Monday, 20th February 2012, 19:28 by cerebovssquire
Centaurs are one of the strongest species in Crawl. They combine decent aptitudes (universality) with speed 2 (game-breaking), very high HP, good UC and a good ability to wear shields. Yes, their apt is -3, but they only need 3/9/15 skill to negate buckler/shield/large shield penalties. In addition, they have +3 natural AC. So yes, your defence will usually be under average, but it is far from being actually bad if you play it right (same as a -1 apt is under average but far from being bad), and you have HP and speed 2 to increase your survivability even further. Centaurs don't die easily at all.
I personally would not want to use a bow or crossbow unless I was using using two-handers (and probably I would use UC instead of two-handers, exceptions like CeBe apply). I would either only use melee combat + spells or slings/throwing for physical ranged, for which apts are +1/+3 respectively too.
My personal choice would be CeTm of Okawaru or CeMo of Okawaru. Pick INT in both cases and don't forget to wear a shield. Heroism is very good with UC and very cheap, so spam it. The most useful spell schools are Charms, Translocations and Transmutations. Use Unarmed Combat and keep that at a high level. If you want to fight primarily with no form or Blade Hands, it is definitely worth wearing EV -3 dragon armour. Otherwise it might be preferable to stay in lighter stuff, ie if you want good Statue Form success.
I recently won a CeEE of Vehumet who used Statue Form, Iron Shot and scourge melee combat. I thought it was extremely easy, so if you aren't fixed on Okawaru give this or something similar a try.
- For this message the author cerebovssquire has received thanks: 2
- mageykun, Yet Another Stupid Noob