Character Class: Centaur

I want to add some creatures from Greek mythology to my Basic D&D game as playable classes to replace the Northern European mythology-based demihuman races of dwarf, elf, and halfling. There is a great BECMI supplement, PC1 Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, which is useful for this purpose, but I always found the system for “monsters as PCs” from this era to be a bit confusing. Effectively, I think there was a decision made that the monsters which appeared in the monster listings in the rulebooks were supposed to be the “Normal Man” equivalent for their monstrous races. Character levels would therefore follow the “Normal Man” level. To balance powerful monsters (e.g. a centaur) with other low level PCs, this system also added a “pre-Normal Man equivalent” level. This makes sense from a design consistency perspective, but I’m not sure it does much but add complexity in play – you start with negative experience points, have to get to 0 to become a “Normal Monster”, then you have to earn thousands more to get to level 1. It just seemed inelegant to me, so I redesigned some of these monsters as conventional character classes. Here is the first one of these: the Centaur.

Centaur

Centaurs have the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse. They resemble a horse up to where the horse’s neck should be, at which point their human torso begins. They are formidable and wild warriors, found on the fringes of civilisation.

Prime Requisite

Strength

Requirements

Strength 9 or higher.

Restrictions

There are no restrictions on the weapons a centaur can use. A centaur can wear barding, and armour made for a creature of their size. A centaur does not gain any benefit from armour whose Armour Class is not better than their natural Armour Class of 7. A centaur can use any magic item which can be used by a fighter.

Advancement

Centaurs are powerful creatures and advance more slowly than other character classes.

Level	XP	Hit Dice	Hoof Damage	Natural AC
1	0	2d8	1d2	8
2	4000	3d8	1d4	8
3	8000	4d8	1d6	7
4	16000	5d8	1d6	7
5	32000	6d8	1d6	7

Note that a “typical centaur” encountered as a monster is the equivalent of a level 3 centaur character – levels 1 and 2 represent young centaurs.

Saving Throws

Note your saving throws on your character sheet as per your character level:

Save	Level 1-2	Level 3-5
Death	12	10
Wands	13	11
Paralysis	14	12
Breath	15	13
Spells	16	14

Attack Table

Note what your character needs to roll on 1d20 to hit each Armour Class on your character sheet. This roll is modified by Strength for melee attacks and Dexterity for ranged attacks.

Lvl	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0	-1	-2	-3
1	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	20
2	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
3	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
4	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
5	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17

Special Abilities

Attacks

Each round, a centaur can make 2 hoof attacks and 1 attack with their weapon. They can make hoof attacks with their rear hooves against an enemy behind them, or with their front hooves against an enemy in front. If equipped with a lance, they can make a lance charge (as per the usual rules) which does double damage, but they cannot attack with their hooves on the same round as they make a lance charge.

Natural Armour

Centaurs have natural armour, which is reflected by the natural Armour Class shown in the advancement table. They can wear human armour made for the upper body and horse barding (or a special suit of armour combining both), but only benefit from the armour if its Armour Class exceeds the centaur’s natural Armour Class.

Horse Whispering

Centaurs can speak to horses, donkeys, and similar equine animals.

Languages

Centaurs can speak their alignment language, Centaur, the local human dialect, and Nymph.

Movement, Size, and Encumbrance

A centaur is a large creature, only slightly smaller than a horse and rider together. A centaur can move considerably faster than a human (assuming they have the space to move around, as they do above ground or in dungeons with high ceilings), and can carry more too.

Weight Carried (coins)	Speed (feet/turn)
Up to 1000	180
1001-2000	150
2001-3000	120
3001-4000	90
4001-6000	60
6001-7500	30
7501-8000	15
8001+	0