Distance Traveled and Damage

[Etrivar]

I agree with the PH3.5 in that when falling vertically (or, more precisely, upon impacting something after falling vertically), you should take an amount of damage dependent on how far you have traveled, representing the acceleration of falling straight down (no I don't wanna get into terminal velocity). Moving ten feet down represents the amount of acceleration that gravity was able to produce, and thus an increase in the amount of energy that will be in your impact, ergo, more damage.

However I begin to disagree with them when it comes to the distance traveled and damage taken with horizontal travel. Whenever an effect causes you to be thrown horizontally, you also take damage dependent on the amount of distance traveled. But if you travel ten feet horizontally, that ten feet represents not an increase in velocity, but an expenditure of the energy required to travel that far.

Say you were flung 50 feet, that means that only enough energy was imparted into you to travel 50 feet. Now say you struck something at the 45 foot mark. Most of that 50 feet worth of energy has already been expended, and you only have five feet of energy left. But you take more damage than if you had hit something at 10 feet, when you still had forty feet worth of energy left, which makes no sense.

I'm trying to convince a friend of this and he says I'm crazy to think this way. Am I? (btw, I'm not asking if I'm crazy, I know I am, but I want to know if I am crazy in regards to this particular subject :smallwink:)

[person29]

to be more accurate you would need to figure out where the horizontally thrown person stopped accelerating and began decelerating

[Drglenn]

Most of the things that would throw you any significant distance are magical, which as we all know cuts out at the end of its range, so you travel at the same power until you get to the end of the movement then stop suddenly (as to why you don't get whiplash/whatever, a wizard did it)

[bloodtide]

Well, your kind of mixing things up.

You can't 'throw' someone 50 feet, for example. You would throw someone at a speed however. So if you could toss someone at 50 miles per hour and they hit a wall 10 feet or 20 feet or 40 feet away...they will still be going 50 miles an hour when they hit. A car is a good example...you you floor it to 50 MPH it does not matter how far you travel to the wall, you will still hit the wall at 50 MPH.

A thrown object or person would loose some speed...but not too much to matter. You can't throw a glass cup any real distance at a wall so that it would 'hit the wall with very little force left' and not shatter.

[Moriato]

However I begin to disagree with them when it comes to the distance traveled and damage taken with horizontal travel. Whenever an effect causes you to be thrown horizontally, you also take damage dependent on the amount of distance traveled.

Are you sure about that? For example the telekinesis spell/power does not increase damage according to how far you are thrown, you simply take damage as if you fell 10 feet (1d6). The Energy Push psionic power will throw you 5 feet per 5 damage, but again if you hit an object you just take 2d6 regardless of how far you are thrown.

[Spiryt]

A car is a good example...you you floor it to 50 MPH it does not matter how far you travel to the wall, you will still hit the wall at 50 MPH.



You keep car at 50 mph by achieving it and then keeping engine at particular pace, obviously.

So car is not good example.

Tossed stuff, especially stuff like humans, would decelerate pretty quickly, but, quite simply taking it into account would be unnecessary catgirl murder.:smallwink:

I would just rule that if one meets object towards the middle of max. distance (s)he could be thrown at, damage could be halved or otherwise negated.

Keep it simple.

[Curmudgeon]

However I begin to disagree with them when it comes to the distance traveled and damage taken with horizontal travel. Whenever an effect causes you to be thrown horizontally, you also take damage dependent on the amount of distance traveled.
Where did you find a rule stating that? There are ways to hurt someone by pushing them into a wall, but it requires specific class features (like the Dungeon Crasher ACF for the Fighter class, where the damage is dictated by the Fighter levels, not the distance moved), but the normal rules for things like bull rush don't do any damage for horizontal movement.

[Siosilvar]

Most of the horizontal movement in 3.5 does either flat damage when you hit a wall or the damage depends on remaining movement... I can't think of a single instance where the damage is directly proportional to horizontal movement before impact.

[Orbin Dules]

This is how I would handle it:
A medium sized character gets sent flying somehow. If said character did not collide with an obstacle, he would flown fifty feet. I'd just give a flat 1d6 damage per 10 foot increment that the character should have traveled. That would be 5d6 damage. Now if the character collides with an obstacle before he moved at least ten feet, he would take the full 5d6 damage. If he hit an obstacle after moving between ten and twenty feet, he would take 4d6 damage. If he moved between twenty and thirty feet, then hit an obstacle he'd take 3d6. If he moved between thirty and forty then hit the obstacle he would take 2d6. If he flew forty to fifty feet and collided with an obstacle, he'd only take 1d6. If he did not hit an obstacle at all, he'd take no damage.

[Sacrieur]

to be more accurate you would need to figure out where the horizontally thrown person stopped accelerating and began decelerating

They stop accelerating positively the instant after you threw them. They begin to accelerate negatively from then on after from air resistance. However, due to gravity's acceleration, he would travel in a parabolic path.

[AslanCross]

Most of the horizontal movement in 3.5 does either flat damage when you hit a wall or the damage depends on remaining movement... I can't think of a single instance where the damage is directly proportional to horizontal movement before impact.

Explosive Spell is the only one, I think. I thought the ToB Setting Sun maneuvers increased damage depending on the distance pushed, but apparently not.

However, I do think this is killing catgirls too much. (ie, more trouble than it's worth)