Racquetballs as throwing weapons... (5th Ed)

[Marcus Impudite]

Assuming a fairly standard rubber racquetball thrown by hand by someone with 10-15 STR, how many dice of damage and what would be maximum throwing distance?

[unclevlad]

A racqueballl's mass is in grams.  By 5E 34, its base STR to pick up is -25.  The ranges and damage would be based on the thrower's STR.  (5E, page 35.)  So, we're talking 35-40 extra STR.  Quite a ways.  The damage is still STR damage.  The racquetball adds nothing;  if anything, I'd probably say it'd apply Reduced Penetration and No Knockback.  (The racquetball is too elastic, and the mass difference to a normal-sized target dictates that the ball is going to rebound with minimal force applied towards moving the target.)

 

If you want to argue that the ball itself adds 1d6?  I probably wouldn't argue too strongly.  Racquetballs aren't dangerous, tho, unless they're hitting the face, so that's getting into hit location rules.

[Grailknight]

They really aren't that dangerous even if they hit the face. If you take it directly in the eye you can get hurt  (scratched cornea usually) but nothing more serious. As far as damage goes, it's a Real Object and probably has 1 DEF and 1 BODY. 4d6 N with Reduced Penetration is probably the maximum you can do with it.

[BNakagawa]

2d6 is the most damage I would see from a racquetball. Maybe less if it's being thrown instead of being struck with a racket. There's no way it would do any more damage than a punch.

[Grailknight]

I gave it the maximum of 4d6 assuming it was thrown with superhuman Strength and destroyed by the impact. 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah I've taken a racquetball or two in the past, and they sting and bruise slightly but aren't particularly dangerous.  A fist hits harder, probably because of the elastic nature of the ball absorbing a lot of the energy.