Centaur (starting race)
The centaur is a playable race that appears in EvilHack and Hack'EM. Like monster centaurs, they are strong, fast and proficient in archery.
Centaurs can be neutral or chaotic, and can be played as a Barbarian, Healer, Infidel, Knight, Monk, Priest, Ranger, or Valkyrie.
Racial benefits and restrictions
Centaurs are among the physically stronger player races, and have higher hit point gains per experience level gained in comparison to humans. They start with a base speed of 18, and gain jumping at experience level five and warning at level 10; this type of jumping is similar to the extrinsic property granted from worn jumping boots, and is distinct from the jumping used by Knights.
While not as strong as giants, centaurs possess increased carrying capacity due to their half-equine build - however, this also prevents them from wearing any boots or riding steeds. The intrinsics they gain and the wider variety of armor available in the game easily compensate for this, thankfully. Centaurs start the game with knowledge of all bow and crossbow weapons and their projectiles, and get a multishot bonus with both types.
Attribute caps
| Character Race |
Strength | Dexterity | Constitution | Intelligence | Wisdom | Charisma |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Centaur | 20 | 20 | 18 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
Despite their strength, centaurs are much more lacking in mental stats in comparison to other playable species, due to their wild nature.
Strategy
In the early game, centaurs of most roles should be played somewhat cautiously until you have armor and weapons sufficient to take on early-to-mid game threats. Intrinsic speed can be used to execute hit and run attacks on stronger monsters as necessary; upon reaching experience level five, a stockpile of daggers or other ranged weapons can be combined with your jumping ability to maintain distance while shooting down hostile targets. A centaur's high carrying capacity makes daggers a particularly enticing choice of projectile to collect and/or forge, and daggers made/generated with materials such as mithril or bone are even easier to haul around. A centaur player's projectile of choice will usually become an ideal supplement to their primary melee weapon from the mid-game on.
Depending on the role, centaurs should focus on training projectile weapons with multishot bonuses to gain as much leverage from their ability to clear long distances as possible. A centaur Ranger is a good example, with proficiency in arrows that works well for the "run" portion of "hit and run", and two plentiful stacks of ammo for their starting bow. Builds looking to maximize mobility with their intrinsic jumping may consider pairing the ability with either a permanent light source such as a non-cursed magic lamp or gold dragon scaled armor, or a cursed magic lamp (which emits darkness in EvilHack and Hack'EM) and shadow dragon scaled armor that provides ultravision and allows for vastly improved sight in the dark over standard infravision. However, players pursuing these kinds of builds will need to take care not be become encumbered, as being even burdened will be enough to prohibit jumping.
Centaurs' low mental stats will impede spellcasting-focused builds; they can still make relatively good use of various level 3 and lower spells (e.g. magic missile, extra healing, sleep, repair armor, and stone to flesh), but centaurs may find higher level spells to be out of reach unless their role allows for it, or their build can accommodate an appropriate quarterstaff-school weapon (i.e. a staff of war for attack spells or a staff of holiness for clerical spells), or for a boost to all spell schools, The Staff of the Archmagi. A highly-enchanted helm of brilliance can significantly mitigate casting problems and may be obtained from certain player monsters that begin generating during the mid-game, though the helm slot may be instead reserved for a helm of speed.
Pet management may be something of a general wrinkle for centaurs: slower pets will have a hard time keeping up early on without a means of boosting their speed or otherwise keeping them close, e.g. a magic whistle.
History
The centaur was first added in version 0.1.2, with necessary adjustments to armor choices for both them and "monster" centaurs.[1]
In version 0.4.2, a bug that still displayed the riding skill in the menu of the #enhance extended command for centaurs was removed.[2]
Version 0.6.0 fixes issues with player centaurs and kicking.[3]
Version 0.7.0 includes various fixes related to player centaurs and their player monster equivalents:[4]
- A chokepoint on the goal level of the Ranger quest that would otherwise be impassable for centaur Rangers was removed.
- Centaurian player monster gear is adjusted, and centaurs in general had their monster starting inventory adjusted to avoid generating them with armor they could not use.
- In previous versions, centaur Monks would use the random additional kick against any monster - as they cannot wear boots, this posed a significant and randomized risk of instadeath in various situations, e.g. from kicking a cockatrice. As of this version, the random kick attack will no longer fire against cockatrices and other similar monsters.
- Centaur kick attacks were buffed to be stronger than those of other player races.
Version 0.7.1 added centaur Knights and their player monster equivalents.[5]
