D&D 4E How should falling be handled in 4E?

[3catcircus]

How about making sure that if you fall far enough, you'll bust a leg or arm rather than just lose hp? Fall further than 10 feet is guaranteed to inflict *some* type of impairment that needs to be healed up. Fall far enough and you end up going splat, making a sound like a bag of ripe garbage being dropped and splitting open...

This is one of the failings of D&D - hit points don't really impair you. I'm not saying we need a physics-based damage model that is 6dof, but a wound/injury that should break a leg should at least prevent you from running a marathon right after.

 

[Sadrik]

2 con damage per 10' fallen?

40' fall does 8 con damage?

Does that work?

 

[Thunderfoot]

I only want one falling rule addendum...If you fall in lava, you die.

 

[lukelightning]

Why all this angst about falling damage? Sure, none of us would survive a 300 foot fall, but none of us in real life are 10th level fighters. I've never seen falling as an instantly deadly hazard in D&D anyways. Making falls deadlier is boring.

It's more fun to use it as a battlefield hazard. You're fighting the bad guys, fall off a ledge, take 8d6 damage. Ouch. Now you're separated from the party and a swarm of centipedes starts to crawl all over you.

I only want one falling rule addendum...If you fall in lava, you die.

Realistically you would fall on lava, since it is just as dense as solid rock (ok, very slightly less, but still denser than you). Plus anything flammable would burst into flames just being near it.

 

[JDJblatherings]

1d6 per 10 feet, massive damage if that still applies and automatically Stunned for a round per 30 feet fallen (or something like that).

that way no one just leaps 50 feet down and walks away as if nothign happened (except as modified for special abilities).

 

[GreatLemur]

I'd think that some kind of (XdY*level*distance) damage mechanic would be appropriate. Barring any magic or unusual feats, a higher-level character should really have a better chance of surviving a fall. This ain't really the kind of threat to which someone could apply the various traits that hit points are supposed to represent. Some kind of Reflex save or Jump/Tumble check to mitigate the damage does seem reasonable, though.

 

[Morrus]

Without wanting to steal the thunder of another, soon-to-be very popular d20 product I hear is being written**, I propose the following rule:

If you fall, you die.*


*No save.
**I mean "written" in the loosest possible term.

 

[Kraydak]

I'd think that some kind of (XdY*level*distance) damage mechanic would be appropriate. Barring any magic or unusual feats, a higher-level character should really have a better chance of surviving a fall. This ain't really the kind of threat to which someone could apply the various traits that hit points are supposed to represent. Some kind of Reflex save or Jump/Tumble check to mitigate the damage does seem reasonable, though.

There are many ways to describe hp. Everyone I have ever encountered would apply to falling. What hp representation do you use?

(I chose option 1. I however vote for falling damage to be treated as every other kind of damage and, if a damage track becomes standard, hope falling does not become immune to such mechanics)

 

[Driddle]

The ground should be allowed to make an attack of opportunity.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

If you fall, you die.*

"I've fallen and I can't get up!"