100 tonne anvil technique: rules source?

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:29 pm

I'm trying to find official word regarding offensively dropping a giant rock on a target.

SphereOfFeetMan · Post by **SphereOfFeetMan** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 5:45 pm

virgileso wrote:I'm trying to find official word regarding offensively dropping a giant rock on a target.

In Dnd 3.x? In any case you shouldn't do it. If you go down that path, the end point leads to gameworld ending shenanigans at the level of Shadow armies.

There are no explicit rule mechanics for how one determines if a target is struck with a falling object. The Dmg only seems to imply that if the falling object falls in the square of a creature, the creature takes the falling damage (no save). Which makes the situation even worse.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:23 pm

There are prestige classes and expansion abilities that explicitly grant people the ability to drop heavy objects on people in the middle of combat. The answer is that you + shrink item = hundreds of dice of damage.

-Username17

Jacob_Orlove · Post by **Jacob_Orlove** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:33 pm

The table for how much damage an object does (by weight) should be in Complete Warrior (or whichever book has the Hulking Hurler in it).

Voss · Post by **Voss** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:33 pm

Or you can use telekinesis as a sort of a guideline, but it really, really sucks, since its a normal attack roll with a cap of 15d6.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:10 pm

Voss wrote:Or you can use telekinesis as a sort of a guideline, but it really, really sucks, since its a normal attack roll with a cap of 15d6.

Well, you could take the guideline of 1d6 per 25 pounds for a hard, dense object (like a big lump of metal or a boulder) and then leave it up to the player to find out how to use that much weight as a weapon. But that's getting into Hulking Hurler territory.

...Which, come to think of it, doesn't bother me. If someone wants to play a character capable of doing damage on a par with a direct hit from a sizeable meteorite, I'm fine with that.

Fwib · Post by **Fwib** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:33 pm

Jacob_Orlove wrote:The table for how much damage an object does (by weight) should be in Complete Warrior (or whichever book has the Hulking Hurler in it).

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.h ... ingObjects says

For each 200 pounds of an object’s weight, the object deals 1d6 points of damage, provided it falls at least 10 feet. Distance also comes into play, adding an additional 1d6 points of damage for every 10-foot increment it falls beyond the first (to a maximum of 20d6 points of damage).

Complete Warrior's improvised weapon damage section (p159) also lists +d6/200lb in the text.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:55 pm

I knew how to calculate the damage. The problem is finding a hard & fast ruling on the method of actually hitting the target.

The fact I'll auto-kill anything I choose to direct it against is probably a facet I should consider and hence avoid for fear of silliness and DM wrath.

I'm just going through my options with the upcoming fight for my Wednesday game (just hit 17th level), detailed here.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:03 am

Is it possible to mix a reflex DC for no damage in this?

'Cause their rules looks like they're designed to be a 5' square object falling into a 5' square... Like a ceiling or plank or box or something where you don't really have an escape.

-Crissa

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:41 am

Man, even looking at it from a sane point of view, where instead of having the damage increase linearly with size I create 'size categories' for the alchemist's fire; I can do a lot.

First, cast polymorph any object to get sufficient sufficient volumes of alchemist's fire. I'm talking over a quarter million alchemist's fires in one container, which is technically only 6 doublings in a dimension. Using the weapon size chart, this scales upward to about 8d6 fire damage for a single 'vial'. I then use shrink item on each one I make, so it 'only' weighs 16 pounds.

Now, I can use telekinesis and hurl fifteen jars of burning as touch attacks, doing an average of 420 with a single casting, assuming no fire resistance/immunity. If I see that my target likely has fire immunity, then I'll switch to the acid tray.

It's an intricate series of ropes and pulleys, and will likely involve debates with my DM over this 'cheat'.

SphereOfFeetMan · Post by **SphereOfFeetMan** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:57 am

If you are using the Telekinesis spell, the gentlemen's agreement is the best way. You are 17th level, so using a 5th level spell to out-damage a martial character would be stupid. Since the spell is 4 levels below your top level spells, you should probably just ask your Dm to let you do like 1/2 the damage of what a martial character in your group does in a round.

K · Post by K » Sat Apr 19, 2008 6:09 pm

Heroes of Battle has rules on dropping rocks on people while airborn.