Half-orc

Half-Orc

Half-orcs in Pathfinder are outcasts, normally shunned by both human society and orc society. Those who are accepted can find themselves exploited for their abilities, either for their cunning in orc tribes or for their brute strength in human settlements. However, half-orcs are almost as versatile as their half-elven kin, and can generally fill any party role with ease.

Racial Traits:

Ability Scores: Like their human cousins, half-orcs can choose one ability score and add +2 to it.

Size: Half-orcs are the same size as humans.

Speed: Half-orcs have the standard 30ft base movement speed.

Intimidating: Half-orcs get a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate checks, which can come in very handy for a melee character.

Orc Ferocity: This trait allows a half-orc to keep fighting as if disabled for a single round after being taken below 0 hit points. This sounds cool at first, but realistically all you’ll get is a single standard action before passing out. For a Cleric, Paladin, or other healing class, this can be invaluable since you can use that standard action to heal yourself, but for most other classes this isn’t going to be a huge bonus.

Weapon Familiarity: Half-orcs gain automatic proficiency with two very nice martial weapons, the greataxe and the falchion. If you’re going to be playing a class that only gains simple weapon proficiency, this can be a huge boon for you, but if you’re going to be a Fighter or any other class that gains martial weapon proficiency, trade this out for something better, like Chain Fighter (see below).

Darkvision: Darkvision is way better than low-light vision, because realistically most DMs don’t really worry about lighting conditions except for darkness. This is a great ability to have.

Orc Blood: Half-orcs are treated as both humans and orcs for effects, prerequisites, and anything else that requires you to be either human or orc. This means that, like half-elves, they have access to three sets of racial archetypes and racial feats, which can lead to some really good combinations that I’ll go into below.

Alternate Race Traits:

Acute Darkvision [Orc Ferocity]: If you think you’ll be going into dark, scary dungeons fairly often (which in most campaigns you probably will), this ability could be way more useful to you than Orc Ferocity would be, as it increases your darkvision to 90 feet rather than the normal 60 feet.

Beastmaster [Orc Ferocity]: This race trait is a great way to get free exotic weapon proficiency in both the net and the whip, which are excellent weapons. Add to that a bonus to Handle Animal checks, and this is one of the better options to replace Orc Ferocity with.

Bestial [Orc Ferocity]: As I’ve said many times before, Perception is the best skill in the game. However, I can’t give this one a blue rating because I feel that some of the other options, like Beastmaster and Sacred Tattoo, are better choices in general for most characters.

Cavewright [Intimidating]: This is a straight skill bonus trade, where you trade away a +2 to Intimidate for a +1 on both Knowledge (dungeoneering) and Survival. However, these new bonuses only work underground, and so an all-the-time bonus to Intimidate is worth more than these two situational bonuses.

Chain Fighter [Weapon Familiarity]: This is a great choice for any martial character, since you’re giving up proficiency in two martial weapons (which Fighters and other martial characters get anyway) for proficieny in two other martial weapons AND the ability to treat two excellent exotic weapons as martial ones. The dire flail and spiked chain are both great choices for a combat maneuver-focused character, since they both have the trip and disarm properties.

City-Raised [Weapon Familiarity]: This is another good choice for a martial character, since it’s yet another way to gain proficiency with the whip for free. Add to that a bonus to Knowledge (local) checks for an excellent alternate trait option.

Forest Walker [Darkvision]: This option is strictly worse than just keeping Darkvision, since low-light vision doesn’t really come into play that often in real games.

Gatecrasher [Orc Ferocity]: If you’re building a sundering-focused character, this would be a great choice, but otherwise there are way better options to replace Orc Ferocity with.

Rock Climber [Intimidating]: This is a fine option for any character who doesn’t plan to use Intimidate but could benefit from a boost to Acrobatics and Climb.

Sacred Tattoo [Orc Ferocity]: This is probably the best option with which to replace Orc Ferocity, as luck bonuses aren’t easy to come by, and this boosts all three of your saving throws. Choose this one unless you have a REALLY compelling reason to choose one of the others.

Scavenger [Intimidating]: This choice, like Rock Climber, is a decent option for anyone who doesn’t plan to Intimidate anyone. While the bonuses from this trait are situational, they’re still better than a bonus to a skill you’ll never use.

Shaman’s Apprentice [Intimidating]: Trading a +2 bonus to a single skill for a whole feat (even though Endurance isn’t the best feat in the game) is pretty much a no-brainer for me, and if you do choose this option you’ll probably want to boost your Con and start into the Deathless Initiate tree of half-orc feats, which I’ll talk more about below.

Skilled [Darkvision]: If you find that your planned build is skill-point-starved, this could be a good choice, though I would consider carefully whether you’re really willing to give up Darkvision for just one extra skill point per level.

Squalid [Orc Ferocity]: There are just too many other, better options with which to replace Orc Ferocity to make a situational bonus on Fortitude saving throws be worth your time.

Toothy [Orc Ferocity]: If you’re a frontline brawler or a damage-dealing class like the Rogue, you might find that having an extra secondary attack is more than worth giving up Orc Ferocity for. This still isn’t as good of a choice in general as Sacred Tattoo, but it’s definitely worth a look.

Classes:

I’ll reiterate that the half-elf, half-orc, and human class descriptions are going to be a little more sparse than those up above, since these three races can really excel at ANY class thanks to their floating ability score bonus. If a class isn’t listed, it just means there’s nothing specific that makes it any better or worse of a choice than any other class. In other words, there’s really no wrong choice of classes if you have human blood!

Alchemist: If you’re planning a bomber alchemist, you might want to consider half-orc for the favored class option, which increases the damage of your bombs by +1 every two levels. That’s a decent bonus, especially since that damage also applies to the splash damage of the bombs.

Barbarian: The Hateful Rager archetype is really great, giving your half-orc Barbarian a favored enemy, and the bonuses that this grants stack with any rage powers you might have. The downside of this archetype, gaining only 1 rage round per level, can be completely offset by the half-elf Barbarian favored class option, which gives you back that missing round of rage at each level.

Druid: A half-orc Druid gains access to the Feral Child archetype, which is actually very thematically appropriate for a half-orc who was shunned from her human or orc community and left to live on her own in the wild. Sadly, Feral Child loses wild shape, which is what the favored class option for half-orcs boosts.

Fighter: Half-orcs gain access to the orc-specific Dirty Fighter archetype, which focuses on... you guessed it... the Dirty Trick maneuver! I’ll detail what this archetype does down below, but just trust me, this is a pretty sweet option.

Gunslinger: A half-orc Gunslinger gains access to the human-only Buccaneer archetype, the main feature of which is using Charisma to determine grit points instead of Wisdom. You also gain the ability to get extra grit points by drinking alcohol, AND you get to have an “exotic pet” familiar, which is meant to be like a pirate’s shoulder-parrot.

Inquisitor: This could be a really great option for an Intimidate-focused build, since half-orcs already get a racial bonus to Intimidate and the favored class option for the Inquisitor gives you another +1/2 per level on Intimidate. Combine that with the Stern Gaze class feature that Inquisitors get, and you’ve got a recipe for a very scary character!

Monk: A half-orc Monk can choose the human-only Wanderer archetype, which is a pretty nice option. The low-level abilities are a little lackluster, but at fifth level you gain several spell-like abilities that can be cast using your ki points, and at 7th level you can inspire courage or inspire competence as a bard of your monk level, which is pretty excellent. You could also combine this with the Qinggong Monk archetype to gain access to other spell-like abilities.

Paladin [Antipaladin]: A half-orc can choose the Redeemer archetype, which lets you do such things as dealing nonlethal damage with your smite evil ability, or magically prohibiting a creature from attacking a certain area or group of people for months on end. This is a cool archetype, but I don’t think I’d call it powerful, in general. You also have access to the Beast Rider feat, which will let you treat your animal companion as if your effective druid level were two levels higher, AND you can choose a more exotic mount, which leads very nicely into the Mammoth Rider prestige class.

Ranger: A half-orc Ranger doesn’t get any special racial archetypes, but some of the half-orc racial feats are really nice for a Ranger. If you are like me, and love animal companions, you can choose the Beast Rider feat at 7th level, which will expand your animal companion choices. Sympathetic Rage is a great way to get a small boost to damage when you’re next to the party Barbarian.

Rogue [Ninja]: Half-orcs have their own archetype for the Rogue, the Skulking Slayer. This is a pretty cool archetype, and is another way to use the Dirty Trick combat maneuver to great effect during battle. At first level, any time you’d normally be able to deal sneak damage, you can instead choose to substitute that attack with a Dirty Trick or Steal combat maneuver, gaining a bonus on the associated CMB roll. Later you get to increase your sneak dice when charging a creature, and even the ability to Feint as a swift action before a charge! Very cool stuff. Sadly the Ninja doesn’t get the same archetype options, so it’s a bit less optimal.

Sorcerer: Half-orcs have access to the human-only Imperious bloodline, which is an interesting bloodline that allows you to boost morale and circumstance bonuses to yourself and your allies. I wouldn’t say that it’s a particularly powerful choice of bloodlines (check out my bloodline guide for more details) but it’s interesting.

Summoner: A half-orc Summoner can choose the Blood God Disciple archetype, which is a very eidolon-focused archetype. Dropping summon monster for evolution points gained by the Summoner himself is cool, but you have to perform some pretty evil acts to do so, and so it’ll be tough to fit into a good-aligned party.

Witch: The witch is most likely the best choice for a half-orc, simply because of the orc-only Scarred Witch Doctor archetype. This archetype changes your Witch’s casting stat from Intelligence to Constitution, which applies both to spells AND hex DCs, and is just incredible. If you’re planning to be mostly Hex-focused, you can also grab a level of Barbarian or Alchemist, boosting your hex DCs when you rage or use your mutagen (this is one of the few ways in the game to get temporary boosts to Hex DCs, BTW). Seriously, this is one of the best archetypes out there, and I HIGHLY recommend playing one.

Racial Favored Class Bonuses:

Alchemist: For a bomber alchemist, adding to the bombs’ damage is a great choice, especially since it even applies to the splash damage. If you’re not using bombs, though, this is useless.

Barbarian: More rage rounds means more BARBARIAN SMASH, which is exactly what you want to do. Note that this synergizes very well with the Hateful Rager archetype, since it makes up for the rage rounds lost by choosing that archetype.

Bard: More bardic performance rounds makes for a happy Bard, so this one’s a good choice.

Cavalier: Extra hit points for your mount can keep it from dying on you, so this one’s a keeper.

Cleric: If your domain grants an excellent 1st-level power, this can give you more uses of it, which is good, but if you don’t have a 1st-level power measured in uses per day this is useless.

Druid: For a wild shape-focused Druid this is a REALLY great ability, as more natural armor bonus means you get hit less, and it still stacks with any magic enhancements to natural armor bonus you might have, such as from an amulet of natural armor.

Fighter: This could be really useful if you want to take the Deathless Initiate line of feats, since you’ll likely be fighting at less than 0 hit points much more often than other characters. If you took this option at every level, you’d end up with a +40 to stabilize checks, which means you’ll pretty much never fail one of those checks. However, for most characters this should hopefully come up very seldom.

Gunslinger: A bonus every three levels to a single deed that most gunslingers aren’t going to use since they want to stay out of melee range is absolute crap.

Inquisitor: A stacking bonus to Intimidate is great, and it makes a half-orc one of the best races to choose for an Intimidate build out there.

Magus: Given that most Magi use shocking grasp a lot more than fire-based spells, this probably isn’t the best option out there.

Monk: More stunning attacks per day is nice, and a bonus to resist being grappled can save you from being swallowed by a big creature, so overall this is a good bonus, if a little bit situational.

Oracle: Extra spells known for a spontaneous caster is always a good choice.

Paladin: If you’re smiting evil and using a weapon with a decent critical range (at least 18-20) then you’ll probably want to choose this bonus, freeing up a feat since you won’t need to ever take Critical Focus.

Ranger: Extra hit points for your animal companion means it’s less likely to die, so that’s always a good thing.

Rogue: A rogue doesn’t rely on critical hits nearly as much as a Fighter or Paladin, since sneak damage is not multiplied. I’d say you’ll probably be better served to take the skill point over this one.

Sorcerer: This is more useful than it was for the Magus, but still is a situational bonus. If you’re going to take the Orc bloodline, you’ll probably want this, since it will stack with the +1 per dice to fire spell damage you get through that bloodline.

Summoner: Extra hit points for your eidolon are always a good choice, so this one’s a keeper.

Witch: This isn’t that great of a bonus to begin with, as you shouldn’t be sending your familiar in to do skill checks in general. Add to this that the Scarred Witch Doctor archetype drops the familiar, and this one ends up being a not-so-good choice for a half-orc.

Wizard: If you’re in melee casting spells, you should be casting defensively, not allowing an enemy to hit you and then making concentration checks based on the damage. This is a bad choice.

Racial Archetypes:

A quick note: I’m going to include archetypes that are meant for orcs in this list, because half-orcs DO qualify for them and I won’t be getting to the more exotic races for a little while. For descriptions of human-only archetypes (which half-orcs also qualify for) look in the humans section. However, if you’re playing in Pathfinder Society, half-orcs and half-elves do NOT qualify for archetypes or feats of their parent races, so be aware of that.

Blood God Disciple (Summoner): This is an interesting archetype for the Summoner. You give up the summon monster spell-like abilities to instead have your Summoner himself gain evolution points when the eidolon feeds on a fallen enemy. Obviously, this is a fairly evil act, so you’re not going to be able to fit this character into a Lawful Good-leaning party. Later on the Blood God Disciple can dismiss his eidolon to begin raging like a Barbarian of his level, and even gains some Rage Powers eventually. Overall, I wouldn’t say this is a super strong archetype, but if you can find the right party to fit into it would be a lot of fun to play.

Dirty Fighter (Fighter): I like this archetype because of the versatility that the Dirty Trick combat maneuver affords you, and Fighters get a lot of feats so you can pick up a lot of Improved and Greater combat maneuver feats as you gain levels. Dirty Trick is actually a fantastic maneuver, allowing you to inflict one of several debilitating statuses to an enemy for one or more rounds, and the best part of this archetype is that at 9th level you can start using dirty tricks as attack actions rather than Standard actions, meaning you can do multiple dirty tricks per round. The ability to eventually apply two conditions to a foe that you target with Dirty Trick after level 13 is also REALLY good. If you’d like to build a character who kicks dirt in someone’s eyes to blind them, then smacks the sides of their head to deafen them and finally kicks them right in the nads to sicken them, this is the archetype for you!

Hateful Rager (Barbarian): This archetype is a fair option, because you gain a favored enemy and several related abilities at the expense of one less round of rage gained per level and some rage powers. The half-orc favored class bonus makes up for this in a large way, giving you an additional round of rage per level. Later you get to combine favored enemy with rage powers, adding ½ your favored enemy bonus to the DCs to save against rage powers (Though there aren’t a lot of rage powers that require a save, so keep that in mind). There is also a danger of losing control and going after only your favored enemy mid-battle, which is a scary though. This is a decent, synergistic archetype that I recommend for those who know they’re going up against a lot of one type of enemy (like in PFS, where you fight humans a LOT).

Redeemer (Paladin): The Redeemer archetype is meant to allow your Paladin to fight evil enemies and convince them to repent instead of outright destroying them. You can use smite to deal nonlethal damage, you get an ability that can force monsters to leave areas or groups of people alone for months at a time, and you can grant your nonlethal smite to all your allies. Gameplay-wise, this is not a strong archetype, but it’s full of flavor and would be great for the type of character who was redeemed from evil and turned to the ways of good, hoping now to sway other evil creatures to accept the light.

Scarred Witch Doctor (Witch): This very well might be the most powerful, broken archetype in the game, right up there with the Synthesist Summoner. You get to use Constitution as your casting stat. This means every time you boost your casting stat with belts, spells, mutagens, rage, etc, you also gain hit points! It is also much easier to find ways to boost Constitution than Intelligence, so you’re going to be able to boost your Hex DCs much more often and much higher than other Witches of the same level. Finally, the Fetish Mask ability is wonderful, allowing you to add magic properties to the mask as if you had the Craft Wondrous Item feat. You could make your Fetish Mask into a Medusa Mask for only 5,000gp, or a Kybwa’ka War Mask for only 1850gp!

Skulking Slayer (Rogue): I like this archetype, because it gives a Rogue more options for dealing sneak attack damage, requiring her to rely less on her allies for flanking. It’s also one of the best ways to use Dirty Trick effectively, as you can replace any attack that would normally deal sneak damage with a Dirty Trick maneuver instead. This archetype makes a Strength-based Rogue more viable, as you can eventually use Feint before charging, dealing sneak attack damage to that first enemy, and then on the next round you can cleave through several enemies, dealing sneak damage to every one after the first that you hit, flanking be damned!

Prestige Classes:

There aren’t any orc-specific or human-specific prestige classes, but there is one prestige classes that a half-orc can really excel at:

Eldritch Knight: The half-orc is in the best position of all races to become an Eldritch Knight for one reason alone: the Scarred Witch Doctor archetype. The reason this works so well is because you will continue to get to use your Constitution score for your casting stat, even after taking levels in this prestige class. Every level will give you new spells per day AND a full BAB progression, which is just awesome. I recommend taking a single level of Urban Barbarian (to gain Controlled Rage, which you’ll use on Con every time) and then take Scarred Witch Doctor for 5 levels, then jump into Eldritch Knight for 10 levels, then go back to Scarred Witch Doctor. By doing so, at 20th level you’ll have a BAB of +15, you’ll be a 18th-level caster which means you’ll be able to cast 9th level spells, and when you use Controlled Rage to add +4 to your Con score, you’ll get a boost of +2 to hex DCs (note that the intent of Controlled Rage seems to be that things that require concentration, like spellcasting, can be done while using the ability, but I think some GMs would still rule against being able to cast while raging).

Racial Feats:

Like half-elves, half-orcs have access to feats meant for either of their “parent” races. Because of this, I’m listing orc-only feats here in addition to feats meant for half-orcs, as it may take me a while to get to orcs in this guide. I won’t be listing human-only feats here since I’ll have them in the Human Feats section, so make sure to check those out too! Remember, though, if you’re playing in Pathfinder Society, your half-orc does NOT qualify for human- or orc-only feats!

Beast Rider: This feat is a great choice for a multiclass character who is planning to go into the Mammoth Rider prestige class. Since you can take this feat at 7th level, this will allow you to use a more exotic creature as your mount three levels before you can begin taking Mammoth Rider levels (10th level minimum), and you can treat your druid level as up to two levels higher (up to your maximum level) for determining the powers and abilities of your new mount. Combine this with Boon Companion, and you can have a full-strength mount or animal companion with up to six class levels that don’t normally increase your animal companion’s abilities!

Blood Vengance: This feat allows you to go into a rage-like state if one of your allies is knocked unconscious or killed, which is pretty cool. Note that it says you MAY enter the state, so you’re not going to be forced to do it if the situation wouldn’t warrant you doing so. It’s important to be aware also that this won’t work for summoned creatures, or for companion creatures (except at very low levels) because the ally has to have at least the same number of hit dice as yourself.

Born Alone: This feat really would only be useful if you have a huge Constitution bonus. A few temporary hit points usually aren’t going to make a huge difference, especially as you get to higher levels, so I’d say you’re better off picking up Toughness instead.

Brutal Grappler: This one lets you combine your grappling efforts with an ally at the same time, allowing both of you to deal damage automatically. You also are treated as aiding each other on the grapple, gaining a +2 to CMB checks. If you and an ally both have a decent CMB, this one could definitely be worth it. The only bad thing is that both of you need to take it, as it’s a Teamwork feat.

Bullying Blow: If you’re building an Intimidate-based build, you might want to consider this one, as it lets you intimidate an enemy as a free action after you hit them. The only bad thing is you can’t use it with a full attack action.

Deathless Initiate: This is the first feat in a fairly in-depth line that will eventually keep your half-orc from dying after hitting 0 hit points, allow him or her to keep fighting well past 0, and negate critical hits. However, there’s a serious feat tax for this one, as it requires both Diehard and Endurance.

Deathless Master: If you’ve invested in Deathless Initiate, you’ll likely want this one too, as it allows you to keep taking actions after hitting 0 hit points without taking a hit point from each action. The feat tax keeps piling up, though.

Deathless Zealot: This is a nice capstone for the Deathless line of feats. You essentially force all of your enemies to reroll any critical hit confirmations they make against you, and forcing rerolls on your enemies is always excellent.

Destroyer's Blessing: A sundering Barbarian would gain a lot from this feat, but any other character will find it lacking.

Ferocious Action: This is a good choice if you’re going to invest in the Deathless feats above or Ferocious Resolve below, because you won’t be staggered when you’re under 0 hit points, and if you’re raging there’s really no penalty to using this feat. I like it.

Ferocious Resolve: This is a different way to continue fighting after you’re reduced below 0 hit points, and it requires much less feat investment. Combine this one with Ferocious Action to keep fighting until you’re dead as a doornail without being staggered.

Ferocious Summons: For a summoning-focused caster, this is a seriously awesome ability, especially at lower levels. You’re essentially giving every summoned creature an additional 10+ hit points, by allowing them to fight past 0 hit points, though they do become staggered.

Ferocious Tenacity: Here’s another way to keep yourself alive when norally you’d be dead. In this case, when you’d normally be killed by hit point damage, you can instead expend rage rounds to reduce the damage. Pretty cool!

Fight On: And here is yet ANOTHER way to keep from dying after you hit 0 hit points. This one gives you a number of temporary hit points equal to your Con bonus when you’d normally be knocked out. However, this feat is not nearly as powerful as the others I’ve just talked about, so stick with the Ferocious line of feats above instead.

Fire God's Blessing: A single point of healing when an enemy takes fire damage isn’t a huge bonus, but if you plan to set your enemies on fire a lot it’s almost like having Regeneration, which is pretty nice.

Foment the Blood: This would be a really cool ability if it worked for all of your allies, but sadly this will only give damage and critical hit bonuses to orcs and half-orcs, so unless you are in a party with all-orcish blood, this probably isn’t worth your time. However, if you’re a GM writing up an encounter with a band of orcs, make sure to give the cleric this feat!

Gore Fiend: This is a great option for a half-orc Barbarian, especially if you often use weapons with a decent critical range. It gives you an extra round of rage every time you confirm a critical hit with a melee weapon OR a crit is confirmed against you, which probably happens more often than you realize.

Grudge Fighter: For any melee character who doesn’t rage and doesn’t have a Bard in their party, this is an excellent choice, since rage and bardic performances are the main sources of morale bonuses, and who doesn’t like to wreak vengeance on an enemy who attacked them?

Horde Charge: This is a teamwork feat meant to allow an orc raiding party to all charge at once, gaining bonuses to attack. If you do have multiple characters in your party who charge and attack at the beginning of every combat, this might be worth it, but it’s generally tough to convince other players to take Teamwork feats. This would be much better for an Inquisitor or Cavalier who can either use a Teamwork feat on his own or grant its benefit to all his allies, respectively.

Ironguts: A bonus to saves against the nauseated and sickened condition can definitely come in handy, but a bonus to only ingested poisons isn’t that exciting, since most poisons you’ll encounter will be either injury-based or inhaled. A bonus to Survival to find food for yourself will also hardly ever come up.

Ironhide: Most characters will be searching high and low for AC bonuses that don’t cost an arm and a leg at higher levels, so gaining a natural armor bonus of even +1 is probably worth a feat for many characters. Note, however, that if your class has a feature that gives you natural armor bonuses (like the Alchemist or the Druid), then this will NOT stack with those other bonuses. It WILL stack with an amulet of natural armor, however.

Keen Scent: The scent special ability is pretty incredible, in fact it’s pretty overpowered, since it will let you automatically notice invisible enemies near you no matter how high their Stealth check is. This ability is one of the reasons that Paizo tried in vain to reform the Stealth rules, but ultimately they gave up on making the changes that Rogues and Ninjas so desperately need to stay viable.

Orc Weapon Expertise: This is an odd feat, letting you choose one of several different combat bonuses that only work if you are wielding a weapon with “orc” in the name that you are proficient with. Sadly, there is only one weapon that fits this description, the Orc Double Axe, so this feat really isn’t useful unless you’re building a character focused completely on using that weapon.

Pass for Human: If you find yourself trying to fit into a human-only society for some reason, this feat will give you a nice bonus to your Disguise checks. Otherwise, ignore it.

Razortusk: Gaining a bite attack can come in really handy for a melee character, especially one who deals sneak attack damage, as it gives you one more source of sneak damage when you’re flanking someone.

Resilient Brute: This is just one more feat to add to the list of “ways to not die as a half-orc”. Once per day you can change half the damage from a critical hit to nonlethal damage, which can be really helpful if you’re fighting some huge bad guy who deals massive damage.

Resolute Rager: When you’re raging this feat lets you get an additional save vs. a fear effect, however you already get a nice bonus against fear effects while raging, so honestly I can’t really see anyone spending a feat on this one, even though I generally like abilities that give you rerolls.

Reverse-Feint: This is excellent for a high-AC, high-damage melee frontliner, as you essentially leave a gap in your defenses, hoping that an enemy will try to hit you, and when they do you can use an immediate action to hit them back with a +2 to your attack bonus. The only complaint I have about this feat is that it uses an immediate action, which means you won’t have a swift action in your next turn, and a lot of character builds nowadays are planning swift actions on most turns (I’m looking at you, Mythic Playtest).

Smash: If this feat let you ignore 5 points of hardness on constructs also, it would be much better. As is, if you plan to smash down a lot of doors, this might be for you, otherwise it’s not worth your time.

Smell Fear: This feat is a trap, as far as I’m concerned. With scent, you essentially never need to make a Perception check, with the way the Stealth rules currently work. This means that a +4 bonus to identify creatures that are scared by scent is basically meaningless!

Surprise Follow-Through: This feat and its improved version really make a Strength-based Rogue a viable option. Opponents that you Cleave (after the first hit) are flat-footed against your attacks, which means you get to deal sneak damage to an enemy you cleave into after the first! Very cool, though very feat intensive..

Surprise Follow-Through, Improved: This does exactly the same thing as Surprise Follow-Through but lets you use it with Great Cleave, causing all enemies after the first that you Cleave into to be flat-footed.

Sympathetic Rage: This feat is VERY similar to Blood Vengeance, except that you get to enter a rage-like state anytime you’re adjacent to your raging Barbarian friend, and since this will hopefully happen a lot more often than one of your allies getting knocked out, I’d pick this one over Blood Vengeance. However, it’s sort of a double-edged sword, because if your Barbarian ally needs to move away from you, you become fatigued like a normal Barbarian would pretty much instantly.

Tenacious Survivor: Once again, a feat that keeps you from dying. Are you sensing a theme, here? This one keeps your spirit in your body for a short time, allowing your party healer to bring you back from the dead, but you do gain a negative level from doing so as if you had been resurrected, so you’re gonna hope you never have to use this one.

Thrill of the Kill: Another feat giving you extra rounds of rage, this one lets you gain a rage round anytime you knock out or kill an opponent. Combine this one with Gore Fiend, and scoring a critical hit that kills an enemy will give you TWO rounds of rage, which is pretty awesome.

Trap Wrecker: This feat reminds me of Order of the Stick, because I could just imagine Belkar deciding to smack a trap with a sword instead of using Disable Device. The benefit here is that you can literally smash a trap instead of disabling it, though there’s a good chance you will spring the trap and take damage. However, this is so incredibly flavorful and awesome that I just have to give it a high rating.

War Singer: There are two reasons to take this feat, #1 being if you find your Bard in the midst of an epic battle fairly often, as it doubles the range of your bardic performances if there are at least a dozen creatures battling nearby, and #2 being if you fight a lot of orcs (or half-orcs, or Sorcerers with the orc bloodline, etc.)