A Centaur can mount an eligible creature by following the rules of mounted combat that are applicable to every race:
Mounted Combat
A knight charging into battle on a warhorse, a wizard casting spells from the back of a griffon, or a cleric soaring through the sky on a pegasus all enjoy the benefits of speed and mobility that a mount can provide.
A willing creature that is at least one size larger than you and that has an appropriate anatomy can serve as a mount, using the following rules.
Appropriate anatomy. Any Equine-featured creature (horse) doesn't have the appropriate anatomy to be mounted by another Equine-featured creature. Most creatures simply don't have the anatomy to support being ridden by a Centaur.
An Elephant would be feasible, but what you're realistically looking at is getting a vehicle. Attacking from a personal chariot (Centaur in chariot; pulled by another creature) works.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Yeah, ironically, being a centaur makes it harder to find a mount, rather than automatically being considered mounted.
I see what you're trying to do though: get a big damage die weapon without having to use it two handed. Unfortunately, this loophole has been closed (or not even considered a possibility).
The entire benefit of being a mounted combatant (in reality) is that you are not using your own legs for motion. Not needing to use your legs in this way allows the rider to use their entire lower-body to brace & stabilize their upper-body. That's simply not possible to achieve when you are producing your own lateral locomotion, no matter how many legs/wings/wheels/tracks/mucous-secreting glands (mmm slugs) you have!
I.e., a rider is able to counter-balance the impact from the mount moving, approximating a "net-zero" environment for them to more easily handle weapon movement.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
The Centaur runs around jousting, but it uses a Pike instead of a lance. Both monster and race are good at charging at people with a sharp stick, though they do it in different ways (bonus hoof attack vs. flat bonus damage)
If you're a Centaur and are taking the Cavalier class, your DM should really have a conversation with you up front about how they're going to handle things so that no one has any unpleasant surprises. RAW, your level 3 Born to the Saddle feature will never be usable, because you will never be able find a mount with appropriate anatomy for you. Perhaps allowing you to treat yourself as mounted for things like lances is something they'd give you at Cavalier 3 so that you don't miss out on a feature there, or let you have advantage on saves to avoid falling prone, or let you stand up from prone for 5 feet instead of half your movement. That being said, the rest of the features will work just fine for a Centaur, and honestly Cavalier is the best fighter subclass to take for a "defender" archetype even if they never plan to get into the saddle at all (they're the best for optimizing Polearm Master/Sentinel cheese), so I don't think a DM needs to throw such a player any bones.
So IF I'm reading the RAW correctly, could you put a human wizard on the back of a centaur, blasting spells off while the centaur handles the movement for both, being that with "Equine Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push or drag.". Or would you have to stick with the gnome riding on your back casting Fireball at every MFer in range? (Mostly using this example for comedy, but this was an actual question that I had come up during a discussion.)
A Centaur can mount an eligible creature by following the rules of mounted combat that are applicable to every race:
Mounted Combat
A knight charging into battle on a warhorse, a wizard casting spells from the back of a griffon, or a cleric soaring through the sky on a pegasus all enjoy the benefits of speed and mobility that a mount can provide.
A willing creature that is at least one size larger than you and that has an appropriate anatomy can serve as a mount, using the following rules.
Appropriate anatomy. Any Equine-featured creature (horse) doesn't have the appropriate anatomy to be mounted by another Equine-featured creature. Most creatures simply don't have the anatomy to support being ridden by a Centaur.
An Elephant would be feasible, but what you're realistically looking at is getting a vehicle. Attacking from a personal chariot (Centaur in chariot; pulled by another creature) works.
Equines cannot mount another equine? Never been to a stud farm huh?
okay. Joke aside.
centaurs cannot ride in a saddle. It doesn’t make sense then on horses since their body is as long or longer than the horses. So it’s have to be some kind of animal 1. Larger. And 2. That a centaur can either stand on top of securely, or lay down as horses do, on top of securely. So... I think it’s limiting.
but, then again, I always used centaur as a “combo” player.
I’d play a centaur scout whom is a knights apprentice to my knight, another PC, whom was a mounted combat specialist (Cavalier) who used me as his mount.
Sorry if this has already had a ruling made on it. If it has link please. I digress...
Would a Centaur be able to use the Lance without two-handing? Or would they not count as mounted?
Also bring in to question using the Fighter/Cavalier class as a Centaur
Just a cursory glance through the centaur, it looks like none of the racial traits make you count as mounted.
Rule of Cool says yes
RAW, no, you do not count as mounted.
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If you are using the Unearthed Arcana Centaur (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/centaurs-and-minotaurs) you can mount a different Centaur and make a Centaur tower.
But WolfOfTheBees answered your question correctly. They do not count as 'mounted' by themselves.
UA Centaurs/Minotaurs aren't valid material anymore. They've been published, and that specific feature was removed on purpose.
RAW, Centaurs cannot use a Lance one-handed.
RAI, Centaurs cannot use a Lance one-handed.
A Centaur can mount an eligible creature by following the rules of mounted combat that are applicable to every race:
Appropriate anatomy. Any Equine-featured creature (horse) doesn't have the appropriate anatomy to be mounted by another Equine-featured creature. Most creatures simply don't have the anatomy to support being ridden by a Centaur.
An Elephant would be feasible, but what you're realistically looking at is getting a vehicle. Attacking from a personal chariot (Centaur in chariot; pulled by another creature) works.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Yeah, ironically, being a centaur makes it harder to find a mount, rather than automatically being considered mounted.
I see what you're trying to do though: get a big damage die weapon without having to use it two handed. Unfortunately, this loophole has been closed (or not even considered a possibility).
Aside: it's actually not ironic at all!
The entire benefit of being a mounted combatant (in reality) is that you are not using your own legs for motion. Not needing to use your legs in this way allows the rider to use their entire lower-body to brace & stabilize their upper-body. That's simply not possible to achieve when you are producing your own lateral locomotion, no matter how many legs/wings/wheels/tracks/mucous-secreting glands (mmm slugs) you have!
I.e., a rider is able to counter-balance the impact from the mount moving, approximating a "net-zero" environment for them to more easily handle weapon movement.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
The Centaur runs around jousting, but it uses a Pike instead of a lance. Both monster and race are good at charging at people with a sharp stick, though they do it in different ways (bonus hoof attack vs. flat bonus damage)
If you're a Centaur and are taking the Cavalier class, your DM should really have a conversation with you up front about how they're going to handle things so that no one has any unpleasant surprises. RAW, your level 3 Born to the Saddle feature will never be usable, because you will never be able find a mount with appropriate anatomy for you. Perhaps allowing you to treat yourself as mounted for things like lances is something they'd give you at Cavalier 3 so that you don't miss out on a feature there, or let you have advantage on saves to avoid falling prone, or let you stand up from prone for 5 feet instead of half your movement. That being said, the rest of the features will work just fine for a Centaur, and honestly Cavalier is the best fighter subclass to take for a "defender" archetype even if they never plan to get into the saddle at all (they're the best for optimizing Polearm Master/Sentinel cheese), so I don't think a DM needs to throw such a player any bones.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
So IF I'm reading the RAW correctly, could you put a human wizard on the back of a centaur, blasting spells off while the centaur handles the movement for both, being that with "Equine Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push or drag.". Or would you have to stick with the gnome riding on your back casting Fireball at every MFer in range? (Mostly using this example for comedy, but this was an actual question that I had come up during a discussion.)
No, carrying capacity and push/drag weight aren't related to whether or not you can ride a creature as a mount.
Equines cannot mount another equine? Never been to a stud farm huh?
okay. Joke aside.
centaurs cannot ride in a saddle. It doesn’t make sense then on horses since their body is as long or longer than the horses. So it’s have to be some kind of animal 1. Larger. And 2. That a centaur can either stand on top of securely, or lay down as horses do, on top of securely. So... I think it’s limiting.
but, then again, I always used centaur as a “combo” player.
I’d play a centaur scout whom is a knights apprentice to my knight, another PC, whom was a mounted combat specialist (Cavalier) who used me as his mount.
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