Well, besides pie.  (I'll kill the obligatory joke, now.)
 
I'm setting up a new adventure that takes place at the site of an orcish invasion into a typical kingdom.  The PCs are 10th level, so I want to throw more than just orcs at them.  The terrain is mostly forest/mountain.  Also, the orcs are being quietly "advised" by a psion-heavy "evil empire".
 
So, what sort of oddball mounts, pets, and allies can I throw in.  I'm pretty sure I'm already going to use an orcish druid with the Awaken spell and Leadership feat.  I might throw in an orcish Binder and/or a human Ardent.  Other human/elan psi-types will be present.

Wargs, Winter Wolves, Stone or Hill Giants, other possible goblinoids.

Could go with giant insect wranglers.

Ogres and orogs and ogrillons (ToH). Maybe a couple of ogre mages. Bruce Cordell's ogre psychic (Hyperconscious) could be appropriate, too, given the evil psionic empire thingie.

Dire boars and razor boars (MM2).

And a menagerie of various monsters that are not so much trained as captured and then unleashed near the enemies. Owlbears, girallon, bulette, rust monster...

Two handed battle axes. Barbarian rage. Power attack.

Ogres was going to be my main selection, but that's already covered.  If the orcs have any high level spellcasters, demons are a shoo-in.

One thing I'd do is look through the monster books you have and check out the CE entries.  Maybe pick out a few really weird things that you wouldn't normally think would go with orcs.  They might not so much be part of the orc invasion as they are forcing themselves on it.

Cave trolls.

With large numbers of Orcs, I like to pull out the concentrated bow-fire rule from  the Heroe's of Battle book.  Of course raging barbarian Orc shock troops are fun.  Mounted Orcish Cavalry, Orcs on sized-large Worgs, who bite and trip enemies as well as their riders attacking.  The Orc specific prestige classes, usually don't have a time to come out and play.  A shaman/sorceror who raises the fallen Orcs from the dead to fight on as zombies or skeletons.  The odd Orc champion/blackguard as a leader(mounted on a Wyvern or Winter Wolf(sized large)), and don't forget the bardic Battle-Drummers attempting to inspire courage amongst the Orcs.

GW

Quote from: Ottomsoh the ElderlyOgres and orogs and ogrillons (ToH). Maybe a couple of ogre mages. Bruce Cordell's ogre psychic (Hyperconscious) could be appropriate, too, given the evil psionic empire thingie.

Heh... I ran one of these in one of my games. Freaked the players out good.

Oh, and cheap ale and hard whiskey both go well with orcs, too.

Quote from: SobekI'm pretty sure I'm already going to use an orcish druid with the Awaken spell and Leadership feat.

Is the Leadership feat really useful for an NPC? It's not like there's a limit to how many baddies you can throw at the PCs.

Quote from: SobekI'm pretty sure I'm already going to use an orcish druid with the Awaken spell and Leadership feat.

I missed this the first time through.  It's a bizarre artifact of 3e, but druid is the best spellcasting class for the orc & half-orc.  The Int and Cha penalties hurt the least with it.  (So your wild empathy sucks.  Whoop de doo!)

I could see him being quite potent.  I'd add in summon spells and keep him well back from the combat -- a puppet master type.

As Jamie says, though, I'm not sure that Leadership is useful, unless you run your NPCs by-the-book.  I'd go for Augment Summoning instead.

Quote from: CyberzombieAs Jamie says, though, I'm not sure that Leadership is useful, unless you run your NPCs by-the-book. I'd go for Augment Summoning instead.

I like the theory that "anything the (non-deity) NPCs do, the PCs could."  Since a 9th level druid is going to have a few feats, it's easier than actually giving him a high charisma.  Then again, it's not like the PC group actually makes any sense, anyway.  So, whatever the PCs do, the NPCs can, too.

personally, I'd throw a monkey wrench into the pc's thinking.

support the invading orc army with treants and wood elves, who want the generic kingdom being invaded to fall for their own reasons.

...some fava beans and a nice Chianti. (Sorry old gnomish joke)

Seriously. I would throw in some gigantic animated hollowed out carcass of strange beasts. Somewhat on the lines of some of the stuff done in Dark Sun. These could be the tech from the quiet help they are getting. Or it could be their normal undead/animated war machines used in war.

Take for instance the dead/animated carcass of a dragon. On it's bony wings there could be housed orc archers raining hell down upon our heroes...somewhat like the movie ("You will taste man flesh tonight"....which to some sounds like a line out of Blue Rose :imsorry: )

Or if you feel realy vicious, you could have the carcass of one of the creatures they had killed before making an appearence :deviousgrin:

Regards,
David R

Quote from: phoamslingerpersonally, I'd throw a monkey wrench into the pc's thinking.
 
support the invading orc army with treants and wood elves, who want the generic kingdom being invaded to fall for their own reasons.

Not a bad idea except for three things: 1) one of the PCs is a high elf (who share the forest with the orcs) and is considered a representative of her people; 2) I'm planning on surprising the PCs by having a mixed force of elves and their closest human allies operating covertly in the forest to disrupt the orcs; 3) this is part of a campaign arc, and I've already got the enemies for the rest of the story picked out (the psions, whose involvement is unknown thus far and the reveal will be the climax of this adventure -- the empire is coming out of a four-hundred year "retirement").
 
So far, what I've got is a cadaver collector along with a necromantic orcish cleric.  The collector was supplied to the orcs, but that's something for the PCs to ponder.  I might even throw in a clay golem.
 
So, ogres, animals (both awakened and trained), undead, a construct or two, hill and frost giants, and some leveled orcs.  With the final phase being a mix of orcs and human/elans heavy on the psi.  Throw in winter in the mountains, and that should be enough.