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

[doctorbadwolf]

Wrong.

"Below the waist, they have the bodies of small horses, with a similar range of coloration- from various shades of chestnut or bay to dappled or even zebra-like striped patterns."

They HAVE the bodies of horses. Not they have bodies that look like horses. It's not relevant if they are not in fact horses. The body IS a horse and therefore has all the limitations of a horse. The humanoid torso is not capable of lifting 600 pounds of hanging horse up a sheer wall, so it doesn't matter when it comes to climbing up walls and cliffs.

The human torso doesn’t have to lift 600lbs of hanging horse, because that isn’t what would be happening, first of all. But I’ve explained that a dozen times in this thread.

And if you’re going to take casual text like that that literally, then there is no point even having this discussion. But that isn’t how the rules, especially flavor text, is meant to be read, and you know it.

The idea that a centaur is necessarily limited to only things a horse could do is patently absurd.

 

[generic]

because the body is assumed to be not only moving itself, but contributing to the amount it can carry/drag. If the body is dead weight, then the arms would be next to useless in moving 600 pounds of horse body up a cliff. It's not like a bench press where you have the advantage of leverage against the bench to help with your push.

We don't have pull-up rules, Mr. Rules-as-written.

 

[Oofta]

The human torso doesn’t have to lift 600lbs of hanging horse, because that isn’t what would be happening, first of all. But I’ve explained that a dozen times in this thread.

And if you’re going to take casual text like that that literally, then there is no point even having this discussion. But that isn’t how the rules, especially flavor text, is meant to be read, and you know it.

The idea that a centaur is necessarily limited to only things a horse could do is patently absurd.

Not that I'm arguing - but how do you define the limits? What a horse could do assisted by a very strong person? It's magic so it can do whatever you want?

Again, I'm not debating one way or another. But there seems to be two factions. One is that it should be at least kind of plausible given our understanding of how the real world works (unless magic is explicitly involved i.e. dragons).

The other is that it's all make believe so it doesn't matter. I think. I'm not sure how to phrase it so that someone somewhere doesn't take it as "ridiculous".

 

[Scott Christian]

Okay, but consider this...

According to the RAW which you so keenly insist on referencing, a Centaur has 18 Strength. That gives them base carrying capacity of 270, according to RAW. According to RAW, you can also push, drag, or lift up to twice your carrying capacity, in this case, 540 pounds, which gets us pretty close to that 600 pounds of hanging horse.

Dunno man, the 600 seems arbitrary, maybe it does work under RAW.

Edit: Carrying capacity is actually multiplied according to a size variable as well, putting the max carrying capacity in the 1080 range, definitely enough.

I think lifting, like a deadlift, is different than doing a pullup. Lift with the legs, and in the centaurs case, all four legs.

 

[Scott Christian]

The human torso doesn’t have to lift 600lbs of hanging horse, because that isn’t what would be happening, first of all. But I’ve explained that a dozen times in this thread.

And if you’re going to take casual text like that that literally, then there is no point even having this discussion. But that isn’t how the rules, especially flavor text, is meant to be read, and you know it.

The idea that a centaur is necessarily limited to only things a horse could do is patently absurd.

The DM adjudicates based on conditions. That is why climbing has a DC number attached. For some circumstances, where conditions are poor, like a rope that has been coated in oil, the DC goes up. For others, like climbing around on boulders with no time restraint, the DC might be lower.
This same logic applies to weight. A dwarf holding a baby in one hand is going to have a harder time climbing. A dwarf holding a baby in each hand probably can't climb. A dwarf in plate armor with two babies tied to its back has a higher DC than the dwarf with no gear in his pirate clothes.
The centaur bouldering might have a lower DC than the dwarf. They might have a DC of 40 if they are asked to climb up a 50' rope with nothing around.
Every table I have ever seen considers these rules as normal. No one that I have ever seen would call a table ridiculous for using these rules. So, why argue about the centaur climbing a rope? The DM sets the DC. That is the way rules work. That is the way the entire game is set up.
Now, if you want to try and persuade the DM to lower the DC, I think most DMs are down for that.

 

[Maxperson]

The human torso doesn’t have to lift 600lbs of hanging horse, because that isn’t what would be happening, first of all. But I’ve explained that a dozen times in this thread.

And if you’re going to take casual text like that that literally, then there is no point even having this discussion. But that isn’t how the rules, especially flavor text, is meant to be read, and you know it.

But you were wrong. For the human torso to climb a vertical wall or cliff, it has to be flush up against the cliff. The only way that happens is if the chest of the centaur is also flush up against the cliff, which means the body is sticking straight out and is dead weight. If the body is flexing, then the chest is not flush against the cliff and pries the human torso off the cliff and they fall.

 

[Maxperson]

We don't have pull-up rules, Mr. Rules-as-written.

You go ahead and play a nonsense game if you like. I'm going to play one that makes sense. Have fun.

 

[generic]

You go ahead and play a nonsense game if you like. I'm going to play one that makes sense. Have fun.

I will uwu

 

[Minigiant]

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.

 

[Gammadoodler]

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.

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.