Falling damage question

[Callahan09]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this game, so please forgive me if this is an easy question that I should know the answer to...

As regards falling damage, I know from the rules compendium that you roll 1d10 per 10 feet fallen. I'm just not sure exactly how to calculate the number of dice to roll.

I would think it would be the Floor of [Feet Fallen / 10]. In other words, a 10 foot fall, would be 1 die. That much is obvious, I don't expect that could possibly be wrong by any interpretation of the rule. But say we have fallen 9 feet, then using the typical "always round down" rule, we have 0 dice to roll, because we didn't fall by any full increments of 10 feet. Likewise, 11-19 feet would still only be one full increment of 10 feet, so we only roll 1 die.

Is that the right way to look at it?

 

[D'karr]

Is that the right way to look at it?

That is correct.
0-9 - No damage
10-19 - 1d10 damage
20-29 - 2d10 damage

Etc.

 

[Callahan09]

Thanks!

 

[Ferghis]

Yes. Falling 19 feet causes 1d10 damage, and falling 9 feet does no damage and you land standing.

 

[Ferghis]

If the DM wanted to, they could easily rule that falling 6-15 feet caused 1d10 damage, and round normally. The rounding rule really only applies to halves, I think.

 

[sabrinathecat]

All fractions are dropped, be they 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, or 1/200000.

 

[Ferghis]

You got a source?

 

[sabrinathecat]

Somewhere in the original 4e PH1 or DMG1

 

[Jhaelen]

In D&D you always round down. And, yeah, it's somewhere on the first couple of pages in the 4e PHB.

 

[Callahan09]

You got a source?

I found the exact source:

In the Essentials Rules Compendium, Page 29:

2. Always Round Down
The game does require calculations now and then, which sometimes end up in a fraction. Unless instructed otherwise, always round down even if the fraction is 1/2 or larger...