New trick with Iron body?

[Azoriel]

Has everyone done their homework?

This reminds me of the old "use shrink item on a [maximum weight your mage can affect] anvil, then fly above them and drop it as you say the command word" trick... usually good for a few hundred D6's of damage.

Hm... Unless you guys are referring to multiple uses, I strongly suspect many of you aren't reading your rulebooks closely enough: a falling object deals "1d6 points of damage for every 10-foot increment it falls beyond the first (to a maxiumum of 20d6 points of damage)." (DMG, pg. 89; bold added for emphasis.) Some might argue that this cap only applies to additional damage for falling farther than 10 feet, but I (and I'm sure may other dungeon masters) would be inclined to say that it applies to the base damage as well. Even if the base damage for falling wasn't included in the cap though, unless you had an object that weighed some 16,000 lbs. (roughly 8 tons?) or more, you'd be hard-pressed to pull off dealing one hundred d6's in damage, let alone a few.

(Side note: I don't mean to pick on the person who wrote this post in particular, but I do mean to show any cheese-lords who think that this sort of thing is a legitimate loophole that they are morons.)

(Editted to fix the emoticon.)
(Editted again to fix the tons thingy.)

 

[Caliban]

Re: Has everyone done their homework?

Hm... Unless you guys are referring to multiple uses, I strongly suspect many of you aren't reading your rulebooks closely enough: a falling object deals "1d6 points of damage for every 10-foot increment it falls beyond the first (to a maxiumum of 20d6 points of damage)." (DMG, pg. 89; bold added for emphasis.) Some might argue that this cap only applies to additional damage for falling farther than 10 feet, but I (and I'm sure may other dungeon masters) would be inclined to say that it applies to the base damage as well. Even if the base damage for falling wasn't included in the cap though, unless you had an object that weighed some 16,000 lbs. (roughly 8 tons?) or more, you'd be hard-pressed to pull off dealing one hundred d6's in damage, let alone a few.

(Side note: I don't mean to pick on the person who wrote this post in particular, but I do mean to show any cheese-lords who think that this sort of thing is a legitimate loophole that they are morons.)

(Editted to fix the emoticon.)
(Editted again to fix the tons thingy.)

Ok, I shouldn't have used the word "usually", since that was the theoretical limit, not the normal result. As for the rest of it:

DMG, page 89.

For each 200 pounds an of an object weight, the object deals 1d6 points of damage, provided it falls at least 10 feet.

A 5 ton object weighs 10,000 punds. It deals 50d6 damage if it falls at least 10 feet.

The very next sentence in the DMG states:

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).

The limit of 20d6 is just the limit for the distance it falls, it's not a limit on the base damage.

A 5 ton object that falls 210 feet deals 70d6 damage.

This is supported by the example they give in that section, where a 400 pound stone statue is dropped 100 feet, and does 2d6 (from the weight) + 9d6 (from the distance fallen) for a total of 11d6.

Also: The Shrink Item spell affects 2 cubic feet per caster level, so it affects a minimum of 10 cubic feet when you get it. At 10th level it affects 20 cubic feet, and at 20th it affects 40 cubic feat. If you can afford a solid block of lead or other dense material, that's a pretty heavy weight you can drop on someone.

According to this website ( http://www.reade.com/Particle_Briefings/spec_gra2.html ), a cubic foot of lead is about 700 pounds.

(Funny little side note: The blurb on the page reads

This is a bit of “Real World” information that could be useful to a game master. It’s a list of various materials, and their weight and specific gravity per cubic foot. One of the most obvious uses would be for the calculation of the weight of cargo, or inversely the cargo space need to transport a given weight of cargo.

Another use would be to calculate just how much that pillar of _____ falling on that Gnome weighs anyhow. Squish. Oh, guess it really didn’t matter...!

And this on the Reade Advanced Materials company website! )

So a 20th level caster could affect 40 cubic feet of lead, which is 28,000 lbs.

When dropped from a height of 10 feet, that would do 140d6. When dropped from a height of 210 feet, that would do 160d6.

If you want to get really wacky, use Iridium, at 1383 pounds per cubic foot. (40 cubic feet = 55,320 pounds, or 276d6 damage, or 296d6 damage when dropped from 210 feet.)

For super-fun, Permanency the Shrink Item spell so you can re-use the weight.

Finding that much lead (or anyone who has even heard of Iridium) in a fantasy world is left as an exercise for the student.

Moral of the story: Very heavy things hurt a lot when they fall on you.

 

[Force0]

Well, I am not the one that tough of it in the first place.. (the mage's player was) but I wondered cause when you look under the dragons entry in the MM for some of the older dragons you see a "Crush" damage. The problem lies in that they do NOT do damage with their weigh but with their strength, when do you use one over the other? (Cause if they could do both they would choose to go with their mass as it's probably a LOT more damage then their crush damage.

Anyway, just trying to figure out a way that will make both players and DM happy (as a dragon with Iron body "dropping" from the sky on us would be kinda lethal).

Happy gaming

 

[Orco42]

Re: Re: Has everyone done their homework?

Moral of the story: Very heavy things hurt a lot when they fall on you.

Moral of the story: Don't contradict Caliban.

 

[Impeesa]

I still like the "Fly above enemy fortress and wish for 15000 tons of firewood" method.

--Impeesa--

 

[RigaMortus]

Re: Re: Has everyone done their homework?

When dropped from a height of 10 feet, that would do 140d6. When dropped from a height of 210 feet, that would do 160d6.

My question would be, how do you know said object would hit someone 210 feet below it? Is there an attack roll made? Is it an automatic hit? How long would it take said item to reach your opponent? Maybe by the time it falls your opponent would have taken their turn and moved out of the range (area) of the item as it is falling. Are there any rules on something like this?

And another thing...

If you were a Bowman firing an arrow from a 100 ft. tower to an opponent on the ground, would you do an additional d6 of damage per the distance fired?

 

[Caliban]

Re: Re: Re: Has everyone done their homework?

My question would be, how do you know said object would hit someone 210 feet below it? Is there an attack roll made? Is it an automatic hit? How long would it take said item to reach your opponent? Maybe by the time it falls your opponent would have taken their turn and moved out of the range (area) of the item as it is falling. Are there any rules on something like this?

Not that I have seen. I would say that it's a ranged touch attack for smaller objects, and probably a reflex save for half when dealing with an object that covers an area larger than 5 square feet. But it's really up to the DM.

And another thing...

If you were a Bowman firing an arrow from a 100 ft. tower to an opponent on the ground, would you do an additional d6 of damage per the distance fired?

Nope. Arrows weigh less than 1 pound, and objects under one pound don't do any additional damage from falling. (DMG, page 89)

 

[Darklone]

Mind over matter

My group stumbled over a lichs phylactery... Well not actually. But they wanted to destroy one. Hardness 40, 20 hitpoints or something like this.

Well. They grabbed our Str20 kord priest, buffed him up with everything they got and let him use a smite or something. For a wonderful 1 damage totally

Then the gnome of the group cast an levitate on the box, send it high up and let it drop. It broke.

His quote towards the 5 warriortypes on the table with long faces: Mind over matter!