I was bored the other day, so....

The Centaur Race

Descended from the Elder God Centaubi, centaur are humanoid from the wait upwards, but have the body of a horse. Centaur tend to be both fast and strong, and they enjoy hunting in the natural open spaces of the basin. Most, therefore, prefer the life of the nature communes, though some seek fame as warriors in the cities. Centaurs have a natural affinity for the stars, those that become stargazers are respected by other centaurs for their superior intellect.

STATISTICS:

Strength : 14 Dexterity : 15 Constitution: 12
Intelligence: 13 Charisma : 11 Size : 14

ADVANTAGES:
o Have four legs.
o Can GALLOP quickly in any direction.
o Faster herb balance, level 1.
o Special: Centaur wiccans who choose the astrology path, upon mastering Astrology, become a Centaur Stargazer with statistics changing by -4 strength, -1 size, +3 intelligence, and +3 charisma. Centaur warriors and druids who choose the hunting path, upon gaining the Ecology or Tracking specialization, become a Centaur Hunter with statistics changing by -3 agility, and +4 constitution.

DISADVANTAGES:
o Are susceptible to fire, level 1.
o Are susceptible to cold, level 2.
o Have slower balance, level 1.


The obvious problem with a centaur race, is that having four legs messes up combat. Warriors will need to be able to target their forelegs and hindlegs. However, if it can be worked into combat, having for legs is a novel advantage.

Do we need a new race? No, we already have 18! ! But variety is the spice of life!

The legs thing wouldn't matter, which means there would be no reason to actually include, have four legs, in their advantages, also having cold and fire weakness, is a little much, probably removing the cold, would balance them better in relation to other races. Their dex should probably be lowered to 12, as since they have 4 legs they wouldn't be as agile.

Having four legs would make them more resistant to having things cut off. Where as a two legged race would just get one leg cut off for them to hobble, Centaurs would need three

Ever seen a horse hobble on one leg? Ever seen one walking on two?

No. No you have not.

The exact same rules would apply. For that at least.

Sorry.. What? Centaurs would 'hobble' on a single leg? No. Centaurs would hobble after losing one leg. Try to imagine you have legs like a horse. You wouldn't be able to stay up after losing two legs, just like a human can't. Losing one leg would give you a heavy hobble, losing two would most definitely make you prone.

Unless you're REALLY good at balancing.

It has already been said in another thread that there will be no Centaur race. They were planned, but discarded after Roark went over all of the problems that would arise. Apart from the limb issues in combat, you have the non-trivial problems of clothing and armor.

A suit of platemail that fits a human would make little sense on a horse. Pants that fit fine for all other races make no sense on a Centaur. Sandels and other shoes? Umm, no. Stockings, panties, kilts, skirts? No, no, no, and no. They just do'nt make sense.

How about mounts? Centaurs riding on brooms? Centaurs riding horses (in public even, ew)? There is an entire "Riding" skillset that would make no sense to even let them use. How about angelic or crow centaurs with wings?

What about furniture? Can you imagine a centuar in a chair? On a couch? Lying on a bed? Sitting on a bench?

What about swimming? Burrowing?

What about all the emotes that just don't make sense for centaur? They'd have to be changed entirely just for that one race.


I'm sorry, but I just do not see it as viable, even ignoring the combat issues.

Yeah, centaurs have too many problems... but fauns don't!

Awww. Very valid points. Centaurs are still cool though.

How about fauns that are half humanoid, half stainless-steel goat?

That would be copying Achaea's Satyrs a bit.

Psh, fauns are sexier than ugly satyrs.

And its not like we're exactly winning originality prizes with every single race. I mean, surely Achaea has something akin to Elfen, Dracnari, Mugwump and Aslaran?

Faun fetish faeling!

There is their size to worry about, faelings are half the size of humans, and there is an 8 size difference, centaurs are at least 2-3 (maybe even four) times the size of humans, are they going to be size 20 or 28 then? Entangling would equal death.

Three legs on a horse do not equal 1 leg on a human either. A horse can hobble a lot faster on three good legs and one broken one then I can try to hop across my room on one. Actually there was a big story a week or two ago in my area about a racehorse with a broken leg, he still hobbled down the rest of the track to the housing area.

They also would want to account for how much faster a horse can run/walk then a normal humanoid, are they automatically going to be able to leap/sprint naturally as well?

I horse can't tumble; you'll have to disable that ability for them.

What would their dexterity be? You need to take into account that they are so much bigger then the average person so it's easier to hit them; really low dex, high str, high con might work. Then again, just because they are bigger doesn't mean that they are clumsy, so low dex doesn't fit.

Some skills in combat would need to be reworked for centaurs as well, shield parrying; can a centaur even parry with a shield on their back half of their body? I wouldn't think so.

The more you look into the differences the more overpowered abilities and crippling weaknesses you find, I'm sure all of us haven’t even thought of every part of what the centaur race would entail, so it's easy to see why it had to be put aside.

While a centaur race would indeed have been fun, the coding of them would have been a nightmare.

Wounds for example would need a whole new interface just for them.
Any skill that indicated physical movement or attack would need a special version for them.
Disabling of many skills for them would need to be done.

Just to many things that people would ask for and complain about to make it viable to code.

1) Make it so that centaurs can't burrow
2) Make it so that centaurs can't wear anything like pants or anything that would fit people below the waist
3) Make it so that centaurs can't mount anything
4) Make it so that centaurs cannot use furniture,
5) Horses can ford water, no reason why a centaur couldn't
6) Make it so that centaurs cannot dive or burrow or scale mountains
7) A centaur with wings doen't seem all that strange.
8) Some emotes aren't able to be done by certain races, just make all of those available to centaurs

I know nothing about coding, but it seems this way that you wouldn't have to change the outercode, just code the centaurs this way.
It would be a total disadvantage but that would be the great price with having to play a centaur.

And this is exactly why Centaurs won't be implemented even despite their (fairly) low coding difficulties. Because giving a lot of special things to one race (even handicaps) is a big no. Reasons as follows:

1. It ruins the feeling that race stats are consistent with each other, one of them being so different.
2. It would make centaurs underpowered, or on the contrary - to "make up" for it, they'd have overpowered stats (like in DnD when someone dumps charisma to 4 to get a character with 20 str at level 1).
3. More important than 1 and 2 added together - it would make the players who choose the centaur race somewhat "special" only because they have chosen the race. As such, people all around Lusternia will wildly jump to play them, thus eliminating their uniqueness and their rarity.
4. Centaurs have no real reason to leave Serenwilde for long, and CERTAINLY shouldn't be members of any other org. So it'd be either too limiting or murdering the race's RP.
5. Centaurs are a dignified race, and I do not want to see snuggly novices who'd eventually play them ruin that.
6. NO to races without pants. One Syntobis is enough.

Of course, these reasons are 100% accurate and Lusternia's staff thinks exactly the same way. Please send thanks to Cletus, my personal psyker telepath. He doesn't get his fee for nothing.

EDIT: Found another one:
7. Too many ladders, and other places inaccessible for horses, in Lusternia.

I'd love to see a horse ford the inner sea

Okay, I brought this up on the other thread, but since it's probably THE straw that broke the centaur's back, here it is again:


Centaur mudsex.

Zomg, hot.

I am sorry, but I really don't understand what would be so difficult with treating a centuar as if it had two legs.

The wounds picutre, its from the front view, it looks the same. (the wounds doesn't have special pictures for trills and differences betwen dwarves and Igasho)

ever nibbled on a backpack? They suddenly have ears!

Why would this be any different with a centaur?

A centaur with wings is a pegatuar.

There would be a few things you could do to acknoweldge thier differences, such as forbiding being able to mount something. But you don't have to make centaurs mountable, if you did that I would want a faeling or a furrikin allowed to go on a Tae'dae's shoulders like they do in the histories.

However, a new warrior race is may not be needed, and centuars tend to be overpowered. They are fast, strong and wise. Maybe an option for vernals one day.





Ziz, my Roc does it all the time....

Horses can swim you know...

Y'know the centaur in Serenwilde? He says that "As long as the flame burns, we are safe." Not exactly teh kind of thing someone susceptible to fire would say. They use the stuff for divination.

Not to mention all the MASSIVE problems everybody else mentioned. I've never seen an idea shot down with so many good reasons so fast.