Tonight (in about 3 hours) I'll be running a mini session as a prelude to my last 3E adventure. I'm going to have the party fight a group of "ninjas" who try to kill them in their sleep, then a group of orc warriors who will attack the village they were resting in. These are going to mostly be to gauge what they can handle at once so I can make the threats worthwhile in the "real" sessions.
The orc warrior fight will include 6 13th level orc warriors. They have 5 feats right now, from 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th levels. I don't really want to make them complicated, so I might just go with Weapon Focus and the Armor Focus feats.
Any assistance? Quick?
I would simply go with a Weapon Focus (main weapon), Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Reflexes (if possible), Run, Endurance, or anything else that's simple.
(Of course, I may not be entirely sure what you're asking.)
That's what I was asking. I don't think Power Attack is useful because their to hit bonuses are considerably lower than the player's ACs (one player has a 37 AC, and the orcs have +22 attack if they take weapon focus). Any further to hit penalties would make it almost impossible for them to actually score a hit (as it is now, they need to flank and have one use aid another to actually have a reasonable chance of hitting).
Also, I have moral opposition to taking Cleave as a DM. It means that, in order to use the feat, I have to intend on actually killing or dropping a PC. Since that happens so little, it ends up becoming a waisted feat.
I like taking cleave because it encourages me to find a reason to use it. ^_^
I wasn't sure as to the party make-up, but that haven't been said, let's see...
I'd give them power attack in order to give them Improved Bull Rush, Sunder, and also Grapple. Those three could make a pretty frightening encounter, but not really make it terribly deadly. I would still argue in favor of combat reflexes since they aren't your average orcs, and maybe given one or two some archery feats.
That's what I would do, at least. I love giving enemies the expertise line of feats (makes the combat more interesting without making it more deadly, in general), but that might not be fitting for orcs.