How would you adjudicate a flying character using flying grab to toss someone into the air?

[Panpiper]

I have a character with a strength of 50, and a combat flight of 41 meters (with Combat Acceleration/Deceleration and No Turn Mode). She also has the martial maneuver 'Flying Grab'. How would you as a GM adjudicate her grabbing an otherwise hard to hurt enemy as she flies, flying straight up from there continuing her full move, and releasing the enemy at the end of her segment. The idea is not that she stops dead in the air, and lets them drop from that height, but that she imparts her flight velocity to the enemy being tossed, so that they continue to gain some additional altitude in a ballistic trajectory, prior to falling back down.

 

This particular tactic has only just occurred to me. I did not build her with this plan in mind. I had previously been aware that I could of course carry such an opponent normally to any height I could reach and let go. However doing that would take many segments. The other players meanwhile might miss their flying tank not being around. I have not even mentioned this to my current GM yet. My intent is not to be abusive, but I have been made aware that there are apparently a good number of opponents in the game that an even stronger character could do nothing against, so I am weighing options. Terminal velocity or something close could do the job.

 

If there is a consensus that this would be abusive of the rules or even the spirit of the rules, I won't even mention it to my GM. My character is tough enough in this game without him thinking I am reverting to power gaming. If however this is reasonable, just how high could I toss an enemy with this trick? How would you handle a player with the listed abilities trying to pull this stunt in your game?

Ishtar Ninurte.pdf

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

Q: How much damage are you going to deal? 

Q: What's your DC cap? 

A: Well there you go then. 

[Panpiper]

As far as I know, there is no actual "DC cap". Powers have an active point limit of 90 (my character is well below that). Players have been hit with 16d6 attacks. I do not know how much damage this would deal, that's part of my question.

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

6 minutes ago, Panpiper said:

As far as I know, there is no actual "DC cap". Powers have an active point limit of 90 (my character is well below that). Players have been hit with 16d6 attacks. I do not know how much damage this would deal, that's part of my question.

Then I don't have enough information to guess if your trick will be allowed and you should talk to your GM. 

[Greywind]

If it is just a drop, they you're looking at falling damage only.

[drunkonduty]

Step 1: Move up to the target

Step 2: do the Grab-by manoeuvre

Step 3: finish the rest of your movement

Step 4: Running throw. (Distance thrown is, I think, halved for being straight up. Or is that movement is halved for being straight up? Or is it both?)

[Panpiper]

6 minutes ago, drunkonduty said:

Step 1: Move up to the target

Step 2: do the Grab-by manoeuvre

Step 3: finish the rest of your movement

Step 4: Running throw. (Distance thrown is, I think, halved for being straight up. Or is that movement is halved for being straight up? Or is it both?)

 

Personally, I would rule that vertical movement is halved for 'both' the flight 'and' the throw. I had no recollection of rules for running throw. That is clearly exactly what I needed. Thank you.

[Grailknight]

I wouldn't worry about it. You won't need it against equal opponents and  the really powerful ones(thinking 1 villain vs group here) will not be bothered by it.

 

Your character has an OCV of 5 with the proposed action so just hitting will no be a gimme. 

 

Any flyer( no damage), teleporter or leaper(both reduce damage) will be able to mitigate it. You're throwing them up so they don't begin to fall until the next Segment.

 

There is also the real possibility you will have isolated yourself into single combat against a more powerful foe.

 

[Ninja-Bear]

4 hours ago, Panpiper said:

 

Personally, I would rule that vertical movement is halved for 'both' the flight 'and' the throw. I had no recollection of rules for running throw. That is clearly exactly what I needed. Thank you.

That’s fine but double check with GM. Last game I played, a Flyer went his FULL movement straight up cause thats the way they always played.  House Rule if you will.

[Hugh Neilson]

6e v2 p81, a Running Throw with 40 extra STR (the first 10 used to carry the average weight target) is 64 meters distance.  At least a full half-move is required, but you want the grab early in your move anyway, so no big deal there. 

 

6e v2 p 62:

 

Quote

Assume any Grab-and-Throw is a Standing Throw, unless the Grabber begins a Phase with a Grabbed victim and the GM lets him move before making the Throw.

 

A standing throw would be 32 meters.  Your GM may be open to waiving that rule given the nature of the Flying Grab, though, as well as the advantages on your Flight (if there is no exception in the maneuver description - I am guessing not as you did not know where Running Throw was), or may consider this a reasonable tradeoff for not needing a separate action, and attack roll, to Throw the target.

 

I would have no issue with the maneuver - lots of good reasons above.  I'd want to establish how the mechanics would work - they would work the same way for anyone else using a similar maneuver, such as a Grab-By.

 

There are also rules for augmenting STR with movement on 6e v2 p 25, but I don't think these would be very effective given your existing high STR.  I would consider using these to augment throwing distance, though, perhaps without requiring you to sacrifice the movement given the nature of the maneuver adding your velocity to the target's velocity.

[segerge]

If you take your opponent high enough before release and let God, Isaac Newton, and ballistics take their courses, the ultimate damage cap the sudden stop at the opponent's landing would be terminal velocity.  According to the "Falling" table (6th Ed Book 2, p. 141), that's 60 meters/segment on Earth.  That's, what, 20d6 in 6th edition for deceleration trauma?

 

Edit: after a double-check with Move-Through rules, the damage would be 10d6, not 20d6 as I originally assumed.  That's what I get for re-choreographing a written fight using FRed rules over the weekend...

[Panpiper]

The 6th edition has a whole section on falling damage. Terminal velocity is indeed 60 meters/segment which will do 30d6.

[segerge]

On 6/15/2020 at 4:02 PM, Panpiper said:

The 6th edition has a whole section on falling damage. Terminal velocity is indeed 60 meters/segment which will do 30d6.

 

I missed the "long falls" subsection on page 140.  Thank you.

[Tech]

Panpiper, it appears we have a consensus that it's not abusive or the spirit of the game (subject to GM). By the way, thank you for posting it as a .pdf - not everyone has Hero Designer for various reasons.