Falling Into Water

[nookiemonster]

It's not the fall that kills you.

That's the impact's job.

I believe that there are some published adventures that have pits full of water that monsters/characters can fall into, and it is put into the description of the pit how much damage a character takes when they fall in. So basically DM fiat. Of course, a lot depends on how deep the water is. If it's only a few feet deep, and the fall is long, they will go through the water and hit the stone at the bottom. If the water is very deep, it may cushion the fall a lot - water will absorb a lot of the energy of the fall, not the character's body - but then there's the whole "swimming in heavy armour" issue. And the sides may be slick with mold or fungus. So a water filled pit can be even deadlier than a regular pit.

 

[Minifig]

Right, there's no official rule on the matter.

I'd say roll the damage as normal (1d10 per 10 feet) and then halve it. An acrobatics check can then reduce that damage as normal, since you only need to make yourself fall vertically instead of doing that and also trying to land safely.

I think it's also worth to discuss how deep you end up plumetting into the water after the fall, and what happens if you plumett all the way to the bottom. I would say that you sink half the distance you fell and if you hit the bottom before sinking all the way, take the rest of that distance as normal falling damage (so, falling from 40 feet into 10 foot deep water would make you take 4d10/2 damage, then sink 20 feet, but since it is only 10 feet, you sink to the bottom and take 1d10 damage, since you had 10 feet left to go. Example dice say you'd take 20 damage in all. Seems about right). This is based on random ideas and no science whatsoever.

Man.. I can't thumb you up for that epic post.. so beautifully written and the dice were a nice touch.