I've got a player bringing in a centaur caravan guard PC which I love the idea of, one thing occurred to me though: they were wanting to take a breastplate but it feels a bit odd for a normal breastplate to provide as much armouring for a centaur as a human? I mean on a human it covers the entire torso, but on a centaur it only covers the humanoid part, the back horsey part (which presumably still contains vital organs) is left completely un-armoured?
In the end I don't much mind but it feels odd, more like he should have to take a breast plate of barding, and how would damage be worked out for them? essentialy they are wearing the same armour as a human PC but their body is twice as exposed?
I've got a player bringing in a centaur caravan guard PC which I love the idea of, one thing occurred to me though: they were wanting to take a breastplate but it feels a bit odd for a normal breastplate to provide as much armouring for a centaur as a human? I mean on a human it covers the entire torso, but on a centaur it only covers the humanoid part, the back horsey part (which presumably still contains vital organs) is left completely un-armoured?
In the end I don't much mind but it feels odd, more like he should have to take a breast plate of barding, and how would damage be worked out for them? essentialy they are wearing the same armour as a human PC but their body is twice as exposed?
any help or views please :)
Sure:
Barding is entirely about the size of the creature in 5E, not about its body shape - you can certainly make fiat statements about armor, including barding, relative to body shape, but the weight and cost uptick from making armor into barding is about scaling it up for a larger creature.
There are variant rules in the PHB for handling body shape/size issues for PCs, making it so that e.g. a Dwarf and an Elf will not be able to just swap armor with each other. You can use those for inspiration if you want to house-nerf your player's centaur. Be aware that playable centaurs are Medium - they're ponytaurs.
A breastplate covers a lot more than a humanoid's torso - it's not literally just a breastplate. As you can see from the linked description, it includes essentially padded leather for the rest of the humanoid's body.
With or without rules for putting a human-based breastplate on a centaur, breastplates made by centaurs for centaurs would presumably incorporate torso protection for both of a centaur's two torsos, just like we assume for all six-limbed PC races (centaurs, aarakocra, winged tieflings, simic hybrids, and thri-kreen) or 5-limbed (Loxodons) that armor for them is designed to protect all of their limbs. It's dirty pool nerfing centaurs unless you apply a similar nerf to all creatures with fundamentally non-humanoid anatomies (which is why I suggested you read the variant armor rules in the PHB).
Biologically, there's a way to see it. A centaur has two areas where you could put a heart. Their human torso and their horse torso. There's two ways of looking at it. Either there's some level of redundancy (copies of certain vital organs might be doubled) or their human half has most the vital organs, with the horse half mostly being bone blood and muscle, possibly with a few extra organs to help with healing. Why their human half? Well, it's more defensible. A centaur is essentially built to have the best of both worlds between quadripedal speed and bipedal manipulative abilities.
Attacks against their horse half may be more likely to draw blood, but it's akin to making a called shot against a human's spleen. I mean, you can, and they're less likely to be defending against a blow there, but it's less likely to matter than a blow to the heart or lungs in a combat sense. The human parts are also the part that's shooting arrows, swinging blades, and casting spells, so most enemies are going to use that.
One option is to allow called shots against the horse half, which without barding, doesn't recieve armor AC - but because less important stuff is located there, the centaur takes half damage, which stacks with any resistances they might have. This won't be much note to, say, an Ogre who'd want damage and has the strength to hit despite armor. But anklebiters like goblins who lack much in way of smacking potential might attack their back where they at least have a chance of doing something. Though given that it opens up vulnerabilities, I would recommend a buff for centaurs if you go this route - maybe upping their speed to what a horse could do, or the late game option to become a pegacentaur.
I would let a centaur wear a breastplate and get the full AC benefit from it. And I have not found anything in the armor or centaur rules that would lead me to believe it shouldn't.
A breastplate consists of a fitted metal chest piece worn with supple leather so as a DM i would let a centaur wear one on its human torso and get all the same benefits as any other character.
I am playing a Centaur Druid. this put my toon in a peculiar place. Druids can't use metal armor. Being familiar with Ironwood, I worked with my DM and came up with the following. Let me know what y'all think.
If our DM is OK with it then why not. I'd just note that a magical armor with 4 different resistances should likely be of very rare or legendary rarity rather than uncommon (I'd probably leave it at very rare due to not having a +AC).
I am playing a Centaur Druid. this put my toon in a peculiar place. Druids can't use metal armor. Being familiar with Ironwood, I worked with my DM and came up with the following. Let me know what y'all think.
I've got a player bringing in a centaur caravan guard PC which I love the idea of, one thing occurred to me though: they were wanting to take a breastplate but it feels a bit odd for a normal breastplate to provide as much armouring for a centaur as a human? I mean on a human it covers the entire torso, but on a centaur it only covers the humanoid part, the back horsey part (which presumably still contains vital organs) is left completely un-armoured?
In the end I don't much mind but it feels odd, more like he should have to take a breast plate of barding, and how would damage be worked out for them? essentialy they are wearing the same armour as a human PC but their body is twice as exposed?
any help or views please :)
Sure:
With or without rules for putting a human-based breastplate on a centaur, breastplates made by centaurs for centaurs would presumably incorporate torso protection for both of a centaur's two torsos, just like we assume for all six-limbed PC races (centaurs, aarakocra, winged tieflings, simic hybrids, and thri-kreen) or 5-limbed (Loxodons) that armor for them is designed to protect all of their limbs. It's dirty pool nerfing centaurs unless you apply a similar nerf to all creatures with fundamentally non-humanoid anatomies (which is why I suggested you read the variant armor rules in the PHB).
Biologically, there's a way to see it. A centaur has two areas where you could put a heart. Their human torso and their horse torso. There's two ways of looking at it. Either there's some level of redundancy (copies of certain vital organs might be doubled) or their human half has most the vital organs, with the horse half mostly being bone blood and muscle, possibly with a few extra organs to help with healing. Why their human half? Well, it's more defensible. A centaur is essentially built to have the best of both worlds between quadripedal speed and bipedal manipulative abilities.
Attacks against their horse half may be more likely to draw blood, but it's akin to making a called shot against a human's spleen. I mean, you can, and they're less likely to be defending against a blow there, but it's less likely to matter than a blow to the heart or lungs in a combat sense. The human parts are also the part that's shooting arrows, swinging blades, and casting spells, so most enemies are going to use that.
One option is to allow called shots against the horse half, which without barding, doesn't recieve armor AC - but because less important stuff is located there, the centaur takes half damage, which stacks with any resistances they might have. This won't be much note to, say, an Ogre who'd want damage and has the strength to hit despite armor. But anklebiters like goblins who lack much in way of smacking potential might attack their back where they at least have a chance of doing something. Though given that it opens up vulnerabilities, I would recommend a buff for centaurs if you go this route - maybe upping their speed to what a horse could do, or the late game option to become a pegacentaur.
I would let a centaur wear a breastplate and get the full AC benefit from it. And I have not found anything in the armor or centaur rules that would lead me to believe it shouldn't.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
A breastplate consists of a fitted metal chest piece worn with supple leather so as a DM i would let a centaur wear one on its human torso and get all the same benefits as any other character.
Basically, "Eh, don't worry about it."
Paladin main who spends most of his D&D time worldbuilding or DMing, not Paladin-ing.
I am playing a Centaur Druid. this put my toon in a peculiar place. Druids can't use metal armor. Being familiar with Ironwood, I worked with my DM and came up with the following. Let me know what y'all think.
Ironwood Breastplate & Barding (Centaur)
If our DM is OK with it then why not. I'd just note that a magical armor with 4 different resistances should likely be of very rare or legendary rarity rather than uncommon (I'd probably leave it at very rare due to not having a +AC).
Just one note: under the 2024 rules, RAW Druids are allowed to use metal armor.