A fully cannonical way to do centaur's lower body strength

[Stripe]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

From some time, I've been thinking about how to model a centaur's lower body strength, ie that he has the kicking and load bearing capacity of a horse, but has human sized arms. Finally Powers granted me the tools to do it right, though that took a while to assimilate.

Lower Body ST [5]
->Listing ST+1 [3]
->Striking ST (One attack only: Kicking -60%) [2]
Add apropriate mods for size as needed (A clasical centaur is definivelly size +1, but given the nature of GURPS I wouldn't make any assumption on that, since you might have cat-taurs that are cat sized in a specially weird setting)

So, this is the way we're going to do things from now on?

I don't have Powers at all or any of my books with me here at work, so I don't understand this, unless you mean Lower Body ST costs 5 per point and Striking ST costs 2 per point? Then, you add a size modifier to reduce cost of either/both?

Thanks!

[Arazael]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Lower Body ST [5]
->Listing ST+1 [3]
->Striking ST (One attack only: Kicking -60%) [2]

A conspicuous problem with this is that the hit points should be based on body mass, and will probably need +1 for each +1 lower body ST. Since these would cost 2CPs each, this works out at the same cost, and less useful, than +1 ST. Using the NFM modifier gives a more consistent result all round.

[younglorax]

The solution to this probably depends on where you want to put vital organs and the like.

If you want to adopt Kuroshima's solution, and put the organs in the horse body, you get one answer. Personally, I think that a centaur is essentially a horse with a rider, and so the rider is more important, and stabbing the human heart brings down the whole beast. Whether stabbing the horse heart does too leads to some obnoxious point-accounting, though.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

->Lifting ST+1 [3]

So his human arms are vastly stronger for lifting?

[vitruvian]

I generally use the NFM modifier for the lower body ST, even though it may not be canonical, because it simply seems a fair cost break for greater strength that can only be effectively used for striking with hooves or lifting/pulling when a harness of some kind has already been arranged.

As for HP - simply use the lower ST/HP value to determine HP damage thresholds for the arms, head, or upper torso (if you have a hit location table that distinguishes between upper or lower torso, anyway). It's not going to matter too much unless they're specifically targeted, since even if not going for horse torso hits specifically, they have to be a lot more likely than upper body hits.

[Kromm]

If the aesthetics bug people, rename No Fine Manipulators to Lower Body Only at the same value and with the same effects. :)

[lev_lafayette]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

For how would the centaur put load on his equine body, remember, most of the human torso is filled with important organs that would probably go to the horse part (after all, I don't think that a human sized heart can move the blood through the hibrid body of a centaur, nor that you can fit horse sized heart or lungs into the human torso).

Very true. The alternative is to design centaurs with basically human head and shoulders on top of a horse's body.

Whilst the image is slightly different to the Hellenic myth, it'd solve a lot of design headaches.

[Sadurian Mike]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

For how would the centaur put load on his equine body, remember, most of the human torso is filled with important organs that would probably go to the horse part (after all, I don't think that a human sized heart can move the blood through the hibrid body of a centaur, nor that you can fit horse sized heart or lungs into the human torso). This means that the human torso would be comprised mostly of muscle, and it wouldn't be a too big strech to imagine centaurs to have enough flexibility to nearly turn 180º.

You do know that opening that particular can of biological worms might lead to madness and a realisation that centaurs can't be real....

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Still, fitting a centaur with proper armor (including barding for it's horse half) would require the help of a page, as would probably fitting a knight into a plate armour. (No knowledge on this, other than knowing that most of the comon knowledge is just wrong)

Absolutely right. Plate harness had so many inconvenient little straps to tie on that the wearer would need extra arms and be inhumanly flexible to reach them all.

[Lord Carnifex]

How do centaurs put on barding? In teams, of course.

I'd say that if the centaur is charging (Move and Attack), then it's Lance. If he's standing in place (Attack), it's Spear.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Lord Carnifex

How do centaurs put on barding? In teams, of course.

I'd say that if the centaur is charging (Move and Attack), then it's Lance. If he's standing in place (Attack), it's Spear.

That would mean humans with Spears doing a Move and Attack need Lance. I'd just call it spear, Lance is for mounted warriors, not warriors who happen to also be a mount. Also, if they use lance, strangely Centaurs need to learn Riding in order to use a Lance...which makes no sense. They shouldn't need to learn to ride or be ridden to use a long spear by running at people while holding it!