D&D 5E What is the appeal of the weird fantasy races?

[Oofta]

I don't have a picture of a centaur climbing but I did find:

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I can't think of an explicit 5e rule that says athletics strength checks for climbing are restricted to physiological forms that could reasonably climb. Parties with mounts and Wildshaping druids take note when you need to scale cliffs.

Cute, but obviously photoshopped from this picture:

If it works for you, great. It would break verisimilitude for a lot of people.

 

[Scott Christian]

I can't think of an explicit 5e rule that says athletics strength checks for climbing are restricted to physiological forms

The reason they don't is because it is implied. The rules are in the PHB. The PHB, when written, had a set of races a player could play. All those races are humanoids. But you are right, they don't. They also don't explicitly state a fish cannot climb. So fish are able to scale castle walls just like everyone else.

 

[Maxperson]

I’ve been on both sides of it, it works fine. DM says something like “This rule doesn’t make sense to me so I’m changing it.” And someone raises an objection, and the group backs the objector, and the rules doesn’t change. And then we move on.

Sure, but that involves the DM saying that he's not going to change the rule. The players have no ability to enforce such a change against the DM's will.

 

[Maxperson]

That horse's mane suggests to me that this is notably photoshopped.

The better argument about hooves and climbing is goats

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I knew it was only a matter of time before someone brought up mountain goats. Cloven hooves and a slight build allow for climbing like this. Large single toe hooves and a horse's build would not allow this sort of climbing ability.

 

[Scott Christian]

That horse's mane suggests to me that this is notably photoshopped.

The better argument about hooves and climbing is goats

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I have been climbing with enough goats to know how to read the rocks. There are safe passages all through here. One I would let a 12 year climb. Just because the camera does the job of meshing it, doesn't mean it is not there. All the billygoat videos and pictures are the same type of area that I would have players roll a constitution saving throw to avoid being scared more than I would an athletics or acrobatics check.
But climbing is different than bouldering or scaling. Goats can scale. In fact, they are great at it. They can boulder with the best of them. However, they cannot climb.

 

[Maxperson]

Yep, and the fact that a centaur isn’t actually a horse with a human for a neck and head. It just looks like that. And the centaur’s body is closer to that mountain goat in size than to a horse.

But not in body type. The centaur is smaller, but stickier and has no small pointed cloven hooves to climb with. They also weight about twice what a mountain goat weighs, making them considerably bigger.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Which means the enemy is being required to change their whole battle plan to respond to one target. I would view that as a tactical win because it exerts control over the battlefield and the enemy.

No more so than a rogue sniper that hides every turn, or any number of other common builds.

Having archers and falconers is logical, useful in pretty much any fight, good for hunting, etc. Like I said, I’ve been adding flying enemies (most commonly normal beasts controlled by an enemy) and archers to fights since long before there were flying races available.

 

[Scott Christian]

Sure. The cliff one is gonna need rope and harness support, and the second one, just climbs at 1/4 speed like the rules say.

I know the rules were stated. But sorry, I can't remember what page. Help please? Also, was it in 5th edition?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I know the rules were stated. But sorry, I can't remember what page. Help please? Also, was it in 5th edition?

The writeup for the centaur race. They can climb, but they do so at 1/4 speed, which is twice as slow as a human.

Of course, give one the Athlete feat and I’m pretty sure RAW the climb full speed just like a human with Athlete.

Or play a spellcaster and get spiderclimb at level 3.

And as for ropes, I’d require an athletics check, but it certainly isn’t impossible to imagine, say, a raging Barbarian to climb a ladder with enough gear and another person on their back to weigh 500lbs.

I mean, Fezzik does it in Princess Bride!

 

[embee]

But not in body type. The centaur is smaller, but stickier and has no small pointed cloven hooves to climb with. They also weight about twice what a mountain goat weighs, making them considerably bigger.

Not to mention the fact that a mountain goat learns from infancy how to traverse mountains. A goat's ability to climb comes from a lifetime of experience.

The only way a centaur would be able to climb a mountain with the same level of ease as a goat is in a homebrew campaign set in Skyrim and, even then, it would required a DC10 CON check to repeatedly mash the Y button.