Falling Dire Bear

[CalrinAlshaw]

The rules my groups tend to use, ARE consistent with physics, in that, you take more and more damage DUE to acceleration...
10 ft you take 1d6
20ft you take 3d6
Basically, you take 1d6 + 2d6 + 3d6 + 4d6 etc until terminal velocity...cuz you speed up. That makes potentially far falls extremely lethal. In our group, that makes people NOT want to fall, which is VERY good. Even though NO one wants to fall 200 feet in game, it makes that fall very painful...210d6 is NOT fun, the DM that rolled that stopped after that particular fighter took 150 damage I think it was around the 45th die of damage or something.

CalrinAlshaw

 

[silentspace]

When the rules do not specifically cover something, you need to figure out a rule. There are three primary things to consider. Consider them in this order:

1.) Balance: Consider the difficulty and availability of the thing in question. Can low level PCs make it happen? If so, it shouldn't be able to deal much damage. Is it something that can be done repeatedly? Things that can be repeated easily should not be excessively effective.

2.) Consistency: Are there rules in the game that cover similar circumstances? If so, can they be tweaked to cover this area so that new rules do not need to be learned?

3.) Reality: If you can find a 'realistic' method of dealing witht he situation that is balanced, go for it. The key here is that realism must be a lower priority than balance and consistency.

Balance is is the game to keep the game challenging at all levels - and thus make it fun. Consistency reduces the rules arguments and keeps the game fun. Reality does nothing but remind us of the real world ... where getting stabbed by a sword sucks a lot more than erasing a few hit points from a piece of paper. Not so much fun.

Right. My motivation for suggesting using real-world physics was that I think it is far too easy and unbalancing. It was an attempt to make it a little less easy. Dealing damage by falling objects, whether they are players or objects, can result in massive kills in one round. I think it should at least be a little harder to do. Of course, if you feel it's not unbalancing, then there's no need to find ways to limit it!

 

[silentspace]

The rules my groups tend to use, ARE consistent with physics, in that, you take more and more damage DUE to acceleration...
10 ft you take 1d6
20ft you take 3d6
Basically, you take 1d6 + 2d6 + 3d6 + 4d6 etc until terminal velocity...cuz you speed up. That makes potentially far falls extremely lethal. In our group, that makes people NOT want to fall, which is VERY good. Even though NO one wants to fall 200 feet in game, it makes that fall very painful...210d6 is NOT fun, the DM that rolled that stopped after that particular fighter took 150 damage I think it was around the 45th die of damage or something.

CalrinAlshaw

Wow.

 

[Darklone]

On a related topic, does anyone think it's broken that any human, no matter how good a fighter, can fall thousands of feet with no fear of death?

Edit:

In game terms, terminal velocity is reached at 200 ft. I think IRL its not that much further, something like 260 ft...? So even if we increase damage to 26d6 (avg damage 91), high level types can survive that no problem.

I think the "world record" for falling from great heights is some thousand feet (girl from an airplane crash) without getting hurt.

 

[Dirigible]

It seems to me big critters should take more damage from falls.

Drop an a spider, a mouse and an elephant form 10' up... see which walks away.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

It seems to me big critters should take more damage from falls.

Drop an a spider, a mouse and an elephant form 10' up... see which walks away.

Do you drop the elephant last?

 

[green slime]

Several people have survived amazing falls. But they are a lucky few. Far, far more are turned into paté as they decorate the pavement.

 

[green slime]

Secondly it isn't easy to hit a moving target when observed from above.

Try this experiment: Trace a top down view of a human (top of head plus shoulders) upon a piece of paper. Place this paper on a flotation device, in a swimming pool. Climb up the dive board to the 5m board. Leap into the water trying to land with your center of gravity upon the paper. This is only from 5 meters.

Now consider that the druid would be flying with a forward motion as well.

The idea of trying to fall from a great height upon someone, while amusing in theory, is rather more difficult to do in practice.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Do you drop the elephant last?

Lol thought the same thing

(was going to get into the real-life physics discussion, but I have a eral-life bus to take)

AR

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Several people have survived amazing falls. But they are a lucky few. Far, far more are turned into paté as they decorate the pavement.

You forget the most important fact in RPG: Heroes are lucky.