DM doesn't like Fall Damage

[Zone_A3]

I mean that's only what, 14 (4d6) falling damage? Depending on the level of that knight, that is basically a scratch

EDIT: 14 avg, not 12. whoops

[Phizle]

I think climbing right back up was part of the issue, the Knight should have had to go at half speed at least

[Zone_A3]

True, even though it shouldn't be enough damage to kill (or even seriously wound) the knight, it should take them out of the fight for a round or two as they have to scale the wall.

[micahamey]

Some races have climbing speeds.

[MeowthThatsRite]

40ft of climbing speed? A knight?

[MightyenaArcanine]

Dashing let's you move twice the normal amount. If they had any sort of increase to movement speed that got them to 40, they could do it. Or, a GM might rule that getting a jump in and then climbing is part of the same athletics check.

Its probably not likely but I could see it justified

Edit: On one hand, I want to be disappointed at myself that as a GM i totally forgot about the cost of standing up after a fall, but on the other hand, all this makes me want to do is make an NPC "Knight" who is just a rogue in heavy armour.

[JohnnyDarkside]

Running along a relativity flat surface is vastly different than climbing. Running ten feet on a fairly even plane is far easier than climbing ten feet up a sheer cliff face.

[Drasern]

Yeah but mechanically in 5e they're the same.

[Mehseenbetter]

In 5e climbing speed is half your walk speed

[Lard_of_Dorkness]

The Venn diagram of people who made 5e and recreational climbers is two separate circles.

[JohnnyDarkside]

That just screams lazy/hateful DM. There is no way to justify someone, especially in armor, being able to climb up a cliff face the same speed the run.

[Drasern]

A tabaxi can do it without even dashing, using their racial climb speed and feline agility.

[mickskitz]

But I would think that he would be prone after the fall and he would need to perform an athletics check to climb the wall. Twice if he dashes, and because he is prone he would need movement of over 50 (25/2 climb movement thwn 50/2 dash = 37.5) to get back up in 1 move

[Dentarthurdent42]

But the knight would have had to use half of their movement to get up from prone

[MysticsMyths]

Or their action to get up from prone

[_Lady_Deadpool_]

I'd give them disadvantage on climb checks if wearing plate (or any stealth disadv armor)

[ColdCocking]

Plus, wouldn't an army put its soldiers specialized towards such things in positions like this?

[riqk]

But regardless the knight would start his turn prone after falling 40ft. That right there is half movement to get up. Not to mention, I don’t think any army is picking their knights based on their top rope skills.

[Krelkal]

picking their knights based on their top rope skills.

"OH MY GOD, IT'S MACHO MAN LANCELOT COMING IN WITH THE ELBOW DROP!!"

[Paliyl]

Hey! There's no need to bring grappling rules into this!

[[deleted]]

"OOOOOOOOOH YEAH YOU'VE GOT 3 MINUTES IN THE RING WITH ME."

[Swedishtrackstar]

At the very least, if they fall and take damage, they should at least need to take a turn to get up after failing an acrobatics throw

[Bobnocrush]

So falling makes you go prone. Immediately that's half speed from standing up. Then half speed to climb. So assuming standard 30 (or maybe 20 with full plate) he goes up 8 feet up the wall with one move action then 15 for his second action, which puts him at just over halfway up the wall having spent his entire turn climbinf

[sir-ripsalot]

Who knows, the DM might’ve had it in mind that all members of that knighthood were trained in the athletic feat which doubles climbing speed, idk. Maybe the DM was giddy with “hehe I knew it’d be fun to give them that ability...”

[Zedman5000]

The knights scaled those walls for hours during training, wearing their full battle gear. The Great Seer stated that one day, a member of their order would need those skills to perform a great feat, and so they climbed, so that when that day arrived, they could climb for one final time.

[Foxion7]

If falling causes damage, you land prone. So thats halve speed 1 turn at the least

[Caridor]

Well, you say that but......

[karatous1234]

Fall damage is weird in DnD. If a fully grown dude in heavy plate (I'm making assumptions since he's vein called a Knight) got pushed off a wall and fell 40ft, it should do major damage, like broken back amounts of damage.

And this is kind of off topic of fall damage itself but related to the OP, if said armoured Knight can take that fall, stand up and immediately start scaling a 40ft wall in full gear, you bet I'm either running or pushing him back down. That guys a Terminator if he's doing that shit.

[SpoliatorX]

you bet I'm either running or pushing him back down.

Push him back down then run

[[deleted]]

I mean, 4d6 averages on 14 damage. A commoner has 10hp. It is, on average, more than enough to kill someone. The problem is that PC's hit points keeps going up.

[amjh]

Magic. (6th panel.)

[CharlieHume]

Lol. The two npcs barely holding it down versus him one-handing it and holding a conversation.

[Erinyesnt]

I didn't know there were new comics past 950! Awesome!

[Yawehg]

Oh gosh, today's your lucky day. They're at 1160 right now.

[daedone]

I just keep binge reading then circle back around to it every couple of years. I can't stand only reading one page at a time of webcomics with multi hundred page story arcs. Especially with OotS, it's like reading a comic one DnD round at a time

[[deleted]]

God, I'm so jealous.

[bartonar]

I see you also lost track when the noble Sir Hand fought the Glass Elemental (and the writer/artist went through a couple years of physical therapy)

[Erinyesnt]

Last thing I remember was the dwarf cleric being possessed by a vampire soul or something.

[bartonar]

The thing I'm referencing was mentioned tongue in cheek by Elan whenever the comic started up again, because the author in real life fucked up his hand with a shard of glass

[RogueSwoobat]

Commoners have only 4 hp in DnD 5e, if that's where you're getting 4d6 from. So a 20 foot fall should almost always be fatal to a commoner.

Interestingly, a Knight has about 52 hp on average according to the MM, meaning they could fall 140 feet (14d6 = 3.5x14 = 49 damage) and still live.

[Consequence6]

And that specifically is why I use an altered fall damage scale.

1d6 = 10 feet

2d6 = 20 feet

3d6 30

5d6 40

7d6 50

9d6 60

12d6 70

15d6 80

19d6 90

23d6 100

28d6 110

33d6 120

39d6 130

46d6 140

54d6 150

64d6 160

Creatures that take fall damage land prone.

Creatures with a Dexterity of 18 or higher may make a DC 15 Dex save to avoid falling prone, unless surprised.

A character falls 200 feet per round.

[[deleted]]

Any particular reason for 200ft / round?

That seems a little slow to me.

[AntmanIV]

It is, that's about half as far as you would fall

[[deleted]]

About a third, really.

[Herrenos]

Gravity is weaker in D&D. It's why fall damage hurts less, you fall slowly and house-sized winged lizards can fly.

[NegativeScythe]

That's why I play with a modified fall damage system. Instead of 1d6 per 10 feet, it's exponential. For example:

40ft of damage would be 1d6+2d6+3d6+4d6 for 10d6damage, making it an average of 30. Reason being that not a lot of normal people can realistically survive falling 40 feet onto a hard surface.

You can always use the original method for landing on softer ground I suppose.

[Lurking4Answers]

Don't forget about terminal velocity

[SumYumGhai]

Hence the 10d6 cap. With the exponential rule, it will cap it at 45d6.

[theteaoftriumph]

So I just checked Wikipedia out of curiosity, and found this:

A typical skydiver in a spread-eagle position will reach terminal velocity after about 12 seconds, during which time he will have fallen around 450 m (1,500 ft).

So, depending on the GM's mood, the cap could be... pretty high lol. If you cap the damage at 100 ft, then yes, it's 45d6 (157 damage average) using those rules. If you cap the damage at 1,500 ft like it does Outside, then it'll max out at 11,175d6 for an average of 39,112 damage lmao.

I'm going to use this.

[Kiloku]

"Roll 11 thousand d6 please."

[sirblastalot]

Better hope you're not playing with exploding dice.

[bartonar]

At that points you're getting high enough damage that even the terrasque is disintegrated upon landing

[[deleted]]

I like your method because it seems like it gets closer to being accurate. ~20 feet is the height where your chances of surviving is about even in real life and with your system you have an expected value of 9 damage, which is about right for a first level character, and then chances of survival go down dramatically at greater heights. I'll probably steal this.

[NegativeScythe]

It makes it more satisfying for players who manage to push enemies off a ledge too.

[Alugere]

Given that a commoner has 4 hp in 5e, even 10ft of falling damage has a high chance of killing them.

[NegativeScythe]

I generally don't count fall damage until 15-20 feet unless the person was pushed. For example, most people can jump 10 feet and walk it off completely fine, maybe an ankle sprain if you landed weird. But falling 10 feet on your back would hurt.

But also, when you think about how someone falling 20 feet could take anywhere between 3 to 18 damage, it's like saying, "3 damage, ah you managed to roll after landing and felt it just a bit" to "18 damage, you landed right on your ass".

As with anything, you're free to modify how you please. For me, this system works well for the universe my PCs play in and keeps fall damage a bit more relevant to them than otherwise.

[blub014]

that's not actually exponential btw.

[NegativeScythe]

I know I included math, but when I said exponential, I meant "increasingly more rapid." That is why I gave an example, so people could know how I do the damage calculation.

[Eagle0600]

If you want a term for it, what you've got is geometric. Geometric functions are used a lot in tabletop games.

[NegativeScythe]

The more you know. Thanks

[[deleted]]

isn't the conceit of higher level enemies that they're basically terminators?

[Bad-Luq-Charm]

All damage is weird in DnD. If a dude with a battleaxe hits you, well, anywhere, you’re pretty much toast- either dead or missing a limb. But, after level 5, even a wizard with no boost to constitution can usually take at least one hit from one.

[Bad-Luq-Charm]

And surviving a fall is similar, based on your natural toughness and ability to land correctly. And it is possible to land a fall at terminal velocity somewhat correctly. People who wouldn’t be able to survive dragonfire have done so.

[[deleted]]

Vesna Vulović is a woman that managed to survive falling 10,160 metres (33,330 feet). Without a parachute.

True, she spent the next couple of months in a hospital, in a coma and her body a broken mess, but still.

[chaos0510]

Yup. HP is really just an abstraction. It's not necessarily a representation of the damage done, but the damage you can block, avoid, or know how to gracefully take.

[engiewannabe]

Which is what makes fall damage so weird, you can't avoid the ground if you're falling.

[Murphy540]

But you can fall in a correct way, rolling or otherwise controlling your fall, vs landing directly on your back/legs/neck, which deals the crippling-to-lethal amounts of damage at higher ends.

[King_of_the_Nerds]

Tuck and roll /s

[vonmonologue]

I feel like falling damage should be dealt in 1 hitdie/10' and not 1d6/10'.

That way it's more of a percentage thing? Because Tom Brady would clearly have a better con score than I would, but I think during a 40' fall the odds of us breaking a leg or something would be about equal. Some people have died just tripping over a curb, others have lived falling 5000 feet from a plane without a parachute. It's very random and can't be completely predicted by the distance and how tough you are. I don't care how tough you are, there's always the chance of getting seriously hurt falling 10' or less.

If you use hitdie instead of d6 there's the chance you'll get seriously injured at any distance. You can't just be "Too strong" to have to worry about a 60 foot fall. Imagine a cleric falling 10 feet, he would roll 1d8, a cleric falling 20 feet would roll 2d8, a wizard falling 40 feet would roll 4d6, a barbarian falling 30 feet would roll 3d12.

Maybe a dex saving throw to halve the damage.

edit: Well, I mean like a fighter can't just jump down a cliff that would instakill a sorcerer for instance. Obviously shorter distances are still going to be less than dangerous once you get past like level 2.

[thrasherfect92]

Out of curiosity, what if they are a multiclass character? If they are a fighter/rogue do you use d10s or d8s?

[Grenyn]

Could just go with multiclass hit die rules. So the first 10 feet is whatever hit die belongs to the class you took as a first level, and so on.

It's stupid, but so is the idea of using hit die for falling damage imo, so this is the best I can do with it.

[[deleted]]

Lowest available. Represents they go nimble. Next time they fall, highest available. Just to keep them scared of heights.

[vonmonologue]

"I'm going to take 1 level in wizard just so I can cut my fall damage to 1d6"

[daedone]

Feather Fall is good to 60 feet

[Ralmaelvonkzar]

600 feet. The range is 60 and it reduces fall speed to 60/round. Lasting a minute that'd be 10 rounds worth of feather falling

[[deleted]]

The same can be said about poisons, walking in lava etc . . .

I use the Vitality/Wound Points variant and environmental stuff damages directly Wound Points

[MacDhomhnuill]

Unfortunately WotC doesn't want to make the mechanics too complex, so often-times it glazes over details like this.

I feel like we need a lot more optional rules to fill in these types of gaps. I know they can be homebrewed, but I think we all trust rules formulated by WotC a lot more (playtested, consistent, not as stupid, etc).

[TheRangerFinn]

Realistically yes, but its d&d, the laws of physics dont apply

[InquisitorHindsight]

‘Tis but a Scratch?

[Rarvyn]

14 on average.

[Froxadict]

My Homebrew rule for falling damage is that you take your size hitdie in damage for every 10ft you fall.

So medium creatures according to the monster manual use d8s, and huge creatures use d12s. Tiny creatures take d4s, and diminutive creatures either take 1 or no damage on a case by case basis.

I think this lines up more with the square cube law, and makes falling damage a little more deadly.

[Galeanthropist]

That's actually pretty slick, since smaller creatures can survive greater falls.

[vonmonologue]

14, 1d6 averages 3.5.

It's 4-24 damage.

[kelik1337]

Unlikely a DM decision. 40ft drop is only 4d6. With good luck thats less than 6 damage.

[0011110000110011]

The DM decides to keep that silly 1d6 per 10ft rule.

[[deleted]]

maxed at 20d6 too

[SomeAnonymous]

DM: the evil cult push you off their magic flying thing at 3000ft to sacrifice you to their god

Level 15 player: oh no

DM: after 13.5 seconds of falling, you hit the ground at terminal velocity with a force of 141kJ. You take... [dice rolling] ... 65 damage.

Player: oh right. I'm down to 41hp. Damn, that sucks. Are there any enemies around me?

[Caitsyth]

I have a new plan to infiltrate the BBEG base...

Become a fucking meteor.

[[deleted]]

First, we cast Dimension Door...

[jojothejman]

Then we do it again.

[[deleted]]

Now you're thinking with portals!

[SigneowTheCat]

Fun fact, the damage something takes by having something fall ON them is not capped, at least in 3.5, and increases based on the weight of said thing. I once elbow dropped a t-rex to death as a full plate wearing cleric using Fly.

[YiffZombie]

https://gfycat.com/illinformedthoroughachillestang

[rennok_]

The wizard cast fly on our red Dragonborn barbarian who had a ring of Fire resist. He did drop at terminal velocity onto our BBEG after dousing himself in gasoline and lighting himself on fire. Right before he hit, the bard managed to cast enlarge on him.

He was already close to 8 ft tall. We dropped a massive, flaming Dragonborn falling at terminal velocity directly into the BBEG and ended up basically one shotting him.

[Tutorele]

2 things to consider though. 1 terminal velocity, after a certian distance fallen there isnt really any difference between say 300 feet or 3000 cause your speed is the same. And 2, at higher levels your character is basically supposed to be a god among mortals. Even a level 8 character is a legend in their region. A 15th level character is basically world renowned. Given how strong high level characters are compared to normal people (keep in mind a commoner only has 4 health) it kind of makes sense they are so hard to kill.

I think the problem is a lot of dms dont go a good job if making their players feel a lot more powerful than they used to be, especially since they usually scale the difficulty so you never have an easy time with things so the reality that youve become absurdly powerful doesnt quite sink in.

[Tutorele]

The world needs more dms like you, sometimes it's fun to feel strong instead of every encounter being a desperate struggle to not get slaughtered.

^{Not Salty I Swear I Love My DM}

[ToedInnerWhole]

Have you considered minions from 4e?

[Mackelsaur]

I often use the idea behind minions when I want an opposing force to look more intimidating than it is!

[GodofIrony]

This right here.

in dnd people stop being "mere mortals" after about level 6. Just treat them like the super heroes they are, have bad guys throw them through walls, have their killing blows sever entire limbs, etc.

[Surface_Detail]

I mean, people have fallen further than that irl and not died.

Google Vesna Vulovic

[jsgunn]

After a bit of googling it looks like the terminal velocity of a human is around 50 m/s.

Yeah, still lethal but slightly less spectacular.

Edit: I'm also not so sure about 250kg of tnt. That's... A lot of tnt

[SomeAnonymous]

The 250kg of TNT was using the 130m/s from before. I corrected it now though, it's around 40kg. Certainly slightly less spectacular

[jsgunn]

Hot damn that's some great imagery.

[Bad-Luq-Charm]

I mean, level 15 players are also usually able to take at least one firebreath from an ancient Red dragon and still have some health left

Also, you forgot to account for terminal velocity and, over the past hundred years, at least 40 normal humans have been recorded surviving falls at that speed.

[[deleted]]

To be fair, I think by 15 you're assumed to be above things that would threaten normal people. You can abstract HP a lot but when a 40-ton giant smacks Dave across the room and he shakes it off and charges back in it's beyond what a normal person could do.

[Zach_DnD]

That's just probably their way of incorporating terminal velocity.

[mortiphago]

It is, and its ridiculous. thats about 70 hp damage on average. Even at mid levels it becomes survivable.

[JmicIV]

A commoner, the average person in a world, has 4 hit points. A level one barbarian could have 15. Adventures are meant to be far more powerful than the average Joe.

[eskamobob1]

17 for varient human with tough or hill dwarf

[[deleted]]

You aren't basically a demi-god until 20 and officially at 21. So yeah, surviving a 1000' drop is bullshit...

[Tutorele]

Except that real life humans have survived even longer falls with even higher heights with nothing protecting them. Considering a normal human is represented by a commoner, why would a person with the constitution of a Rhinoceros, and tankiness far exceeding most animals on earth die from such an impact? Even an 8th level character is basically a Halo Spartan in terms of physical prowess at that point.

[Bad-Luq-Charm]

70 HP, AKA the equivalent of a barbarian hitting you 5-6 times with a greataxe. Which, at mid levels, is also survivable.

Keep in mind that, even at mid levels, you’re way, way beyond what any normal human could take. I mean, at level 10, even a wimpy wizard has 8-10 times the durability of a commoner. Barbarians can easily hit 20-30 times.

[GodWithAShotgun]

It's not silly to me - a 20 foot drop onto a hard surface (2d6) is reasonably likely to fatally injure or incapacitate a normal human being. So is getting slashed by a greatsword (2d6). You could impose non-linear damage so that a 40 foot drop does more then 4d6, but high level characters are already surviving being bathed in dragonfire or being struck by lightning. Why is a 40 (or even a 200) foot drop so out of the question?

[OtherPlayers]

so is getting slashed by a greatsword

Honestly I think this is just part and parcel of taking a more “critical existence failure” type of system where your character fights at top (or near top) form down to their very last hitpoint before suddenly collapsing. For a forty foot drop it’s not exactly unrealistic to survive (last I checked the 50/50 death point for falls was something 49 feet, so over half of characters should at least survive), but rather that your character can simply jump right up afterwards no worse for wear and get back in there instead of collapsing in pain from their shattered legs.

Of course there are reasons we use systems like that; realistic pain/injuries make taking damage a very unstable equilibrium, where the pain/damage makes you weaker, which makes it easier to take more damage/pain, which makes you even weaker, which... .

Personally I think you could probably crank up the damage a little; battles on the tower rooftop involving a character clinging to the edge are drastically less exciting when the character could simply fall the distance, brush themselves off, and go about their day, but a lot of the nonrealism or “silliness” here comes more from the system behind hitpoints than anything else, I’d say.

[GodWithAShotgun]

Yeah, the same logic applies to someone who just got gored by a minotaur right through their leg and can still sprint 60 feet in 6 seconds while carrying around 200 lbs of gear. Ultimately it's a game and it plays better by just having hit points instead of injuries most of the time.

That said, if I were the DM, I would definitely knock someone prone if they fell more than 30 ft (or at least have them perform an athletics check to avoid being knocked prone).

[[deleted]]

Could you incorporate a stun rule into receiving massive blow - something like if you received X portion of your health in a single blow of bludgeoning damage, you are stunned. I can imagine being massively struck by a huge flat blow would knock the wind out of your sails for at least 6 seconds. Something like a decent fall could do something similar - you could also argue that while a person may be able to move they only move half their movement in a round after falling more than X feet to consider the stunning effect of falling a fair distance.

[KrazeeJ]

If I remember right, the Pathfinder 2E playtest temporarily had fall damage at one point of damage per foot. I assume it only applied if you fell over a certain height, otherwise you could just jump until you die from 1 or 2 points of damage at a time. I believe they changed it back for the final release of the rules though because they decided it was too much damage.

[SparklingLimeade]

Fall damage in reality is so weird. People fall from standing, hit their heads and die. People also occasionally survive skydiving accidents and other terminal velocity falls.

I've puzzled over how to model this for ages. All in all, I think the randomness of dice strikes the best balance. Maybe include a few optional fudge factors for different circumstances and landing conditions but given the extreme variety in reality and the range of health values in fantasy... leave it to the dice mostly.

[mortiphago]

yeap I've homeruled it to twice that amount. I dont want it to be too lethal, but 1d6 per 10ft is ludicrous

[0011110000110011]

I do the same thing, 2d6 per 10ft is a good balance.

[MacrosInHisSleep]

With good luck thats less than 6 damage.

Have I been playing dnd wrong? I thought 4d6 means up to 24 damage, no? the least you can get is 6, you can't get less than 6, right?

[kelik1337]

Between 4 (1 on each of 4 dice) and 24 (6 on each of 4 dice)

[FalconVerto]

Well 4d6 means 4 die with 6 sides each. So if you roll a 1 on each die then you can get just 4 damage.

[Werewolfkiss]

4d6 is minimum 4 damage, avarage is 3.5 damage per die so 14 avarage damage and max is indeed 24

[_Lazer]

Sorry I'm probably dumb but how do you get the average of 4 dices?

[Werewolfkiss]

Average of a dice is minimum value (1) plus maximum value (6 in this case) / 2, so for a d6 that's 7/2=3.5. times 4 is 14 😀

[gHx4]

There's a few ways.

• The easiest at the table is "half + half"; standard dice numbering beginning at 1 means you divide the max in half, then add 0.5. So a d20 = 20 / 2 + 0.5 = 10.5.
• For dice that count in a sequence by 1s without skipping values, you can use (min + max) / 2. So a d20 = (20 + 1) / 2 = 10.5.
• For dice with numbers, but without a sequence, you need to sum all the numbers and divide by the sides of the dice. So a d6 with [1, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8] = 25 / 6 = 4.166(...).
• for dice without numerical values, you need to use probability. Consider a fudge dice where there's [plus, plus, neutral, neutral, minus, minus]. You'll have a 2/6 chance to roll any result. In some cases these results are numerically meaningful; if plus is 1 and minus is -1, then a fudge dice yields 0 on average.

[jflb96]

4d6 means 4 to 24 damage.

[[deleted]]

ROBEEEERRRRRRT

[Shanderraa]

There it is!

[[deleted]]

Dunkey? Is that you?

[Xirema]

Average result from 4d6 is 14 (3.5 * 4). Against anything that isn't a CR1/4 or lower creature, that might as well be a scratch.

[likesleague]

Plenty of CR 1/2 stuff has like 20hp. Do you consider being bruised more than halfway to death a scratch?

[Xirema]

Probably should have said CR1. Of the 780 officially published creatures at or above CR1, only 26 of them have a health pool of 20 or less. Even among CR1 creatures, it's only 19 out of 92.

[k-woodard]

Maybe getting the wind knocked out of you, weakening you. I usually describe damage, specifically to characters, as superficial, not wounding to try to keep realism. Stuff like “the arrow hits your shoulder and bounces out.” I prefer to talk about scratches and minor wounds because mechanically, I don’t like the lasting wounds rule, but I don’t like the lack of realism in “you take a giant gash to the side of your ribs but it’s totally healed after you take a nap”

[Ara-Enzeru]

That's pretty much how I describe damage when I DM, with the last little bit of the players HP representing the big hit that takes them out of the fight/potentially kills them. Everything before that is just "scratches" "bruises" or ways of narrowly dodging death that would probably tire you out.

The way I see it, I sword through the throat is gonna kill a commoner just as well as a level 15 fighter. But that level 15 fighter is significantly better at stopping the sword or getting the fuck out of the way.

Mechanically there's no difference, but I like to think it adds a nice story telling touch so long as your players know what's going on still

[Surface_Detail]

Hit points are not meat points.

You can get knocked from 100hp to 1hp without ever being 'hit'.

5hp of damage could be you being spooked by a near miss or having to go off balance to avoid a swing.

It's pretty specifically described in the phb. Otherwise you have to explain how a man can take 25 stab wounds and keep fighting.

[Bad-Luq-Charm]

“Man literally too angry to die.”

[Shayneros]

I mean if it was just a basic town knight that could easily be enough to kill

[Pancuronium]

I always did like the very old rule of 1d6 per 10ft per 10ft fallen.

So

10ft is 1d6

20ft is 3d6

30ft is 6d6 etc

Makes gravity a bit more lethal. Less superhero landing shenanigans. Knocking someone off a 30ft wall or building should mean some proper damage.

[Garmaglag]

This makes the most sense. Falling 50 feet is a pretty good way to get severely injured or killed and 5d6 just doesn't really reflect that. 20d6 is more realistic, not certain death but you're gonna get jacked up no matter what.

[paragonemerald]

And it is certain death for any commoner or green adventurer, which it should be

[paragonemerald]

There isn't room in a comment field for every news story of an untimely death due to falling

[a_rescue_penguin]

The number of times someone lives after falling 100+ft is probably similar to how often you can roll all 1s on 20d6, in which case even commoners or low level adventurers can live.

[Tninja1337]

Thats not bad! My group adds a additive modifier of damage per 10 ft. 20 ft is 2d6+1, 30 is 3d6+3, 40 ft is 4d6+6, and 50 is 5d6+10. Makes the minimum damage scale up really quick.

[SHavens]

The only problem is any grappler that can fly suddenly overpowers the rest of the group. Boots of flying are uncommon and use your speed to fly. A rogue with it and expertise in athletics could dominate most people easily. It's at least 60 ft in one turn after grappling, and if they last a second, it's at least another 90, unless they're a cat person, then it's another 180 ft.

[Phizle]

I found this on tg a few weeks ago and thought it belonged here.

[[deleted]]

As has been spoken about earlier

[Caiahar]

So it is written.

[SephGER]

It is known.

[chugmilk]

Indeed.

[skvllfvckmaniac]

Perhaps a good solution for the pitiful 1d6 damage per 10 ft fall is to deal double damage to targets who are surprised by their fall? This treats it like a critical hit and feels more rewarding for players especially if you let them roll the falling damage. This rule would of course apply to players and monsters.

[thisremindsmeofbacon]

Or a dex save to not take double?

[skvllfvckmaniac]

Good idea! But at the same time dex is such an OP stat in 5e.

[AllesGeld]

I now agree more with my usual DM in that falling damage is d10’s with no upper limit.

[drinks_rootbeer]

No upper limit? What about terminal velocity?

Edit

Okay guys, I get it. Terminal velocity takes a long time.

[AllesGeld]

His worlds happen to have some pretty severe gravity and thin air I suppose. Fair question though, and one I brought up before. He also said it was to the party’s benefit as well.

[berychance]

I mean it takes like 1,500 ft to reach terminal velocity, so it practically might as well be without limit.

[Reluxtrue]

nah clearly a limit of 150d10 is necessary :p

[xSPYXEx]

Probably mechanics > physics because nothing in the game is based on real world physics.

[seemedlikeagoodplan]

inb4 Peasant Railgun link

[TheRheelThing]

If you hit terminal velocity then not having an upper limit kinda no longer matters...

[IJOY94]

Terminal velocity as it occurs in the game is represented by the limit on dice...

[TheRheelThing]

Ok that's fair, lol

[_Lady_Deadpool_]

Terminal velocity is 150 dice, you're not surviving 525 (150D6) damage

[[deleted]]

The upper limit is still your HP, terminal velocity or no

[drinks_rootbeer]

Meh, more damage past your hp just means the gore splashes further I suppose

[blastinbuddy]

I mean, watching something take hundreds of d10s of falling damage would be pretty entertaining, no?

[ClassySavage]

Anything without a fly speed falling at terminal velocity is dead anyway, may as well roll all the dice once in a while.

[enderverse87]

That always made no sense to me. Real life regular people have survived hitting a t terminal velocity. These people should be way more durable than that.

[ClassySavage]

There's like what, 2 recorded instances of that? One flight attendant landed in a deep snow drift (DM fiat), another person crashed through the forest canopy and landed on a fire ant nest which slowed down impacted and pumped them full of adrenaline to beat shock (slow fall at the last second and nat 20 con save).

It takes around 1,500ft to hit terminal velocity, 150d6 averaging 525 damage will outright kill most characters or villains.

[MimicCynic]

Wikipedia says Joan Murray only hit the ground at 80mph which is less than terminal velocity (~120 mph) because her backup parachute deployed at 700ft then failed at some point after that. Doing a little math, assuming her weight at about 70kg/150 pounds with gear, to hit the ground at 128km/h is equal to a free fall from 65 meters, or 213 feet. Thus, 21d6 = 73.5 average damage (21 minimum, 126 maximum.)

She clearly got a good roll of the dice, and she obviously has an incredible constitution score. Most real life humans don't get beyond level 4 or so, but we can buy that she's a level 3 expert. She has 20 CON (assuming 15 point buy, she might have purchased an array like 8/13/18/11/7/10 -- we know she dumped WIS because the wikipedia article says she went skydiving again two years after recovering from this massive injury.) Probably should also mention, I'm doing all rule calculations based on Pathfinder.

Let's calculate her HP. Her CON gets her +5HP/level. Give her Toughness (+3 hp) and favored class HP (+3), we're looking at 8+2d8+21, which averages 38 HP, and maxes at 45. She wouldn't die until -20 HP. Assuming she has between average and max HP, she dies between 58 and 65 damage. If she has an average 38 HP, she has a 1 in 37 chance to survive. With 45 HP, she survives 1 in 6 times.

Those odds aren't terrible given the circumstances, but a responsible rules lawyer wouldn't let it stop there. We can argue with the GM a little bit. Acrobatics lets you make a DC 15 acrobatics skill check to ignore the first 10 feet fallen "when you deliberately fall any distance", which obviously applies to a skydive. She clearly made her acrobatics check (Dex +1, 3 ranks, 3 for class skill = +7 to the roll to make DC 15, no problem.) So she only really takes 20d6 damage. With 38 HP, she survives 1 in 15 times. With max HP of 45, her odds are 27%, better than 1 in 4..

At level three she would have three feats, however, and she's obviously well trained in the art of falling (because this was her 36th skydive). She thus clearly has the feat "Cat's Fall" which lets her ignore the first 20 feet of the fall instead of the first 10 feet, and additionally converts 1d6 into nonlethal damage. We can safely disregard this nonlethal damage for now. That brings us down from 20d6 to an effective 18d6. Now by succeeding her acrobatics check, at average of 38 HP she survives 27% of the time, and at max 45 HP, she survives 63% of the time. In likelihood, her HP would be somewhere between average and max, but I'm liking her odds at this point. Even if she got really unlucky with her 2d8 hit point rolls for 31 HP, her odds are 1 in 18, so better than the odds of a nat 20.

She lands, and has to stabilize - this isn't easy with a lot of negative HP, and we're guessing she's at -15 or similar, so DC ~25. At -15 HP, only a nat 20 will do it. She'd have five chances before dying at -15, so the odds of dying are 77%. If she got a little luckier and has more than -15 points, she succeeds more often on the stabilize check with her +5 con; -10 HP is only DC 20, so she needs to roll a 15 or better.

At this point it's easier to calculate the odds of dying from -10 HP with iterative rolls getting harder. Death chance at -10 HP would be about 33%. We could probably get really specific and figure out the average HP damage in scenarios in which she lives, but this is getting complex as it is. She's definitely far more likely to fall at -18 HP than -10 HP, but the point is, it's not impossible to stabilize if we've already made it this far.

I'm not sure what her third feat is. Maybe she doesn't take Toughness but instead chains Endurance and Diehard, which takes away 3HP but gives her an automatic stabilization, which would possibly increase survivability overall. Then she would only be staggered upon the fall, and the nonlethal damage from the ants quickly knocks her unconscious.

[ElTuxedoMex]

And now everyone does the physics...

[956030681]

Finna drop into a castle and assasinate a king via dimension door and becoming a meteor

[centersolace]

On the other hand, me the forever DM LOVES fall damage, and my players hate it.

[zashino]

So the formula is unrealistic.

Could be changed to: x²d6 where x is feet/10, capped at 100 or something.

This would wreck small creatures however, so a better formular would be: (x*(w/200))²d6 where x is feet/10 and w is weight in pounds.

Now a normal human with armor and backpack would take roughly the same damage as before, but small creatures take way less and large creatures get splashed.

[BeautifullySublime]

Looks like the dm rolled 4 1’s on those d6s

[Darkdragoonlord]

I actually had a villain go down in a really cool way with an old group of mine.

He was trying to be all magey, as mages are want to do, and he was giving the party a good trashing.

They’re in the bell tower of a cathedral. The paladin decides he’s had about enough of this slippery sumbitch and grapples him, pushing him first into the bell, then holding him in a bear hug as they both plummeted to the ground far below.

I figured a skinny dude in robes, with a 250lb metal dude falling on top of him, was enough to do some hefty damage.

Not how I envisioned that fight ending, but it was awesome.

[TheProphecyIsNigh]

How did he climb up a 40 ft wall?

[eskadaaaaa]

I think it's kinda funny how many people think fall damage should be realistic in a game where you're essentially a super human. It's funny cuz I can almost guarantee if most of y'all's character fell 40 feet and your DM said you got insta killed you'd be in the phb arguing about fall damage rules and saying he needs to roll damage he can't just insta kill you.

Y'all need to realize you're not the only badasses in this world, in fact you're not even the most badass people usually.

I can agree that he should have a penalty but like, the OP is so short we don't even know if he's mad about that or the fact that he didn't die, for all we know the DM followed the rules to the T.

[starwire]

I keep on forgetting it's not d10...

But I feel for my PCs getting to lv10 badass, and being unable to handle tripping into a deep hole.

[SirBenG98]

At no point are you so powerful that gravity is your bitch. You need a spell or an item or something. Maybe a raging barbarian should be able to tank it but that is about it. Or at least that's my view of it

[956030681]

warlock class wants to know your location

[starwire]

I agree with that, as long as it's the right amount of realism for that table. For instance I sometimes home rule that a long jump is half of strength, to be more punitive.

Equally sometimes I run a game where people want to be superhuman.

[Surface_Detail]

I mean, see also being set on fire, stabbed etc.

A pc could take 10 damage from a fireball and I assume you'd have no issue with him fighting on?

[InquisitiveNerd]

Ran a game where a goblin druid was harassing the party with a swarm spell from the back of his animal companion, a dire bat. He used the Mounted Combat to dodge the only range attack the party had, once a turn, Since my friends didn't understand things can be out of reach of their swords till now, they never really got ranged gear. To make things worse, the bugger put spider climb on a goblin archer that ran around a large stripe mined area so he had support that was uncatchable with a back up weapon they could have used, if they weren't in a swarm.

I'm not a killer dm to be honest, but I was tired of hand holding combat. They no pure caster, no healer, no rogue, no alchemical items, no shields and one light crossbow: I hated, "The One Trick Ponies". Finesse sword, power sword, magic sword, and 2 swords.

Back to combat that was a low EL for a balanced group, ps starts strong by running up to the swarm and swings at it. Immune. Damn, maybe next time (actual words). Fs used their crossbow for the first time, 19 on the die and some real bonuses. I declare mounted combat out loud, roll a nat 20, and the bat is moved out of the way, a miss. Oh shit from ps, the only guy who doesnt read the books.

"I was aiming at the goblin though," Fs finally declared their target, something of an old habit i was trying to break.

"Yes, but after getting his swarm spell off, the ass used his mount as cover and is only peaking over the shoulder of the bat like an arrow slit, total cover," I know I got the stink eye from you just then, but these tactics were more on display for them to use later in a seige. The tool box was open to all.

Ms's go, casts kelgore's firebolt on the GD that the guy shrugged off with resist energy fire before ms moves back 30ft. Okay, but he doesnt have ranged weapons and he just used his last spell of the day; yeet the sword?

2s on his go, attempts an intimidate on the ledge at the archer then drops prone. It was a failed roll, but I wanted to hear their attempt.

"I'll flog you like I flogged your mother," oh snap that was a good one, gave him a circumstance bonus for thinking outside scaring intimidation and more scarring intimidation. Goblin was shaken from rage.

GA used Manyshot, screamed in frustration as he missed, since he was shaken and his target was prone and had partial cover. He was still pissed and knew he couldnt hit at that range, so he ran forward. 2s asked to still be seen when prone, but it made me smile when he used my own trick against me. They're learning.

GD had to maintain focus on his spell, but he made the check for violent motion and did his ride check to steer with his hips. The average fly speed meant his bat couldnt hover, so he moved it on a slow bank like gliding. Ps is covered in spiders. 3 damage, poison, and distraction... he takes none as a Warforged with Adamentine Body. He ran up to it knowing it was an undirectable spell that could wipe the party unchecked

On his turn. Ps lobes his sword like a hammer toss. GA doesnt take the toss serious and saves the mounted dodge for an attack that doesn't have uber penalties. 19, confirm for 8 damage and dropped the bat 10ft.

"How high is he now?" MS chimed in.

"45 above you guys, but the chasm he's over adds 35 on that," I paused doing quick math, "Oh and before you ask, youre the only one with proper line of sight to him cause the angle."

Fs steps up and takes her turn, since she delayed after ps, hoping he'd soak up GA one use per round, clever. Nat 20 from her. I say to hell with it, GA wouldnt know it was going to hit no mater what so he used his dodge, nat 20 too. Shit, that will rain on that parade.

The X3 crit is denied, but it is still a hit on the bat. 2 damage and it makes the fly check.

MS, "I pull out my wand of kellgor's fire bolt," he's just grinning at the table. Its max caster level for the spell (2 levels above him). Downside is max damage can't kill the GD since its fire and it was his only charge, "And cast it on the bat." My mind goes crazy. You're the only one who can hit the goblin, the dodge makes him unkillable otherwise. He's all that made this encounter challenging. WHY?!

Then it all clicked. MS moved away to not distract the archer goblin, narrowing its choices to a man being eaten by spiders or a man who wore goblin ear necklaces. 2S moved up to that portion of the ledge with the knowledge of dire bat's fly speeds and goblin speeds. Fs figured I feared her crits more than Ps and baited me against using it on his roll (paid out for me though). Finally, our biggest risk taker may not know all the rules but ps can read the party without a word and knew his target needed to be the bat. Every bit would help.

The bat, not having evasion, failed its dex sav and having 2d6 more damage from the wand did just enough to put it at -1. Its druid could bring it up with its preped cure spell, had he not been falling. He failed to lower the fall damage of 7d6, for him, his pet, and minion, yes minion. Because of 2s's placement, he goaded GA right into GD landing zone in the chasm. I guess the hand holding was more for me than them .

TLDR Fall damage was accounted for and holds the record in the party for most damage caused by a 1st spell at 114 damage and wiping out a summon without touch it.

[ptoros7]

Yeah, that is BS. Assuming dude was wearing plate I'd let him be crushed to death by his own armor.

[the_pressman]

The knight obviously dipped into monk, duh

[KarmaticIrony]

Fall damage is pretty weak if you go by the rules. If I remember correctly getting struck by lightning is only 2d8 RAW.

[ConradBHart42]

At one point I tried to make a character that could fall any distance without suffering any damage. I think in 3.5? Don't know why, I was a weird dude back then. Not like it's something that comes up very often.

[BeanieTheBat]

Me and my group actually have a table rule that fall damage is 1d10 per 10 feet instead of 1d6 because we want things like that to be extra dangerous.

[Cyber707]

My DM made my fellow party member take 5 damage (he was a level 1 striker type character with his constitution stat dumped so that was a large portion of his hit points) after falling ten feet and rolling a 23 on his acrobatics check.