Could a Dragon use an unconscious PC as a thrown weapon?

Question

I like to ground my games with a cinematic scope and my players may come up against a dragon pretty soon. The dragons are very much feral and evil and so I am looking to show their feral nature.

If a player was knocked to making death saving throws, could the dragon (using D&D 5e Mechanics) pick up the player and use them as some form of improvised thrown weapon, and throw their barely living body at another PC?

An Improvised Weapon would require the person to be dead and thus classed as an object (RAW) but is there anything else that would stop me from doing this in the books? It's a cool moment but I don't want to do something unfair.

Answer 1

Certainly

First of all, when you say it's a cool moment and you are the DM trying to design a compelling encounter, that is all you need. If it is cool, do it. The monsters don't have to play by the same rules as the PCs, and can typically be more compelling without those limitations.

When looking at the rules as written, even PCs can throw their party members. A dead goblin is specifically listed as an option for improvised weapons:

An improvised weapon includes any object you can wield in one or two hands, such as broken glass, a table leg, a frying pan, a wagon wheel, or a dead goblin.

The basic rules clarify that:

An improvised thrown weapon has a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet.

...meaning a dragon can certainly throw a dead or dying PC and would use the improvised weapon rules to do so.

Answer 2

Yes, it could.

Instead of using a weapon to make a melee weapon Attack, you can use an Unarmed strike: a punch, kick, head--butt, or similar forceful blow (none of which count as weapons). On a hit, an Unarmed strike deals bludgeoning damage equal to 1 + your modifier. You are proficient with your Unarmed strikes.

I'd certainly say that throwing someone counts as a "similar forceful blow". This wouldn't be an effective strategy due to the very low damage, and the DM (you) would need to decide how exactly would the dragon roll against two PCs (one thrown, one being thrown at). You would also need to consider the fact that the attack against the unconscious character, if it hits and the attacker is within 5 feet, is an automatic critical hit, and a critical hit equals two failed death saving throws. Thus, by doing what you described, you may kill your PC without giving his comrades a chance to heal him.

Personally as a DM I would rule that being grabbed by a dragon is not yet an attack, so no crit and no double death fail for a thrown character. If the dragon succeeds against the AC of the character he is throwing the body at, I would count both to be hit. If not, I'd rule that the character being thrown just tumbled relatively harmlessly. I'd rule that way because the player whose character is down probably is having a bad day now anyway, and finishing his character off wouldn't add "cinematic scope", just frustration.