligence and Wisdom, which are capped at 16.
- Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Ogre determines its Charisma score for interacting with humans and demihumans by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
- Ogre Natural Armor Class: 9
- Can become Shamans (4th level) and Wokani (2nd level).
Ogre's's level | XP Required | Ogre's hit dice |
---|---|---|
Youngster (-2) | -4,800 | 2d8+1 |
Teenager (-1) | -2,400 | 3d8+1 |
0 | 0 | 4d8+1 |
1 | 4,800 | 5d8+2 |
2 | 14,200 | 6d8+2 |
3 | 33,200 | - |
4 | 71,200 | 7d8+2 |
5 | 145,l200 | 8d8+2 |
6 | 295,200 | 9d8+3 |
7 | 595,200 | - |
8 | 895,200 | 10d8+3 |
9 | 1,195,200 | +2 Hit Points |
Subsequent | 300,000 | +2 Hit Points |
2e
Rendered playable in the Complete Book of Humanoids, alongside their Half-Ogre progeny and their Oni cousins:
- Ability Score Range: Strength 16/20, Dexterity 2/8, Constitution 14/20, Intelligence 2/8, Wisdom 2/9, Charisma 2/8
- Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Int, -2 Cha
- Class & Level Limits: Fighter 12, Shaman 3
- +4 Hit points at first level
- Natural Armor Class of 5
- Ogre Shamans have access to the Spheres of Combat, Divination, Healing, Protection and Sun.
- Take damage as Large creatures.
- -4 attack roll penalty against dwarf and gnome opponents.
- 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
In 3e, ogres look distinctly non-human. Rules to make ogre characters are presented in the Monster Manual:
- +10 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, -4 Intelligence, -4 Charisma.
- Large size.
- Space/Reach: 10 feet/10 feet.
- 40 feet base land speed.
- 60 feet Darkvision.
- Racial Hit Dice: An ogre begins with four levels of giant, which provide 4d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +3, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +4, Ref +1, and Will +1.
- Racial Skills: An ogre’s giant levels give it skill points equal to 7 × (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1). Its class skills are Climb, Listen, and Spot.
- Racial Feats: An ogre’s giant levels give it two feats.
- An ogre is automatically proficient with simple weapons, martial weapons, light and medium armor, and shields.
- +5 natural armor bonus.
- Automatic Languages: Common, Giant. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Orc, Goblin, Terran.
- Favored Class: Barbarian.
- Level Adjustment: +2.
Gallery
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Pathfinder
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Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition Races | |
---|---|
Basic Set | Dwarf • Elf • Hobbit • Human |
Creature Crucible 1 | Brownie • Centaur • Dryad • Faun • Hsiao • Leprechaun • Pixie • Pooka • Redcap • Sidhe • Sprite • Treant • Wood Imp • Wooddrake |
Creature Crucible 2 | Faenare • Gnome • Gremlin • Harpy • Nagpa • Pegataur • Sphinx • Tabi |
Creature Crucible 3 | Kna • Kopru • Merrow • Nixie • Sea Giant • Shark-kin • Triton |
Dragon Magazine | Cayma • Gatorman • Lupin • N'djatwa • Phanaton • Rakasta • Shazak • Wallara |
Hollow World | Beastman • Brute-Man • Hutaakan • Krugel Orc • Kubitt • Malpheggi Lizard Man |
Known World | Bugbear • Goblin • Gnoll • Hobgoblin • Kobold • Ogre • Troll |
Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Races | |
---|---|
Core | Dwarf • Elf • Gnome • Half-Elf • Half-Orc • Halfling • Human |
Dark Sun | Aarakocra • Half-Giant • Mul • Pterran • Thri-kreen |
Dragonlance | Draconian • Irda • Kender • Minotaur |
Mystara | Aranea • Ee'ar • Enduk • Lizardfolk (Cayma • Gurrash • Shazak) • Lupin • Manscorpion • Phanaton • Rakasta • Tortle • Wallara |
Oriental Adventures | Korobokuru • Hengeyokai • Spirit Folk |
Planescape | Aasimar • Bariaur • Genasi • Githyanki • Githzerai • Modron • Tiefling |
Spelljammer | Dracon • Giff • Grommam • Hadozee • Hurwaeti • Rastipede • Scro • Xixchil |
Ravenloft: | Broken One • Flesh Golem • Half-Vistani • Therianthrope |
Complete Book Series | Alaghi • Beastman • Bugbear • Bullywug • Centaur • Duergar • Fremlin • Firbolg • Flind • Gnoll • Goblin • Half-Ogre • Hobgoblin • Kobold • Mongrelfolk • Ogre • Ogre Mage • Orc • Pixie • Satyr • Saurial • Svirfneblin • Swanmay • Voadkyn • Wemic |
Dragon Magazine | Half-Dryad • Half-Satyr • Uldra • Xvart |
Monstergirls
This article or section is about Monstergirls (or a monster that is frequently depicted as a Monstergirl), something that /tg/ widely considers to be the purest form of awesome. Expect PROMOTIONS! and /d/elight in equal measure, often with drawfaggotry or writefaggotry to match. |
Much like the orc monstergirl, ogre monstergirls are something of a rarity; when they do appear, they are usually orcs writ large, being big, boisterous bruisers who probably aren't the smartest, but who tremendous appetites for pleasure, in the form of sex, eating, drinking and fighting. Their primary defining attribute is their stature, with odd skin tones being frequent. Green is a particularly common skin color for ogres, inspired by the British food mascot "the Jolly Green Giant" and Marvel's She-Hulk, and as such it can be very hard to tell an ogre monstergirl from an orc monstergirl if the latter aren't being depicted as pig-girls.
Ogre girls are often musclegirls, referencing their trademark superhuman strength, but not always; many are just depicted as curvy women who happen to be taller and supernaturally strong, influenced by Japanese artistic tropes. The hedonistic attitudes of ogres means that there is a distinct subset for "BBW" artwork in the fandom, resulting in ogres that are visibly chubby, but not so much as to make them truly fat and hideous. A third fetishistic depiction is the "strongfat" build, which literally attempts to marry the musclegirl and BBW design by giving them strong-looking, muscular limbs contrasting wide hips, massive breasts and buttocks, and soft, chubby bellies - although technically she's human rather than an ogre, Cattleya of Queen's Blade is a perfect example of (a well-done, modest) depiction of this kind.
In the east there's little distinction between ogres and oni: large, strong and passionate individuals with a love for booze and fighting. In fact, the word ogre is the most common translation of oni, and consequently the oni traditions of weird skin color, and/or horns, and occasionally extra eyes, are liberally applied to their depictions of ogres. In truth, the only major difference between the two is that oni are usually portrayed as having innate magical abilities, and even that's not set in stone.
In the Monster Girl Encyclopedia, ogres are thusly portrayed as long-horned green-skinned oni who love to fight and fuck. Their basic modus operandi is running around and beating up dudes until they find one who impresses them with how well he fought back, at which point they drag him home to their cave and subdue him with lots of rough sex. For a long time they were thought to be the most outright abusive monstergirl in the setting, until it was finally clarified that the encyclopedia's overly-flowery writing style had complicated translations and that they are instead supposed to be practitioners of "rough affection"; the kind of rough & tumble one-of-the-guys tomboys who express approval with a punch on the shoulder, a fake headlock or a quick noogie.