Falling Damage Scaling With Tier?

[El Mahdi]

@Jack Colby

...Does an avalanche do more damage to a skilled warrior than a newbie? ...

No.

Why?

Because scaling doesn't "increase" damage...it maintains the same approximate "percentage" of damage, despite character level.

In this way, the impact and effect of the damage remains the same for a skilled warrior as it is for a newbie...



In combat: Yes...a warriors skill at protecting themself, and thus having a lesser impact from damage, should improve as they level up.

However, one does not get "better" at falling from a dangerous height. Falling is Falling...and remains so regardless of your increase in skill.

 

[Magiblack]

I like that it doesn't scale.

"In the epic tier, your character’s capabilities are truly superheroic." -PHB1

Nothing says epic more to me than falling 200ft and not only surviving but landing on your feet. Or (as happened in a Scales of War adventure that I was running) falling 1000ft and finding a way out of it. Some characters at this point are literally on the road to godhood, so falling 30ft off a building should be nothing to them.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Well I agree with Magiblack, higher level characters in 4e should become something bigger than life.. but not quite to the 4-color-fantasy degree.

My main concern with the current rules is that if you have a mid to high level character and put in a 'level appropriate' fall.. you risk adding in a 'remove from play' condition on a character, as Stalker0 points out above.

For instance, in a recent game I had a group of characters get into a fight 120 feet above ground level in the tree-tops and risking a scary fall. Falling creatures have a chance to grab limbs on thier way down and stop themselves, with a minimum drop of 20 feet.

For the Druid, shifted speed and slippers of spider climb, this meant a fall all the way down resulted in a 6 round climb back up and if he made the check to catch himself {very likely}, it would be a round out of the fight.

On the other hand, the Battlerager fighter was very unlikely to catch himself and if he fell, he might as well start a campfire and wait for the rest of the group to finish off the battle as it would take him at least 10 rounds to get back into the fight.

So, in an attempt to make falling level ignorant yet still something for the players to worry about {and thereby worth putting onto the battlefield} and not dropping non-mobile PCs out of combat....

I think a fall burn healing surges allows for smaller falls being dangerous, while allowing higher level characters to reduce damage by way of skills.. fits all those goals.

Just trying to balance the mechanics with the capabilities of my group

 

[SkullThrone]

I've always been a fan of the cumulative damage model for falling damage...
10' = 1d10
20' = 3d10 (1d10 + 2d10)
30' = 6d10 (1d10 + 2d10 + 3d10)
40' = 10d10 (1d10 + 2d10 + 3d10 + 4d10)
...