Half-orc is a good choice?

[lompo]

I was wandering if half-orc are good choice:
I don't have the game yet, but from what I see they are penalized over other races because they get -2 to attributes (+2 to str and -4 to others) and only darkvision as other benefit, so what is the point of choose him?
Does he has some other bonuses?
If not is strange, also considering thet sub-races that have bonus to their attributes get penalized in exp..
I was planning to make an half-orc barbarian, but now I'm considering to make a human barbarian.

[HighLordDave]

If my memory serves me correctly, half-orcs get +2 STR, -2 INT and -2 CHA (incidentally, this is not changed from the old AD&D or AD&D2 rules). The advantage of playing a half-orc is that you get the +2 STR, and as long as you pick a class that doesn't need either INT or CHA, the +2 STR may come in handy (a STR over 13 enables feats like Cleave and Power Attack).

It's all about personal preference. When generating characters, it is up to you to weight the advantages vs. the disadvantages and make the best character(s) that fit your playing style.

Not all subraces or demi-humans get the XP penalties. It's only the "extraordinary" races (tiefling, drow, svirfneblin) that get lots of extra abilities are subject to the XP penalty.

[cjdevito]

Half orcs are good barbarians, but.... they're the best monks in the game. Take charisma and int down to their minimums (neither is needed for a monk unless you plan to dual class) and you can just about max out all their other stats. The only race that gives half orcs a run for their money as a monk is svirfneblin... the innate spells and -4 to AC are great benefits to a monk, but the +3 effective levels is a killer at the beginning.

[smass]

I had never thought of a half orc monk - now I have to try one.