Gravity

[Sundragon2012]

As I understand it, the falling rules were miswritten back in 1st edition. The original intent was to make it cumulative damage. +1d6 per ten feet, to a maximum of +20d6 at which point you've hit terminal velocity.

So, first 10 feet is 1d6. A twenty foot fall would be 3d6. A fifty foot fall would be 15d6. A 200 foot fall would be 210d6. A 500 foot fall would also be 210d6.

That works too.

It may be more brutal than my falling system (posted earlier) but I'm too lazy right now to do the math.



Sundragon

 

[wgreen]

Someone, I can't remember who right now, made a very good case that the highest level any actual historical person ever reached was 5th level. Einstein? 5th level. Genghis Khan? 5th level.

That was Justin Alexander. Great article, IMHO.

-Will

 

[Alratan]

Isn't there anyone else out there that likes heroic fantasy anymore?

I think it's a virtue of the system that high level D&D models mythic heroes - people who do jump down cliffs and can slay an army on their own, to whom a normal man with a sword is but a gnat, whose blows would barely cause a scratch.

That's the point of the game, and as others have said, there are other systems which model gritty fantasy very well, so there is not need to compromise the D&D system to do so.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Isn't there anyone else out there that likes heroic fantasy anymore?

I think it's a virtue of the system that high level D&D models mythic heroes - people who do jump down cliffs and can slay an army on their own, to whom a normal man with a sword is but a gnat, whose blows would barely cause a scratch.

Name me a SINGLE heroic fantasy novel or film where someone does that? Even in MYTH people die every time when they jump off cliffs! (See: numerous examples in Greek Myth)

It's not "modelling mythic heroes". It's a dumb system which doesn't work well and doesn't even mesh with the rest of the game.

It's once thing to survive a fall, which does happen all the time in fantasy fiction, it's quite another to walk away from it relatively uninjured.

Don't give me bollocks about "heroic fantasy". It's nonsense. In all forms of fantasy fiction, people who fall 200ft on to a hard surface, without hitting a branch, large bird, multiple trees, doing semi-magical acrobatics etc. on the way down DIE or are crippled. The difference between this and the sweep of a dragon's paw is that it's plausible for someone to get hit by a dragon and live - maybe the claws didn't go deep, or he was hit mostly by the "palm" of the paw, maybe his skill allowed him to roll with the blow, etc.

It's not plausible, even in "Tales of Mythic Heroism", to fall 200ft straight down on to a hard surface and take fractional damage and no impairment without magical assistance, and particularly so if you're not some kind of acrobatic ninja-type, but a big guy with a beard in full plate.

 

[Henry]

One house rule I've toyed with is that falling does CON damage, instead of damage.

Player: "OK, I jump off the cliff to save my buddy at the bottom."
DM: "Ok, you fall 100 feet, and take 10d6 CON damage."
Player: "CONSTITUTION damage?.... OK, Fred, you're on your own down there. I ain't jumping! that!"


Look at it this way... if you fall a hundred feet and survive, you darn sure are going to have a tougher time fighting off poison and colds if you live.

 

[Sundragon2012]

One house rule I've toyed with is that falling does CON damage, instead of damage.

Player: "OK, I jump off the cliff to save my buddy at the bottom."
DM: "Ok, you fall 100 feet, and take 10d6 CON damage."
Player: "CONSTITUTION damage?.... OK, Fred, you're on your own down there. I ain't jumping! that!"


Look at it this way... if you fall a hundred feet and survive, you darn sure are going to have a tougher time fighting off poison and colds if you live.

LOL

Never thought of implementing Constitution damage, that could work.



Sundragon

 

[Grog]

It's not plausible, even in "Tales of Mythic Heroism", to fall 200ft straight down on to a hard surface and take fractional damage and no impairment without magical assistance, and particularly so if you're not some kind of acrobatic ninja-type, but a big guy with a beard in full plate.

QFT. I can suspend my disbelief about lots of things in a heroic fantasy game, but not this.

 

[HeinorNY]

Don't give me bollocks about "heroic fantasy". It's nonsense. In all forms of fantasy fiction, people who fall 200ft on to a hard surface, without hitting a branch, large bird, multiple trees, doing semi-magical acrobatics etc. on the way down DIE or are crippled.

Spiderman doesn't.

 

[Kraydak]

Name me a SINGLE heroic fantasy novel or film where someone does that? Even in MYTH people die every time when they jump off cliffs! (See: numerous examples in Greek Myth)

It's not "modelling mythic heroes". It's a dumb system which doesn't work well and doesn't even mesh with the rest of the game.

It's once thing to survive a fall, which does happen all the time in fantasy fiction, it's quite another to walk away from it relatively uninjured.

Don't give me bollocks about "heroic fantasy". It's nonsense. In all forms of fantasy fiction, people who fall 200ft on to a hard surface, without hitting a branch, large bird, multiple trees, doing semi-magical acrobatics etc. on the way down DIE or are crippled. The difference between this and the sweep of a dragon's paw is that it's plausible for someone to get hit by a dragon and live - maybe the claws didn't go deep, or he was hit mostly by the "palm" of the paw, maybe his skill allowed him to roll with the blow, etc.

It's not plausible, even in "Tales of Mythic Heroism", to fall 200ft straight down on to a hard surface and take fractional damage and no impairment without magical assistance, and particularly so if you're not some kind of acrobatic ninja-type, but a big guy with a beard in full plate.

To begin with, there *isn't* much superheroic fantasy. DnD 10th level characters can literally wade through entire armies. How many fantasy character can do that? In anime, many, and those who can, can take 100' falls without pause. Outside of anime, I can think of 2 cases off the top of my head:
1) various heroes from the Iliad. Not much falling involved, so no case studies.
2) Lady Aerin from the Hero and the Crown. And she *does* fall. From a distance where the fall is measured in years rather than feet. She gets up, travels back in time (with help) and goes on to crush an army largely singlehandedly.

 

[HeinorNY]

3) Gandalf.