I'm falling! I'M FALLING! ...So what?

[Naathez]

This is more of a curiosity, since I have already ruled that fall damage ALWAYS applies, damage reduction nonwithstanding.

But I was curious... does a creature with damage reduction 30/silver only take damage from falling if it goes splat on a silver slab?

What I mean is... do you think the base idea was to let someone not get hurt by slamming into the earth because they're only vulnerable to magic weapons, and patches of "Earth +1" are pretty rare?

Let me know...

 

[CronoDekar]

The damage isn't spell-based or energy-based in nature, so I don't see why DR shouldn't apply. DR is usually magical in nature, so it can the bounds of logic. Also, at best a creature will have DR 15/something, negating about 40' of damage on average. Nice, but it's unlikely a PC will get significant DR until they're mid-level (at best), and by then IMO they should be able to do more heroic feats.

I probably wouldn't say either having a silver or magical floor would bypass the DR (though it would overcome bludgeoning DR). Silver spikes, sure, but
I have a hard time thinking that falling on a silver floor would bypass somebody's DR. But that's just me: falling damage isn't a big enough aspect of the game for me to make a huge deal out of it (let alone falling on a silver floor!)

 

[pbd]

Think of it this way, if a non-magic sword to the kidneys has to overcome DR than a fall onto non-magic ground does too (not that there is too much +1 earth around..). So I would say that the damage reduction has to be taken into effect.

pbd

 

[irdeggman]

Check the definition of damage reduction in the monster manual it clearly states it applies (only) to natural attacks and to weapons.

It does not apply to traps (not a weapon), spells {Spell resistance}, falling (not a weapon or natural attack) or things not directly attributed to a a natural or weapon attack.

 

[Darklone]

Well, most traps are kinda weapon attacks or spells...

 

[dcollins]

What I mean is... do you think the base idea was to let someone not get hurt by slamming into the earth because they're only vulnerable to magic weapons, and patches of "Earth +1" are pretty rare?

Yes. (Of course all you have to do is fall a certain distance that overcomes DR anyway. Even easier to do in 3.5 since they generally reduced the numbers.)

Here's the response I got from the Sage on this issue a while back:

From: TSRsage...aol.com
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 21:56:07 EST
Subject: Re: DR vs. environmental effects

In a message dated 1/14/03 5:21:53 PM, dcollins...superdan.net writes:

<< Something has just occured to me that seems rather ambiguous in the core rules. I'm wondering if damage reduction is supposed to serve as protection from non-magical, non-energy effects that have no attack roll, such as: falling, landslides, tornados, crushing wall traps, or creature constrict and swallow whole abilities (DMG ch. 3, MM Introduction).

Should DR help against these kinds of physical effects? >>

In a word, yes. (That's a departure form previous additions of the game, but
once reason DR replaces the old immunity to non-magical weapons special
defense is so that a long list of exceptions were no longer needed.)

 

[Aust Diamondew]

If a club made of silver will over come DR X/silver than so will slamming into a silver slab from 100ft up.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Just drop 'em far enough and it doesn't matter what their DR is.

 

[the Jester]

Yeah, this is one reason I prefer 3.5 DR.

 

[the Jester]

Yeah, this is one reason I prefer 3.5 DR.