Bear Bomb

[Rickerdoo]

Had a crazy idea today. Moon Druid changes into hawk and uses action and move to fly up 120'. Next round flies down, wild shapes into a bear (anything big) and slams into a Bad Guy. As a DM how much damage would you let the Druid roll? I know normally falling from 120' would be 12d6. How much extra damage for a 1000 lb bear moving at 20'/second?

I know I have too much time on my hands at work. :)

[JakOfAllTirades]

Is that Druid Australian?

[Rickerdoo]

Is that Druid Australian?

Probably a Gurkas. In case you haven't heard of the Gurkas Here is one of them from WW2

On 12/13*May 1945 at Taungdaw, Burma [now Myanmar], Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung was manning the most forward post of his platoon which bore the brunt of an attack by at least 200 of the Japanese enemy. Twice he hurled back grenades which had fallen on his trench, but the third exploded in his right hand, blowing off his fingers, shattering his arm and severely wounding him in the face, body and right leg. His two comrades were also badly wounded but the rifleman, now alone and disregarding his wounds, loaded and fired his rifle with his left hand for four hours, calmly waiting for each attack which he met with fire at point blank range

[Rickerdoo]

I was thinking of a Bearbarian for a PC. Actually when you get 8th level to fly you could be a 8000lb rhino. :)

[Finback]

Is that Druid Australian?

I see what you did there ;)

[Sigreid]

I think you should fly over the enemy and from high in the sky wildshape into an elephant. He'll die and you'll just become human (or whatever) again.

[Hairfish]

I did this in a naval campaign, except my druid turned into an orca and sank enemy boats... and sometimes needed her unconscious body fished out of the wreckage.

Incidentally, given Earthlike gravity (downward acceleration of 32.2 ft/s), any non-aerodynamic creature falling 120' will hit the ground at a velocity of about 80 ft/s.

Falling damage in D&D doesn't really model physics, though.

[NNescio]

Had a crazy idea today. Moon Druid changes into hawk and uses action and move to fly up 120'. Next round flies down, wild shapes into a bear (anything big) and slams into a Bad Guy. As a DM how much damage would you let the Druid roll? I know normally falling from 120' would be 12d6. How much extra damage for a 1000 lb bear moving at 20'/second?

I know I have too much time on my hands at work. :)

Badguy makes a Dexterity save (I rule DC 14 in this case). Fails, takes half of 12d6, other half goes to Druid. Succeeds, bear lands on adjacent square (Druid's choice), takes full fall damage.

I did the fall-bombing technique before, but with an Earth Elemental (1/2 fall damage because of resistance, DM ruled Earthglide treat the ground as water so halved again [houserule]).

[hymer]

In 5e, elephants are very good at suviving from high falls. Capping at 20d6 for an average of 70 damage and a maximum of 120, the fresh, 76hp elephant can't get killed by massive damage from falling regardless of height, and likely will not even be knocked unconscious.
Remember that scene from Hitchhiker's Guide with the whale falling to the ground? In 5e, the whale would have been fine from that fall.

[Ninja_Prawn]

As a DM how much damage would you let the Druid roll?

We've had this conversation at least twice before (sometimes using Polymorph instead of Wildshape)... most people end up making sensible rulings to prevent this tactic from becoming game-breaking. The specifics are probably best left up to the DM in question.


the fresh, 76hp elephant can't get killed by massive damage from falling regardless of height

Which is kind of funny, because IRL, larger animals take more falling damage. "You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes." (J.B.S. Haldane)

[Beechgnome]

You could houserule the falling damage by creature size, just like hit dice, ie. D4 for tiny, D6 for small, d8 for medium, d10 for large, d12 for huge and d20 for gargantuan.

Useful for Jack and the Beanstalk scenarios. The elephant might still live though.

[Sigreid]

I think I'd make it a non-proficient attack roll with no governing attribute (straight d20 roll), until you took the feat.😆

[NNescio]

I think I'd make it a non-proficient attack roll with no governing attribute (straight d20 roll), until you took the feat.😆

URSINE BOMBER

Prerequisite: Wild Shape class feature (CR 1 or greater)

Thanks to extensive practice in inflicting grievous harm with your transformed body, you gain the following benefits:

• When you fall, you may use your reaction to deliberately aim your body at a creature or object that is immediately below you. As part of this reaction you make a melee weapon attack against your target. You are considered proficient in this attack, and you may choose to use either Dexterity or Strength for the attack roll. You have advantage on the attack roll if you are at least two sizes larger than your target. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet you fall.

• You take half damage from falling if you are in a beast shape.

• You gain one extra use of Wild Shape per day that can only be used to assume the shape of a Brown Bear.

[Sigreid]

I was thinking weapon proficiency elephant rump. 😁

[BW022]

Had a crazy idea today. Moon Druid changes into hawk and uses action and move to fly up 120'. Next round flies down, wild shapes into a bear (anything big) and slams into a Bad Guy. As a DM how much damage would you let the Druid roll? I know normally falling from 120' would be 12d6. How much extra damage for a 1000 lb bear moving at 20'/second?

I know I have too much time on my hands at work. :)

Not terribly effective.

The damage the target would take would be about equal to the falling damage. Falling 120' and slamming into the Earth at 56mph, does the same damage as you standing still and the Earth flying up 120' and hitting you at 56mph. Bear would probably do slightly less damage in practice, but at 56mph... a bear or hard rock doesn't make too much difference.

You are also forgetting hitting. Dropping an object 120' on top of a small target isn't easy -- especially if the target is moving. Its nearly a 3 second fall time... plenty of time for most people to get out of the way in real life. In game... I'd require the player to make an untrained attack roll using dexterity. Given a bear, that is pretty much a d20 roll vs. the target's AC. If you hit, you and the target take 12d6 damage. If you miss, you take 12d6 damage.

Either way, you are taking an average of 42hp of damage tossing you out of bear form and taken damage yourself, your opponent has about a 40% chance of taking 42hp of damage, you've used both wildshapes, you've used two rounds to do this (change + fly, change next round), and you are standing next to a CR 8 creature -- since you need to be at least 8th-level to fly. I doubt that the 172hp hydra is going to really worry about a 50% of taking 42hp of damage at the end of two turns.