Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="rushlight" data-source="post: 2073406" data-attributes="member: 3801">Actually, the intent was specifcally to make things slightly more realistic. Try jumping off a 20 foot cliff sometime and landing on the ground - I think you'll find it hurts more than 2d6 points of damage.  While my system doesn't replicate what happens when you fall, it adds uncertainty. Here's an example. The PC gets to the edge of the cliff and looks down - 30 feet to the bottom. The PC has 20 hit points - so it's clear that even if they take full damage they'll be fine. Yet, if a person was to look over a 30 foot cliff - they would not be so sure of that jump. The Fortitude or die save adds that uncertainty back. The save is intentionally low enough so that it doesn't become *too* deadly - but high enough so that a PC wonders about the decision to jump just like a person would.  Last, it's all about design. I wouldn't stick a 40 foot cliff in the path of a 4th level party just for kicks. However, if they go looking for 40 foot cliffs to climb for sport then it's on their heads. They know the risks, and they take the risk willingly. In the case of my dead NPC, the party knew that climbing up onto the roof would be dangerous - but they accepted that risk so that they could gain a specific - and significant - advantage over going in on the ground floor. They knew that if things went bad, they'd need to jump - and accepted that danger rather than play it safe.  Sometimes quirky things happen, especially when you take risks. But that makes the success more juicy. Who can get excited when you know that the DM is gonna ensure that you live everytime, no matter what? During that adventure the 2nd level party faced a Vampire Spawn and his 4th level body guards - they weren't supposed to go straight to the top of the the encounter. They were supposed to work their way up - eventually reaching the Vampire when they were ready. Well, they got in over their heads, and had to take a header off the roof - and paid the price of their actions. However, I didn't pull any punches. Had they not been thinking fast it would likely have been a TPK. But a quick decision by the rogue bought them enough time to get away - they just had to get off the roof first. But, everyone else survived - and the encounter was quite exciting. So much so that we played 3 hours later than we usually do. Not to mention that it's all my players have talked about in the last two weeks. It's got them juiced and excited for more!</blockquote>

Verification