Far stronger and faster than other humanoid races, centaurs rule huge swathes of the wild. They build peaceful, idyllic communities, hunting what and where they wish.
Centaurs inhabit the plains and forests in tribes of varying size. Even though they build permanent shelters and live in one place for many years at a time, centaurs roam from their homes on a regular basis, ranging over great distances in relatively short amounts of time. Centaurs regard such excursions as essential to understanding the world around their homes, and they greatly enjoy such activity for its own sake. Although their crafts have not reached the level of some of the humanoid races, it is only because centaurs prefer to venture from their homes often rather than to stay in one place and ply a single trade.
Personality: Most centaurs tend to be easygoing, almost mild-mannered; they are usually uninterested in interacting with members of the humanoid races. Centaur adventurers, however, have an innate curiosity that overcomes the typical centaur hesitation to interact with others, and they are generally friendly and outgoing. Even so, centaur adventurers tend to prefer halflings and elves over adventuring companions of other races.
As thinking, civilized creatures, centaurs frown upon those humanoids who look on them as potential mounts. It is a grave insult to ask a centaur to serve as a mount, and centaurs usually offer to carry their companions only in dire circumstances.
Centaur adventurers know that they can expect a cold welcome should they attempt to return to their homes, and for that reason many view themselves as permanent wanderers. This attitude is greatly comforting, rather than confining, to the swift-moving centaur adventurer. Because of this mind-set, however, such characters seldom own more than they can carry on their broad backs.
In combat, centaurs see running as the natural approach to beginning a battle, using their speed to establish a comfortable range before the fighting begins.
Physical Description: With the lower body of a large horse and the upper torso and arms of a human, centaurs combine speed and strength in their powerful forms. A centaur is as big and heavy as a horse, standing about 7 feet high and weighing about 2,100 pounds. Brown dominates most of a centaur’s colouring, the long hair on the top of the head and the glossy fur of the horse-like body ranging from a light tan to a deep, dark brown. A centaur’s human-like torso has a swarthy, earthy complexion. In some isolated tribes and rare individuals, other colourings emerge, such as white, grey or black, but these are extremely uncommon.
Relations: Centaurs shun humans. Although they bear them no serious ire, they prefer open lands to the closed-in cities that humans invariably build. Centaurs get along well with elves and with many of the wandering races, such as catfolk and halflings. Centaurs have had too many dangerous skirmishes against tribes of vicious gnolls to be anything other than suspicious of the hyena-headed humanoids, but they are open-minded and intelligent enough to get along with an individual gnoll that proves itself trustworthy.
Centaur Lands: Centaurs make their lairs in forested areas and prefer to range through temperate plains and forests. Although centaurs have permanent dwellings, their culture has more in common with nomads and hunters than with the city-building races of humanoids. Like nomadic cultures, centaur tribes range farther north during the warm months and concentrate in southern temperate regions during the winter.
Centaur lairs look little like the permanent structures of other races, consisting of a series of beautiful forest glades, peaceful streams, and perhaps a few scattered lean-tos. Although these lairs seem simple and unprotected, they provide more protection than even the stoutest walls by allowing the swift-moving centaurs to encircle approaching foes or easily flee if pressed too hard.
A centaur druid is usually a tribe’s designated leader and speaker, but groups of centaur warriors hold great sway in any given tribe, mainly because their choices of where and what to hunt greatly impact how well the tribe will eat in the coming weeks. These hunters, brave and free-spirited as they are, have their passions tempered by the wisdom of the centaur druids who study the wilderness through which the tribe roams. Although these groups rarely have lasting conflicts, the hunters and druids often wish to pursue differing short-term goals.
Religion: Centaurs love and worship nature, and most who wish to devote themselves to a higher power or cause become druids. Nearly all centaur clerics (who are rare) worship the centaur deity Skerrit. Clerics of this nature deity can choose any two of the following domains: Animal, Good or Plant.
Language: Most centaurs are slow to share their thoughts with others, but this reticence seldom hinders their social skills. When communicating with most humanoids, centaurs keep their statements short and to the point; they are more comfortable and outgoing around halflings and elves.
Names: Centaur given names are multi-syllabic and commonly include the letters “z”, “x”, “r” and “y”. Centaur family names usually have only one syllable. Centaurs use a single given name and a family name.
Male Names: Brynzin, Denryx, Kezzryn, Tyrrox, Zerrn.
Female Names: Allyri, Byss, Rynna, Zerry.
Family Names: Bri, Gyr, Hop, Tor, Zym.
Adventurers: Centaur adventurers don’t have the problems with outsiders that most centaurs do. Through a combination of confidence, curiosity and ambition, these brave centaurs have come to view the cities and communities of other cultures as places to learn and explore rather than places to avoid.
Centaurs view adventurers as cultural outsiders. Many other races of the wild, such as gnolls and catfolk, see only a small difference between an accomplished hunter who provides food for the tribe and an adventurer, but centaurs feel quite differently. Although centaurs do not shun adventurers of their own race in the same way that they shun humans, orcs, and some other humanoids, they never make centaur adventurers feel truly welcome, and usually encourage such a character to move on to another area or community after a short time among them.
Source: Races of the Wild (Page 95)
Your character can be either male or female.
Every player character starts as an adult. You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table: Starting Ages). Your character’s minimum starting age is the adulthood age of his or her race plus the number of dice indicated in the entry corresponding to the character’s race and class on Table: Starting Ages.
Alternatively, refer to Table: Starting Ages and roll dice to determine how old your character is.
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 years | +2d6 (32—42) years | +4d6 (34—54) years | +6d6 (36—66) years |
1 This category includes barbarians, rogues and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, fighters, paladins and rangers.
3 This category includes clerics, druids, monks and wizards.
With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
| Middle Age1 | Old Age2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 75 years | 112 years | 150 years | +3d% years |
1 -1 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
2 -2 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
3 -3 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
When a character reaches venerable age, the DM secretly rolls his or her maximum age, which is the number from the Venerable column on Table: Aging Effects plus the result of the dice roll indicated on the Maximum Age column on that table, and records the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his or her maximum age dies of old age at some time during the following year, as determined by the DM.
The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections or violence before getting to venerable age.
Note: The Races of the Wild appears to have a misprint for the bonus to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma for Old Age and Venerable. The Player’s Handbook has these at +1, rather than +2 and +3.
Choose your character’s height and weight from the ranges mentioned in the appropriate race description or from the ranges found on Table: Height and Weight. Think about what your character’s abilities might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character may be thin. A strong and tough character may be tall or just heavy.
Alternatively, roll randomly for your character’s height and weight on Table: Height and Weight. The dice roll given in the Height Modifier column determines the character’s extra height beyond the base height. That same number multiplied by the dice roll or quantity given in the Weight Modifier column determines the character’s extra weight beyond the base weight.
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 6’ 5" | +2d6 (6’ 7"—7’ 5") | 2,050 lbs. | ×4d6 (2,058—2,338 lbs.) |
| Female | 6’ 2" | +2d6 (6’ 4"—7’ 2") | 1,900 lbs. | ×4d6 (1,908—2,188 lbs.) |
Source: Races of the Wild (Page 106)