Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana May 2018: Centaurs and Minotaurs

[Yaarel]

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These centaurs look fine. At the same time, they dont ‘tower’ over humans. They seem about eye-to-eye with humans.

So this is a My Little Pony centaur, rather than a horse centaur.

 

[Yaarel]

Going back into the issue of Centaur size, I see the Centaur as being something that takes up more of a 7 foot space of control. But since spaces that creatures occupy only come in 5 foot increments it's either too small or too big.

So I think a 5 foot space is fine even if the technically protrude outside of that space. It makes it easier for balance.

When ‘squares’ are meter/yards, the resolution is more useful.

 

[Parmandur]

These centaurs look fine. At the same time, they dont ‘tower’ over humans. They seem about eye-to-eye with humans.

So this is a My Little Pony centaur, rather than a horse centaur.

Tell that to Ghengis Khan; ponies are honestly more appropriate to horse nomads, at any rate.

 

[guachi]

Also, it seems weird that they would specify that the humanoid upper body can display all the human variety of skin tones and features but then state that below the waist, the horse coat tends towards "brown shades chestnut or bay)". Why couldn't they state that below the waist the coat can display all the equine variety of coat shades and features?

This was the first thing that jumped out at me, too. It boils down to horses not being sentient so they can't complain and call it racist. It's like why we have an elf race for each ability score but all humans are the same. There are no elves to complain it's racist or bigoted or speciesist.

 

[Parmandur]

So, per Wikipedia, Mongol horses are between 48 and 56 inches tall, give or take. Per Google, average human torsos are about 17-21 inches. So, a steppe nomad Centaur would be between about 5'5" and 6'5".

 

[Parmandur]

So, per Wikipedia, Mongol horses are between 48 and 56 inches tall, give or take. Per Google, average human torsos are about 17-21 inches. So, a steppe nomad Centaur would be between about 5'5" and 6'5".

Oh, yikes, my mistake, I forgot to include the head and neck of the human part: round about 8-10 inches, so a range for the Steppe Centaur of 6'1" to 7'3", eye to eye with the Goliath. NBA player territory, so definitely big, and as the Mongol horses can assure you, quite rideable in battle.

 

[Hriston]

Shame they lose the Dragonlance nautical fluff (which I think was originally inspired by Voyage of the Dawn Treader).

Minotaur as sailors is probably based on the Ancient Minoans of Crete.

No, you're both wrong. It's based on this :
[video=youtube_share;OlR7ojpJGJM]https://youtu.be/OlR7ojpJGJM[/video]

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Next week in the WaterDeep Enquirer:

The secret is out, those centaur kids are really a whole other race of centaurs. It's a tax cheat says local tax collector.

Some out of town wizard named Mord-something or other says elf souls reincarnate and drow souls are automatically destroyed when they die. Local elf religious leader, Bill' Gr'hm, says that sounds like bunk to him. However, a daring interview by our dwarf correspondent, H'raldo, seems to confirm this Mord guy's story, when he interviewed a Balor: No drow souls every make it to the Abyss, nosireebob. I swear on my mother's grave. Follow or continuous coverage of the existential crisis in the elf community.

 

[Satyrn]

Fake news!

*throws crystal ball out window*

 

[Sword of Spirit]

This is where we differ. I don't need them to tell me the lore.

I develop that when I design the world or introduce the race. Might not use all three version, maybe this campaign is just the brutes.

Or....the brutes are the "ogres" of minotaur land, and the smaller ones are the smarter ones, who use the brutes in armies.

Sure, but you are homebrewing. If I'm going to provide feedback on a race, I need to know what they are going to do with it. When they put out a race they need to tell us how it fits into the official D&D multiverse, which is back to being a fundamental aspect of 5e products. For instance, if these are intended to be a different centaur species than the MM version, and they are found on such and so worlds, then I'm going to give very different feedback than if these are supposed to be the MM centaurs for PC usage.

I'm pretty sure in the Tweets referenced previously, Crawford does just that, by pointing to Medium Centaurs in pre-existing lore in certain settings: settings that we seem to be getting rule support in some future product, for which they are doing mechanical testing more than lore testing.

He shows us pictures. Does he point out official lore? Does this lore describe what would be our MM centaurs as being smaller than they were presented to us in 5e, or does this lore refer to a different centaur species that exists in some places (same as Krynn minotaurs vs. MM minotaurs)? Those are significantly different things.

Either:
1) There are two types of centaurs in some settings in the D&D Multiverse: the ones in the MM, and this new PC race type.

If this is the case, we need to know what worlds this is true in, and how it fits in the lore. It sounds new to me.

2) There is only one type of centaur, but the PC race write-up uses a different size category.

No lore changes really needed, but mechanically clunky and unsatisfying because it implies these are stats for playing a runt. And if that is the case, they need to explain you a playing a runt.