Centaur

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This page is about the player species. For the monster, see Centaur (monster).

The Centaurs are another species of hybrid creatures: horses with Human torsos. They usually live in forests, surviving by hunting. Centaurs can move very quickly on their four legs, and are excellent with bows and other missile weapons; they are also reasonable at fighting in general while being slow learners at specific weapon skills. They advance quite slowly in experience levels and are rather sub-average at using magic. Due to their large bulk, they need a little extra food to survive. Like Nagas, they receive inferior protection from the armour they wear.

Innate Abilities

• Tough Skin 3: Centaurs have extremely tough skin (AC +3).
• Fast 2: Centaurs cover ground very quickly during movement.
• Deformed: A Centaur's equine body fits poorly into armour.
• Hooves 3: Centaurs have hooves in place of feet. They cannot wear boots, but gain an auxiliary melee attack.
• Centaurs may equip centaur barding.
• Fast Metabolism 1: Centaurs have a fast metabolism.
• Herbivorous 1: Centaurs gain slightly less nutrition from meat, and slightly more from plant-based food.
• Centaurs are large enough to attack normally while standing in shallow water (though they cannot move through it normally).
• Centaurs require less skill to use Shields effectively than other medium-sized races.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Fighter, Gladiator, Monk, Hunter
• Zealots: Berserker, Abyssal Knight, Death Knight, Healer
• Warrior-mages: Transmuter, Arcane Marksman

Level Bonuses

• +1 strength or dexterity (equal chance) every 4th level.
• 10% more HP than average.
• 10% less MP than average.
• +3 magic resistance per level.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Centaurs start with the skills and equipment listed for their background, with the following exceptions.

• Centaurs start with an extra bread ration.

Difficulty of Play

Despite poor defensive aptitudes and some of the worst Stealth modifiers in the game, Centaurs' excellent movement speed and good HP makes them a very powerful and forgiving species. Centaurs can kite the vast majority of enemies in relative safety, via clever use of ranged combat, polearms, or spells. Fast movement also gives Centaurs the ability to disengage from many foes at will, choose terrain that is to their advantage, maintain greater control over position in relation to enemies, and avoid being surrounded. Only the Spriggan is faster—but far less robust—than the Centaur.

The Centaur's deformed body characteristic may warrant further comment, as this is sometimes subject to misunderstanding. What this mutation means is that Centaurs receive only half the amount of the base armour rating of the armour they wear on their torso, rounded down. Thus, +0 Scale Mail (normally 6 AC) gives 3 AC, whereas +0 Ice Dragon Armour gives 4 AC rather than its usual 9. However, this does not affect armour enchantment at all; a +3 Scale Mail, for instance, would give a total of 6 AC ((6/2)+3). Nor does the deformed body mutation apply to the AC bonus you get from training Armour skill, which uses the non-halved base armour rating in its calculation. Finally, note that Centaurs enjoy +3 AC innately, and can equip barding that can give much better AC than boots. (On the other hand, Centaur Barding is far less common than boots.)

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	0	Armour	-3	Spellcasting	-3
		Dodging	-3
Maces & Flails	-1	Shields	-3	Conjurations	-1
Axes	-1	Stealth	-4	Hexes	-1
Polearms	-1			Summonings	-1
Staves	-1	Invocations	1	Necromancy	-1
Unarmed Combat	0	Evocations	-1	Translocations	-1
Throwing	1	Shapeshifting	N/A	Alchemy	N/A
				Fire Magic	-1
Short Blades	-1			Ice Magic	-1
Long Blades	-1			Air Magic	-1
Ranged Weapons	N/A	Experience	-1	Earth Magic	-1

Trivia

Centaurs are originally creatures from Greek mythology.