Throwing things

[Laserlight]

Last night, one of our fighters wanted to throw his allies to the other side of a pit trap. As far as we could find, though, there's no RAW on how far you can throw non-weapon objects, or creatures.

I ruled "Make a STR roll, and what you get is how many feet" (unfortunately he kept rolling high, and nobody ended up in the pit, on the spikes, with a gelatinous cube plopping on top of them--what a wasted oppportunity!), but that doesn't account for the weight or aerodynamics or such. Champions, as I recall, had different distances for a given weight, based on whether they were aerodynamic (javelin), balanced (hay bale) or neither ("struggling duck, or tentacled horror from Hell").

TL DR How far should you be able to throw a thing?

[krugaan]

Last night, one of our fighters wanted to throw his allies to the other side of a pit trap. As far as we could find, though, there's no RAW on how far you can throw non-weapon objects, or creatures.

I ruled "Make a STR roll, and what you get is how many feet" (unfortunately he kept rolling high, and nobody ended up in the pit, on the spikes, with a gelatinous cube plopping on top of them--what a wasted oppportunity!), but that doesn't account for the weight or aerodynamics or such. Champions, as I recall, had different distances for a given weight, based on whether they were aerodynamic (javelin), balanced (hay bale) or neither ("struggling duck, or tentacled horror from Hell").

TL DR How far should you be able to throw a thing?

I don't think aerodynamics really plays much of a factor for throwing big, heavy things unless you're throwing them really far / really fast. On the other hand, you need to be immensely strong to throw something 100 lbs more than a few feet, say.

If anything he could "help" them get across be giving them a good hard shove just as they take a running leap. How wide was the pit?

[Hrugner]

I think something like a DC10 acrobatics check on the part of the throwee should let them use the throwers strength for the distance covered. Use DC15 if they want a running start. It's not super accurate or anything, but it puts the chance of failure on the person who didn't have the tools to cross on their own, and it's fairly simple to apply to the game.

As for the rules themselves? I don't really know. A most generous person could rule that the PC is an improvised weapon that doesn't resemble any sort of weapon and give them a range of 60 feet and 1d4 dice of damage. But obviously that's insane. A more miserly DM could rule that all the assist could ad was a 5 foot distance from a shove tacked onto the throw.

[Iguanodon]

If it's greater than your lift weight (STR*30 bls) you can't pick it up at all. If it is greater than your size category, you can't move it.

To throw an unwilling creature of your same size category, I'd rule it would be the same as the Shove action in the book (it might be in the DMG or listed with the maneuvers), except flavored as a pro-wrestling-style throw if you want.

To throw a willing creature of your size category, it's the same Shove but you don't have to roll. If you want to throw them farther you roll Athletics (DC based on weight), but you can never throw anyone of your same size category more than about 10 feet (big enough for most pit traps).

To throw someone of a smaller size category, it's a grapple to pick them up if unwilling, and an Athletics check to throw, or a Shove if you don't pick them up.

Anyway, that would be how I would rule if this ever came up in game.