Falling speed

[Toric_Arthendain]

During my last game session, a question came up about how fast a person falls. One PC was essentially pushed down a 100 foot long shaft and a minor argument ensued over how fast that PC would have hit the bottom. Are there any hard and fast rules somewhere on falling speed? If not, does anyone have any ideas or opinions on this subject?

 

[Raven Crowking]

In the real world, an object falls at 32 feet per second per second, minus wind resistance, so that said person would hit bottom in just over 2 seconds.

In the D&D rules, though, wackiness is the order of the day.


RC

 

[TheGogmagog]

You fall 500' first round and 1000' every round after that.

Per sage, and calculations come close to that.
Similar discussion can be found here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=179811

There was a wide range of numbers because there are falling speed records of people TRYING to fall fast with aerodynamic suites (and calculation errors into D&D game terms), but for D&D 500 and 1000 is close enough and easy to work with. Enjoy.

(oops, missed the question.)

For another misdirection falling damage isn't caluclate from speed or physics but by distance fallen. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm

To your question, you would be going about 65 ft/second.

 

[Toric_Arthendain]

Thanks Gog and RC.

It became important in the session I mentioned because the PC was pushed and started falling down the 100' shaft. Another PC (who went after the first PC was pushed, but within the same round) wanted to cast a web at the bottom of the shaft to slow or stop the fall of the first PC. Because they went in the same round, I ruled that he got the spell off before the PC hit bottom, which saved his life.

Thanks again for the advice!

 

[frankthedm]

Thanks Gog and RC.

It became important in the session I mentioned because the PC was pushed and started falling down the 100' shaft. Another PC (who went after the first PC was pushed, but within the same round) wanted to cast a web at the bottom of the shaft to slow or stop the fall of the first PC. Because they went in the same round, I ruled that he got the spell off before the PC hit bottom, which saved his life.

Thanks again for the advice!

He should have hit bottom. The only spell that could have saved him would have been feather fall. The slowest non safe fall rate in the game [for failing to keep up minimum speed while flying] is 150' the first round [300' on the next rounds as you try to save yourself].

Did the caster at least have line of sight / line of effect to the area to be webbed?

 

[Toric_Arthendain]

Yes, the caster had line of sight to the bottom of the shaft where he cast the web.

As for whether he should have hit bottom or not, I think I made the right call. The PC who fell and the PC who saved him acted on initiatives that were extremely close together in the round. In other words, a whole round didn't go by before the PC spellcaster was able to get the web cast, only a matter of a second or two. So PC "A" fell and a second or two later PC "B" cast web at the bottom of a 100' shaft, catching PC "A" before he hit bottom. Seemed reasonable to me at the time and still does after all the advice given in this thread. If PC "B" had not gone until the following round, PC "A" would have splattered on the floor. The fact that they were seperated by a small gap in the initiative order in the same round was the deciding factor.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I'd have done the same.

 

[anon]

I think it was a good ruling as well, though as Frank points out probably not supported by the rules.

The game has a big problem with simultaneousness which is often concealed and irrelevant, but in the case of falling it becomes apparent and real, and should be dealt with by an aware DM. Nice job.

 

[frankthedm]

The game has a big problem with simultaneousness which is often concealed and irrelevant, but in the case of falling it becomes apparent and real, and should be dealt with by an aware DM. Nice job.

A good way to time falling without ACME hang time is divide the plummet up amount the initiative cycle among the 20-1 cycle.

25' per initiative tick for falling, 7.5’ per initiative tick for wing flapping plummet.
After the first round, double these numbers.​

 

[Derren]

You fall 500' first round and 1000' every round after that.

According to the D&D rules you fall 150 ft. the first round and 300 ft every round after that.