Falling Dire Bear

[silentspace]

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

Yep. I think I heard of that girl. Wasn't she the same girl who shapechanged into a dire boar and landed on a great red wyrm, killing it instantly?

 

[Piratecat]

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.

In real life, terminal velocity is reached at 1589 feet. At that point (10 seconds after you started falling), you hit 293 feet per second, which is terminal velocity. Maxing out at 158d6 is a little better than 20d6.

Here, have an illustration!

 

[HeavyG]

Shouldn't the Feet/sec bit go 32, 64, 96 ... instead of 32, 48, 80 ?

 

[Tilla the Hun (work)]

In real life, terminal velocity is reached at 1589 feet. At that point (10 seconds after you started falling), you hit 293 feet per second, which is terminal velocity. Maxing out at 158d6 is a little better than 20d6.

Here, have an illustration!

So how many D6 does a dire bear take falling 10'?

If you fall 16' in th first second... It's less than a second in falling, right?

 

[silentspace]

Whoa. I never said physics was my strong point So if you fall three seconds you fall 144 feet?

 

[Piratecat]

Shouldn't the Feet/sec bit go 32, 64, 96 ... instead of 32, 48, 80 ?

Nope, I don't believe so. You're still accelerating, if I remember correctly. As a result you start off more slowly than is immediately obvious.

That's also why you only fall 16' in the first full second; acceleration.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Shouldn't the Feet/sec bit go 32, 64, 96 ... instead of 32, 48, 80 ?

Indeed. Your speed rises by 32 ft/sec every second.

AR

 

[silentspace]

Piratecat, you rock. I am not worthy!

 

[Piratecat]

Indeed. Your speed rises by 32 ft/sec every second.

When this spreadsheet was checked over by physics experts, there was some reason it didn't at first - but it's been too long for me to remember what that is. Heck, you never know, I could be wrong despite the double-checking! But hopefully, this is some help to people.

This is also the reason reverse gravity was so dangerous in 1e and 2e, back with one minute rounds. With a minimum duration of 14 minutes, you'd end up 46 miles above the ground. That can't be healthy.

As for the falling dire bear scenario, you'll want to be careful of setting a precedent that large creatures take more damage (probably x2 or x4 if you wanted to be "realistic") from a fall, just like they would in real life. You KNOW that's going to come back to bite you.

For a powered/controlled falling attack (with a fly spell, for instance) I would have the attacker make a ranged touch attack with major range modifiers. For actual falling, I'd also give the target of the falling attack a reflex save negates at DC = the touch attack roll.

But ask yourself: if this tactic works in D&D, then why don't dragons use it?

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

But ask yourself: if this tactic works in D&D, then why don't dragons use it?

Crush: A flying or jumping dragon of at least Huge size can land on opponents as a standard action, using its whole body to crush them. Crush attacks are effective only against opponents three or more sizes smaller than the dragon (though it can attempt normal overrun or grapple attacks against larger opponents).

AR