Savage Species feat - Fling Enemy

[Kusuf ibn Zaid]

I am a DM who loves the big fellas. Giants in particular. Accordingly, I have written several house rules that deal with large creatures. One of the most used is a rule determining how large an object a creature can pick up and throw, and how far that object can be thrown. This rule has been primarily used by my giants to throw PCs around the battlefield. Therefore, I was quite excited when I saw the feat Fling Enemy in the book Savage Species. However, my initial joy turned to horror when I read the feat closely. From my understanding of how the feat works, this feat is utterly deadly. It allows a huge-sized monster (with a 25 Strength and the Improved Grab ability) to pick up and heave an opponent up to 600 feat away (120 foot range increment times 5 possible increments for a thrown weapon). This results in the opponent taking 30d6 in damage and being 600 feet away from the combat. That is an awful lot of damage. Particularly, for an ability that effectively removes most characters from the combat for 5 or more rounds. Am I misunderstanding it? Has there been errata?

- Kusuf

 

[Darklone]

Good reason why you should be able to fly

 

[Wippit Guud]

Does it specifically state 30d6 damage? (I don't have the book yet).

IIRC, falling damage is max 20d6. And that would be if he was at least 200ft high at some point. As well, terrain would be an issue, if the opponent lands on a higher level of ground, less damage is taken.

Although the distance away would still pose a problem.

Also... would a character travel that far in just one round?

 

[Kusuf ibn Zaid]

Good reason why you should be able to fly

Are you suggesting that flying will allow you to return to combat more quickly? Or are you suggesting that being able to fly somehow circumvents you being thrown in the first place?

- Kusuf

 

[Kusuf ibn Zaid]

Does it specifically state 30d6 damage? (I don't have the book yet).

IIRC, falling damage is max 20d6. And that would be if he was at least 200ft high at some point. As well, terrain would be an issue, if the opponent lands on a higher level of ground, less damage is taken.

Although the distance away would still pose a problem.

Also... would a character travel that far in just one round?

The feat explicity states that you take damage as if you had fallen half the distance thrown (if thrown horizontally). So, for the maximum range, that would be as if you had fallen 300 feet. I had forgotten about the 20d6 maximum. By a strict reading of the feat's text, that would apply. However, 20d6 is still a bit over the top.

-Kusuf

 

[Wippit Guud]

Flying would prevent you from hitting the ground.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I don't think you'd put that 600 feet behind you in a single round (6 seconds). A hundred feet per second? And yes, of yourse, you could use a flying ability (or fly speed) to counter that.

 

[Kusuf ibn Zaid]

Flying would prevent you from hitting the ground.

Why is that? If the throw gets resolved completely during the giant's turn, why would flying make any difference?

 

[Wippit Guud]

If I'm flying, I don't fall down. If someone threw me up, as soon as momentum stopped, I'd stay there. Creatures with magical flying control whether or not they move up or down.

 

[Kusuf ibn Zaid]

I don't think you'd put that 600 feet behind you in a single round (6 seconds). A hundred feet per second? And yes, of yourse, you could use a flying ability (or fly speed) to counter that.

The feat also allows the Huge-sized creature to throw the opponent at another opponent like a thrown missile weapon (both opponents take the damage on a successful hit). This indicates to me, that the throw is resolved instantaneously like an attack. In any case, it makes no mention of the movement rate of the poor flung soul as he is launched into the stratosphere.

- Kusuf