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<blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9048300" data-attributes="member: 7035894"><p>Sorry Oofta, but I don't think your conclusions make sense, here. That dragon is going to be packing a LOT more force than a person would when they hit the wall, and that energy has to go somewhere...and if the wall is completely hard and immovable, like a <em>wall of force</em>, then all that energy is either going back into the dragon or being released as heat - probably a combination of the two. Contrary to your suggestion, the dragon would sustain far more damage than a person would from that impact. Conservation of energy, and all.</p><p></p><p>This also tracks common sense - we've all seen a bird hit a window at a fairly high speed and recover relatively quickly, I'm sure (sadly not every time, but often). But imagine what would happen to a person who hit a wall at 30 kmph.</p><p></p><p>Here's another example: ever been on a ferry? What happens when they hit the dock, even though at that point they are going as slow as possible? There is so much energy released that the ferry bounces back, and the dock has to be designed to do likewise or it would be quickly destroyed.</p><p></p><p>Now imagine that instead of the dock, the ferry is running into a 7mm steel edge, and doing so at full speed, and you start to see the implications of <em>wall of force</em> as an offensive weapon.</p><p></p><p>Edit: okay, I used an online calculator, and assuming a 10 metric ton dragon moving at 50 kmph, they will hit the <em>wall of force</em> with about 980000 joules of energy. That is a LOT (more than a hundred times what a large person would generate). If they hit it edge-on, then a huge amount of that energy is being directed back into a very small area of the dragon, much worse than if they had impacted a broad surface to distribute the release of energy throughout their entire body. Either way would be catastrophic, but I am confident that in any kind of real world scenario that dragon would be split in two by the hitting the edge.</p><p></p><p>Now obviously D&D is not a simulation game, plus there's magic (dragons can also fly, for example). But I would not just want to hand-wave that kind of damage unless, as cleverly suggested above, we establish that the <em>wall of force</em> is also some kind of magical energy absorber, and not just a hard surface. Which I think will become my house rule.</p><p></p><p>Edit: how much is 980000 joules of energy? Well, a big game gun, like one used for hunting elephants, fires bullets that hit with around 5000 joules of energy, or roughly .5% as much. So yeah, it's a lot.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Clint_L, post: 9048300, member: 7035894"] Sorry Oofta, but I don't think your conclusions make sense, here. That dragon is going to be packing a LOT more force than a person would when they hit the wall, and that energy has to go somewhere...and if the wall is completely hard and immovable, like a [I]wall of force[/I], then all that energy is either going back into the dragon or being released as heat - probably a combination of the two. Contrary to your suggestion, the dragon would sustain far more damage than a person would from that impact. Conservation of energy, and all. This also tracks common sense - we've all seen a bird hit a window at a fairly high speed and recover relatively quickly, I'm sure (sadly not every time, but often). But imagine what would happen to a person who hit a wall at 30 kmph. Here's another example: ever been on a ferry? What happens when they hit the dock, even though at that point they are going as slow as possible? There is so much energy released that the ferry bounces back, and the dock has to be designed to do likewise or it would be quickly destroyed. Now imagine that instead of the dock, the ferry is running into a 7mm steel edge, and doing so at full speed, and you start to see the implications of [I]wall of force[/I] as an offensive weapon. Edit: okay, I used an online calculator, and assuming a 10 metric ton dragon moving at 50 kmph, they will hit the [I]wall of force[/I] with about 980000 joules of energy. That is a LOT (more than a hundred times what a large person would generate). If they hit it edge-on, then a huge amount of that energy is being directed back into a very small area of the dragon, much worse than if they had impacted a broad surface to distribute the release of energy throughout their entire body. Either way would be catastrophic, but I am confident that in any kind of real world scenario that dragon would be split in two by the hitting the edge. Now obviously D&D is not a simulation game, plus there's magic (dragons can also fly, for example). But I would not just want to hand-wave that kind of damage unless, as cleverly suggested above, we establish that the [I]wall of force[/I] is also some kind of magical energy absorber, and not just a hard surface. Which I think will become my house rule. Edit: how much is 980000 joules of energy? Well, a big game gun, like one used for hunting elephants, fires bullets that hit with around 5000 joules of energy, or roughly .5% as much. So yeah, it's a lot. [/QUOTE]
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