What's so wrong with Hulking Hurler?

[MoogleEmpMog]

Frankly, I doubt the stupid-powerful hulking hurler who can do 1000s of d6 of damage would ruin most games.

Combat-heavy games tend to involve lots of dungeon crawls, where the hurler probably can't go or, if he can, he can't throw. Social games... well, with the invariable war hulk levels, the hurler won't be terrible productive there.

It should have a damage cap of 20d6, same as basically everything else pre-Epic... which is technically a mechanics issue, not a class issue. I can't help but wonder if the hurler and the improvised weapon tables weren't written by different designers at different times, and ne'er the two did meet. Other than that, the hurler's not really a poorly designed class, but it's certainly one of more use to NPCs.

 

[Sejs]

And that's for a Half-Orge, which is +1 LA.

+2, now. Updated in Races of Destiny.

 

[Mad Mac]

You know, come to think of it, wasn't there a 20d6 cap on hitting people with heavy objects? At least in 3.0? I seem to remember some errata or ruling of the sort brought on by True Telekinesis mischief with the psionics handbook.

Even as a one-hit-wonder though, I could see the Hulking Hurler not being the dominant force he expected to be. Hitting people with huge rocks is not exactly an unbeatable tatic, especially when he has nothing to fall back on. Extreme long or short range encounters would be a huge hassle for him, as would fights that focused on groups rather than a single powerful monster.

Or to put it another way, if you had a high-level group, and they picked up local legends of a giant who managed to kill a great dragon with a single hurled boulder, do you really think they wouldn't track down and mop the floor with the guy in short order?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Hulking Hurler is one of the PRCs people like to yap on and on about because they like to have a discussion about math. Those numbers nerds!

With that, you are of course right. The problem is not that the d20 system is broken beyond repair, but that some poeple like to find one practical use for their math courses at the university by searching for stuff like this.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

It is not exactly a secret that the designers have a weak grasp of scaling when they put together their formulas.

 

[Crothian]

It is not exactly a secret that the designers have a weak grasp of scaling when they put together their formulas.

Or they never concern themselves with taking it to the extremes like other people want to.

 

[Bryan898]

I actually had a player try to use a big hulking hurler on me, though not quite 1000d6's. I don't really restrict the players in their character making, though I do only allow certain books. After the first quick "encounter", I subdued the 1/2 ogre fairly quickly with some Will save spells.... they're just lucky I didn't use Charm Monster

Seriously though, the Hulking Hurler class isn't broken if you don't try to break it. I had a centaur (SS) that threw gargantuan javelins using the class, and he wasn't horribly overpowered, though his damage was on the high end.

 

[Crothian]

Seriously though, the Hulking Hurler class isn't broken if you don't try to break it.

Now there's an interesting thought and very very true. Applies to all things in the game really.

 

[Impeesa]

You know, come to think of it, wasn't there a 20d6 cap on hitting people with heavy objects? At least in 3.0? I seem to remember some errata or ruling of the sort brought on by True Telekinesis mischief with the psionics handbook.

Even as a one-hit-wonder though, I could see the Hulking Hurler not being the dominant force he expected to be. Hitting people with huge rocks is not exactly an unbeatable tatic, especially when he has nothing to fall back on. Extreme long or short range encounters would be a huge hassle for him, as would fights that focused on groups rather than a single powerful monster.

Or to put it another way, if you had a high-level group, and they picked up local legends of a giant who managed to kill a great dragon with a single hurled boulder, do you really think they wouldn't track down and mop the floor with the guy in short order?

The 20d6 cap applies to natural hazards, like falling.

Also, it's been well-discussed that the character is incredibly ill-suited for any normal game. He's got a huge glass jaw, but he can deal absolutely ridiculous amounts of damage with that one throw - the toughest fights come down to a solitaire initiative roll, in the worst case scenario.

Even as a "DM-only" class, it's easy to accidentally crank the damge up to the level of causing a TPK if the party can't close in fast enough.

--Impeesa--

 

[Doctor Shaft]

A Hulking Hurler can easily TPK... but only if you give said Hurler some kind of obscene advantage.

A Hulking Hurler is specialized to do one thing, and one thing only. Throw big stuff at people. As such, it should be nearly impossible for said character to suddenly adapt the skills of a silent rogue bandit, have the ability to trap and surprise said party of PC's in some area where his rocks just happen to be sitting at the ready, and then produce a situation where said character's can't find a spot on said map to take cover, or quickly close the difference.

So long as you don't create an encounter with the following sentence: "And then a hulking hurler manages to catch you completely off guard, in an empty valley, with no cover... but oh, he's carrying around 50 ton rocks so we're talking maximum damage... and you didn't notice said objects as you were travelling." Then it shouldn't be so bad.

As another poster said. The class isn't so bad if you don't deliberate attempt to exploit the system for all it's worth. Rules are only there to justify actions. Some rules are shaky, and can be used to easily justify the wrong things.