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Before a certain Feat gets mentioned, let me just cut you off and say that I am aware of it.
What i'm looking for a standardized set of rules for D&D 3.5/Pathfinder in which you can calculate how far something gets send flying after being hit by a powerful enough blow.
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
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Originally Posted by Ragitsu
Before a certain Feat gets mentioned, let me just cut you off and say that I am aware of it.
What i'm looking for a standardized set of rules for D&D 3.5/Pathfinder in which you can calculate how far something gets send flying after being hit by a powerful enough blow.
There isn't as it isn't a standard thing. There is a feat Powerful Blow that adds it though.
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
I'm not all that great at martial skills but as far as i know without using "The Feat", some abilities from ToB, or certain monster ability there is no standard rule for a knockback hit. Which is why it's a feat in the monster manual.
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
Only homebrew knockback i know is tied to power attack.
Basically if you succeed a power attack you make a bull rush attempt and add the amount you subtracted from your attack when you made the power attack to your strength check, double the bonus for a 2 hand weapon, doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity, and you don't move with them.
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
There also exists the feat Awesome Blow. For most big monsters you could simply swap out some of their likely-useless feats for it and its prerequisites, and you have a pretty simple rule. Standard action (so, one attack) reflex save (DC = damage dealt) or get knocked back 10' and fall prone.
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
Well, with Knockback you do roll a bull-rush check, right? Just let it move the opponent as far as the bull-rush check would allow without requiring the bullrusher to follow.
That's what crossed my mind for it, anyway.
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Originally Posted by Keld Denar
+3 Girlfriend is totally unoptimized. You are better off with a +1 Keen Witty girlfriend and then appling Greater Magic Make-up to increase her enhancement bonus.
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
This is 3.5 D&D. You need a feat to do anything. You're lucky you can put on your clothes in the morning without special training.
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I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Incanur
This is 3.5 D&D. You need a feat to do anything. You're lucky you can put on your clothes in the morning without special training.
You only get the first set of clothing free: I don't think you ever change clothes. You cast prestigidation to clean all dirt/grime off (faster than a bath).
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
Eyeball it. If the baddie just power attacked for 2d6+ridiculous damage, make the squishy go flying like 20 feet. If the meatshield just power attacked for 2d6+ludicrously high damage but he's fighting a purple worm, then don't make any knockback. Also, definitely let them choose direction.
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Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
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Originally Posted by Starbuck_II
You only get the first set of clothing free: I don't think you ever change clothes.
I guess I'd better homebrew a feat for that. Do you think it'd be competitive with TWF or should I extend it into a long chain for balance?
__________________
Read my historically inspired fantasy fiction here. I walk along a winding path set by Ludovico Ariosto, William Morris, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Ursula Le Guin.
Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
Standard rule: you don't get knocked back, because frankly it would get a bit silly VERY fast.
If you put in a house rule that does this, expect a few of your players to get the hint and play chargers, who become far more powerful (since everyone's getting knocked clear of the enemy all the time anyway). Also, Wings of Flurry is now "you can't act, you're horribly damaged, AND you're thrown really far away."
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
Anyone who wants the effect can play a goliath or whatever and take Knockback, so it's not as if adding non-feat rules for this would change everything.
__________________
Read my historically inspired fantasy fiction here. I walk along a winding path set by Ludovico Ariosto, William Morris, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Ursula Le Guin.
Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
Isn't this what Bull Rush rules are for? Realistically, smacking a guy REALLY HARD doesn't throw him across the room, it just turns him into goo. Rush = opposed strength checks; for every five you win by, you knock your opponent back 5 feet.
(3.5) Existing Mechanics For what You Want:
The Brutal Surge weapon enhancement (MiC 30) lets you knock guys backward with a regular attack 3 + cha/day. Use with The Feat Who Must Not Be Named, in combination with shock trooper and Rampaging Bull Rush for two rush attemps, both with double distance (hooray for diagonals!) for four times the distance a normal bull rush would get you, AND your opponent is prone. Snag an extra 4d6 with Dungeoncrasher for some real fun. Now I know there's a feat somewhere which lets you take points off power attack and add them to the strength check...
^ Houserule? you could theoretically just give everyone the effects of The Feat for free, adding 1/4 damage or something like that to the opposed check. the only problem I see with this is battles which begin to look more like billiards than D&D.
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slipperychicken
Realistically, smacking a guy REALLY HARD doesn't throw him across the room, it just turns him into goo.
As someone who has personally gone flying from a powerful impact, I beg to differ. When that car turned left into me and my bicycle I didn't end up as goo, though the crash did break a few important bones and inflict one particularly nasty cut requiring a bunch of stitches. Less fortunate automobile victims sometime sail many dozens of feet. (I have little idea how far I went, though definitely not that far.) It's a matter of momentum. Massive slower moving objects have and transfer more than less massive fast ones.
__________________
Read my historically inspired fantasy fiction here. I walk along a winding path set by Ludovico Ariosto, William Morris, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Ursula Le Guin.
Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
...Which is why I said that thing about the monster vs. the fighter. It's probably best to decide based on their respective sizes- maybe a two-size-difference minimum?
__________________
That whale is going to die, and it's Fullbladder's fault.
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Incanur
As someone who has personally gone flying from a powerful impact, I beg to differ. When that car turned left into me and my bicycle I didn't end up as goo, though the crash did break a few important bones and inflict one particularly nasty cut requiring a bunch of stitches. Less fortunate automobile victims sometime sail many dozens of feet. (I have little idea how far I went, though definitely not that far.) It's a matter of momentum. Massive slower moving objects have and transfer more than less massive fast ones.
It makes perfect sense to go flying from a car crash. In D&D terms the car in that case was essentially a Large hunk of metal doing a bull rush attempt and getting a circumstance bonus from how fast it was moving. You flew away, as expected, and took 10-20 damage combined from falling rules and impact, and were dropped into the negatives (I'm assuming you have *maybe* 2-3HD and were KO'd).
Big things hit smaller things and knock them back. this is not in question, and there are even rules for it.
But the real question is whether a bear is going to do the same thing with its claws. Whether a creature, standing still, hitting you with a magic greatsword is going to end up giving you a nasty scar or tossing you across the room. Now that I think about it though, it makes sense to knock enemies back with some types of damage more than others, so you could make a case for a creature a size category larger hitting with bludgeoning or explosions, but not so much for piercing or slashing.
Re: Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slipperychicken
You flew away, as expected, and took 10-20 damage combined from falling rules and impact, and were dropped into the negatives (I'm assuming you have *maybe* 2-3HD and were KO'd).
I couldn't walk for mechanical reasons (the broken ankle) but I remained completely conscious. I even managed to carry on a limited conversation between the screams.
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Big things hit smaller things and knock them back. this is not in question, and there are even rules for it.
A normal bull rush requires moving with the target, doesn't it?
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Now that I think about it though, it makes sense to knock enemies back with some types of damage more than others, so you could make a case for a creature a size category larger hitting with bludgeoning or explosions, but not so much for piercing or slashing.
Agreed. The image of a punch sending a character flying appeals to me because I'm a comics geek. High-level D&D combat resembles a superhero adventure in many ways already so why not go with that feel?
__________________
Read my historically inspired fantasy fiction here. I walk along a winding path set by Ludovico Ariosto, William Morris, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Ursula Le Guin.
Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking:
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!
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Knockback rules for standard D&D 3.5/Pathfinder?
I guess I'd better homebrew a feat for that. Do you think it'd be competitive with TWF or should I extend it into a long chain for balance?
