SOURCE: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Rating the Benefits of Orcish Fury

Benefit #1 – 

+1 to Str or Con, up to a max of 20 

Half an ASI, standard with many of the Xanathar’s Guide feats. 

Strength and Con are great stats, synergizing with what many Half-Orc are going to want to do, especially those considering this feat. 

Benefit #2 – 

After hitting with an attack made with a simple or martial weapon, a character with this feat can add an additional weapon damage dice to the damage. 

This ability is a free action and comes back on short and long rests. 

A once per rest spike of damage is useful to have, especially to guarantee an enemy dies when really needed. 

The ability can be used multiple times per day and has some interesting interactions. More on this later. 

Benefit #3 – 

After using the Relentless Endurance feature, spend a reaction to make a weapon attack

This feature sustains offensive momentum, especially useful in battles with numerous weaker enemies, but may not trigger often against single, tougher foes.

Mechanics and Requirements

Understanding How It Functions

An ASI in Strength or Con

Half an Ability Score Increase is a common benefit for feats in 5e. An ASI boosts one of a character’s stats by +2 (or two stats by +1) and taking a feat “costs” this opportunity to boost stats. 

But many feats, like this one, let a character boost one of their stats as part of the feat’s benefits, which means the rest of the benefits on offer are roughly equivalent to half a feat. 

Strength and Constitution are excellent options for half an ASI. Many Half-Orc melee builds will lean Strength; because most of the classes that the race naturally synergizes with are easier to build with the stat; classes like Barbarians, Fighters, Paladins, etc. 

The features list of the feat also rewards building Strength, as everything else here really wants a character to use the biggest weapon they can. Unsurprisingly, when you’re swinging a sword the size of a small tree at someone, it pays to be strong. 

Alternatively, a character might boost their Con. Constitution boosts total HPs, Con saves, and Concentration checks. Most Half Orcs with this feat can safely ignore the last part; Orcish Fury does zero for standard spellcasters. But higher HP and better Con saves are both essential for builds that intend to get up close and personal, which, if you’re taking Orcish Fury, you probably want to do. 

In short, both of these stats are great options, and a character looking to grab this feat early might want to build their stats out with either Strength or Con at an odd number, so they can even it out at level 4 with Orcish Fury, maintaining a stat bonus and feat benefits. 

Even more damage

The first unique feature of the Orcish Fury feat is the ability to add a weapon damage dice to a successful attack, once per rest. 

The ability takes no action, and only triggers when you, the player, want it to, putting this power entirely within your hands. The ability can only be used once per rest, which brackets its effectiveness heavily on the chosen weapon and situation the ability is used. 

At first glance, this seems surprisingly weak. One weapon damage dice, potentially as little as once per day. That’s one d6 up to one d12. An average of 3.5 to 7.5 damage, with a mean of 5.5. Not a lot. But there’s a lot of nuance here.

First off, the ability is heavily reliant on the weapon used. Big, heavy weapons have bigger dice, and adding one of these pushes the damage ceiling and average damage upwards. 

Second, situation. If you know that an enemy is on low HP, and you’re looking for every edge to shave the few remaining HP they have down to 0, the only real number that matters, this could be the edge. 

Third, rests. This ability comes back every time the character or party rests, short or long. A party that takes multiple short rests per day (easily achievable for a party thick with Fighters, Monks, and Warlocks) could use this two or three times every adventuring day, easily. 

Finally, damage multipliers, especially critical hits. Crits double all of the damage dice used in an attack, and the Orcish Fury’s bonus damage dice absolutely count for this. The guide has a full section exploring this point, further down. 

A stubborn refusal to die

The last feature of the Orcish Fury feat builds on the Half-Orc’s Relentless Endurance feat and makes it significantly stronger. 

Relentless Endurance is a simple but powerful feature. Once per day, when a Half-Orc character would drop to 0 HP, they can choose not to, remaining at 1 HP instead. 

This is already excellent, especially on characters that have a lot of natural toughness. Orcish Fury makes it better by allowing a reactionary weapon attack after using the feature. 

So, put simply, an enemy tries to kill you. Fails utterly, purely because you decide to stay standing. Then takes a heavy swing back into the bargain. Enemies can choose the Half Orc as a target and die as a direct result of that decision. 

So how to make the best use of this? There are two ways to lean when thinking about this feature; defense and offense. 

Defensively, Relentless Endurance, and Orcish Fury, are far more useful as an emergency button; something you can use, but don’t rely on. The trigger for the ability is falling to 0 HP, after all, and while it’s exhilarating existing on that razor’s edge between victory and defeat, the rest of your party might object to every encounter being so life and death decided by a literal roll of the dice. 

It’s far better if you’re making yourself into a target to get as tough as you can, laying multiple layers of HP, AC, resistances, abilities, and spell effects on top of each other, turning attacking your character into as poor a prospect as possible.  

A character built like this wants enemies to target them, positioning themselves between their friends and foes, soaking as much damage as possible while the damage dealers take out threats. And if the worst should happen, and an enemy brings the tank down, they activate their “Haha I’m not dead” button and take a swing back, hopefully killing the enemy, or at least throwing dice at the problem essentially for free before dropping. 

Alternatively, a character with Orcish Fury might want to lean damage and try to kill their enemies before they get killed. The common term for this is a damage race, and Half Orcs are positioned to be good at this. 

The best characters for this style have built-in damage steroids as spells or class features. The Paladin and Rogue are the quintessential burst DPS classes. Sneak Attack is the single biggest reliable damage bonus in 5e, with the Paladin’s Smite feature following closely behind. 

Both of these features work with Orcish Fury’s reactive attack (as long as the character meets the prerequisites; spell slots to burn for the Paladin, and actually qualifying for Sneak Attack as a Rogue.)

Other solid options would be Fighters specced into heavy weapons, probably also taking the Great Weapon Master feat, Blood Hunters (if your table uses the class), and combat Druids, especially Moon Druids using Wild Shape. (More on this particular build later.)

Finally, consider leaning into crit builds. Support for critical hits is lower in D&D 5e than it was in previous editions, but several classes, for example, the Champion Fighter and Hexblade Warlock, have improved critical threat ranges built into their class feature list, or the Barbarian, which deals more damage when you do get a crit, both of which work incredibly well when your race and feats also boost damage on critical hits. 

This build leans more heavily into risk/reward. It’s not going to be anywhere near as tough, but requires less party investment, and plays much more simply. After all, dead enemies deal 0 damage.  

Key Stats

The Orcish Fury feat lets a character pick +1 to either their Strength or their Constitution. 

Considering the rest of the feat’s focus on weapon-wielding brutality, a character with this feat is going to want to max their “get good with weapons” stat as quickly as possible. For most half-orcs, this is going to be Strength. 

Ideal Characters for Orcish Fury

Top Classes

Barbarian – Already a good option for Half Orcs, the Barbarian synergizes nearly perfectly with this feat’s benefits. The stats are ideal, more damage is incredible on a DPS class, especially one which already gains boosted damage and further bonus damage on crits, and the ability to swing back when enemies finally carve through your giant pile of HP makes the character an even worse target for attack. 

The Path of the Ancestral Guardian doubles down on this focus; the enemy either tries to kill something that simply does not die, and hits back twice as hard when they swing at it, or they try and kill your friends, and have disadvantage on pretty much everything. No good targets. 

Alternatively, take the Path of the Giant and annihilate everything in your path. That’s fun too. 

Paladin – With racial traits that lean towards huge damage and surprising amounts of toughness, Half Orcs make excellent Paladins. The big draw here is the ability to Smite on the attack granted by Relentless Endurance, dealing huge damage on the counterswing when it matters most. 

Oath of Conquest is a strong, thematic subclass that rewards getting deep into the thick of things, precisely where a character with this feat wants to be. Class features put enemies on the back foot, then keep them there, and flavor elements that revolve heavily around fear and intimidation, something a Half-Orc high in Charisma should be very very good at.  

Cleric – The Battle Cleric is a standard build that puts on heavy armor and stands side by side with their allies, in the thick of the fight. Adding the standard half-orc package of hitting harder and not dying to a class that can bring their dead allies back to life is a solid investment. 

Twilight Clerics are one of the best at this, pulsing out temporary HP to the entire party every single turn, with heavy armor proficiency as standard. Add powerful AOE spells like Spirit Guardians, or some strong party buffs, for a terrifyingly competent anchor to any party. 

Rogue – The Rogue base class tends to suffer in the defensive department, which makes the Half-Orc’s ability to just not die once per day welcome, especially when, immediately after, they lunge forward for another sneak attack to eviscerate the fool who tried to kill them. 

Scouts fit the theme, feeling more outdoorsy and self-reliant than many Rogues, almost like a budget Ranger. Soulknife is also excellent, especially its ability to freely flex between melee and ranged attacks, so no enemy ever escapes your 

Race or Subrace Choices

Orcish Fury is currently only available to the Half-Orc. 

Combos, Tactics, and Synergies

Complementary Feats

Great Weapon Master – While it’s alarming unsubtle, picking up the biggest weapon you can and hitting as hard as possible is one way to make sure that, when the dust clears, you’re still standing and your enemies aren’t.

Polearm Master – Polearms synergize incredibly well with this feat, combining big damage dice and bonus range. Adding this feat into the mix offers a bonus attack, plus reactive stabs whenever enemies are crazy enough to move into melee range with you. 

Spells that Synergize

Hunter’s Mark/Hex – Already some of the best spells for builds relying on weapon damage, the bonus damage from Hex and Hunter’s Mark is added to every attack you make, whether that’s in your turn, or as a reaction to being hit. 

Armor of Agathys – Hitting a character with this feat is already a poor prospect. Now add a layer of temporary HP and recoil damage on top.

Strategies for Maximizing Orcish Fury Effectiveness

Go big or go home

The way the Orcish Fury feat works heavily rewards picking a weapon with a single large damage dice, reinforcing the Savage Attacks Half-Orc feature, which does the same thing. 

Because the feat adds another weapon dice, weapons like Greatswords, which deal 2d6 damage, only get to add 1d6 when using the feat, which is an average of 3.5 damage, with a maximum of 6. 

Weapons like the Greataxe deal damage using a single, larger 1d12 damage dice. While the average damage from a 1d12 is equal to 2d6, the maths gets weird when you start considering mean numbers and consistency. 

But when factored against the benefits of this feat, and Half Orcs in general, one single large dice is better every single time. Good options include: 

• The Greataxe, with the largest single damage dice in the game, 1d12
• Polearm weapons, which all use d10s, have the advantage of reach, and great feat support
• Versatile weapons; the longsword, battleaxe, and warhammer, which can be wielded in two hands to use a d10 damage dice, or one handed with a shield for more defensive ability. 
• Longbows and Heavy Crossbow, are the strongest ranged weapons, using d8 and d10 dice respectively, and work perfectly with both parts of this feat. 

Save the damage for crits

The bonus damage from Orcish Fury is additional weapon damage, which means that, in the case of a critical hit, that extra dice is also added a second time. 

Sage Advice has clarified that this is intended to work here. Half Orcs already get bonus damage on their critical hits, meaning rolling that nat. 20 is an even bigger cause for celebration. 

Honestly, this is such a big bonus with certain weapons that we’d be inclined to save that damage dice specifically for critical hits. Think of it this way:

A standard level 4 Fighter swinging a greataxe hits for 1d12 + 3 (avg. 10.5) and crits for 2d12 + 3 (avg. 18)

Because of the Savage Attacks feature, a Half-Orc Fighter instead crits for 3d12 + 3 (avg. 25.5)

Adding the extra damage from Orcish Fury pushes this to 5d12 + 3 (avg. 40.5) or over twice as much damage. That’s a massive amount of damage for a single attack, especially at this level, and more than worth waiting for.  

Moon Druid Fury

The Half Orc’s Relentless Endurance feature works incredibly well when combined with a Druid’s Wild Shape, especially the combat-focused Moon Druid subclass.

When Wild Shaped, a Druid assumed the stats of the creature they’ve turned into, as well as the HP of that creature. Normally, when their HP in this form drops to 0, they shift back into their standard, humanoid form, and all excess damage carries over. 

But a Half-Orc Druid in Wild Shape that drops to 0 HP can use Relentless Endurace when they would drop to 0 HP to drop to 1 instead. This works, and does far more than just keep the character in Wild Shape…

Firstly, Relentless Endurance causes all of the excess, overspill damage to vanish. The character takes the hit, then chooses to stay standing on 1 HP, no matter what. So a Druid Wild Shaped into a bear with 5 current HP could take a critical hit from a Hill Giant for 6d8 + 5 damage (avg. 32) and the 27 damage that would have crushed through their Wild Shape and hit their standard hit point pool just … poof … vanishes. 

Secondly, Moon Druids can spend spell slots as bonus actions to heal themselves, at a pretty reasonable conversion rate. Tactical use of Relentless Endurance, for example against a big single enemy with few attacks, or when you know that you’re next in line in initiative order so you can heal before further damage is aimed your way; can keep you up and fighting far longer than seems reasonable. 

Finally, the reactive attack granted by Orcish Fury is really good with many Wild Shape forms, which normally have low numbers of hard hitting attacks. And just in case you’re wondering, yes, the attacks of beasts are weapon attacks and definitely do qualify.  

Furious ranged attacks

Nothing in the Orcish Fury feat precludes it from working when making ranged attacks. So yes, rules as written, your Half-Orc gets so angry at the goblins stabbing him in the ankles that he rounds and fires a crossbow bolt extra hard into the chest of someone across the room. 

Final Thoughts on Orcish Fury

Many of the Xanathar’s racial feats are strange, and hard to quantify, adding niche benefits to rarely used racial features, or just being weaker than already existing options. Orcish Fury isn’t one of these. This is a feat that knows exactly what it wants to do and does it. Which is, funnily enough, very Orcish. 

There’s nothing here for spellcasters, but if you want to lean into the racial aspect of hitting extra hard while stubbornly refusing to die, Orcish Fury lets you do that better. Characters looking to optimize will probably still pick up a pure damage feat like Polearm Master first, but Orcish Fury is effective and powerful, adding a surprising amount of power to any build looking to get into melee. 

More importantly, this feat is fun, with big, impactful decision points that feel great at the table. And often, that’s more important than the raw numbers. There’s no reason to get angry about Orcish Fury. This feat is a winner.