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[3.5] Death from above, via Treant?
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<blockquote data-quote="Persiflage" data-source="post: 5251927" data-attributes="member: 73597"><p>Not so. You were fine up to the point where you suggested that a tree would take 20d6 damage simply because it *dealt* 20d6 damage. If your car runs over a cat, the cat dies and all the car will feel is a slight bump. Taking your argument as read, anything that hits anything else will take as much damage as it deals, which is patently incorrect. </p><p></p><p>You were <em>almost</em> right, but the tree isn't "strong enough to take the [20d6] damage", it's "strong enough that it <em>doesn't</em> take the damage".</p><p></p><p>"Damage" is not proportionate to just "force"; it's the measure of the result of a creature or object's susceptibility to force applied in a particular way. For instance, I can jump up and down on a concrete slab without hurting either myself or the slab appreciably despite the significant forces involved - i.e., neither my feet nor the floor take "damage" - but if the concrete were to hit my head with the same force, I would die and the concrete would still be fine. </p><p></p><p>Messy, but fine.</p><p></p><p>Cats are squishier than cars. People are squishier than trees. You can't equate the damage something does to another object by landing on it to the damage it receives whilst so doing because although the forces involved in the collision are indeed equal and opposite as you describe, "force" and "damage" are in no way interchangeable as concepts.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>Apologies to the younger members of the audience for the reference <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>Now this *is* true, but the reasons are more complicated than "acceleration due to gravity". Terminal velocity is NOT the same for all creatures unless they're in a vacuum. One of the (many) reasons why a spider falling off a cliff will "land" whilst an elephant doing the same will "splash" is that the elephant will be travelling an awful lot faster than the spider.</p><p></p><p>There's also exo-skeletal vs. endo-skeletal considerations, different body densities, area-to-volume ratios, deformation of different types of materials, etc., etc.</p><p></p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /></p><p></p><p>WHAT?! Holy cr*p dude, I never want to see the flies where you live! Or possibly it's the watermelons I should watch out for... </p><p></p><p>Basically, the OP has a good point and the best way to address it is to look at the rules of the game rather than introducing Newton's Laws or spurious comparisons between watermelons and flies. Besides, I'm not even sure I've understood what you're saying: are you actually claiming that a housefly can withstand a greater force than a watermelon?!</p><p></p><p>Forget "terminal velocity": the game has no mechanic that even vaguely approximates the real world in that regard, which is why everything takes the same damage for falling, and why the damage is linear rather than exponential. [1]</p><p></p><p>From a rules perspective, the Treant can't perform the manoeuver as described, because:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So, if the DM (or players) wanted to prevent heinous amounts of damage being inflicted on a technicality - and rightly so - they just need to point out that the rules for that manoeuver require an object to be in place. You can't even claim "the creature's head" is an object, because any creature is by definition not an object.</p><p></p><p>Not only that, but the Treant isn't an object either: it's a creature, and it deals damage as a creature, so if you want it to pull this stunt you have to use rules that apply to creatures. There are two obvious ways to do this without resorting to (much) home-brew.</p><p></p><p>1) You could handle this like a dragon's "Crush" attack:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It wouldn't be hard to adapt this for any creature of sufficient size. </p><p></p><p>Alternatively, and more simply, give the Treant the "trample" special ability and call it good:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Either way, by the rules as written the Treant can't hop-scotch the PC's to death and quite right too!</p><p></p><p>Cheers,</p><p></p><p></p><p>Persiflage</p><p></p><p>[1] For what it's worth, I run a house-rule that inflicts "sum-to-n" falling damage, like so:</p><p></p><p>10ft = 1d6</p><p>20ft = 3d6</p><p>30ft = 6d6</p><p>40ft = 10d6</p><p>50ft = 15d6</p><p>...and so on, until</p><p></p><p>20d6 = 210d6</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Persiflage, post: 5251927, member: 73597"] Not so. You were fine up to the point where you suggested that a tree would take 20d6 damage simply because it *dealt* 20d6 damage. If your car runs over a cat, the cat dies and all the car will feel is a slight bump. Taking your argument as read, anything that hits anything else will take as much damage as it deals, which is patently incorrect. You were [I]almost[/I] right, but the tree isn't "strong enough to take the [20d6] damage", it's "strong enough that it [I]doesn't[/I] take the damage". "Damage" is not proportionate to just "force"; it's the measure of the result of a creature or object's susceptibility to force applied in a particular way. For instance, I can jump up and down on a concrete slab without hurting either myself or the slab appreciably despite the significant forces involved - i.e., neither my feet nor the floor take "damage" - but if the concrete were to hit my head with the same force, I would die and the concrete would still be fine. Messy, but fine. Cats are squishier than cars. People are squishier than trees. You can't equate the damage something does to another object by landing on it to the damage it receives whilst so doing because although the forces involved in the collision are indeed equal and opposite as you describe, "force" and "damage" are in no way interchangeable as concepts. Apologies to the younger members of the audience for the reference ;) Now this *is* true, but the reasons are more complicated than "acceleration due to gravity". Terminal velocity is NOT the same for all creatures unless they're in a vacuum. One of the (many) reasons why a spider falling off a cliff will "land" whilst an elephant doing the same will "splash" is that the elephant will be travelling an awful lot faster than the spider. There's also exo-skeletal vs. endo-skeletal considerations, different body densities, area-to-volume ratios, deformation of different types of materials, etc., etc. :lol::lol::lol: WHAT?! Holy cr*p dude, I never want to see the flies where you live! Or possibly it's the watermelons I should watch out for... Basically, the OP has a good point and the best way to address it is to look at the rules of the game rather than introducing Newton's Laws or spurious comparisons between watermelons and flies. Besides, I'm not even sure I've understood what you're saying: are you actually claiming that a housefly can withstand a greater force than a watermelon?! Forget "terminal velocity": the game has no mechanic that even vaguely approximates the real world in that regard, which is why everything takes the same damage for falling, and why the damage is linear rather than exponential. [1] From a rules perspective, the Treant can't perform the manoeuver as described, because: So, if the DM (or players) wanted to prevent heinous amounts of damage being inflicted on a technicality - and rightly so - they just need to point out that the rules for that manoeuver require an object to be in place. You can't even claim "the creature's head" is an object, because any creature is by definition not an object. Not only that, but the Treant isn't an object either: it's a creature, and it deals damage as a creature, so if you want it to pull this stunt you have to use rules that apply to creatures. There are two obvious ways to do this without resorting to (much) home-brew. 1) You could handle this like a dragon's "Crush" attack: It wouldn't be hard to adapt this for any creature of sufficient size. Alternatively, and more simply, give the Treant the "trample" special ability and call it good: Either way, by the rules as written the Treant can't hop-scotch the PC's to death and quite right too! Cheers, Persiflage [1] For what it's worth, I run a house-rule that inflicts "sum-to-n" falling damage, like so: 10ft = 1d6 20ft = 3d6 30ft = 6d6 40ft = 10d6 50ft = 15d6 ...and so on, until 20d6 = 210d6 [/QUOTE]
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