i saw that tiktok about the spell "Conjure Animals" cow meatiors and i asked around about the math because apparently it wasn't a 100% correct ??
cows on average weigh around 1400lbs
the spell Conjure Animals doesn't state that u have to conjure the animals on the ground so can do it from 60ft and drop em down
the original damage counted 6D-6 damage/cow/60ft
but then i saw a chart that says falling objects heavier than 200lbs falling from 10ft max out damage at 20D-6
BUT AGAN!! i was told it should be 1D-8 or 1D10 per cow
also...are fae spirit weightless ?
now i'm just confused and idk what to settle at for the damage, there is also the enemy's reaction, would they go for a dex saving throw and if they succeed they get half damage ? like in " instant fortress" or would they not see it coming and getting hit is inevitable because the cows appear from nowhere ?
you can summon 8 cows at 3rd level so wouldn't that be ( if we take the 6D-6/cow) 48D6 ?
if we take( 1D-8/ cow or the 1D10/cow) it's easy counting
but if we take 20D-6/ cow it's ......160D-6/8 cows which is way too much damage...for a 3rd level spell
but then i saw a chart that says falling objects heavier than 200lbs falling from 10ft max out damage at 20D-6
BUT AGAN!! i was told it should be 1D-8 or 1D10 per cow
If you can provide a source for this I would appreciate it. As far as I am aware there is no rule published by Wizards of the Coast that modifies the damage from falling to be anything other than 1d6 per 10 feet fallen.
As for your actual question's I first want to say that a lot depends on how your DM determines range and area of effects. In the real world the point 60ft over an enemy 60ft away from you is ~84ft away from you and thus out of range. However in D&D it is not uncommon to treat diagonals on a grid the same as straight lines for simplicities sake and thus treat the point described before as being 60ft away. For the rest of this post I will be using this simplified, unrealistic method of determining distances.
If we just consider the core rules (Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual) then the answer is simply the Cows take the falling damage and that is it, anything different would be DM ruling. Thankfully Tasha's Cauldron of Everything included rules for magical and natural hazards including a rule for Falling onto a Creature. This rule tells us that when a creature falls onto another creature the impacted creature must make a DC 15 Dex save. On a failure the falling damage is divided evenly between the falling and impacted creatures and both fall prone. On Success only the falling creature takes damage and falls prone.
So good news, Conjure Animals can do damage in this way! But how much?
One thing to note is that the spell requires that the unoccupied space the Cows need to be in range. As a Large creature each Cow takes up a 10ft by 10ft by 10ft cube. So a summoned cow would be 50ft above the ground, rather than the full 60ft. Also the creatures we want to hurt occupy space so we need to subtract the height of the space our target occupies to determine the final fall damage. Tiny creatures occupy a 2.5ft cube and Gargantuan creatures occupy a 20ft cube. So our Cows are falling something between 47.5ft - 30ft. So that means between 3d6 to 4d6 fall damage depending the size of our target.
This damage however is shared between the Cow and the creatures it lands on. So assuming the Cow falls 40ft and lands on only one creature and it falls the save then both take an average of 4d6 divided by 2, which is 14/2 or only 7 damage to both.
Also, if we can position our Cow so it lands on multiple enemies, we should. This will result in less damage to each individual enemy but more of the overall fall damage going to enemies instead of our Cow.
But that is just one Cow, what about the rest? Well we don't want our Cows falling on each other so we have to spread them out so each targets different creatures. With 8 Cows we can carpet bomb a 40ft by 20ft rectangle.
With the targeting rules we are using Fireball affects a 40ft by 40ft square because of ignoring diagonals. And Fireball deals 8d6 (average of 28) damage to each creature in its area.
So yes, Conjure Animals can be used as a direct damage spell. But in reality it just isn't as good as actual damage spells and is much better being used to summon a bunch of minions to choke up corridors and take hits for the party.
i saw that tiktok about the spell "Conjure Animals" cow meatiors and i asked around about the math because apparently it wasn't a 100% correct ??
cows on average weigh around 1400lbs
the spell Conjure Animals doesn't state that u have to conjure the animals on the ground so can do it from 60ft and drop em down
the original damage counted 6D-6 damage/cow/60ft
but then i saw a chart that says falling objects heavier than 200lbs falling from 10ft max out damage at 20D-6
BUT AGAN!! i was told it should be 1D-8 or 1D10 per cow
also...are fae spirit weightless ?
now i'm just confused and idk what to settle at for the damage, there is also the enemy's reaction, would they go for a dex saving throw and if they succeed they get half damage ? like in " instant fortress" or would they not see it coming and getting hit is inevitable because the cows appear from nowhere ?
you can summon 8 cows at 3rd level so wouldn't that be ( if we take the 6D-6/cow) 48D6 ?
if we take( 1D-8/ cow or the 1D10/cow) it's easy counting
but if we take 20D-6/ cow it's ......160D-6/8 cows which is way too much damage...for a 3rd level spell
If you can provide a source for this I would appreciate it. As far as I am aware there is no rule published by Wizards of the Coast that modifies the damage from falling to be anything other than 1d6 per 10 feet fallen.
As for your actual question's I first want to say that a lot depends on how your DM determines range and area of effects. In the real world the point 60ft over an enemy 60ft away from you is ~84ft away from you and thus out of range. However in D&D it is not uncommon to treat diagonals on a grid the same as straight lines for simplicities sake and thus treat the point described before as being 60ft away. For the rest of this post I will be using this simplified, unrealistic method of determining distances.
If we just consider the core rules (Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual) then the answer is simply the Cows take the falling damage and that is it, anything different would be DM ruling. Thankfully Tasha's Cauldron of Everything included rules for magical and natural hazards including a rule for Falling onto a Creature. This rule tells us that when a creature falls onto another creature the impacted creature must make a DC 15 Dex save. On a failure the falling damage is divided evenly between the falling and impacted creatures and both fall prone. On Success only the falling creature takes damage and falls prone.
So good news, Conjure Animals can do damage in this way! But how much?
One thing to note is that the spell requires that the unoccupied space the Cows need to be in range. As a Large creature each Cow takes up a 10ft by 10ft by 10ft cube. So a summoned cow would be 50ft above the ground, rather than the full 60ft. Also the creatures we want to hurt occupy space so we need to subtract the height of the space our target occupies to determine the final fall damage. Tiny creatures occupy a 2.5ft cube and Gargantuan creatures occupy a 20ft cube. So our Cows are falling something between 47.5ft - 30ft. So that means between 3d6 to 4d6 fall damage depending the size of our target.
This damage however is shared between the Cow and the creatures it lands on. So assuming the Cow falls 40ft and lands on only one creature and it falls the save then both take an average of 4d6 divided by 2, which is 14/2 or only 7 damage to both.
Also, if we can position our Cow so it lands on multiple enemies, we should. This will result in less damage to each individual enemy but more of the overall fall damage going to enemies instead of our Cow.
But that is just one Cow, what about the rest? Well we don't want our Cows falling on each other so we have to spread them out so each targets different creatures. With 8 Cows we can carpet bomb a 40ft by 20ft rectangle.
So how does this compare to Fireball?
In a word, badly.
With the targeting rules we are using Fireball affects a 40ft by 40ft square because of ignoring diagonals. And Fireball deals 8d6 (average of 28) damage to each creature in its area.
So yes, Conjure Animals can be used as a direct damage spell. But in reality it just isn't as good as actual damage spells and is much better being used to summon a bunch of minions to choke up corridors and take hits for the party.
A cow hitting with it's attack is more effective at doing damage than falling from the height you can conjure it at.
Now, if only Druids could combine a cow meat-eor with a demonic summoning spell...