Falling Into Water
- Thread starter Falstaff
- Start date
If I remember correctly (and I have nothing to back this up), landing in water from about 80 feet up (16 squares) is around the deadly point. I think (again nothing to back this up) about 1/2 of people falling off of 4 story buildings (8 squares) die. So as a real rough estimate, solely for the sake of having a default, I'd go with falling into water is half as damaging as falling onto the ground. This has no basis in physics and I know that damage should scale exponentially in the real world before tapering off (terminal velocity doesn't change even if you keep getting higher).
So, completely made up house rule I'd go with: 1d5 per 10', acrobatics can halve your damage if you're trained. If you're doing a water-based campaign, I'd start looking for some d5s.
So, completely made up house rule I'd go with: 1d5 per 10', acrobatics can halve your damage if you're trained. If you're doing a water-based campaign, I'd start looking for some d5s.
I just reduce the distance you fell by 10' if you fall into water. So, falling from a 10' ledge into water isn't really going to hurt you. But, from a 100' bridge. Oh yeah, it's still going to hurt.
Naturally, you can still make an Acrobatics check to reduce the falling damage.
Naturally, you can still make an Acrobatics check to reduce the falling damage.
Sam, yup! That's why I said use the Acrobatics clause in "Falling" for those characters who are jumping or diving.
Jumping Down: If you are trained in Acrobatics, you can make a check to reduce the amount of damage you take from a fall.
I think it works quite well. Some DMs may let those even not trained in Acrobatics to make this check to dive or jump into water.
OnlineDM
Adventurer
Hmm, interesting. I know that trained cliff divers can dive into water from crazy heights and emerge unharmed. I would definitely require a check, but I'm thinking Athletics rather than Acrobatics (swimming is Athletics, so I would think the same for diving).
Now, I would require the player to describe that they are diving (if they fell and then wanted to convert the fall to a dive, THAT would require an Acrobatics check), and it would be a hard DC on the check, but if they pull it off I would let them negate the damage entirely.
If they don't attempt to make the fall into a dive or if they fail the Athletics check, I would say that they take half damage from falling into sufficiently deep water as they would from falling onto solid ground (Height/20 d10 damage instead of Height/10 d10 damage).
Now, I would require the player to describe that they are diving (if they fell and then wanted to convert the fall to a dive, THAT would require an Acrobatics check), and it would be a hard DC on the check, but if they pull it off I would let them negate the damage entirely.
If they don't attempt to make the fall into a dive or if they fail the Athletics check, I would say that they take half damage from falling into sufficiently deep water as they would from falling onto solid ground (Height/20 d10 damage instead of Height/10 d10 damage).
Camelot
Adventurer
Right, there's no official rule on the matter.
I'd say roll the damage as normal (1d10 per 10 feet) and then halve it. An acrobatics check can then reduce that damage as normal, since you only need to make yourself fall vertically instead of doing that and also trying to land safely.
I think it's also worth to discuss how deep you end up plumetting into the water after the fall, and what happens if you plumett all the way to the bottom. I would say that you sink half the distance you fell and if you hit the bottom before sinking all the way, take the rest of that distance as normal falling damage (so, falling from 40 feet into 10 foot deep water would make you take 4d10/2 damage, then sink 20 feet, but since it is only 10 feet, you sink to the bottom and take 1d10 damage, since you had 10 feet left to go. Example dice say you'd take 20 damage in all. Seems about right). This is based on random ideas and no science whatsoever.
I'd say roll the damage as normal (1d10 per 10 feet) and then halve it. An acrobatics check can then reduce that damage as normal, since you only need to make yourself fall vertically instead of doing that and also trying to land safely.
I think it's also worth to discuss how deep you end up plumetting into the water after the fall, and what happens if you plumett all the way to the bottom. I would say that you sink half the distance you fell and if you hit the bottom before sinking all the way, take the rest of that distance as normal falling damage (so, falling from 40 feet into 10 foot deep water would make you take 4d10/2 damage, then sink 20 feet, but since it is only 10 feet, you sink to the bottom and take 1d10 damage, since you had 10 feet left to go. Example dice say you'd take 20 damage in all. Seems about right). This is based on random ideas and no science whatsoever.
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The Human Target
Adventurer
Yeah thats what we've been doing.
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