Questions about a centaur PC's attacks

[Pielorinho]

More questions about a centaur PC.

First, based on a post in the House Rules thread, I'm wondering whether feats like Mounted Combat, Spirited Charge, Ride-by-Attack, etc. are remotely useful to a centaur. I've ruled that they are, that a centaur gains most of the benefits of being mounted (except for the +1 to attack from higher ground), and can use these feats; is this ruling a houserule or in keeping with official rules? If the former, am I going to regret it?

My main worry is that by sixth level, this guy will have a str of 24, as well as the spirited charge feat; that means that on a charge with his lance, he'll be dealing 3d8+30 points of damage, which is kind of humongous for a sixth-level character.

I've also ruled that the Mounted Combat feat lets him take a rider without either of them taking attack/skill/etc. penalties. For whatever that's worth.

Second, assuming that's right, what happens when he uses a weapon two-handed and also makes hoof attacks? Does his 2-handed weapon add 1.5 Str damage, and each hoof adds .5 Str damage?

Third, are there any other rules I should be keeping in mind? For example, I have a hard time imagining a centaur climbing a ladder very easily, and will probably be using circumstance penalties to model this; is there anything in the rules that models it better? If he wants armor, does he need to purchase barding AND normal armor?

Daniel

 

[Fauxargent]

i) I’d let a centaur use any of the mounted feats as if he were mounted on a horse (Mounted Comabt becomes a bit non-sensical other than as a pre-requisite.)

ii) Re: centaur character. Are you applying the ECL and racial HD? At 6th level the character can’t actually have Spirited Charge (4 racial hit dice + 2 ECL = 2 feats).

He could at 7th level if he takes a level of fighter.

 

[Pielorinho]

Faux, I think that's because of another houserule I almost forgot about: because some characters in the game are Arcana Unearthed, and all AU characters start with an extra feat, we've extended that privilege across the board. All characters in the game got two feats at first level (three for humans or fighters, four for human fighters).

The normally nonsensical nature of Mounted Combat is why I said that it allows him to fight effectively with a rider: a Dragon article awhile ago suggested instead that intelligent mounts had to work for several weeks with each new rider before being able to work well with them, and that seemed annoying to me.

Daniel

 

[Thanee]

Check out Races of Faerûn, they have more sophisticated rules for centaur PCs. They actually cover Spirited Charge, Trample and such in there, the centaur does not even need the prerequisites for them, but they also have a higher LA (by one) there, IIRC.

Check the MM, combined use of manufactured weapons and natural attacks is covered there in the back. Also the FAQ TWF with Armor Spikes might be interesting for this.

Armor and equipment is also covered in RoF, basically they need specifically tailored armor, which is more expensive, but they can also use items like those horseshoes.

Climbing and stuff... use common sense. Centaurs shouldn't be able to climb ladders at all, of course.

Bye
Thanee