Dropping a meteor on someone - would this work?

[Macros]

Hello, Playgrounders, I come here in need of your wisdom.

So, I'm about to start a level 20 campaign; which should bring us well into epic levels (first estimates by our DM say probably around 25-26). And I'm the wizard.

Right now, we still don't know much about the main villain. From the introduction, we know his hobby is conquering planets, and that one of his top lieutenant is some sort of Steel Golem. Maybe. Well, actually, our characters don't even know that, the campaign will probably begin with the invasion, or something.

Doesn't mean I can't plan for the funniest way to do damage.

So, here was my latest idea :
- send an Ice Assassin of myself in outer space, preferably on another plane (unless the target is already on another plane)
- find a small asteroid, no more than 20ft-wide, and hop on it (probably a greater teleport to reach it), waiting the right moment
- when the time is right, open a Gate in front of it, right on top of the target (probably with the real me as guiding the strike)

So, the basic questions :
- would this work?
- what would be needed to endure in space? (my wizard is an undead, so breathing is no problem. I guess cold and fire immunity? Or perhaps Ghost Form would be enough)
- what kind of damage should I expect? And by that, I essentially mean 'what would be the size of the crater'?

[Inevitability]

A psionic item of Adapt Body should take care of your needs in space, combined with an item of infinite create food and water. Just get a psion cohort and you're fine.

And as for the crater size... I really wouldn't know. However, according to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event), meteors of the size you named strike the earth every few years, so I wouldn't bet on it being giant.

[Macros]

Yes, but isn't that because meteors of this size usually disintegrate well before reaching the ground?

Need for food and drink is a non-issue, though (undead), but since Leadership is banned, a cohort will be problematic to acquire (not tom ention, I have enough work making one character of this level, I'm not eager to start a second one!)

[Divide by Zero]

Be wary of collateral damage. Normally a meteor of that size would lose a lot of speed and mass traveling through the atmosphere, if it even reached the ground at all, but if you're going to drop the gate right on top of him...well, you probably won't want to be close enough to guide it personally.

[Zaq]

Be wary of collateral damage. Normally a meteor of that size would lose a lot of speed and mass traveling through the atmosphere, if it even reached the ground at all, but if you're going to drop the gate right on top of him...well, you probably won't want to be close enough to guide it personally.

True, but it also won't have as long to accelerate towards the planet, so it probably won't be going as fast as a typical meteor strike. (Meteorite? I can never remember the difference between meteor/meteorite/meteoroid.)

Of course, all of this is getting physics in D&D anyway, so I'll leave that there.

[Divide by Zero]

True, but it also won't have as long to accelerate towards the planet, so it probably won't be going as fast as a typical meteor strike. (Meteorite? I can never remember the different between meteor/meteorite/meteoroid.)

Of course, all of this is getting physics in D&D anyway, so I'll leave that there.

Admittedly I'm not an expert on astrophysics, but I don't think Earth's gravity would have a really large impact on it until it was already close enough to not matter much anyway.

Assuming average velocity (~26 miles/second) and density (3.4 g/cm^3) with a radius of 10 feet, and assuming I didn't screw up the conversions, it'll hit with about 200 gigajoules of energy, which is comparable to a tactical nuclear weapon. Not gonna destroy a city, but you definitely want to keep your distance.

[Macros]

Yeah, I figured as much. :smalltongue:

Thanks for the comments, I hope I'll get to use this plan during the campaign. You never know when you need a tactical strike on something. Ultimately, the efficiency of the whole thing will be up to the DM anyway.

[Bronk]

At those levels, you might be better off with epic magic of some kind anyway.

With the Gate spell, you'd be limited to a rock's diameter of 20', and you'd need to be on another plane to do it. Then, you'd be limited to the max falling damage of 20d6 per 200 pounds, which is a lot, but unfortunately relatively easy to avoid... all it takes is a DC15 reflex save.

You could still manage to take out a big swath of something by hanging out in the Plane of Air, using disintegrate to sculpt one of the floating islands there into a long cylinder, feeding it through the Gate, then turning it sideways before it hit.

Otherwise... an epic spell to summon a number of rock hurling giants?

[jiriku]

I did something similar a few years back (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?129080-3-5-Need-a-guided-missile), and one of the playgrounders calculated a drop from low earth orbit at terminal velocity in the low terajoule range. An asteroid impact could be potentially much, much higher, but you'll need an asteroid that's headed towards your planet to begin with, ideally on as near to a collision course as possible. Now, if you can shuttle it through a gate and position the exit gate however you like, then you can get that vector automatically.

On the other hand, it might be feasible for you to create an epic spell that simply teleports in or creates an asteroid, then drops it on the target. This is much more time-consuming, difficult, and expensive, but it has the advantage that you can specify the exact result you want while crafting the spell. Thus, you know what you'll get and once the spell is crafted you don't have to depend on DM fiat or an ad hoc DM decision to discover what happens.

[Divide by Zero]

With the Gate spell, you'd be limited to a rock's diameter of 20', and you'd need to be on another plane to do it. Then, you'd be limited to the max falling damage of 20d6 per 200 pounds, which is a lot, but unfortunately relatively easy to avoid... all it takes is a DC15 reflex save.

Dodging a 20-foot rock is, while implausible at that speed, a lot more realistic than a lot of things you can do within the rules. Still puts you at ground zero for the explosion, though, and that's going to be a lot harder to dodge.

[Curmudgeon]

Note that, according to the rules (see Heroes of Battle), any non-aimed projectile (i.e., one where you don't make a successful attack roll) can be avoided with a DC 15 Reflex save. (Size of the projectile doesn't matter.) So you could have something that might do a huge amount of damage, but would most likely be easily avoided.

[Seerow]

It would be one meteor from meteor swarm.

Enjoy your 6d6 fire damage.

[Curmudgeon]

It would be one meteor from meteor swarm.

Enjoy your 6d6 fire damage.
A meteor is a body that falls through the atmosphere, undergoing atmospheric heating. This would just be a rock that bypasses almost all the atmosphere.

[Divide by Zero]

It would be one meteor from meteor swarm.

Enjoy your 6d6 fire damage.

From the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/meteorSwarm.htm):

When you cast it, four 2-foot-diameter spheres spring from your outstretched hand and streak in straight lines to the spots you select.
Even disregarding the many other differences, 2 feet and 20 feet are definitely not the same thing.

[Macros]

A meteor is a body that falls through the atmosphere, undergoing atmospheric heating. This would just be a rock that bypasses almost all the atmosphere.

Well, I certainly hope that won't be the way it is ruled (and as Divide by Zero pointed out, it probably won't). :smalltongue:

Anyway, thanks for all your answers. As many of you pointed out, this isn't really a practical method, and would probably be a bit ineffective at dealing with real threats (too bad for that fixed DC15 save, I'll try to see if I can get an area attack built-in). On the other hand, I think it should be efficient against buildings and static targets, and I believe it might have a good psychological effect.

Anyway, this helped having a good idea of what such a method can and can't do. Thanks for the help!

[Bronk]

Perhaps you could have an orbital platform covered with dominated colossal giants with the epic Distant Shot feat and some telescopes, throwing 20' diameter rocks from space...

You might also want to consider putting Antimagic Fields on your projectiles, since you're targeting a mage.