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

[BASHMAN]

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Tiny or smaller creatures take 1d3/10' fallen
Small creatures take 1d4/10 feet fallen
Medium creatures take 1d6/10 feet fallen.
Large creatures take 1d8/10 feet
Huge take 1d10/10 feet
Gargantuan [is that what comes after huge] 2d6/10' fallen
each step up add a d6 /10 feet.

On a related note:
Tiny & smaller get +8 to climb checks
small gets +4 to climb checks
Medium gets +0
Large gets -4
Huge gets -8
Gargantuan -16
etc

Why? The bigger you are, the larger your hands, the bigger your fingers, the harder it is to find hand holds-- especially ones that will support your weight. This is why kids are better at climbing than adults in general. They have less weight to lift up, and the climbing surface can support it better-- and it is easier to find cracks that are small than it is to find big ones.

Now a professional climber-- someone with high level and lots of ranks in climb-- will still be better than some kid-- but in general smaller is better. Also, climb should be Dex or STr- whichever you'd rather.

 

[Kraydak]

Yea, and hold up a sign saying "uh oh" I don't really know what he'd do, whereas there is plenty of variability, it seems, with combat. I suppose if you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a fall? I can live with falling doing just hp damage, for the reasons that you point out but it just seems like falling is different. Maybe it's because the ground is pretty much hitting automatically. A "hit" with a sword might just be a glancing blow, but how does the ground do such a thing?

Meaningfully in that you can react not just mentally but physically. Accelerating your body enough to generate a miss takes effort. Dodging/parrying 200 arrows (roughly equivalent to taking a 10d6 fall) is vastly beyond human strength. It is, actually, roughly (very, very roughly) comparable to being strong enough to jump 100' straight up. It is, therefore, strong enough to absorb the falling damage meaningfully.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Meaningfully in that you can react not just mentally but physically. Accelerating your body enough to generate a miss takes effort. Dodging/parrying 200 arrows (roughly equivalent to taking a 10d6 fall) is vastly beyond human strength. It is, actually, roughly (very, very roughly) comparable to being strong enough to jump 100' straight up. It is, therefore, strong enough to absorb the falling damage meaningfully.

Is there some fascinating physics/biology behind this, or are you pulling directly from your rear end? Just how much force does it take dodge or parry an arrow?

 

[Midknightsun]

I wouldn't mind a simple d6/ 10', with an additional fort save vs DC 10+1/10' fallen ( or maybe DC15+1). If you fail the save, you take double damage. I also like the idea about the terrain you land on increasing/decreasing the damage multiplier (ie:rocky field crits x3 if you fail, etc). Its not perfect, but sounds pretty good to me.

 

[fuindordm]

Is there some fascinating physics/biology behind this, or are you pulling directly from your rear end?

Need they be exclusive?

 

[Kraydak]

Is there some fascinating physics/biology behind this, or are you pulling directly from your rear end? Just how much force does it take dodge or parry an arrow?

200 arrows/6 seconds \approx 0.03 seconds/arrow.
distance from foot to hip \approx 1 m.
movement required to parry/block an arrow \approx 1 m.
falling speed required to more 1m in .03 seconds \approx 33 m/s
at 10 m/s^2, time to reach that speed \approx 3 seconds
falling distance in 3 seconds \approx 40m>100'.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Don't forget, people have fallen thousands of feet, and lived. This isn't just Urban Myth, but documented. So it is possible for people to survive huge falls.
.

Exactly. In Shanghai Express, Yuen Biao does an arabian (no-handed summersault) off of the roof of a building that's at least 50' tall onto packed earth below and RUNS AWAY from that fall.

In Project-A Jackie Chan falls from a clock tower through several awnings which slow his descent, but breaks through the last awning and FALLS ON HIS HEAD. He then proceeds to GET UP and WALK away from that fall.

This doesn't even take into account the other stunt men who get tossed, punched and kicked from high places onto cars, packed earth and concrete in these movies.

 

[BlackMoria]

Exactly. In Shanghai Express, Yuen Biao does an arabian (no-handed summersault) off of the roof of a building that's at least 50' tall onto packed earth below and RUNS AWAY from that fall.

In Project-A Jackie Chan falls from a clock tower through several awnings which slow his descent, but breaks through the last awning and FALLS ON HIS HEAD. He then proceeds to GET UP and WALK away from that fall.

This doesn't even take into account the other stunt men who get tossed, punched and kicked from high places onto cars, packed earth and concrete in these movies.

You do realize that most of your examples are a product of various safety equipment being used like fly wires, crush cartons, mattresses, etc and the safety equipment is edited out.

It is best not to cite movies as proof considering how far the magnificent art of special effects has advanced.

 

[Just Another User]

Other: falling should do no damage at all because it is neither heroic nor fun to die from a fall.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Need they be exclusive?

Apparently not, as the post below yours shows!

ShinHaikkaider - Yeah, and in the Matrix Morpheus kills a car with a katana, why can't I do that in d20 Modern, eh? SFX-filled movies not good place to seek "real world" examples.

Kraydak - Which D&D character can/has to dodge 200 arrows btw? A Monk I guess. A Fighter would just stand there laughing in his full plate +4 until all the natural 20s added up (on average ten of them), and then he would be a little upset. So maybe Monks should be allowed to leap off tall buildings, indeed, that kinda fits. I just don't want EVERYONE doing it without a care in the world.