D&D 5E Usefull falling damage?

[NotAYakk]

At the point where your PC can shrug off 70 HP of damage, falling from 1000 ft is well within the "ouch that hurt" range to me.

Melee types pay heavily for the extra HP they get. They don't get to bend reality with magic; they get to bend reality with HP.

I might make the player tell me how they survived the fall (or have to make one up myself). But just like an elder dragon's bite not chomping the naked barbarian in two, having HP leftover means it just didn't kill you.

 

[Olrox17]

Capping falling damage to 20d6 was IMO very dumb. I still use 4e’s maximum of 50d10. An absolutely epic hero can still probably survive a fall at terminal velocity, but not almost unscathed.

 

[Andras]

I had my 17th level Paladin do a 150ft elbow drop onto an enemy Paladin* and followed it up with a critical hit on the weapon attack. He died, I took 12pts of damage. (falling dmg split, and had a Stoneskin cast on me for half again.)

*The other Paladin had just failed its save vs Hold Person and got spartan kicked off the 150ft ledge by another party member, taking all that falling dmg first.