Plains centaur
C plains centaur 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 6 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 1d6 physical, Kick 1d6 physical |
| Base level | 4 |
| Base experience | 49 |
| Speed | 18 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 2500 |
| Nutritional value | 500 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A plains centaur:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1152 |
A plains centaur, C, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. The plains centaur is the weakest of the centaur monster class and the only neutral centaur of the group.
A plains centaur has a weapon attack and a kick attack.
A peaceful or tame plains centaur "discusses hunting" if you #chat to them.
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated plains centaurs may be peaceful towards neutral characters.
Plains 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).[1]
Four statues of plains centaurs are featured on the Oracle level.
Plains centaurs appear among the random C that are part of the first quest monster class for Rangers and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters that are randomly generated on the Ranger quest; six plains centaurs are placed randomly across the home level at level creation. They also appear among the random C that are part of the second quest monster class for Tourists and make up 6⁄175 of the monsters that are randomly generated on the Tourist quest.
Plains centaurs have a 1⁄2 chance of being generated with a crossbow and 3–14 bolts.[2]
Strategy
Though not as strong as forest or mountain centaurs, hostile plains centaurs are still quite vicious to deal with due to the combination of their 18 speed, their likelihood of a ranged weapon, and the chance of generating with a dangerous wand; closing in to mitigate a ranged assault opens you up to their melee attacks instead, which is especially rough for characters with low HP and/or AC.
Characters with viable ranged attacks should make use of them in return, even if only to make melee-range combat much easier for proficient roles: magical options such as wands or spells are especially effective, since plains centaurs have no 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.
As pets
Though they are the weakest among centaurs, tame plains centaurs are still solid steeds, with the relatively unique ability to equip weapons and wear limited armor, use unicorn horns to stave off status problems, and eat wraith corpses and quaff potions of gain level to compensate for their normally-low HP caps. A potion of speed or wand of speed monster will boost the centaur's speed to a stellar 24, and they can gain reflection from amulets and shields; you can give them an unwanted neutral or unaligned artifact weapon to up their damage potential as well. Plains centaurs are much easier to keep fed, allowing non-Knights to offset the tameness decrease from each riding attempt.
Unfortunately, plains centaurs can only obtain magic resistance from Magicbane, and otherwise can only be protected by your own magic resistance if you ride them over a polymorph trap. Their armor limitations also restrict them to wearing cornuthaums for MC, and on top of the usual cautions for steed-riding characters, they must be kept away from shapeshifter corpses if at all possible.
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. Per commit 8d2407f8, 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.History
The plains centaur first appears in NetHack 3.0.0.
Variants
EvilHack
In EvilHack, plains centaurs and other centaurs are capable of wearing all armor except boots.
Hack'EM
In Hack'EM, plains centaurs and other centaurs can wear all armor except boots as in EvilHack.
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.
References
- ↑ src/mkroom.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 746: centaurs and throne rooms
- ↑ src/makemon.c in NetHack 3.6.7, line 461
