As a Dragonlance junkie, it’s interesting to see how they’ve pulled back the damage on the minotaur to make it more workable as a player race (I imagine that working with the Volo races gave them a better baseline). The Hybrid Nature mechanic is interesting here, especially given the number of Fey Ancestry races that we’ve seen so far (who aren’t both Humanoid and Fey), as well as the planar-descended races.
Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Centaurs and Minotaurs
As a Dragonlance junkie, it’s interesting to see how they’ve pulled back the damage on the minotaur to make it more workable as a player race (I imagine that working with the Volo races gave them a better baseline). The Hybrid Nature mechanic is interesting here, especially given the number of Fey Ancestry races that we’ve seen so far (who aren’t both Humanoid and Fey), as well as the...
LuisCarlos17f
Legend
* What about the other races? for example the pegataur and the manotaur were D&D canon monsters.
Like many others I'll chime in on the size issue, being that I don't like it one bit. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that if/when these get released, they'll have similar disclaimers about the races in Volo's with regards to potential balance issues. Assuming that is the case, I'd rather they try and bring something interesting to the table than try and shoehorn centaur-lite into a standard racial chassis. I also don't see any value in limiting their charge to 1/ short rest, one extra weapon die of damage is not worth that kind of gating, and if they try and repeatedly use it in the same combat, chances are they'll take some opportunity attacks which is a fair trade.
Minotaurs seem like they need a lot of clarifications on Hammering Horns, as others have noted, since it seems like you can't use it in conjunction with other horn abilities, but might be able to use it with weapon skills. Also, it's weird that the minotaur dash horn attack has no restrictions on use while the centaur does, and I'm not sure if the distance needed to be traveled is really worth the differentiation.
Overall, I wish wizards was willing to be a little more ambitious about making races both unique and also have areas where they dominate or face extreme challenges, size being a great example of this. Sometime it's a huge bonus, sometimes it leads to "Favored Enemy: Stairs"
Minotaurs seem like they need a lot of clarifications on Hammering Horns, as others have noted, since it seems like you can't use it in conjunction with other horn abilities, but might be able to use it with weapon skills. Also, it's weird that the minotaur dash horn attack has no restrictions on use while the centaur does, and I'm not sure if the distance needed to be traveled is really worth the differentiation.
Overall, I wish wizards was willing to be a little more ambitious about making races both unique and also have areas where they dominate or face extreme challenges, size being a great example of this. Sometime it's a huge bonus, sometimes it leads to "Favored Enemy: Stairs"
cbwjm
Seb-wejem
Same, I think I'll be changing that if it makes it into an official supplement.
BookBarbarian
Expert Long Rester
Which makes sense given their medium sized hands.
Kobold Avenger
Legend
Thinking on the Centaur's Charge ability...
Technically a Centaur can use their other attacks after they charge, though because of the current restriction they won't be able to apply double damage to their other attacks. Now I think it would be of course too powerful if it applied to all of their attacks in that round, I don't feel it needs to be restricted to once per short rest. In this case I feel the flavour justifications such as opportunity and stamina aren't good ones, since the mechanics of opportunity attacks usually restrict them from using it again in a combat even if they could use it all the time. Perhaps the restriction should be like the Minotaur ability where they're required to take the dash action and can attack as a bonus action. But I guess a Centaur Rogue could sneak attack on a charge, that might be too powerful...
If they could do that at-will then in most cases they'll be doing it once every few rounds since a bunch of rounds would be spent using the disengage action, and then trying to get into position before charging.
Technically a Centaur can use their other attacks after they charge, though because of the current restriction they won't be able to apply double damage to their other attacks. Now I think it would be of course too powerful if it applied to all of their attacks in that round, I don't feel it needs to be restricted to once per short rest. In this case I feel the flavour justifications such as opportunity and stamina aren't good ones, since the mechanics of opportunity attacks usually restrict them from using it again in a combat even if they could use it all the time. Perhaps the restriction should be like the Minotaur ability where they're required to take the dash action and can attack as a bonus action. But I guess a Centaur Rogue could sneak attack on a charge, that might be too powerful...
If they could do that at-will then in most cases they'll be doing it once every few rounds since a bunch of rounds would be spent using the disengage action, and then trying to get into position before charging.
Remathilis
Legend
There is a general problem with Large PCs; per the rules, they're pretty screwed when it comes to dungeons and the like.
The biggest problem isn't reach (as there are quite a few monsters that are large that don't have reach; minotaurs and centaurs in the MM both lack it, as do ogres and trolls). The biggest issue is space. A large creature "fills" a 10' x 10' area, and can only squeeze into an area 1/2 as big (5 ft), and doing so has terrible penalties...
[Sblock=SQUEEZING INTO A SMALLER SPACE]
A creature can squeeze through a space that is large enough for a creature one size smaller than il. Thus, a Large creature can squeeze through a passage that's only 5 feet wide. While squeezing through a space, a creature must spend 1 extra foot for every foot it moves there, and it has disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage while it's in the smaller space.[/sblock]
Which isn't a problem I guess when you're dungeons are 10' wide hallways, but if your hallways are 5' wide then your large PC is at severe disadvantage. Worse, if you make it less than 5' (such as a tunnel or goblin warren) then they can't even enter at all!
I have a feeling that moreso than any other reason, this is why the keep trying to cram goliaths, firbolg, minotaurs, and centaurs into medium+ rather than large. Silly as it seems, a medium-sized centaur isn't going to sit out a session because the group opts to crawl into a 3 ft hole in the wall...
They wouldn't be the only race limited to 1/rest or some other artificial limit. A quick list:
Drow, triton yuant-ti and tiefling innate magic 1/rest (excluding cantrip powers)
dragonborn breath weapon 1/rest
half-orc relentless endurance 1/long rest
aasimar healing hands and subracial aura abilities both 1/rest
firbolg hidden step 1/rest
goliath stone's endurance 1/rest
lizardfolk hungry jaws 1/rest
hobgoblin saving face 1/rest
goblin fury of the small 1/rest
kobold grovel, cower and beg 1/rest
bugbear surprise strike 1/encounter (even weirder)
Based on that list, Charge 1/day isn't unreasonable given the design choices of the races so far...
cbwjm
Seb-wejem
Some of this list seems reasonable given how magic works in D&D, for other options, it definitely does seem kind of weird. Likely everything in the list from, maybe, lizardfolk downwards seems a little weird having a limit. I can't recall what all of the abilities do though so there may be others.
plisnithus8
Adventurer
That just seems to a "that's the way things have been done" answer.
If tunnels were made by gnomes, then medium creatures would have to squeeze.
Different sizes have advantages/disadvantages.
Immoralkickass
Adventurer
'In size, they are comparable to a human rider mounted on a horse'. Your size is medium. So uhh, Large+Medium=Medium?
What's next? Playable Giant race that is still Medium size?
What's next? Playable Giant race that is still Medium size?
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