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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6503227" data-attributes="member: 4937">Depends very much on the attitude of the person with respect to the ground.  In a head first dive, probably 1000 feet or more.  Spread eagled and rafting on the air (make a skill check) maybe around 500.   Anywhere in between is a reasonable estimation.   Since characters rarely fall more than 100 feet or so, you can assume that falls are basically instantaneous.  While we are on the subject of falling, my preferred methodology is a little complicated.Roll 1d20 for each 10' of the fall (maximum 20d20).  Sum this and divide the total by 1d6.  Additionally, have the ground make a 'melee attack' on the character at +3 to hit for 1d6 damage, with a bonus of +1 to hit and damage per 10' fallen (maximum +20).   There is a bunch of additional complexity for falling on rough and unusually hard ground, or soft ground, or spikes, or if you are not medium sized, and so forth, but all you really need is the basic idea to use this additional complexity to solve a couple of nagging problems.a) How is it that falling a short distance is occasionally lethal to ordinary people?b) How is it that falling a long distance is occasionally lethal to ordinary people?c) How is it that falling any distance is something heroes can survive?d) How do we keep players from metagaming 'c'.e) How do we avoid the problem of needing pits to be 100 feet deep before they are even remotely a threat to high level parties?The above technique ensures that falling damage remains a frightening thing regardless of level, while ensuring that like the heroes of action adventure movies, PC's can survive falling off things that would normally kill people.  My rules are normally not this complicated, and I hate the idea of using division to calculate something in a PnP game, but it works.</blockquote>

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