Has anyone used centaurs as a player race? I have a player that would like to be a centaur, but because the rules for everything are so different from D&D I am having trouble creating racial bonuses for him. He would like to play a paladin and normally I would just make it about mounted combat and call it good, but since DW does not have penalties for mounted combat that would be useless. Suggestions would be helpful or if this question has already been asked and I just missed it could you please send me a link. Thanks in advance.
Has anyone used centaurs as a player race?
Has anyone used centaurs as a player race?
Well, what are centaur’s about? What are they good at? Does their large size and four legs mean they can’t be knocked down by human-sized opponents? Think along those lines are a centaur racial move will come to you.
yeah, i have a centaur wizard, and i went with something about never being impeded by natural terrain, hooves as weapons with the forceful tag so you can easily knock over foes, add to load cos being big means they can carry more, and/or be mounted.
it also depends on what the centaurs are good at in yr setting. traditionally centaurs are good archers, which is great if yr centaur favors a bow, butmaybe now. ask yr player, what makes centaurs special, what can they do that other species can’t, what is their culture like, maybe you will get something to work with.
Grim World has a centaur race move.
Essentially it’s a fictionally bonus on a 10 or more on PJ moves.
Grimworld treats each race as having it’s own move seperate from the class of the character, which is just another way of approaching races.
For a centaur Paladin you could perhaps make up an additional option for the Quest move, or being able to reduce Perilous Journeys due to the centaur’s speed? Maybe an increased LOAD due to it’s great strength?
I have noticed that the racial moves are dependent on class. They are different for each one. So, here in begs the question: What sets them apart from a human with the same class.
Paladin: What kinds of gods are they likely to follow?
Wizard: Are their Rituals better: Astrology
Rogue: How would they be better at stealing or swashbuckling
Fighter: Charge Move maybe, Move for staying on their feet better.
Druid: Changing shapes? They are a Centaur but with their connection to the wild.
ect.
Of course, This sounds like you would make a racial class out of it and then for the racial move, flip it. They are a Centaur but get 1 class move that they can choose, choose 3-4 options. That is the “class” that they are but they are primarily a Centaur.
I would say DW does have penalties for mounted combat, in the ways that it constrains the fiction. You’re fairly large, so you can’t easily take cover behind medium-sized rocks and trees. You probably have a harder time maneuvering through tight spaces. It’s likely your unique shape requires you to Defy Danger in some situations where more humanoid races could just act. When it comes to wielding melee weapons, you might have a have time reaching small creatures if you don’t have at least reach range on the weapon. There may also be social consequences, depending on the ubiquity and reputation of centaurs in the settlements you visit.
Of course, this also goes the other way. You can run quickly, which means you can probably make jumps or charge past a monster’s defenses in some cases without needing to Defy Danger. One thing you could do more mechanically is, say, give charging attacks the forceful tag. Or maybe you could allow trampling of opponents prone on the ground , possibly using a DD with DEX rather than a typical Hack & Slash. The latter could be interesting flavor for a stereotypical archer centaur that then rushes in to run over enemies that were knocked down.
“When you attack after moving a short distance towards an enemy, take +1 to you damage.” Could be a good charge racial move. Also the “On the Move” effect from the Barbarian’s advanced moves could serve as a great racial for centaurs. I’m not sure on something specific to a centaur paladin though.
Your large size provides additional cover for allies. When you defend a character, that character takes +1 armor ongoing so long as you stand in defence
Don’t think about it in terms of “racial bonuses” – that harkens back to giving adjustments to stats, and codifying specific racial advantages.
As others have said, race in DW is more about how the PC’s race affects their role in that Playbook. How is a Centaur Paladin different from a non-centaur paladin.
Other racial stuff, like having four legs, being exceptionally tall and heavy, having a proficiency with some skill set (archery? poetry?) might be established within the fiction, completely separate from the Race move.
So for a Paladin racial, look at what a Paladin Playbook already does, and find a way to highlight what makes this centaur special.
A couple suggestions:
Modification to Lay on Hands:
You are hardier than most. When you would normally take damage or a disease from Lay on Hands, you may instead choose to mark a condition.
Modification to I Am the Law
You are an imposing figure. When you succeed at “I Am the Law” you can eliminate one of the three options the NPC gets to choose between.
“I rolled a 7+… you can choose to comply, attack, or flee… hmmmm.. I don’t want you to attack right now, so you have to choose between compliance or fleeing….”
Or go completely away from the Paladin Playbook, and bring in some other thing that the centaur gets, based purely on its race but in line with the class.
All of your melee attacks have the “Reach” and “Forceful” tags.
You are well-educated in an oral tradition, tying knowledge to story-telling. When you Spout Lore, you can roll +CHA instead of +INT if you orate the knowledge to a receptive audience.
Paladin : you gain a free hold move when the person you are defending is able to ride on your back.
Ranger : uncanny shot – when you are able to ride unimpeded at full speed, your accuracy with a bow is surprising. you can perform a called shot on most targets.
Fighter: Your attacks have Forceful and Reach tags.
Wizards: When you do a ritual you may use the alignment of the stars as a requirement.
Cleric: walking meditation. You may commune while walking/galloping. When you commune you gain a special version of Spirit Tongue which works as a rote.
Druid: You gain 1 free hold for becoming a normal horse or a human.
Pleb Publishing has a centaur playbook in its Wrath of the Wild bundle
Thanks guys for all the great suggestions my player and I will take a look through them together and decide how we want to proceed. I can’t wait to see what he does with a Centaur Paladin in this setting since the party starts off with a quest to help a rebellion get started and then (hopefully) overthrows the evil ruler. My party has a habit of trying to alignment shift mid-game and side with the villains. Sometimes I can get them back on the straight and narrow,but not always. This time though they all chose as a group to be a neutral based party so I have high hopes for the Lawful Neutral Paladin, the Neutral Evil Berserker and the True Neutral Monk. Though a Centaur, a Half Orc, and a Human Vampire may encounter some problems considering that the only one that didn’t use charisma as their dump stat is the Centaur and he dumped his intelligence.
Stephen Grote If your players tend to side with the antagonists mid-game, you can assume that there is something they find interesting in such dramatic tension.
Perhaps, instead of trying to stave it off, you can engage them on their turf.
Villains usually don’t think that they’re the bad ones, right? Perhaps they think they have unique knowledge or ability. Or they think the rules of society don’t apply to them, but they live by their own moral code.
If the players start aligning with the baddies, perhaps there is room to start exploring what might be redeeming about the villain. And, conversely, perhaps the “good” team has skeletons in their own closet.
Remember, the PCs are the protagonists in the game. They shouldn’t be bit players on someone else’s stage; their presence is what makes a difference in the drama at large, so THEIR story should be allowed to be interesting.
In classical tradition, centaurs are known for being untamed, lecherous, and drunk carousers.
A paladin centaur would likely be a more civilized outlier, much like the mythical teacher Chiron. Perhaps like Chiron, the centaur may exhibit a civilized nature by wearing more clothing than the typical centaur as well as by having a human set of front legs rather than horse legs.
But the untamed nature of centaurs may manifest even in a paladin. A GM should be particularly hard in Moves that test a paladin’s vows – especially Temperance!
I like Andrew Fish’s suggestion regarding I Am the Law. Since some centaurs are at least partially descended from Zeus or Hera, their divine authority should be all the more potent.
For fighters, I would designate a centaur’s melee attacks as forceful if they are charging or trampling.
A horned centaur may also designate its horns as its signature weapon.