Throwing a character across a room?


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Glommed from Mutants & Masterminds:

Characters can throw any object they can lift, up to a heavy load. You cannot throw your maximum load, only drop it adjacent to you. Picking up an object is a move action, while throwing it is a standard action, so it's possible to pick up and throw an object in one round.

The distance you can throw an object is based on its weight and your Strength. You can throw your heavy load 5 feet, which is also the base range for throwing. For every 5 points of Strength you have over the minimum required to lift an object as a heavy load, double the base range.

Improvised thrown objects have a range increment of 10 feet.

So, a Large PC with a 22 Strength wants to throw a 200-pound ally. IIRC, it takes a 15 Strength for 200 pounds to be a heavy load. The Large PC has an equivalent 27 Strength for carrying capacity (IIRC). That puts the Large PC 10 points over the minimum required to lift the ally as a heavy load. The Large PC can throw his ally 20 feet.

Yoink!
 

Consider load type and ease of throwing the object vs strength of performing character. Basing on this, choose range increment (none - item can be merely dropped, 1 feet range increment or bigger - for example: grenade-size weapons have 20' increment).
Remember that most ranged attacks for thrown weapons are limited to 5 range increments (projectile weapons: 10 increments).

Hitting target square is a range attack as per splash weapons (AC 5). Modify DC as per number of increments needed (-2 per increment beyond first).

If the thrown object resists, precede throw with CMB vs CMD test (fail - throw failed, success - throw successful, range is halved, success by 10 or more - range as per non-resisting object).


Regards,
Ruemere
 

Flying Dwarf

Here's how I resolved a similar difficult issue.

Playing 3.5: Half-Orc fighter with a STR 21 wanted to throw her dwarf party member who was wearing a horned viking-style helmet across a 10-ft. pit. On the other side of the pit was a drow archer.

She held her action until the dwarf's initiative. Since her DEX was higher than the Dwarf's, she we first.


  • Move-Equivalent: Pick up the Dwarf (dwarf weighed 145 lbs., well below her lift-over-head capacity)
  • Standard Action: Throw the Dwarf at the Drow:
    • Ranged attack, -4 penalty on attack roll as per the Improvised Throwing Weapons rule.
    • Strength Check vs. DC of 10 for 5 ft., +1 foot for each point over 10 rolled. (she rolled her D20 = 16, STR mod = 5, Total roll was 21... for an effective max range of 16 ft.)
On the Dwarfs action:

  • I treated his movement of being thrown as a Charge (considering he DID move before attacking, he was moving at least 10 feet, and was traveling in a straight line without obstructions).
  • Once he was within melee range of the Drow, he was allowed a single melee attack with the horns of his helmet
    • -8 penalty on his attack roll because he was using a weapon he wasn't proficient with (the horned helmet), but he gained a +2 bonus on the attack roll to compensate for momentum.
    • Had the Drow archer been using a melee weapon, the Drow opponent would have been granted an AOO toward the Dwarf... who was suffering a -2 to his AC for the Charge
All rolls were made in the open, and the attack succeeded. Damage was calculated as such:

  • The Dwarf rolled 1d6 (each horn was treated as a 1d3 piercing weapon), and The Half-Orc's STR mod was applied to the damage roll.
In order to compensate for the momentum of a flying dwarf, I modified the rules of Bull Rush.

  • Opposed STR rolls between the Half-Orc thrower and the Drow defender.
    • +2 bonus on the STR check for Bull Rush.
    • Drow received a +2 stability bonus... he wasn't exceptionally stable, but he was far more stable than an air-born dwarf.
Rolls were made, and the flying dwarf skewered the drow & pushed him back 6 feet (as per the maximum-allowed throwing distance)

Ending results:

  • Both combatants landed prone.
  • Dwarf took damage as though falling 16 feet (his total distance of movement).
  • Since a non-throwing weapon being thrown has a 50% chance of breaking, a roll was made, and both horns broke off the helmet.
All in all, the players agreed it was a fair outcome utilizing what rules were established. As for my opinion as a DM... I'll let the players try whatever hair-brained scheme they want, but they're gonna earn it. There will be risk, and like always, dice rolls will be made in the open with a "hands-where-i-can-see-them" approach. This of course puts the players at their own mercy, and makes them think twice about doing stuff like this... then again, if they roll it and succeed, then they earned it!
 
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