How do you determine how much damage a falling object (such as an anvil or large stone) deals when it hits a player or monster, I can't find anything in the basic rules for it.
You just have to wing it. There's a thing in the DMG about falling object damage, but I think just considering it for a little bit makes sense. An anvil or large stone would deal 4d10 damage, but you can scale that accordingly for level of the party.
The easiest way to calculate the damage an item does - use Newton’s Third Law. For creatures, falling damage deals 1d6 damage for every ten feet the creature fell—if they are receiving Xd6 damage from hitting their point of impact, their point of impact could be said to receive an equal and opposite force of Xd6 damage as well.
You could change the d6 to different amounts of damage based on the mass of the object falling, to represent the object having more kinetic energy at the time of impact.
You just have to wing it. There's a thing in the DMG about falling object damage, but I think just considering it for a little bit makes sense. An anvil or large stone would deal 4d10 damage, but you can scale that accordingly for level of the party.
I would actually advise *against* scaling such damage based on party level. It really doesn't make sense for a falling anvil to hit a low-level character more gently than a high-level character.
You just have to wing it. There's a thing in the DMG about falling object damage, but I think just considering it for a little bit makes sense. An anvil or large stone would deal 4d10 damage, but you can scale that accordingly for level of the party.
I would actually advise *against* scaling such damage based on party level. It really doesn't make sense for a falling anvil to hit a low-level character more gently than a high-level character.
Agreed. Consider scaling the dice size based on the size of the object, in a similar way to how you'd scale the size of the hit dice of a monster based on its size. d4s for an especially small but still dangerous object like a brick, up to d20s for incredibly large objects like an entire ship.
For verisimilitude, add a saving throw against the height in yards (30 feet = 10 yards = difficulty 10), to a max of 20 (there's always a chance you survive). If you fail, you break your neck and die. Otherwise, normal 1d6 per 10 feet. If the landing is fairly soft, you make the save automatically but still take the damage. But above 50 feet, there's no such thing as a soft landing; even water is deadly, unless you're a trained diver jumping deliberately.
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How do you determine how much damage a falling object (such as an anvil or large stone) deals when it hits a player or monster, I can't find anything in the basic rules for it.
You just have to wing it. There's a thing in the DMG about falling object damage, but I think just considering it for a little bit makes sense. An anvil or large stone would deal 4d10 damage, but you can scale that accordingly for level of the party.
"Is that the flying saucer?"
Ok, so how much damage would a human paladin wearing heavy chainmail armor deal if he fell on too of someone... Say after pole vaulting into them...
The easiest way to calculate the damage an item does - use Newton’s Third Law. For creatures, falling damage deals 1d6 damage for every ten feet the creature fell—if they are receiving Xd6 damage from hitting their point of impact, their point of impact could be said to receive an equal and opposite force of Xd6 damage as well.
You could change the d6 to different amounts of damage based on the mass of the object falling, to represent the object having more kinetic energy at the time of impact.
Ok, thanks
I would actually advise *against* scaling such damage based on party level. It really doesn't make sense for a falling anvil to hit a low-level character more gently than a high-level character.
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Agreed. Consider scaling the dice size based on the size of the object, in a similar way to how you'd scale the size of the hit dice of a monster based on its size. d4s for an especially small but still dangerous object like a brick, up to d20s for incredibly large objects like an entire ship.
For verisimilitude, add a saving throw against the height in yards (30 feet = 10 yards = difficulty 10), to a max of 20 (there's always a chance you survive). If you fail, you break your neck and die. Otherwise, normal 1d6 per 10 feet. If the landing is fairly soft, you make the save automatically but still take the damage. But above 50 feet, there's no such thing as a soft landing; even water is deadly, unless you're a trained diver jumping deliberately.