Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward
People have no idea how difficult it is in real life to dodge a charging animal.
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I have been charged by a bull before. I had a pole in my hand and waved it in the direction of its face and stepped to the side and moved the end of the pole away from the direction I stepped. It was distracted by the movement of the pole and turned away from me. With no pole, I probably would have not been able to dodge it, but in real life there are usually options besides just trying to dodge. Any object can distract any kind of large herbivore like a bull or rhino, and even something as simple as a loud noise or tossing a rock at its face can cause it to break off its charge.
I agree that in a pure charge vs. dodge situation, a bull is going to hit almost all the time, and I guess a rhino will hit even more, being about 3x to 4x as massive as a bull (no experience with that one). A rhino hit is extremely likely to cause death. The biggest rhinos weigh in at around 8,000 lbs. That’s over twice as heavy as my 4-door sedan. The heaviest rhinos can probably run at around 25-30 mph for relatively short distances. In terms of momentum, that’s basically equivalent to getting hit by a large sedan going 50-60 mph. Good luck surviving that hit.
I don’t think these types of animals have the greatest eyesight, however. The way to model that is to have it roll to hit with its slam. If it misses, perhaps you receive a glancing blow that just knocks you down, tossing you out of its space. If it hits, you get the full slam damage.