Having played in two fantasy campaigns where someone else played a centaur, a small elephant, even one with a trunk that effectively ends in a hand (or perhaps even divides perhaps 2 feet above the end, to create two hands) is self-balancing.
Such a PC would be tough & strong (although elephants are not particularly strong for their size), but it's also bulky and drastically not human-shaped. If most things outside of elephant-controlled lands are designed for humanoid beings, then they're going to be significantly handicapped. No ladders, stairs will be very difficult, elevators will need to be large, vehicles will be difficult to enter and likely impossible to operate w/o modification... Also, they may have a very high dexterity, but no so much with the agility. Also, while they could swim better than a human, they can't jump or climb to any useful degree.
Also, even if you go with re-engineered sentient mammoths that are only the 1.4 m at the shoulder, weighing 700-800 kg is problematic in many situations.
With the centaur PCs we had, there was alot of either "why don't you wait outside" or "let's break out the rope harness and the pulley and lower the centaur down the hole"
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Such a PC would be tough & strong (although elephants are not particularly strong for their size), but it's also bulky and drastically not human-shaped. If most things outside of elephant-controlled lands are designed for humanoid beings, then they're going to be significantly handicapped. No ladders, stairs will be very difficult, elevators will need to be large, vehicles will be difficult to enter and likely impossible to operate w/o modification... Also, they may have a very high dexterity, but no so much with the agility. Also, while they could swim better than a human, they can't jump or climb to any useful degree.
Also, even if you go with re-engineered sentient mammoths that are only the 1.4 m at the shoulder, weighing 700-800 kg is problematic in many situations.
With the centaur PCs we had, there was alot of either "why don't you wait outside" or "let's break out the rope harness and the pulley and lower the centaur down the hole"