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One of my players is constantly bugging me about using Enlarge/Reduce to reduce a boulder to a smaller size and then hurl it via the spell Catapult, cancel the concentration on Enlarge/Reduce before the impact, and let the enemy be smashed by a much bigger one.
Can the Enlarge/Reduce and Catapult spells be combined in this way?
First off, Enlarge/Reduce can certainly make boulders smaller:
The target's size is halved in all dimensions, and its weight is reduced to one-eighth of normal.
However, these boulders have to meet the requirements below for Catapult to shoot them:
Choose one object weighing 1 to 5 pounds within range that isn’t being worn or carried.
So, you're looking at a boulder that is at most 40 pounds in weight. How big is that? I don't make a habit of wandering around the countryside weighing rocks, but if I had to guess I'd say probably a little bigger than your head. So far, we're good to go...
D&D 5e doesn't make rules to handle things like mass, inertia, coefficients of drag, and muzzle velocity...so all we're left with is the actual spell description. And, according to the Catapult spell:
the object and what it strikes each take 3d8 bludgeoning damage.
So, yes you can totally Reduce a boulder to a size that the Catapult spell will work on it, and yes you can even drop concentration after it is shot toward a target, but the spell does 3d8 bludgeoning damage. Period.
The damage comes from the spell, not from what you use as the projectile. You can use a pound of soft butter, 3d8 damage. A pound of feathers, 3d8 damage. You can Reduce a boulder, 3d8 damage.
Can the Enlarge/Reduce and Catapult spells be combined in this way?
See, the thing is, in this case it's "ask your DM". So, whatever you decide, goes. I'm gonna say 'no' for three very different reasons.
One, the Catapult spell. It clearly says what damage it does.
Two, the timing. Doing something like that - dropping concentration at just the right time would be certainly nontrivial and, even if allowed, ought require some kind of difficult check.
Three, I have a personal hatred of enlargement and shrinking as superpowers and magical effects, and my personal ruling would be that the light fast pebble becomes a heavy slow boulder which immediately falls to the ground, because conservation of momentum. But then, I'm a spoilsport.
