Big fat falling dwarf

[Devronq]

So one of my players was asking about a build basically heres what he was thinking, he will be like a big fat armored dwarf (something heavy) and has perfect flight and when hes beside an enemy fly 30ft straight up then let himself fall onto the enemy to deal damage. Im not clear on how much damage something like this would deal but im pretty sure falling objects cap at 20d6 damage. So heres my questions

1. How much damage would an attack like this deal?
2. What if he held a big metal spike and fell on them?
3. How much damage would he take? (from falling)
4. Would he make an attack roll or would the enemy get a ref save?
5. Would this provoke Aoo and when.
and lastly
6. How would you build this?

[OzymandiasX]

1. How much damage would an attack like this deal?
2. What if he held a big metal spike and fell on them?
3. How much damage would he take? (from falling)
4. Would he make an attack roll or would the enemy get a ref save?
5. Would this provoke Aoo and when.
and lastly
6. How would you build this?

1. If he is making a charge attack from above, it follows standard charge attack rules. If he just wants to free-fall onto them, give the target a relatively easy reflex save, the same as to avoid some falling rocks. If the target fails the reflex save, split falling damage between them. (Note: If he's free-falling from high enough to do 20d6 damage, the reflex save would be even easier.)

2. This sounds like an attack with an improvised weapon (-4). He could fall as his move, then make a single attack. If you want to be generous, maybe add +d6 damage because he is specced to be heavy.

3. Fall damage is based on height. If he free-falls onto an enemy and they don't make the ref save, they can split the damage.

4. I'd say the target gets the reflex save. If he wants to actively make the attack, then he should charge from above (which seems like a much better idea anyway)

5. If he free-falls, yes it would provoke because he'd be moving out of a threatened square (the square above the head of the target). If he is charging, use the rules for charging.

6. I wouldn't. lol It might make for comic relief for a fight or two, but it can't make a viable combat build, especially if he'd be high enough level to have perfect flight up at all times.

[Bakeru]

To be cheesy:

RAW, the dwarf only takes damage from falling :
1d6 per 10 ft., capped at 20d6. First d6 is non-lethal since he's falling intentionally. Can be reduced to 1d6 non-lethal and 1d6 lethal with a successful jump or tumble check. Armor with the Landing property lets you ignore 60ft. distance of any fall, so he should wear that.

The enemy he's falling on takes damage from a falling object:
1d6 per 200 pounds of the object), uncapped, as well as 1d6 per 10 ft. it fell, capped at 20d6. Assuming he weights between 200 and 400 pounds, that would mean he does 4d6 of lethal damage. 7d6 of lethal damage if he's falling 60 ft instead (as much as armor of landing would let him ignore). And +1d6 if he manages to weight something between 400 to 600 pounds.

That's RAW as I understand it. The damage it does (7d6) is, on the level where you could reliably pull this off, pretty ignoble, so it's more of a fun tactic, not an exploit. Just... don't do it in a serious game. In a random weird game? Call him Mario.

[Fyermind]

Have him take battle jump. He gets a double damage attack when he jumps on an opponent. Have him wield a piercing weapon (spiked shield?) and consider it a flying charge. He charges straight down dealing (1d6+str mod*1.5)*3 damage. Not too shabby. Add in the standard charge optimization techniques and you can get a sizable amount of damage that works in most outdoor locations and allows you to close with flying opponents.

[Big Fau]

There was a thread about this on WotC forever ago (before the BG exodus, IIRC). IIRC, it involved a Warforged Swordsage using the Shadow Hand teleport maneuvers to not only invoke falling object rules, but to trigger Shadow Pounce.