Centaur (monster class)

The centaur is a monster class that appears in NetHack, and is represented by the uppercase C glyph (C). Centaurs are designated internally by the macro S_CENTAUR.

The class contains the following monsters:

• C plains centaur
• C forest centaur
• C mountain centaur

Common traits

Centaurs are strong and intelligent humanoid monsters that are a particular cross between a human and a horse: they possess the body and legs of the latter, with the upper body of the former situated where a horse's head would be. Centaurs can wield weapons and use magical items, and will seek out weapons, armor and gold to pick up - they are too large to wear any sort of torso armor, though they can still wear amulets and equip helms, gloves and shields.

Centaurs generally have high speed, moving fast enough enough to outpace an unburdened player character with intrinsic speed, and attack using weapons and kicks.

A peaceful or tame centaur "discusses hunting" if you #chat to them.

Generation

Randomly generated centaurs may be peaceful towards characters of the same alignment as them.

Various centaurs may appear among the hostile monsters that generate in throne rooms, as well the monsters randomly generated by looting a throne while confused and carrying gold (provided there is no chest on the level).

Centaurs have a ¹⁄₂ chance of being generated with a launcher and missiles: the forest centaur will generate with a bow and 3–14 arrows, while the other centaurs will generate with a crossbow and 3–14 bolts.

Strategy

Centaurs can be quite fearsome and highly-damaging enemies in the early and mid-game: they often use their speed to maintain distance and shoot at you repeatedly, forcing you to close in and contend with their repeated melee attacks instead. Characters with viable ranged attacks should make use of them in return - magical options such as wands or spells are especially effective, since centaurs have generally low MR score, and a pet can also help weaken the centaur enough for you to finish them off.

Centaur corpses are quite filling for meat-eating pets and players alike, with forest centaurs being the most nutritious at 600.

As pets

Tame centaurs make superb steeds: while not quite as fast as a unicorn or a warhorse, their ability to equip weapons and wear limited armor can make them more durable, even in Gehennom, and they can also be given wraith corpses and potions of gain level to compensate for their normally-low HP caps. A potion of speed or wand of speed monster will boost their speed to a stellar 24 (or 27 for mountain centaurs), amulets and shields allow them to obtain reflection, and a "spare" co-aligned or unaligned artifact weapon is ideal to hand off to a centaur steed and drive up their damage output. Their diet also makes them much easier to keep fed, allowing non-Knights to offset the tameness decrease from each attempt to climb onto their steed.

Unfortunately, centaurs are quite vulnerable to polymorph traps and the like: they can only obtain magic resistance from Magicbane, and otherwise can only be protected by your own magic resistance if you ride them over the trap. Their armor limitations also prevent them from obtaining MC through any means other than a cornuthaum. Since centaurs can eat meat, they must be kept away from shapeshifter corpses if at all possible. Finally, as with all other non-flying steeds, move carefully around water and ice lest you or your steed drown.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Pets will no longer eat corpses that make them polymorph, unless they are starving or on the verge of becoming untame. They can also gain intrinsics from eating other corpses as well. Large humanoids such as giants and other similar monsters can now wear mummy wrappings, which also grant MC1; the amulet of guarding also boosts MC by 2, though you may prefer a different amulet for a centaur steed.

Riding while wearing an amulet of flying will cause the steed to fly as well—riding a mountain centaur with an amulet or shield of reflection paired with an artifact weapon can make them a somewhat viable competitor to the ki-rin. However, be sure to keep a wand of undead turning handy in case they die.

Variants

EvilHack

EvilHack adds centaurs as a playable race, and makes player and non-player centaurs capable of wearing all non-boots armor.

Centaurs have a ¹⁄₄ chance of generating with an elven helm.

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 ]