Interesting Featherfall revision...

[diaglo]

'Plummet' is probably a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?

you don't understand smilies, do you? (i can do sarcasm too. don't you think?)

 

[bensei]

Unless you're in D&D world, in which case everyone falls at a flat rate.

If this was the case, why would falling damage be proportional to falling height?

 

[Unseelie]

If this was the case, why would falling damage be proportional to falling height?

Because you fall at the same speed regardless of how far you fall. You just do more damage. Instead of speeding up as you fall, you apparently increase in mass instead.

 

[bensei]

Because you fall at the same speed regardless of how far you fall. You just do more damage. Instead of speeding up as you fall, you apparently increase in mass instead.

You are right. It is the only conclusion. I have been so blind.
Consequently, a tumble check for DC 15 allows you to lose weight worth 10ft of falling. So to speak: Tumbling diet, or Slim fast.

Actually, I just noticed, that the D&D world can have the same rules as our world. Just the speed of light is much lower. This expains both why fireball, etc. allow a reflex save, and why a falling D&D hero increases in weight instead of in speed.

 

[Tarril Wolfeye]

Here's why falling damage is proportional to height fallen:

When you hit the ground all your kinetic energy is converted into deformation and heat. As you don't get heat damage from a standard fall, only deformation is important and can be seen as damage.

Your kinetic energy having mass m and speed v is (m*v^2)/2.
Your speed v after falling t seconds with acceleration a is a*t.

So your kinetic energy is (m*(a*t)^2)/2 = (m*a^2*t^2)/2

The height d you fall in t seconds with acceleration a is (a*t^2)/2
Changing d=(a*t^2)/2 around we get t^2=2*d/a.

Now putting t^2=2*d/a in kinetic energy we get (m*a^2*(2*d/a))/2.

(m*a^2*(2*d/a))/2 = m*a^2/a*2/2*d = m*a*d

So we get this: the kinetic energy is proportional to mass, acceleration and height.
Acceleration is constant and mass only matters in the rules from 400 lbs up.


As we get maximum damage at 200 ft., the terminal velocity is reached after 3.5 seconds by the way.