Centaur

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C plains centaur
Difficulty	6
Attacks	Projectile as weapon or melee weapon for 1d6, Kick: 1d6

C plains centaur
Difficulty	6
Attacks	Projectile as weapon or melee weapon for 1d6, Kick: 1d6
Base level	4
Base experience	51
Speed	18
Base AC	4
Base MR	0
Alignment	0 (neutral)
Frequency (by normal means)	Very rare
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	2500
Nutritional value	500
Size	large
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	None
A plains centaur: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is omnivorous. is strong. likes gold. can pick up weapons and food. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line1152

C forest centaur
Difficulty	8
Attacks	Projectile as weapon or melee weapon for 1d8, Kick: 1d6

C forest centaur
Difficulty	8
Attacks	Projectile as weapon or melee weapon for 1d8, Kick: 1d6
Base level	5
Base experience	66
Speed	18
Base AC	3
Base MR	10
Alignment	-1 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	Very rare
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	2550
Nutritional value	600
Size	large
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	None
A forest centaur: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is omnivorous. is strong. likes gold. can pick up weapons and food. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line1158

C mountain centaur
Difficulty	9
Attacks	Projectile as weapon or melee weapon for 1d10, Kick: 1d6, Kick: 1d6

C mountain centaur
Difficulty	9
Attacks	Projectile as weapon or melee weapon for 1d10, Kick: 1d6, Kick: 1d6
Base level	6
Base experience	84
Speed	20
Base AC	2
Base MR	10
Alignment	-3 (chaotic)
Frequency (by normal means)	Very rare
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	2550
Nutritional value	500
Size	large
Resistances	None
Resistances conveyed	None
A mountain centaur: has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso. is omnivorous. is strong. likes gold. can pick up weapons and food. can be seen through infravision.
Reference	monst.c#line1165

Centaur is a monster class in NetHack. Centaurs come in three varieties:

• plains centaur
• forest centaur
• mountain centaur

A centaur is a monster that is a particular cross between a human and a horse; it has the body and legs of a horse, but where the horse's head would be, it instead has the upper body, arms, head and face of a human. Centaurs can wield weapons and use magic items, but unlike many other intelligent monsters, centaurs can also move fast and they can kick you. Forest centaurs are generated with a bow and 3-14 arrows, the other varieties get a crossbow and 3-14 bolts.

Thus centaurs are dangerous in melee; their rapid and repeated use of wielded weapons (or bare-handed combat) combined with kicking can quickly harm or kill your character. A centaur with ranged weapons may shoot you. Shoot back or send your pet.

Some centaurs may start peaceful, so you need not worry about each one that you encounter.

As a pet

Equipment

Centaurs can use:

• Weapons
• Shields
• Helmets
• Gloves
• Amulet of lifesaving
• Unicorn horn
• Potion of gain level

Centaurs make superb steeds; while not quite as fast as a unicorn or a warhorse, a centaur is still very fast - a mountain centaur has a base speed of 20 and when zapped with a wand of speed monster is even faster than a player in speed boots. And unlike a unicorn or warhorse, a well-equipped centaur can take quite a beating, even in Gehennom. They can return quite a beating too: a centaur is the only steed that can equip a weapon, and given a powerful weapon (perhaps a throwaway artifact weapon from sacrificing) can easily match the damage dealt by a dragon or a jabberwock.

Centaurs are very easy to keep fed, which is of particular importance where steeds are concerned. Every time you attempt to ride a steed, its tameness is decreased by one (except for knights). While ki-rin are sometimes regarded as the "best" steeds, they do not eat, and thus they are notoriously difficult to keep tamed for every class besides the knight. Just take care if you kill a shapeshifter, unless you dismount first and dispose of the corpse, your centaur is very likely to get to the corpse first if you ride over it.

Centaur cannot fly, however, so like all land based steeds take care around water, and ice too for that matter - it is very easy to slip off the steed on water you've frozen and then displace your steed into the unfrozen water, drowning it. Polymorph traps are not a problem for the centaur if the player has magic resistance, this will protect the steed provided you are riding it at the time. The player's reflection will not transfer to the steed, but a centaur can equip a shield of reflection.

Encyclopedia entry

Of all the monsters put together by the Greek imagination
the Centaurs (Kentauroi) constituted a class in themselves.
Despite a strong streak of sensuality, in their make-up,
their normal behaviour was moral, and they took a kindly
thought of man's welfare. The attempted outrage of Nessos on
Deianeira, and that of the whole tribe of Centaurs on the
Lapith women, are more than offset by the hospitality of
Pholos and by the wisdom of Cheiron, physician, prophet,
lyrist, and the instructor of Achilles. Further, the
Centaurs were peculiar in that their nature, which united the
body of a horse with the trunk and head of a man, involved
an unthinkable duplication of vital organs and important
members. So grotesque a combination seems almost un-Greek.
These strange creatures were said to live in the caves and
clefts of the mountains, myths associating them especially
with the hills of Thessaly and the range of Erymanthos.

[ Mythology of all races, Vol. 1, pp. 270-271 ]

References

This page is based on a spoiler by J. Ali Harlow.

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

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