Question about Falling/Crushing damage

[TheTangeMan]

Okay, so I am making a Aarakocra Moon Druid for a campaign.

Since the Race has a flying speed of 50ft, I am curious about how to calculate how much damage an enemy might take, should I wild shape while in the air and land on an enemy.

The specific example that I'm looking at is flying the 50ft into the air, wild shaping into a killer whale and then falling on an enemy. Given that the average weight of a male killer whale is roughly 6 tonnes, and that falling damage for a character = 1d6/10ft and in the DMG on the trap table, damage caused by a collapsible roof trap is 4d10. How would you decide how much damage a creature would take if something that heavy were to fall from that high up? Thank you in advance!

[Grod_The_Giant]

I'd probably calculate falling damage as usual, then apply it equally to both of you-- and if the target makes a relatively low Dex save, only to you.

[Twigwit]

First off, shame on you, this is almost as Munchkin-y as the old "Summon Blue Whale" trick.

I'm afraid the real answer is to just ask your DM what his ruling is (hopefully in advance.) There aren't really any rules for this kind of thing; he could have the unfortunate victim make a DEX save for half, to avoid all damage, or give him no save, or just rule it doesn't work altogether. I do think it's safe to say you should expect to take at least the same amount of damage as your enemy.

[Coffee_Dragon]

The only person who can decide how much cheese to allow you is your DM.

[Maxilian]

First off, shame on you, this is almost as Munchkin-y as the old "Summon Blue Whale" trick.

I'm afraid the real answer is to just ask your DM what his ruling is (hopefully in advance.) There aren't really any rules for this kind of thing; he could have the unfortunate victim make a DEX save for half, to avoid all damage, or give him no save, or just rule it doesn't work altogether. I do think it's safe to say you should expect to take at least the same amount of damage as your enemy.

I don't think this is so cheesy, but mainly because i wanted to play around with the idea of this with a character.

Though in the player defense, the player will also take damage while crushing his enemies (Falling damage and will also fall prone, so i guess is good enough cause they are "paying" for their actions somehow)

O.T: I normally calculate the damage of a falling object based on how much it weight (every 200 its 1d6, with the same restriction as falling damage -No more than 20d6-)

[Mellack]

I would say regular fall damage for both. I would also allow a Dex save to avoid, or the option to instead use the save and prepare a pointed weapon upward and deal extra damage to the faller. Probably give advantage on that save to inflict damage if using a spear or polearm that can be braced on the ground instead of held by hand.

[MrFahrenheit]

This trick may be fun to pull off in boss fights, but against a group, reverting back to normal form + prone + carry over HP loss + end of your turn - one of your two wild shape uses per day = you'd be better off playing the moon Druid the way it was intended.

[Zanthy1]

1d6 for every 10 feet, and I would add additional dice based on weight and such. However, 6 tons dropped 50 feet would crush nearly everything, and I would probably just have the target make a constitution save to see if they are dead or 1 failed death throw away from dead. Long story short, as a DM I wouldn't allow this at all, at least not after the first time. Reasons? Because its a stupid way to ruin an encounter that I worked hard to make, its a cheap munchkiny way of handling things, and it reeks of moldy cheese, and not the good kind!

[TheTangeMan]

This trick may be fun to pull off in boss fights, but against a group, reverting back to normal form + prone + carry over HP loss + end of your turn - one of your two wild shape uses per day = you'd be better off playing the moon Druid the way it was intended.

Yeah, I figured it wouldn't be too tactically advantageous often, more for the laughs or for a dire situation where I would need to do some big damage very quickly to finish a fight.


1d6 for every 10 feet, and I would add additional dice based on weight and such. However, 6 tons dropped 50 feet would crush nearly everything, and I would probably just have the target make a constitution save to see if they are dead or 1 failed death throw away from dead. Long story short, as a DM I wouldn't allow this at all, at least not after the first time. Reasons? Because its a stupid way to ruin an encounter that I worked hard to make, its a cheap munchkiny way of handling things, and it reeks of moldy cheese, and not the good kind!

I wouldn't expect to do this more than once, if at all. It would mostly be just for the laugh's and not intended to ruin a session. But also, would perfectly understand my DM banning this type of action. I'm also just curious about how DM's typically calculate damage from something falling onto somebody.