Falling Damage?

[Taloras]

I dont have my DMG here with me, but I need to know what the rules for falling damage are? How much damage would you take if someone dropped something 2000 ft wide and approximately 477280000000 lbs on you from 100 ft up? This might actually come up in our next game if things go right....

 

[Fieari]

Falling Damage: The basic rule is simple: 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet fallen, to a maximum of 20d6.

FALLING OBJECTS
Just as characters take damage when they fall more than 10 feet, so too do they take damage when they are hit by falling objects.

Objects that fall upon characters deal damage based on their weight and the distance they have fallen.

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).

Objects smaller than 200 pounds also deal damage when dropped, but they must fall farther to deal the same damage.

You aren't worried about an object less than 200lbs, so I won't bother with that chart at all. Something to note is that falling damage consists of FALLING DAMAGE + WEIGHT DAMAGE. The Falling Damage is capped at 20d6. The Weight damage IS NOT.

Thus: Your 100ft drop will produce 10d6 damage. The weight will produce 477,280,000,000 / 200 = 2,386,400,000 d6

Your total damage dice is: 2,386,400,010 d6

EDIT: I just considered! Your falling object is 2,000ft wide. That means the weight would be dispersed, wouldn't it? Depending on how solid this object is, you might only take damage from the weight directly above you... the more solid it is, the more weight you'll take. Anyone able to help more here?

 

[Taloras]

Thank you.

This is due to one class ability of a planeshifter character in our game....planar area swap. 10th level in the class, so 1000 ft radius area swapped.....shift to elemental plane of earth....thats approximately 41866666667 sq ft of dirt....i looked it up online and dirt is on average around 114 lbs per square foot (more than i expected, but then again, elemental plane of earth is heavy gravity, so this is -light- for there). On average thats 477280000000 lbs for the 2000 ft wide sphere of earth dropping from where the character shifts......which in his case, is 1100 ft up in the air.

EDIT: Oh yea, the DM allowed a wish to give the planeshifter the ability to have pinpoint accuracy with all planeshifting spells and abilities. So no problems with ending up in a city on the elemental plane. With the character background and knowledge(planes), he knows of a good solid place.

EDIT: Your probably right...it would be less....but im pretty sure the DM wont realize it However.....2000 ft wide by a 5 ft x 5 ft area is.....50000 sq ft? x 114 lbs on average? that figures out to 28510d6 damage. Still easily more than enough to kill any creature unless its epic...and even then, they would have to be a god.

 

[knifespeaks]

Umm....lots?

Does it really matter if you are out by say, oh, 2d6? Just rule that it does enough to kill anything mortal.

Consider this: a fully loaded Boeing 737 is around 60 tonnes. 60t = 60,000kgs.
60,000kgs = approx 132,000 lbs (2.2lbs = 1kg).

477280000000 lbs = approximately 3,615,757 fully loaded boeing 737's. Yes, that's 3.6 million 737's.

The mass you are talking about is planetary.

 

[Taloras]

The idea first came about when I created a planeshifter/sorceror for an epic game already in progress(I just moved to the area). However, i found out pretty quickly that I was outmatched by the powergamers, and since the character was -not- designed for combat, I had to figure out ways to use him for combat....this was my second idea (the first idea was to bluff them into accepting a delayed dimensional anchor, then a planeshift....to the negative energy plane).

 

[Daesumnor]

Sweet mother of god. If your GM isn't moved to tears, they are not human. Hmm. If something with the mass of a planet collided with a planet..ooooh, the physics! the damage! *drools*

 

[Stormrunner]

Planetary? Naah.

1000 foot radius is about the size of a small asteroid. Not even dinosaur-killer size, much less planetbuster.

Reminds me of the old "Hill Seeds" item from waay back.

 

[Fieari]

Furthermore, much of the energy an asteroid imparts on impact is Kinetic. An initially motionless asteroid the size of the Dinosaur killer dropped from a mere 100ft up in the air would do SIGNIFICANTLY less damage to the planet, and we'd possibly still be hunting T-Rex to this day.

 

[Coredump]

This is due to one class ability of a planeshifter character in our game....planar area swap. 10th level in the class, so 1000 ft radius area swapped.....shift to elemental plane of earth....thats approximately 41866666667 sq ft of dirt....i looked it up online and dirt is on average around 114 lbs per square foot (more than i expected, but then again, elemental plane of earth is heavy gravity, so this is -light- for there). On average thats 477280000000 lbs for the 2000 ft wide sphere of earth dropping from where the character shifts......which in his case, is 1100 ft up in the air.

I assume you mean 1000' volume, and not area? And those are cubic feet, and not square feet?

EDIT: Your probably right...it would be less....but im pretty sure the DM wont realize it However.....2000 ft wide by a 5 ft x 5 ft area is.....50000 sq ft? x 114 lbs on average? that figures out to 28510d6 damage. Still easily more than enough to kill any creature unless its epic...and even then, they would have to be a god.

It doesn't really matter. The target is dead. D-E-D dead. You are dropping a mountain on him.

What class is this? This is a stupidly powerful ability. The DM should (IMO) have the Earth Elementals take this as an attack, since you are stealing good earth, and replacing it with nasty water filled air.

 

[Taloras]

I assume you mean 1000' volume, and not area? And those are cubic feet, and not square feet?

It doesn't really matter. The target is dead. D-E-D dead. You are dropping a mountain on him.

What class is this? This is a stupidly powerful ability. The DM should (IMO) have the Earth Elementals take this as an attack, since you are stealing good earth, and replacing it with nasty water filled air.

Yea, i meant volume and cubic feet.

This class is the Planeshifter PrC from Manual of the Planes btw. By the 10th level, he has plane shift at will, planar area swap if he wishes whenever he planeshifts(however, if there are any people inside the area, a DC 20 will save cancels the entire swap, thats the whole reason for making it in the air and away from everyone), avoid planar effects(as the spell from the book), and his own demiplane, which grows starting at 10th level. 7 of the 10 levels also grant an effective caster level.

Then again, up until we thought of this use, this was the -weakest- character of the group. We have a chosen of mystra, a 36 ft tall monk(dont ask me, it has to do with a bunch of wierd feats from a swashbuckling book), a pixie lich, some other tiny fey creature....this is the game from hell.....

How high would you have to put the sphere to get enough kinetic energy to cause a cataclysm?

Hmm....since the character has his own demiplane, i toyed with the idea of collecting iron to make a 2000ft wide sphere.....melting it all together.....thats approximately 1884954000000 lbs and 9424770010d6

Hmm.....wonder what kind of damage this would do to a city if dropped from a mile or 2 up? Say.....put a Contingency-Planeshift(elemental plane of earth) spell to go in if he ever gets into an inhospitable airless environment...then Teleport into orbit over the city.......sounds like a doomsday weapon to me. But thats just my take. This IS however, an exercise in how some rules can be exploited horribly.