D&D General How Do You Handle Falling Damage?

[Celebrim]

This is the perfect way of putting it.

And by RAW, I include 1d6 per 10' (most editions), 1d6 per 10' cumulative (late 1e), and 1d10 per 10' (4e).

I'm not sure what kind of system I actually want for falling damage. People do sometimes survive falls from unbelievable heights.

I'm not actually happy with my complex system either; it's objectively too complex and breaks my rule that no gaming rule should require division. It's just that I'm more happy with it than I am with any alternative. And, it does pass your test of "people do sometimes survive falls from unbelievable heights".

 

[Scott Christian]

Fall damage recently came up in my last campaign. Lots of climbing, and at one point, two people gating 300' up. I found the RAW rules worked well for all the situations. But if I was a player at a table, I would not be opposed to a d10 or instant death at x height.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

Just 20d6 max for 5e, enough to be dangerous, but not too bad later on. Hasn't come up for PF2, but I'd probably use the 5e version for that as well. Falling isn't that dangerous compared to the other things PCs are expected to face and survive.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

Just 20d6 max for 5e, enough to be dangerous, but not too bad later on. Hasn't come up for PF2, but I'd probably use the 5e version for that as well. Falling isn't that dangerous compared to the other things PCs are expected to face and survive.

PF2 is a bit of a special case because it's not that hard to build a character who is immune to falling damage at higher levels. (without magic)

 

[Zubatcarteira]

PF2 is a bit of a special case because it's not that hard to build a character who is immune to falling damage at higher levels. (without magic)

They can, but falling from orbit and walking out of a Looney Tunes crater in the ground seems fitting for the high-level characters there.

 

[SpeedyCreek]

My group is pretty gritty and lethal so its 1d6 cumulative. That miracle survival chance we account for with either Hero Points with Pathfinder or Inspiration for DnD 5e. Costs 2 points to do the miracle survival but it drops the player to 0. DnD 5e adds fatigue damage and CON to 3 for Pathfinder.

As in real life you do not want to fall any appreciable distance. We are lucky to have players who appreciate the danger without trying to avoid danger entirely.

 

[MNblockhead]

Have had this discussion in ENworld before. I've run it RAW and have run it with no damage cap. Neither are entirely satisfactory. Falling in the real world is often more bizarre and unbelievable that in our fantasy games. As just one example, read the story of Alan Magee. He fell 22,000 feet after jumping from his damaged B-17 bomber, only to discover his parachut had been torn and rendered useless. He crashed through the glass roof of a railroad station and survived with several broken bones, severe damage to his nose and eye, lung and kidney damage, and nearly severed right arm. This is what he looked like in 1995:

Not bad for a guy who fell 22,000 feet (source)

Popular Mechanics covered this and four other extreme falls. As the article explains: "Anything above 10 or 12 stories and you've reached terminal velocity. So a fall from 20,000 feet sounds dramatic, but there's really no difference from a 500-foot fall." 12 stories is about 120 feet. So 12d6 falling damage. So as early as 6th level, a Barbarian with near-perfect hit dice rolls could be almost guaranteed to survive nearly any distance fall if you follow real-world physics and cap falling damage at 12d6 instead of 20d6.

I don't like the D&D rules because (1) your level and hit dice shouldn't be the only deciding factor and (2) falling damage is too low for shorter falls.

If/when I run D&D again, I'm thinking of homebrewing so that falling damage maxes at 12d6 but has a percentage chance of system shock. If you fail the percentile roll, you die instantly, but you can spend an inspiration to go to 0 and start making death saving throws instead. The question is what should be the chance of insta-death. I would like to say 95% but perhaps that is not in the spirit of 5e. Also, it might just be more elegant to say insta-death for any fall over 120 feet but you can spend inspiration to instead turn that into 0 HP with death saves.

P.S. Interesting NPR article on topic: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/08/24/641395468/surviving-a-big-fall

 

[SpeedyCreek]

There are far too many variables to account for damage in a fall. (height, velocity, angle, wind resistance, and more). Far too difficult and time consuming to replicate in game so as with all things we have to pick what works at our table. Maybe the information below can help if you want something grittier. If not I am sure you will find something that works for you.

Published studies seem to agree that falls of 15m (50 feet) result in approximately 50% fatalities.
A fall from 23.8m (78 feet) results in an approximately 90% fatality rate.

While there are cases of falls from extreme heights where a person survives it would be more a result of extreme good luck than planning, skill, or health of the individual involved.

 

[MNblockhead]

While there are cases of falls from extreme heights where a person survives it would be more a result of extreme good luck than planning, skill, or health of the individual involved.

Which I like using inspiration. Make high falls deadly regardless of number of HP, but have an option for modeling extreme good luck.

 

[Distracted DM]

I guess there's the case for just saying, past a certain distance, "you're dying. Make death saving throws," OR throw a bunch of 5e Exhaustion or A5e Fatigue on them to make it very debilitating even if they survive. Not sure how I'd work how much for how much..

Maybe keep the damage cap, but for every 50ft or every 30 damage, take a level of fatigue/exhaustion.