Ok, but hear me out:
If you accelerate something into a freefall orbit, then it stands to reason that the projectile would deal falling damage (equal and opposite force, you know) which maxes out at 20 d6.
this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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Applying real world logic to game rules never works out.
Also, you forget to take into account the weapon's mass, form, structural integrity, the commoner's reaction time, probability to fumble, the force of the wind, and probably a few dozen other factors that have an effect in the real world.
Just don't. It's a game.
I was just making a joke. Lighten up.
If a character has 121hp or more they're able to jump from a space station onto earth with like a super hero landing??
theyd also need something to protect them from the friction and resulting heat of air brushing by at terminal velocity tho, i assume?
oh no wait, im making it too realistic
Terminal velocity for a human is not fast enough to cause air to heat up. You'd probably get frostburn instead.
If you're jumping from a space station then you'd be traveling at orbital velocity when hitting the atmosphere which is plenty fast enough to generate heat.
Unless the space station is not orbiting. Maybe it's a mobile one like the Desthstar.
... the death star orbits. The timer for the rebels to blow it up in a New Hope was how long its orbit would take to clear the moon in its path to the rebel base. The battle of endor was fought over the new death star in orbit over the moon.
Yes, the death star is capable of warp, but that just puts it into orbit over different things.
Yes it orbits in the movies, that doesn't conflict with anything I said. I'm describing a scenario where it doesn't (which doesn't happen in the movies).
A space station with the ability to achieve orbital speeds on it's own power means it can also negate orbital speeds, before you jump off. And presumably regain them afterwards, if it doesn't want to also plummet down to the planet.
Your example was for a space station that doesn't orbit and you used the death star for that, which does orbit. Does that make sense to you? Cause it's baffling me
No, it was not an example of a station station that doesn't orbit. It was an example of a mobile space station. I agree it would be baffling to read my comment that way.
Here is a rewording if that helps: You could jump off of a station station without worrying about orbital velocity if it wasn't orbiting. To have a space station that doesn't orbit, it would have to be a space station with engines, so that it can cancel that velocity. For an example of a station station that has engines, you can look at the Death Star.
It can orbit. It doesn't have to. It's capable of moving between systems, it's not confined to a single gravity well.
Hold up. Didn’t some guy drop balls off a roof to show that things fall at the same speed?
So, yes and no. Acceleration due to gravity impacts all objects equally. With no air resistance, on earth, everything speeds up at 9.8m/s/s. But, that "no air resistance" is a big asterisk. This is why, say, parachutes work. It's also how we get terminal velocity. Often misinterpreted as "how fast you'd have to go to die from a fall" it's actually "how fast you need to go before the drag from your air resistance is a force greater than or equal to gravity"
Right. That all makes sense. So the air resistance is what is also causing it to heat up. I still don’t see why a person wouldn’t do that.
So, multiple options here. Skydivers regularly hit terminal velocity, as fast as they'll go in atmosphere, before pulling their chutes. At these speeds, heat from friction isn't enough to worry about. Once again though, if you're coming down from space, that "in atmosphere" asterisk goes away. If you're dropping from a satellite, you're going at speeds necessary to orbit, and you don't have anything slowing you down until you hit the atmosphere. Suddenly your terminal velocity is way lower than infinity, and the friction you're feeling from the atmosphere is INTENSE, rapidly turning that speed into heat
Alight cool. All basically what I figured. Thanks!
Shape affects aerodynamics.
Well sure but I don’t think a human is shaped in a way that would really affect this.
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In 5e yes. I think the theory is once you hit terminal velocity, you aren't going to get any more damage from a longer fall.
Fun fact, I actually did have a villain do exactly that in a campaign once. The party achieved a secondary win condition during combat and so the BBEG jumped off the top of the space elevator to escape.
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Alternatively, invest 18 levels into monk and get no damage in 99,51% of cases
Yes.
ODST-Dropping your barbarian is objectively the best way to have him enter combat, and it inflicts psychological damage to anyone close enough to witness it.
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No. They'd need a pretty impressive jump height to slow down enough to leave orbit.
If you can manage to get someone into freefall I'd allow it. But no, equal opposite forces doesn't mean you roll dice the same lol. Your sword does not take damage when you attack with it.
I want to play a game where there is an NPC roving band of guerrilla peasants that in times of crisis form a rail gun militia. Dragons? Rail gun. Tax Administrator? Rail gun. Cathy's Baby Shower? Also believe it or not, rail gun.
Cathy's Baby Shower? Also believe it or not, rail gun.
Handing out gifts at the speed of sound.
The obvious use of the peasant railgun is instant delivery. Gonna start my new enterprise, pFood, coming at you within 1 turn or your money back!
It even works with people. They can carry up to 150 pounds if you have them move 30 feet before passing it to the next guy or 300 pounds if they're moving 5 feet. I call it the peasant railway.
See what you do is, you put the peasants in a circle and have them pass a magnet to eachother. Put a coil of wire in the middle and you've got infinite free energy!
Each peasent can only pass the magnet once every 6s, as they can only do so on their turn.
Also, this is a universe with magic in it. A level 0 sorcerer can endlessly cast the cantrip "shape water" to move a turbine for infinite free energy. For less work (but more training) the level 2 spell "Heat Metal" can be cast on a boiler.
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The peasant railgun and the squirrel chain are effective in 2 conditions:
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Each one with above average strength contributes a +1 "helper" bonus. You're not concerned with how fast it gets to a place, but that with everyone helping, you can get it around the world and back again - and everyone helped.
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You're not concerned with the damage - only how it gets there. So if you can get a Hands Across America thing happening, you can pass messages in a single round.
The peasant railgun is kinda weird tbh.
It first uses game rules ignoring physics (using the ready action to pass the object super fast along the line of peasants), to then flip and ignore game rules while using physics (not applying the rules for throwing an object but instead claiming that physics "realism" demands that the object keeps its speed and does damage according to the speed, not according to game rules).
Fun meme, but really doesn't make sense in game.
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