Minotaur

Version 0.21: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

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

The Minotaurs are yet another species of hybrids - Human bodies with bovine heads. They delve into the Dungeon because of their instinctive love of twisting passageways. Minotaurs are extremely good at all forms of physical combat, but are awful at using any type of magic. They can wear all armour except for some headgear. When in close combat, Minotaurs tend to reflexively headbutt those who dare attack them.

Innate Abilities

• Horns 2: Minotaurs get a secondary melee attack from their horns, but cannot wear helmets.
• Minotaurs instinctively counterattack foes in melee with a headbutt whenever (5× STR + 7 × DEX > 1d(600))

Minotaurs have a base Strength of 12, Intelligence of 5 and Dexterity of 5 (before Background modifiers). They have -1 to their base magic points.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Fighter, Gladiator, Monk, Hunter
• Zealots: Abyssal Knight, Berserker

Level Bonuses

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

Starting Skills and Equipment

Minotaurs start with the skills and equipment listed for their background, with these exceptions:

• Any helmet is replaced with a hat.

Difficulty of Play

Minotaurs are an easy species to play because of their incredible versatility in melee combat. They are equally excellent in all melee weapons, and nearly as competent at range. They are also very durable, thanks to high HP and a good Armour skill aptitude. Minotaurs are thus a great choice for players who want a powerful "monstrous" species, but don't want to sacrifice weapon versatility or armour as ogres and trolls do.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	2	Armour	2	Spellcasting	-4
		Dodging	1
Maces & Flails	2	Shields	2	Conjurations	-3
Axes	2	Stealth	-1	Hexes	-4
Polearms	2			Summonings	-3
Staves	2	Invocations	0	Necromancy	-3
Unarmed Combat	1	Evocations	-1	Translocations	-3
Throwing	0	Shapeshifting	-3	Alchemy	-3
				Fire Magic	-3
Short Blades	1			Ice Magic	-3
Long Blades	2			Air Magic	-3
Ranged Weapons	1	Experience	-1	Earth Magic	-2

Strategy

Tough, strong, and at home with all weapons, minotaurs are born for melee and ranged-combat backgrounds alike. Being feeble at magic, however, they need to milk the religious side of the game to round themselves out. They particularly excel as Berserkers, as Trog's religion emphasizes all of a Minotaur's strong points, and only trolls suffer less from his ban on magic. Nor do any of his powers actually require the Invocations skill, leaving more experience to devote to combat skills. Among the other religious backgrounds, Death Knights and their undead slaves are another good match for Minotaurs, and Abyssal Knights are also melee-oriented to start.

If the starter gods aren't for you, picking Fighter, Gladiator, or Monk provides you with a good start for making the journey to the Temple (or to a lucky early altar). Minotaurs do well under Okawaru (Heroism, Finesse, equipment gifts), Makhleb (demonic summons, recovery from killing, elemental blasts), or even the Shining One (powerful summons, defensive buffs, and abilities useful against demonic and undead foes. Besides, you probably weren't going to be sneaking around anyway).

For reference: a Minotaur Monk will have a chance of 26.5% to counter at the start of the game, a MiWz will have a chance of 18.5%. Should you reach 40 in Str and Dex your chance will be about 80%.

History

In 0.17, headbutt auxiliary attacks no longer apply a small stun.