14

Let's say my Minotaur ally decided during a brawl to grapple with the nearest brigand, pick him up over his head (or maybe just throw him from a standing position), and chuck him as far as his beefy (pun intended) arms can deliver him through the air.

To do this, I would assume you'd have to make a grapple, which would be an action or at least PART of a fighter with multiple attacks' action. Then, would it take a further action to lift the enemy (or ally) above your head, and another to throw them, or would it be part of the lift action?

How would you determine the distance you could toss this creature?

SevenSidedDie
  • 243,609
  • 44
  • 785
  • 1,025
He Who Rules As Intended
  • 5,654
  • 10
  • 36
  • 74

2 Answers2

23

A throw only takes one attack

Shove, is all you have to do mechanically. Jeremy Crawford supports this:

Want to shove someone off a cliff? Use the shove option in the D&D combat rules. You're free to describe it in various ways: a shove, a throw, slamming into the person, and so on.

Throwing (shoving) is a contest. The thrower rolls an athletics check vs the thrown creature's athletics or acrobatics roll. They can be thrown up to 5 feet. Here's the details on shoving from the basic rules:

The target must be no more than one size larger than you and must be within your reach. Instead of making an attack roll, you make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). You succeed automatically if the target is incapacitated. If you succeed, you either knock the target prone or push it 5 feet away from you.

To sum up: it takes one attack (shove) and you can throw up to 5 feet by RAW.

Community
  • 1
lightcat
  • 8,402
  • 2
  • 34
  • 77
  • I can't get links to format properly when writing answers on my phone. Is this a thing? – lightcat Jan 21 '19 at 16:00
  • 1
    The format for links is: [Link text](www.link-url.com) – Kevin Jan 21 '19 at 16:34
  • 3
    That's one way. The way you were trying works too. The problem with the other way you were trying is that when using the [link][1] format, the later [1]: http://this.that needs 1) to be indented by two spaces, and 2) have no brackets around the URL. – SevenSidedDie Jan 21 '19 at 18:05
11

You can shove a creature up to 5 feet (10 with the Charger feat) or knock it prone using an attack - you can describe that as lifting them over your head and tossing them.

Alternatively, you could grapple (1 attack), move with them (move) and then shove (1 attack) - describe this how you like too.

SevenSidedDie
  • 243,609
  • 44
  • 785
  • 1,025
Dale M
  • 210,673
  • 42
  • 528
  • 889
  • Shove says you push the target up to 5 feet, not 10. – Carcer Jan 21 '19 at 08:28
  • 3
    I believe there might be a feat or feature which lets you shove up to 10 ft. Dale might wish to mention this feat if he wants to stick with 10 ft. – BBeast Jan 21 '19 at 09:16
  • 1
    The Charger feat: "When you use your action to Dash, you can use a bonus action to make one melee weapon attack or to shove a creature. If you move at least 10 feet in a straight line immediately before taking this bonus action, you either gain a +5 bonus to the attack’s damage roll (if you chose to make a melee attack and hit) or push the target up to 10 feet away from you (if you chose to shove and you succeed)." – adonies Jan 21 '19 at 16:51