minmay wrote:Why do so many people think centaurs suck? They're perfectly good casters and fighters, excellent archers, and get very good speed and HP.
I haven't really played many centaurs, but are you sure about them being good fighters and casters? Just from looking at the aptitudes:
Arm: -3
Ddg: -3
Shd: -3
If you're playing a dodging or heavy armor fighter, you're facing a -3 in your primary defensive aptitude either way, and -3 for shield use regardless.
For offense:
All melee weapons get -1. Unarmed and fighting get 0.
For spellcasters:
-1 to all spell schools, except for Poison, which gets -2.
The Spellcasting skill itself is also -2.
For Hunters, Centaurs should do really well, as you'd expect:
Slings and Crossbows get +1, and Throwing and Bows get +3
For a stabber type:
Sth: -4
Stb: -3
You're fighting a real uphill battle (Not that Centaurs are arguably designed for a stabbing playstyle, though, I agree.)
Aptitude wise, if you discount ranged weapons/throwing, the "highest" aptitudes Centaurs have are 0, and those are only in Fighting, Unarmed Combat, and Invocations. Everything else is a negative. Also the Centaur experience level aptitude is 140, so you won't really be gaining new levels very quickly, either.
Again, I haven't played them much (And certainly not in the past year or two), though I plan to start trying them now, and this is only from looking at the aptitudes, but Centaurs really look like they'd have an uphill battle with most backgrounds, and even the "good" ones are really more just slightly negative to average (-1 to 0). Obviously, Hunters, with the high ranged aptitudes would work, but that seems like an awfully narrow focus for them to excel at.
Are the HP bonuses they get substantial compared to other races, and is the speed really helpful enough to offset so many terrible aptitudes? This is not a rhetorical question, as I'm asking those who have much more experience with them.
Trolls have really bad aptitudes as well, but they also are very powerful for the first 5-10 levels or so, due to regeneration, large health, strength, etc. Are Centaurs similarly easy for the first while? Because it looks like their aptitudes would really torpedo their long term development in all but a *very* narrow focus.
Spriggans have increased speed as well (Same as Centaurs?), and (similar?) food issues as well, though more to not being able to eat meat or chunks, compared to Centaurs increased metabolism. However Spriggans have very strong aptitudes in Dodging, Stealth, Stabbing, (So somewhat viable for stabbing or dodging fighters), as well as strong aptitudes in Spellcasting and several schools of magic. Somewhat insultingly (For centaurs, anyway
), they also have strong aptitudes in ranged weapons.
Just seems somewhat inconsistent, or like Centaurs could use a bit of a tune-up or refocus somehow, instead of the current "Good speed and ranged weapons, otherwise pretty terrible at most things). Unless having that narrow of a focus is the idea.
As said before, though, this is all conjecture on my part while looking at the aptitudes. Centaur players, what have your experiences been?