[RPG] Does falling damage by weight get limited to 20d6

damagednd-3.5efalling

I'm trying to build a character that does damage by dropping on people. (It's a baleen whale with grafted wings.) I was reading the SRD on falling damage and it has this very confusing line about falling objects:

For each 200 pounds of an object’s weight, the object deals 1d6 points of damage, provided it falls at least 10 feet. Distance also comes into play, adding an additional 1d6 points of damage for every 10-foot increment it falls beyond the first (to a maximum of 20d6 points of damage).

Is the total falling damage limited to 20d6 or just the falling damage from height (which would make more sense since falling damage is limited because of terminal velocity)?

Best Answer

No, it's only limited to 20D6 by height alone.

The only part that indicates there is a maximum on damage is the distance portion. As it says:

Distance also comes into play, adding an additional 1d6 points of damage for every >10-foot increment it falls beyond the first (to a maximum of 20d6 points of damage)

So by that, the formula is simply:

(Weight / 200 lbs * 1d6) + {[(height/10 * 1d6) - 1d6] must be <= 20d6} = damage

So for his character at 16 tons, he would do 160d6 damage at 10 feet. The formula would read:

Weight = 16 tons (or 32,000 pounds) / 200 = 160 * 1d6 = 160d6 Height = (10/10 * 1d6) - 1d6 = 0d6

So at 10 feet, he would do 160d6 damage.

At 20 feet, he would start adding the height damage to his total.

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