Falling damage -- the leaping off a cliff example

[Quasqueton]

All through the years there have been complaints about how hit points work/don't work with falling damage. There have been a blue-million alternate rules for falling damage. I've read hundreds of comments about how a high-level fighter can leap off a cliff, hit the bottom, get up and continue fighting. But has this scenario ever actually happened?

In my 25 years of playing the various editions of this game, I've only seen one PC purposefully jump from a height and soak up the damage. A ~5th-level dwarf fighter was fleeing from 2 trolls. He ran to the edge of a ruined castle roof, looked down at the 30-foot drop, looked back at the 2 trolls scrambling up the stairs to the roof. He jumped down, took 3d6 damage, and ran off with single-digit hit points. [This was back in AD&D, without the Tumble/Jump skill.]

Other than that one situation, I have never seen anyone willingly give up Xd6 hit points just to get down quickly. Some have fallen. Some have been pushed. But every time, it was not something they willingly took. And every time, the Player looked at the loss of hit points as a "bad thing"; not something to just shrug and accept.

Quasqueton

 

[jasper]

Back in my first group this was common with 8+ level characters especialy monks. But then my first group would laugh chew up and spit out all the members of KODT as being wimps.
Of course Jasper no longer plays with his first group.

 

[punkorange]

I've never really seen this either. I did have an inner-group conflict cause someone to fall once though. The newest addition to the group (a dwarf) said something that offended one of the founding group members (an elf). Not thinking about the fact she was standing right next to the edge of the cliff she stated "I'm taking a five foot step away form him and knocking an arrow".

She took a five foot back and fell some fifty feet into the darkness below and landed in a pool of blood.

 

[Amal Shukup]

... I have never seen anyone willingly give up Xd6 hit points just to get down quickly. Some have fallen. Some have been pushed. But every time, it was not something they willingly took. And every time, the Player looked at the loss of hit points as a "bad thing"; not something to just shrug and accept.

I seem to recall Rambo doing exactly this in First Blood (although, I think I'd have rather just hit the ground than crash through/bounce off Every. Single. Branch...)

I've also seen a Monk (10th) jump down 100' to rescue an unconscious party member who'd fallen (and was about to get eaten by baddies). Jump DC 15, Tumble DC 15 plus Monk Slow fall (50') reducing damage to a mere 3d6...

A'Mal

 

[blargney the second]

We're playing tonight. I'll have to figure out a way to pull this off.
-blarg

 

[Arnwyn]

Most of my players have absolutely no problem jumping and soaking up the damage if the situation warrants it. No problems at all.

 

[Staffan]

It happened once in my old Dark Sun campaign. The party was faced with a VERY deep hole (~1 mile) in the ground. The wizard says, "I jump down, and when I get near the bottom I'll cast my feather fall spell." The thri-kreen air cleric/psionicist says, "I jump down, and take the two halflings with me, and when I get near the bottom I'll use my feather fall granted power." The half-giant gladiator with maybe 150 hp (which was a lot more impressive in 2e than it is in 3e - halfgiants got to double their hp rolls but not their Con bonus) says, "I jump down."

 

[Slife]

Hey, people have survived falling out of planes without parachutes. With only a couple of broken bones, even. I keep falling damage the same way it is, simply because it doesn't come up a lot, and isn't obviously broken.

 

[kilamanjaro]

In the old Spelljammer box set there was an example of a character falling from orbit and surviving. One of players read that and had his high level fighter try it, just to prove he could.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

In the old Spelljammer box set there was an example of a character falling from orbit and surviving. One of players read that and had his high level fighter try it, just to prove he could.

... and he burned up on re-entry. Stupid fighters with an Int dump stat!