House Rule Forced Movement off Cliff/Edge Please comment.

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mrputts

Explorer

• Jan 16, 2013

• #1

Hello,

So I am DMing a game and a situation of one of the monsters my PCs where fighting was pushed off a Cliff. First time it came up in the game so we looked up the rule and I did not like the Saving throw answer.

I came up with a house rule and I wanted to get some opinions on it.

Forced off a ledge you make an immediate "save throw".


1-9 = You fall


10-15 = You fall, and catch yourself on the ledge hanging there. On your next turn you must make an Athletics check to pull yourself up as your move action. Taking a -2 penalty to the check if an enemy is occupying the last possible standing square as if they were trying to "stomp on your fingers" to get you to fall. If they are there and you succeed you move to the closest occupiable square available. With no OA for passing an enemy. (Due to them trying to stomp you.) Otherwise you just move into the closest occupiable square.


16-19 = You fall prone in the last occupiable square.


20+ = You move to the last occupiable square and do not fall prone.

Please give me feedback and possible ideas for a more comprehensive rule. Thank you for reading.

 

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the Jester

Legend

• Jan 19, 2013

• #2

Dislike.

It adds significant complications and screws over non-physical types of creatures, and there isn't any real gain that I can see.

Why should it be harder for, say, an unarmored halfling wizard to pull himself up than it is for a heavily-armored dragonborn paladin who is wearing plate armor?

That said, play how you like.

 

M

mrputts

Explorer

• Jan 20, 2013

• #3

Ok, I can see your point.

It does complicate and screw over non-physical creatures, but a non physical creature should not be on an even plane with someone who is physical. The gain is actually being able to push/be pushed off of a ledge. Creating a more dangerous situation for anyone trying to use a ledge for whatever reason.

Climbing is climbing DCs are already set in I believe the PHB. So why shouldn't it be harder for someone not trained in Athletics to pull themselves up.

I do appreciate your opinion. I have not implemented this yet I hope to get more people to weigh in on this.

Thanks,
mrputts

 

Last edited: Jan 20, 2013

V

Vhex

First Post

• Jan 22, 2013

• #4

I'm not sure I understand the goal. Is the goal to make it easier to push someone off a cliff?

The house rule that I use is that you must make a saving throw for each square that you would go over. I allow my players to be imaginative in getting out of it and I don't like "Save or Die" mechanics in general, but there's also the idea that you probably shouldn't stand next to a cliff next to an ogre throwing 300 pound boulders 20 feet if you only weigh 200 pounds. So, I use the rules as written but if the push takes you 1 square over you roll 1 saving throw, if it takes you 4 squares over then you roll 4 saving throws. This is the same for PCs and monsters.

As for why it's harder for an unarmored halfling wizard to pull himself up -- he spends his time reading books and has never done a pull-up in his life nor lifted much more than 5 pounds at one time. Whereas the one in full armor wears it near constantly and does pull-ups like they're going out of style.

 

M

mrputts

Explorer

• Jan 22, 2013

• #5

~Vhex

Yes my goal is to make it easier to push someone off a cliff, However I did not want to change it without adding a positive outcome to the same roll.

I feel the RaW is to simple/safe. It seems to make standing on a cliff/ledge not something that would be in the foremost thought of a PC/Monster. When it totally should be.


mrputts

 

the Jester

Legend

• Jan 23, 2013

• #6

The simplicity and elegance of the RAW is beautiful. Having run years of 4e, I can say that nobody ignores the edge of a cliff in my campaign, even with a 55% chance to avoid going over.

 

CAFRedblade

Explorer

• Jan 26, 2013

• #7

Why not try building off the Raw in a more natural way, implementing a more graduated pass / fail on the saving throw.
Roll a 1, Crit fail, falls with no chance of catching yourself and softening the landing. Normal fail, you can get a chance to grab the edge, or if trained in acrobatics, reduce fall damage. If normal save, apply as normal, if Critical success (20), not only do you not fall over, you remain standing at the edge, digging your heels in so to speak.

From my DM experience in 4th, one of my player characters favourite tactics when near ledges is to use powers to throw enemies over the edge, even if only a short drop to slow them down and allow focus fire elsewhere.

 

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fjw70

Adventurer

• Oct 6, 2013

• #8

If I house ruled this I would make it more difficult to push someone off a cliff. One of the PCs in my game focuses on sliding and can slide creatures 4 or 5 squares at will so any monster within 15 to 20 feet of a cliff has a good chance of instant death (it's an area power so he can do it to multiple creatures at will).

i feel this is kind of broken but I won't change anything midstream for the player so I will just deal with it through encounter design.

 

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Oct 6, 2013

• #9

I dunno. RPGs have spent years moving away from making instakills easy on account of them not being fun. These seems like a step backwards. What's the reasoning behind making an instakill easier? Or, worse, easier to do to half the PCs but not the other half?

 

Scrivener of Doom

Adventurer

• Oct 7, 2013

• #10

You could also drop the saving throw and simply have a ledge a level-appropriate number of feet below the cliff's edge so that damage is limited to a level or tier appropriate value rather than an instant kill.