Centaur 5e: Stats, Charge Tactics and Centaurs as Allies

A centaur is a CR 2 Large creature with 45 hit points, a 50-foot speed, a 10-foot-reach pike and a longbow that shoots 600 feet. It's neutral good in both editions, so a party is as likely to meet one as a guide or ally as an enemy. The 2014 centaur (AC 12, a Monstrosity) adds 10 damage to its pike when it charges. The 2024 rules replace it with the Centaur Trooper: AC 16 from a breastplate, Fey instead of Monstrosity, and a Trampling Charge that knocks characters prone as it runs through them. This page covers the monster stat block, not a playable species; the SRD has no centaur player option.

Table of Contents

• •Centaur Stat Block (2014)
• •The 2024 Centaur Trooper
• •How Centaurs Fight
• •How Many Centaurs for Your Party?
• •How Players Beat Centaurs
• •Centaurs as NPCs, Guides and Allies
• •Centaur Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Centaur Stat Block (2014)

This is the centaur from SRD 5.1, matching the 2014 Monster Manual.

The 2014 centaur is a glass cannon with legs. AC 12 is very low for CR 2, but its melee hits hard: pike (+6, 9 piercing, reach 10 feet) plus hooves (+6, 11 bludgeoning). Charge adds 10 (3d6) piercing to the pike when the centaur moves at least 30 feet straight toward the target first. With a 50-foot speed, it can charge almost every turn in open ground.

Its longbow is weaker than its melee. The bow uses Dexterity (+4 to hit, 6 damage) while the pike uses Strength (+6, 9 damage). It shoots two arrows a turn, which works as harassment but isn't where its damage comes from.

The 2024 Centaur Trooper

The 2024 rules (SRD 5.2.1) replace the centaur with the Centaur Trooper, a soldier in armor.

The armor matters more than any other change. A +5 weapon attack hits AC 12 on a 7 or higher (70%) and AC 16 on an 11 or higher (50%). The Trooper takes about 30% less damage from weapons than the 2014 centaur.

Being Fey also changes which spells work on it. Protection from Evil and Good covers Fey, so it has Disadvantage on attacks against the warded creature. Neither version is a Humanoid, so Hold Person and Charm Person don't work on centaurs in either edition.

How Centaurs Fight

The 2014 charge turn. To use Charge, the centaur runs at least 30 feet straight at its target and then hits with the pike. If it stops 5 feet away instead of 10, its hooves can follow up. Against AC 16, a +6 attack hits on a 10 or higher, 55% of the time:

With 20 feet of speed left after a 30-foot charge, the centaur can pull back, but leaving a character's reach provokes an opportunity attack against its AC 12. A smarter 2014 centaur charges from 10 feet away instead, pike only, and keeps its reach advantage.

The 2024 trample turn. Trampling Charge is a bonus action, so it comes on top of the Trooper's two attacks:

1. •The Trooper runs up to 50 feet through a line of Medium or smaller characters, without provoking opportunity attacks. Each character it passes through makes a DC 14 Strength save. A wizard with −1 to Strength saves fails on 14 or lower (70%). A fighter with +5 fails on 8 or lower (40%).
2. •Characters who fail take 7 (1d6 + 4) and are Prone.
3. •The Trooper ends its run within 5 feet of a prone character and attacks with its pike. Melee attacks against a prone creature within 5 feet have Advantage. A +6 pike with Advantage hits AC 16 about 80% of the time, so two pike attacks average about 14 damage instead of about 10.

One catch: the pike has 10-foot reach, and attacks against a prone creature more than 5 feet away have Disadvantage. The Trooper has to stand close to use the prone bonus.

Fight like cavalry. Centaurs win in open terrain with room to run. In groups, keep them moving: charge, attack and ride out. A band of 2014 centaurs can shower a party with arrows from 150 feet and use their 50-foot speed to stay out of reach of characters with a 30-foot speed. It's slow damage, but the party can't easily close.

Morale. Centaurs are neutral good. If they're fighting the party at all, something has gone wrong: trespass, a misunderstanding, an enchantment. Let them break off when two of them fall and give the party a chance to talk.

How Many Centaurs for Your Party?

A centaur (or Centaur Trooper) is worth 450 XP. With the 2024 SRD budget for four characters:

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, which our encounter calculator uses, rate two centaurs as Hard for four level 3 characters: 900 XP becomes 1,350 after the ×1.5 group multiplier.

Open ground makes centaurs much harder than their XP says. A forest or a ruined village with walls and rubble breaks up their straight-line charges and evens things out.

How Players Beat Centaurs

• •Take away the straight line. The 2014 Charge needs 30 feet of straight movement. Trees, walls, wagons and difficult terrain all break it. Fight from inside a building or a tight copse and the centaur is just a pike and hooves.
• •Hit the 2014 centaur's armor class. AC 12 is low. Martial characters hit about 70% of the time, and 45 hit points don't last long under focused fire.
• •Spread out against the Trooper. Trampling Charge hits every Medium or smaller creature whose space it enters. A tight line of characters gets trampled together.
• •Choose the right spells. Its Intelligence save is −1 and its Charisma save +0. Its Strength save is +4, so Entangle (Strength save) is a poor choice. Its Dexterity save is +2, so Faerie Fire lands about half the time against a DC 13 caster.
• •Talk. Both versions are neutral good and speak Elvish and Sylvan. A character who speaks either can often end the fight before it starts.

Centaurs as NPCs, Guides and Allies

Centaurs make good allies as well as enemies, and the stat block works well for that.

As a guide. The 2014 centaur has Survival +3 and Perception +3, and both versions move 50 feet a turn. That's a natural wilderness guide, scout or messenger. A centaur courier covers ground faster than a horse-drawn wagon and can carry a message across a forest the party can't cross quickly.

As an ally in combat. An allied centaur adds about 11 to 16 damage a round in the open and can screen the party's archers. Run it on its own turn, with its own Initiative, and let it make its own choices. That keeps the ally from becoming a second character for one player.

As a mount. The SRD's mounted combat rules let a willing creature at least one size larger than the rider, with suitable anatomy, serve as a mount. A Large centaur can carry a Medium or Small rider by those rules. It isn't trained to accept a rider like a horse, so it acts as an independent mount: it keeps its own place in the Initiative order and moves and acts as it chooses. Whether a centaur would agree to carry someone is a roleplaying question, not a rules one.

Need a name and personality on short notice? Our NPC generator can rough out a centaur guide in seconds.

Centaur Encounter Ideas

The boundary stones. The party's shortcut through a forest crosses a line of carved stones. Three centaur wardens challenge them at the stones. They won't let armed strangers through, but they'll escort a party that leaves its weapons at the boundary, or that helps with the reason they're on alert: someone has been cutting down the grove's oldest trees.

The wounded courier. A centaur messenger with an arrow in her flank collapses near the party's camp. She was carrying a warning between two settlements and was shot by people who don't want it delivered. She can't run for a day. The party can carry the message, guard her, or find out who fired the arrow.

The wrong thieves. A centaur band has lost foals to slavers and is riding down anyone with a wagon on the north road. The party is driving a wagon. The fight starts as a misunderstanding, at long bow range, with the party taking arrows from 150 feet away. Stopping it requires someone to make themselves heard, in Elvish or Sylvan if possible.

If a centaur becomes a recurring ally, Loreify can record your sessions and keep track of who the party has met and what they promised.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a centaur in 5e?

The 2014 centaur and the 2024 Centaur Trooper are both CR 2 and worth 450 XP. Both have 45 hit points and a 50-foot speed. The 2014 centaur has AC 12; the Trooper has AC 16 from a breastplate.

Are centaurs fey in 5e?

In the 2024 rules, yes: the Centaur Trooper is a Large Fey. In the 2014 rules the centaur is a Large Monstrosity. Neither is a Humanoid, so Hold Person and Charm Person don't affect them.

Can you ride a centaur in 5e?

The rules allow it: a willing creature at least one size larger than the rider, with suitable anatomy, can serve as a mount, and a Large centaur qualifies for a Medium or Small rider. It acts as an independent mount, so it moves and acts on its own turn. Whether it agrees is up to the DM.

What languages do centaurs speak?

Elvish and Sylvan in both the 2014 and 2024 stat blocks. Neither stat block includes Common.

How does a centaur's Charge work?

The 2014 centaur deals an extra 10 (3d6) piercing damage if it moves at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hits it with its pike on the same turn. The 2024 Trooper uses Trampling Charge instead: a bonus action, Recharge 5–6, that moves it through Medium or smaller creatures, knocking them prone on a failed DC 14 Strength save.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.