 Howdy how's it going? My name's Davy Chappy, and today it's time to melt ourselves into glue because we're gonna be talking about the weirdest conceptual creature in the D&D mythos, the centaur. I'm gonna go over the centaur's real life origins, their in-game lore, and the stats presented in the mythic odysseys of Theros that you have all the information you need for when someone's looking at you a little horse-faced. As always, keep in mind that a lot of this is just my opinion, so if you feel like Forge Clerics that fashion armor for centaurs should also get jack of all trades because they are technically barding, feel free to play your games however you want. But with that out of the way, let's begin. So the idea of a half-man, half-horse, all-abs adventurer is an idea spawned from the gazed culture around the Greeks. In Greek mythology, centaurs were creatures of two worlds, born neither fully man nor fully animal, that largely stayed out of human affairs in favor of hanging out in forests and eating grass. At first, there were only male centaurs due to the old binary of, this race is X gender, such as satyrs being all dudes and dryads being all girls, but later stories acknowledge that, unless your species reproduces by eating so much that your horse person just rips itself into two different horse people, you're probably gonna have female versions of that creature. So every once in a while, a grill horse would show up in the background like, hey, another misconception is that, despite being portrayed as uniformly wise and noble creatures in modern media, original centaurs were actually not at all dissimilar to satyrs in their love of parties, freedom, revelry, animal legs, and what hangs out between them. The only centaur that was particularly sage-like was the famous pony boy Chiron, who trained dozens of adventurers in Greek legends and was very notably not a frat boy like his peers, specifically because he was raised by the god Apollo to not be a drunken idiot. Because he was pretty much the only noteworthy centaur, he became the poster boy of the race, and his individual personality started to get conflated with the behavior of the species as a whole. And by the time that C.S. Lewis got ahold of them, centaurs had been flanderized into being the noble warrior guardians of the forest. And that is where D&D comes in. See, everybody points to Lord of the Rings as being the biggest influence on the fantasy genre. And it is, but the second biggest, as far as D&D is concerned, is the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Seriously, most of the stuff from D&D that can't be found in Lord of the Rings is very likely to be found in one of those wardrobe books. So, when Gary Gygax went looking for lore on the horse race, he didn't have to look very far. Like in the Chronicles of Narnia, the D&D centaur is a nomad at heart, constantly traveling from place to place, staying away from areas that appear to lived in. A simple farmer might hear a rumbling coming from outside their window one day and look to see dozens and dozens of centaurs riding in a herd along the open plains of summer. Luckily, unlike most creaches of that type, centaurs are friendly and their twin stomachs can withstand diets of grass and leaves, so they don't need to raid anybody. Lucky you're still, centaurs are proud and protective of goodness in the world, meaning they're willing to help if said farmer was having problems with a band of marauders that lived somewhere in the distance. And their constant movement makes a centaur attack quick, massive, and then gone in a few seconds, just like my last ex. The only disadvantage to the nomadic horse life of the centaurs is what happens when a centaur can no longer run, either because they've gotten too old or because they've broken their legs in a freak frolicking accident. This is the worst-case scenario for a centaur, because it means that they can no longer travel with their pack. Do horses travel in packs? Is that what they're called? It is called a harass. Because it means that they can no longer harass their fellow horsemen, and they're doomed to be left in the next hospitable town that the harass can find and live out their days as that weird horse uncle that steals their neighbor's hay and shits in their living rooms. That's about all there is for the normal centaur, but if you're looking to flesh out centaur culture into a more living thing, the mythic oddities of Theros present the race as they appear in one of the many worlds of Magic the Gathering. In Theros, centaurs are split up into two cultures, the Lagona and the Fairies. The Lagona are the more chiron-esque wisdom centaurs, traveling in merchant bands and going on journeys of self-discovery to gather more wisdom that they can take back to the herd. While the Fairies are the combat-atars, running around, punching stuff, electing leaders based on who can punch the best stuff, and going on journeys of self-discovery so that they can discover more stuff to punch. Both of these cultures have minor roles within their culture that a centaur can fit themselves into, with the Lagona having barterers for trade deals with other merchants, Coursers to chart paths for the herd to take, Omenors to ask the gods where the best course of action is at a given time, and the Kualtras, who are the designated face-punchers of the merchant guild and are fun fact, fated to die in defense of their family. Meanwhile, the Fairies have their leader, the Charger, as well as scouts, archers, warriors, foragers, and two special roles called the Collar, who is either a ranger or druid that can call animal allies to help them in times of need, and Trompers, who are the number one face-punchers after the Charger. It's pretty basic lore as far as cultures go, but the centaurs are fairly simple as far as life goes, only affecting the greater world to train heroes from all walks of life in the way of the blade. But if you were looking to play your own centaur, then Theros has you covered there, too. A centaur player gets bonuses to strengthen wisdom, a speed of 40 feet, the fey creature type, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but whatever. The equine build trait, which is like the powerful build trait, but also you can't climb upstairs as easily, proficiency in animal handling, medicine, nature, or survival, a natural hoof attack, and a charge ability that lets you attack with your hooves as a bonus action after you run straight forward 30 feet. Now, all that may sound like a lot, but the only real useful things here are the increased movement and the charge ability, and maybe the proficiency, whatever. I personally love when classes implement an actual reason to use your natural weapon instead of just tacking it on there and calling it a day. The equine build feature can undoubtedly get annoying, but as long as you don't start any fights in a mini-mall, then you shouldn't have too much of a problem. Overall, it's up to you whether you want to give the centaur a yay or a nay. Buuuut, that'll about do it. I hope you enjoyed this video. Be sure to leave a like, comment, subscribe, ring the bell, hit that like button, and maybe support me on Patreon so that I can get that surgery to get the horse body I always wanted. But yeah, Davi out.