A player in my group has a fun idea for a character. He's planning on playing a halfling daring champion cavalier / mouser swashbuckler with a good focus on acrobatics. One of the things he'd like to do is to have allies be able to throw him into combat at the enemy. This would not happen every time, only occasionally. He would do this by using the new tightfit belt to reduce size to tiny and reduce his weight to somewhere around 4-5 lbs (1/8 of a standard male halfling). Then an ally would throw him at an enemy's square or perhaps even the enemy himself.
Weight wise, this seems reasonable. There are thrown weapons of this weight, though obviously he would need to be treated as a 'improvised weapon' with a range of 10'. Here are the other things I am considering for the rules on this:
* The throw: If the thrower is aiming for the enemy, should this be resolve a a ranged touch attack?
* Skill check: Assuming a good throw the halfling would need to keep his balance. I am assuming this would be acrobatics and not fly. Where should the DC be? If he fails, should the result be that he is prone in front of the target?
* The attack: If the halfling 'hits' the target and makes the skill check to maintain balance, should he get an attack? A charge attack? The halfling wields a kukri normally, so a small light weapon should be usable.
* Does the halfling provoke an attack of opportunity while doing this?
My players know this is sub-optimal and don't care that it is. And I think its fun and creative way to do a mini fastball special. What does everyone think?
* The throw: If the thrower is aiming for the enemy, should this be resolve a a ranged touch attack?
Ranged Touch sounds fine. If the player is thrown in a space then I believe that the thrower would make an attack roll against AC 10.
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* Skill check: Assuming a good throw the halfling would need to keep his balance. I am assuming this would be acrobatics and not fly. Where should the DC be? If he fails, should the result be that he is prone in front of the target?
I'd use a combination of the falling rules(1) and the Moving Through Threatened Squares rules(2) (Quoted Below):
The halfling would make Acrobatics check(s) for moving through threatened squares, and if he fails and takes damage from an Attack of Opportunity, he'd land prone.==================
* The attack: If the halfling 'hits' the target and makes the skill check to maintain balance, should he get an attack? A charge attack? The halfling wields a kukri normally, so a small light weapon should be usable.
As using acrobatics to avoid AoOs is made with a move action, the halfling would have one standard action left.
Which is enough for an attack, but not a charge. I'd probably grant the halfling the +1 to attack for attacking from higher ground.==================
* Does the halfling provoke an attack of opportunity while doing this?
Yep. But not if he makes the acrobatics check.
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Creatures that fall take 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet fallen, to a maximum of 20d6. Creatures that take lethal damage from a fall land in a prone position.2.
In addition, you can move through a threatened square without provoking an attack of opportunity from an enemy by using Acrobatics. When moving in this way, you move at half speed. You can move at full speed by increasing the DC of the check by 10. You cannot use Acrobatics to move past foes if your speed is reduced due to carrying a medium or heavy load or wearing medium or heavy armor. If an ability allows you to move at full speed under such conditions, you can use Acrobatics to move past foes. You can use Acrobatics in this way while prone, but doing so requires a full-round action to move 5 feet, and the DC is increased by 5. If you attempt to move through an enemy’s space and fail the check, you lose the move action and provoke an attack of opportunity.
Table: Acrobatics DC's to Move Through Threatened Areas
Move through a threatened area: Opponent’s Combat Maneuver Defense
Move through an enemy’s space: 5 + Opponent’s Combat Maneuver Defense
For the first bullet point, I'd say if you're trying to damage the enemy then it's against normal AC. But then it'd hurt the halfling as well. Presumably for like 1D4 +Str damage since small hard falling objects deal 2D6. If you're just getting the tiny halfling in the same space touch AC seems fine. Though why not go for the touch AC of the ground if that's the case?
Second point, to use an acro check to not fall prone. Yeah, total house rule. Throwing a creature instead of an object is a house rule mechanic in the first place, even if you can reasonably apply existing rules. But to add on a skill check to give the halfling no penalties for free movement is even more so. I suggest avoiding all of that by rolling a bull rush against the halfling's helpless CMD. Among other things, this way it'll scale distance in time, rather than have a 50 foot range from the start. At level 5 any full BAB PC can have a +10 CMB, against a presumable DC 11 or so. Not amazing, admittedly. But it uses existing CMB rules to justify free movement that doesn't provoke. You can always flavor it as being thrown instead of bull rushed too.
Third point. If you use that mechanic to throw the halfling, then gotta say no to the attack added on the throw. It'd be giving the character a free extra hit. What the thrower is doing is essentially repositioning, and that doesn't garner an extra attack. The point of the throw is to move the halfling. Seems greedy to want to do both that as well as get it an extra attack.
Last point. Oh yeah, it'd provoke. Creature moving into it's square. Acrobatics to avoid? I mean maybe, but the tiny halfling is midair. If you have a sword and a foot tall creature flying at you, it's hard to think the halfling can flip in midair to avoid being hit. Maybe at a huge penalty? But eh overall. I'm more a mechanics guy than not. Can't blame anyone for applying different rules for fun. Luck!
Thanks for the great insight everyone! Will post the results once its been used to relate the efficacy of the rules.