How much strenght it takes to squash a humanoid head?

[Pinjata]

So, stats. What strenght score is needed in order to grab a humanoid by the head and sqeeze untill it cracks?

Thanks :)

[Tanarii]

As much as it takes to reduce them to 0 hit points. Then fail 3 death saving throws, if they get to make them.

So in 5e, it's a question of how fast you can do that damage using your unarmed attacks. For non-monks or non-tavern brawlers, you do 1 + Str per hit.

[Unoriginal]

So, stats. What strenght score is needed in order to grab a humanoid by the head and sqeeze untill it cracks?

Thanks :)

According to the MM, STR 16 is enought to break a stone statue without any tool. Coincidentally, STR 16 is also what you need to kill a Commoner with one unarmed strike.

A DC 20 STR check is enough to break steel chains.

That being said, there is no true answer to your question. It's just how you flavor the kill once you've got the humanoid to 0 HP.

[LudicSavant]

Two creatures with the same strength score aren't even necessarily equally strong. For example, two creatures with different size categories and the same Strength scores will have different carrying capacities. Differently-built characters can have different abilities to lift, break things, or otherwise make strength checks or saves... all while having equivalent Strength scores.

The attribute system just isn't very good for this sort of thing because attributes aren't straight up output values, they're rather more abstract cogs in a larger formula that is modified by all sorts of things.

[SociopathFriend]

You mean the real-life answer or the D&D answer?
Real-life it's not something a human can really do if you're talking Game of Thrones Mountain-style.

In D&D a crocodile's strength is 15 and I believe we've documented their bites as being capable of crushing a human skull. Granted, their jaws are mechanically superior to just regular hands, so the 15-16 strength area does indeed seem to be the right region to shoot for if you just want a number.

If you want a more exact science then you're probably SoL.

[Tanarii]

Coincidentally, STR 16 is also what you need to kill a Commoner with one unarmed strike.I'll never look at a Str 16 character the same way again. :smallamused:

[CTurbo]

When I was using my Goliath Barbarian brawler, my DM ruled that a DC23 Str check was enough to snap a medium humanoid's neck for insta kill. I had to already have them grappled to even try though.

[Tetrasodium]

Quite a lot (https://www.sciencealert.com/game-of-thrones-exposed-the-science-of-skull-crushing) to crush a human skull.

So onto the second question: how much force required to crush a human skull?

Human bone is incredibly sturdy. It is stronger than steel and concrete of the same mass. The human skull encases the most important organ of the human body, the brain, and has evolved to be as strong as possible to withstand trauma.

Lenny Bernstein from the Washington Post spoke to neurosurgeon Tobias Mattei and reported that a skull fracture requires 500 kg of force. It would be possible for a man who weighed 500 kg (remember The Mountain only weighs 190 kg) to fracture a skull by stepping on it but, according to Mattei, it would be “impossible [for a man] to break [a skull] with his hands even if 90 percent of the 235 kg were biceps muscles.” Moreover, “It would be almost impossible … to ‘blow up’ the head’s top from inside… No explosion would be seen. The eyes of the victim would be pushed backward some few inches. That’s it.”

Cynthia Bir, a biomedical engineer at the University of Southern California, confirmed this assessment writing that “ there is no way to get the head to ‘explode’ by applying pressure from the eyes. You would need to create pressure inside the cranium. Even if you could generate pressure by squeezing the outside of the head, once the cranium is breached at the orifice where the eye nerves enter, this pressure would be greatly diminished."

Kyle Hill at the Slate asked the question about a similar stunt in the Star Trek movie. Quoting a bike-helmet study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, he wrote that 235 kg (520 pounds) or 2,300 newtons of force would be needed to crush a human skull, almost twice as much force as human hands could possibly muster.

You may recall from high school physics that Force = Mass x Acceleration, so something quite heavy has to be travelling very fast to generate enough force to crack a human skull. The Mountain might be able to lift 235 kg (520 pounds) but he probably couldn't channel that strength into his fingertips and exert enough force to crush a human head.

[Angelalex242]

Quite a lot (https://www.sciencealert.com/game-of-thrones-exposed-the-science-of-skull-crushing) to crush a human skull.

From that, I say a skull crush maneuver requires a belt of giant strength and a strength in the mid 20s or so.

[Trask]

I feel as though we should separate animals and monsters from pcs in this regard. A crocodile may have only 15 or so strength, but that manifests different. A crocodile can do things with its strength a pc cannot.

Also a dc 20 str check to break IRON chains is stupid. A commoner is going to snap iron chains 5% of the time? Even disregarding that its silly.

[SociopathFriend]

From that, I say a skull crush maneuver requires a belt of giant strength and a strength in the mid 20s or so.

Bear in mind that article mentions making the skull explode for the most part. The end goes basically into how strong you actually have to be. Twice as strong as what a human is capable of.

If strength 10-11 is average, 12-13 would be a bit above average, 14-15 would be considered much more above average, and that magical str 16 would make you very much above average.

It actually does start making sort of numerical sense.

[Angelalex242]

Bear in mind that article mentions making the skull explode for the most part. The end goes basically into how strong you actually have to be. Twice as strong as what a human is capable of.

If strength 10-11 is average, 12-13 would be a bit above average, 14-15 would be considered much more above average, and that magical str 16 would make you very much above average.

It actually does start making sort of numerical sense.

I take it as, you have to be twice as strong as the strongest human. That is, twice the lifting power of STR 20. Then you can crush skulls.

[the secret fire]

Over 9000!

[Tetrasodium]

Bear in mind that article mentions making the skull explode for the most part. The end goes basically into how strong you actually have to be. Twice as strong as what a human is capable of.

If strength 10-11 is average, 12-13 would be a bit above average, 14-15 would be considered much more above average, and that magical str 16 would make you very much above average.

It actually does start making sort of numerical sense.

Breaking a skull with a weapon (even a simple club) shouldn't be too difficult , it's just without weapons that you need to start getting into the realm of wtf levels of strength or maybe using leverage/nertia/etc to your advantage. I got the impression that the OP was wondering more about what kind of value might be needed to realistically crush a skull (like the mountain in GoT) less than what would be a cool end to narratively end a drawn out fight.
The crocodile mentioned might only have a 15 strength as mentioned, but its jaws are evolved weapons