Falling?

[Corey]

My character used Alter Self to grow wings. When attacked I stopped trying to fly and allowed myself to free fall. At the time we could find no rules dealing with how far a character would fall per round.

Since then I have found a passing reference on DMG pg. 69 under minimum forward speed- fall 150ft the first round, 300ft the second round.

Is there a more specific reference in the core books?

Thanks in advance,
Corey

 

[Alchemist]

Your distance fallen, assuming earth conditions, is 1/2g*t^2, with g being the gravitational constant (9.81m/(s^2)) and t being the time fallen (in seconds).

So a 6 second round nets you 176.58 metres. After the second round, you'll have travelled a total of 706.32 metres. This is assuming no air resistance and that you haven't reached terminal velocity before the end of the second round. My physics books aren't handy, so I can't give mathematically perfect answers. Besides, I can't even estimate your air resistance.

In a nutshell, you'll fall very far very fast. As a rough estimate though, I'd give you a solid 100 metres of travel in a round.

Edited to change "falling velocity" to "distance fallen" Duh.

 

[dcollins]

There is no more specific reference in the core rules. The rule on DMG p. 69 is for damaged fliers (trying to maintain height but unable), not a true free-fall situation.

The rule I prefer is a simple 500 ft. the first round, 1,000 ft. each succeeding round. (From Bud Selig's book "Skydiving").

Dungeon magazine #93 (July/August 2002), p. 79 specifies a free-fall speed of 670 ft. the first round, and 1,150 ft. each succeeding round.