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

[Maxperson]

Still with the centaurs thing.

Who says it has a human torso?
Default rules says it has a "humaniod" torso and 18 strength that applies to its (arms only) weapon attacks. Therefore it has 18 STR in the arms.
The Ravinca centaur is a fey and thus magical at core.
Anything else is homebrew.

Who care if it's human or humanoid. It's the body shape that requires it to be flush against the cliff when climbing, which sticks the centaur torso straight out.

 

[Maxperson]

Besides that there's nothing saying that the remainder of the horse part isn't contributing to the climb.

Except body shape and how things climb.

When you're pulling your self up, there's plenty of work happening in your core, shoulders, back, etc. where horse muscles can be contributing. Also, assuming the human torso part can pivot forward, then the fore an hind legs could get involved in contributing to the climb as well, in similar ways that a humanoid climber's legs would be involved.

The hind legs will never touch a sheer wall or cliff if the human torso is flush against a cliff, and horse hooves, which the pictures in Ranvica show centaurs to have, are piss poor for climbing.

 

[Scott Christian]

Besides that there's nothing saying that the remainder of the horse part isn't contributing to the climb.

When you're pulling your self up, there's plenty of work happening in your core, shoulders, back, etc. where horse muscles can be contributing. Also, assuming the human torso part can pivot forward, then the fore an hind legs could get involved in contributing to the climb as well, in similar ways that a humanoid climber's legs would be involved.

The difficulty then is range of motion and holding themself to the climbing surface, which would be difficult. Perhaps like difficult terrain.

I'd agree with this, which is where the two specific example of a sheer cliff wall comes into play. Everyone can picture a sheer cliff wall. Probably has a high DC for anyone. Throw in some mountaineering gear, and it lowers the DC. For a centaur, the DC might be higher. And if they succeed, the Ravinica rules of the centaur going at 1/4 the pace would apply. If they fail, they may or may not take falling damage.

Point being, there is nothing wrong with changing the DC based on circumstances in a D&D game.

 

[Minigiant]

Who care if it's human or humanoid. It's the body shape that requires it to be flush against the cliff when climbing, which sticks the centaur torso straight out.

Who says centaurs can't bend at the waist?
Horses can reach the floor.
Humaniods can bent at the waist.

If a centaur drops his or her bow or pike, they can't pick it back up?

 

[Scott Christian]

Who says centaurs can't bend at the waist?

I don't think anyone has said this. I could be wrong, but I haven't seen it.

 

[Minigiant]

I don't think anyone has said this. I could be wrong, but I haven't seen it.

Maxperson is saying that a centaur's equine half cannot get flush against a cliff and thus cannot climb vertically.

This means the centaur lacks the joints to bend over its humaniod half.

 

[Oofta]

Who says centaurs can't bend at the waist?
Horses can reach the floor.
Humaniods can bent at the waist.

If a centaur drops his or her bow or pike, they can't pick it back up?

The horse legs prevent the body of the centaur from having the same range of motion that a humanoid has. They obviously can lay down, but they won't be able to effectively "hug" the wall like humans do. Well, that and it would be like trying to mountain climb with clogs on. In addition, there are times when rock climbing that you have to pull your body up by your arms while holding on by your fingertips. There's only so much weight you could realistically pull up that way.

If it's just a game to you and you justify it by their max weight capacity that's fine. Doesn't mean everyone does.

 

[Maxperson]

Who says centaurs can't bend at the waist?

It's irrelevant. If they can bend, then when they bend, the horse chest which is wide pries the human torso away from the cliff and the centaur falls. If they don't bend, the horse sticks straight out. It's lose-lose because of the centaurs body shape

 

[Gammadoodler]

Except body shape and how things climb.

The hind legs will never touch a sheer wall or cliff if the human torso is flush against a cliff, and horse hooves, which the pictures in Ranvica show centaurs to have, are piss poor for climbing.

Picture normal standing centaur posture. Imagine the human torso leaning down to touch the ground. Now rotate entire image 90 degrees, and you have a sheet cliff face, with all limbs touching it.

Obviously, its not perfectly analogous, or ideal for climbing, but it's also not a dude trying to pull up a free hanging horse butt, as you've described.

And yeah, hooves are piss poor for climbing, but so are combat boots, but I've not seen anywhere, that we're having all our humanoids strip down to being barefoot to make these climbs.

 

[Maxperson]

Picture normal standing centaur posture. Imagine the human torso leaning down to touch the ground. Now rotate entire image 90 degrees, and you have a sheet cliff face, with all limbs touching it.

And you also have the horse torso prying the human portion off of the cliff. It's leverage and weight. The centaur trying to climb that way has a suicidal death wish.

Bend over and touch your toes. Now try to imagine climbing that way.

And yeah, hooves are piss poor for climbing, but so are combat boots, but I've not seen anywhere, that we're having all our humanoids strip down to being barefoot to make these climbs.

Sure. They use specialized climbing shoes. At least if they want to climb something sheer like a wall or cliff.