FR playable yaktaur race

[HardboiledGargoyle]

I think there's space in Crawl for a centaur-like species that isn't fast. In fact I sometimes just find their speediness distracting. I know their speed is their most distinctive feature, but their other properties could be interesting enough by themselves if they weren't overshadowed by 0.7 movement delay. Here's an attempt to make them normal-speed yet fun, unique, and balanced; feel free to contribute.

Yaktaurs[Ya] are another species of hybrid creatures: yaks with Human torsos. They are large and tough and have a knack for ranged combat.

Weirdness/Mutations:

• Tough Skin 3
• Deformed Body
• Hooves 3
• Centaur-sized: can wear centaur bardings, have centaur evasion, centaur shield penalties, etc.

Stats:
20% more HP than average
Base Stats: Str 10 Int 7 Dex 4
Stat gain: Str or Dex every 4th level

Aptitudes:

  Code:

Ya: Fighting: 0, Short: -1, Long: -1, Axes: -1, Maces: -1, Polearms: -1, Staves: -1, Slings: 1, Bows: 1, Xbows: 1, Throw: 1, Armour: -1, Dodge: -1, Stealth: -1, Shields: -1, UC: 0, Splcast: -3, Conj: -1, Hexes: -1, Charms: -1, Summ: -1, Nec: -1, Tloc: -1, Tmut: -1, Fire: -1, Ice: -1, Air: -1, Earth: -1, Poison: -1, Inv: 1, Evo: -1, Exp: 0

[duvessa]

I'd rather replace centaur with yaktaur, which is the same as centaur except normal speed. One fast species is enough and Crawl has 3.5 - centaur, spriggan, felid, tengu, vampire.

[Tiktacy]

Requesting a mod to move this to GDD. Its a nicely put together, simple species suggestion with a solid premise and plenty of discussion potential.

[HardboiledGargoyle]

Wouldn't the centaur be quite on the weak side if you only removed its Fast mutation? Like a bad minotaur, a bad ogre, or a bad ghoul. Do you also think the centaur is fine with stuff like awful dodging?

+1 for replacing centaurs

[lethediver]

Higher crossbow aptitude pls. Yaktaurs and crossbows are practically synonymous.

[Tiktacy]

Wouldn't the centaur be quite on the weak side if you only removed its Fast mutation? Like a bad minotaur, a bad ogre, or a bad ghoul. Do you also think the centaur is fine with stuff like awful dodging?

+1 for replacing centaurs

Not all races need to be good to be fun. Mummies and naga's are two of my favorite races. I think you could probably give centaurs some innate swiftness to make their aptitudes actually make sense.

[PleasingFungus]

I'd rather replace centaur with yaktaur, which is the same as centaur except normal speed. One fast species is enough and Crawl has 3.5 - centaur, spriggan, felid, tengu, vampire.

Tengu and vampires are a quarter of a species each? This is some arithmetic...

[Wahaha]

"Centaur but without movement speed" is boring in my opinion. It's like, let's take a human and give it 20% hp and make it worse at defenses in the early-mid game. Except this proposal has tough skin 3 to partially make up for having bad defenses. That's about it for special characteristics.

It should be easy to think of more interesting centaur species ideas.

[duvessa]

I'd rather replace centaur with yaktaur, which is the same as centaur except normal speed. One fast species is enough and Crawl has 3.5 - centaur, spriggan, felid, tengu, vampire.

Tengu and vampires are a quarter of a species each? This is some arithmetic...

Vp is 34% of a fast species and tengu is 13% of one. I rounded up.

[HardboiledGargoyle]

"Centaur but without movement speed" is boring in my opinion. It's like, let's take a human and give it 20% hp and make it worse at defenses in the early-mid game. Except this proposal has tough skin 3 to partially make up for having bad defenses. That's about it for special characteristics.

It should be easy to think of more interesting centaur species ideas.

Really? I think it would be an interesting alternative to humans in the way that ogres and octopodes are interesting alternatives to humans. Perhaps by your standards the only interesting species are DD, Fo, and the fast/slow/undead species. It's no genie, sure. But unless we go crazy (I don't know what you mean by interesting ideas) it is better to strip races to their essentials, like how gargoyles were stripped of some unnecessary innate mutations after 1 version.

Higher crossbow aptitude pls. Yaktaurs and crossbows are practically synonymous.

One of the common complaints about centaurs is that their ranged aptitudes are uneven.

Dang, forgot to add Shaggy Fur 2.

[Rast]

OP's suggestion boils down to "Take fast movement from centaurs, improve apts a little to compensate. "?

[genericpseudonym]

"Centaur but without movement speed" is boring in my opinion. It's like, let's take a human and give it 20% hp and make it worse at defenses in the early-mid game. Except this proposal has tough skin 3 to partially make up for having bad defenses. That's about it for special characteristics.

It should be easy to think of more interesting centaur species ideas.

Really? I think it would be an interesting alternative to humans in the way that ogres and octopodes are interesting alternatives to humans. Perhaps by your standards the only interesting species are DD, Fo, and the fast/slow/undead species. It's no genie, sure. But unless we go crazy (I don't know what you mean by interesting ideas) it is better to strip races to their essentials, like how gargoyles were stripped of some unnecessary innate mutations after 1 version.

Higher crossbow aptitude pls. Yaktaurs and crossbows are practically synonymous.

One of the common complaints about centaurs is that their ranged aptitudes are uneven.

Dang, forgot to add Shaggy Fur 2.

"Human but with different apts" is only interesting if the different apts are significantly higher/lower in places (like with Deep Elves or Minotaurs). A bunch of +1's and -1's with no gameplay-changing racial traits is boring. All these guys have is centaur size which is kind of interesting but doesn't really change the way you play except by encouraging shield use.

[Tressol]

Not sure how this would work in terms of coding, but could Centaurs have normal speed, but get automatic Swift status when there are, say, no more than 3 wall tiles adjacent? The idea being that horses are fast but also big and bulky, not ideal for moving around tight spaces (could give -swift with 6+ surrounding walls, but that seems a bit rough) and not meant for dungeons.

If we did this, perhaps we could also improve their aptitudes a bit, though I would think that giving them some other benefit for fighting in the open (a better Size for dodging purposes, say) could also be interesting.

Also, Yaktaurs are cool. Playable Yaktaurs could be neat.