D&D 5E Request for thoughts on falling damage change

[Satyrn]

I'm gonna say, go with what @Hemlock suggested. 3d6 per ten feet would work fine. It's close enough to what you got, and is quick and easy.

Or maybe 2d10. Something like it, anyway

Or for some slight complexity 1d10 for the first 10 feet, +1d10 for every 5 feet after. This way, short falls aren't crippling, slipping off a low building isn't life threatening, but everything else is scary.

 

[dave2008]

Then stick to lower levels or use warhammer frpg 2nd ed... pretty hard to be gritty/less heroic at level 15-20...

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using EN World mobile app

I sorta agree except that even at low levels basic D&D is not as gritty as I would like (no desire to play anything else) sometimes. Now, with some of the variant rules I think it can be. For gritty I would cap it level 10, anything above that requires legendary boons and such to advance, and use a the following variant rules (and or homebrew variants):

Healing Kit Dependency DMG pg 266
Slow Natural Healing (except gain 1 hp per week) DMG pg 267
Lingering Injuries DMG pg 272
Massive Damage DMG pg 273

 

[Tormyr]

First of all, thanks everyone for helping.

I like it. One thing I would change is that some of the damage should be variable. First, that is the 5e D&D way and there are variables in a fall that could lessen the damage.

Maybe the first 50 or 100 feet have variable damage and then add your static increase after that.

Based on another a tangent I was involved on in another thread, you could look at size having an effect on damage. [MENTION=6787650]Hemlock[/MENTION] double the falling damage per size category. That seemed to harsh. I suggested using HD since that is based in size. So the variable damage would cause d6 (Small0, d8 (Medium), d10 (Large), d12 (Huge), or D20 (Gargantuan) damage per foot or speed of fall. Then subtract the creatures size x2 from the distance of the fall. Maybe the following for a medium creature:

Distance / Damage:
10-19ft / 2d8
20-30ft / 4d8
30-49 ft / 6d8
50-99ft / 8d8
100-199ft / 8d8 +30
200-999ft / 8d8 + 100
1000-1499ft / 8d8 + 110
1500ft+ / 8d8(max) + 110

I like the thought of the different dice size, which helps with creature size. I I could abstract the numbers to dice that might work, and your example might be close enough. It doesn't solve for exceptionally good at falling creatures like cats, but it could be close enough.

The problem is that falling 10 feet shouldn't be worse than being hit with a greatsword, which both of your systems do. So unless you are going to have some mitigation method, then your methods are ridiculously deadly.

Might I suggest simply reducing the damage by the acrobatic check number for the "damage = foot/sec" model? And if the fall is deliberate, award advantage on the check. That makes someone with 6 hitpoints and no training always survive a 10 foot fall (but might seriously injure themselves), they will sometimes survive a 20 foot fall (and usually get injured) and they will never survive a 50 foot fall. At the extreme end of the scale, people who are really, really good at acrobatics are still going to take damage most of the time from a 50 foot fall, and will always take damage from bigger falls than that but will be able to ignore 20 foot ones. that seems like the right zone for me. Meanwhile a 1500 foot fall is going to wreck all but the toughest adventurers.

This is like the second suggestion I had for reducing the damage in the OP, and I think it might probably is more "5e" than my first suggestion. I like advantage for deliberate falls, and I might make this doing this a reaction to reduce the falling damage.



I will have to take a look at some of these ideas in more detail later.

 

[Shiroiken]

I know that Gygax played around with variant falling rules. I think I saw one of his posts here on Enworld where he mentioned that he'd recently been using quadratic falling damage: 1d6 for the first 10', then 2d6 for the next 10', then 3d6 for the next 10', etc. In this case, a 50' fall would be (1d6+2d6+3d6+4d6+5d6) = 15d6 damage, which is respectable. You could certainly adapt this sytem to 5E. It has interesting implications.

I do this. I also upped the cap to 40d6, since the original cap was based on the logic of OD&D and AD&D where HP were MUCH lower.

 

[dave2008]

It doesn't solve for exceptionally good at falling creatures like cats, but it could be close enough.

Maybe cats (and similar) have a trait that could account for this.

Feline Reflexes: A cat gains double its proficiency bonus on Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks when falling.

or something similar

 

[Blue]

It looks like you are really going for realism. I think you are onto something abotu falling speed to damage. However, I think you need to calibrate your damage to height of falls that will kill.

I found a lot of contradictory anecdotal, then I found an article using CDC data. http://ehstoday.com/nothing-easy-falling-off-ladder

It looks like the 50/50 point of death is about 20 feet. So if you are rolling (either damage or HPs), your average human should die on an average or higher roll and survive on a lower than average roll. (Reverse this if rolling HPs for the commoner instead of damage done to them.)

Maybe a commoner is too weak at 4 HPs, let's go for acolyte or cultist. At 1/4 CR and 9 HPs, that seems to be a common non-leveled but still active person.

So 19 ft/s^2 for a 20 ft drop works out to be about 1/2 a HP per ft/s^2. So take your original chart and chop it in two. (Which isn't too different from d6 per 10' fallen but rising a bit slower.)

This really shows the abstract measure of HPs where two fit and healthy adults could have 50, 100 or more HPs difference. But since there is one case of someone suriving a fall from 33K feet without a parachute, that's where the luck aspect of HPs come in.

Now, part of me feels that you were looking at a more realistic solution because you didn't like the idea of mid-level PCs falling 80' down and dusting themselves off. Unfortunately, and damage level that would seriously impact those PCs would be much higher lethality then in real life. At that point, it's not a more realistic system, just a more deadly one. If you want more deadly, why not just roll more or larger dice?

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

It looks like you are really going for realism. I think you are onto something abotu falling speed to damage. However, I think you need to calibrate your damage to height of falls that will kill.

I found a lot of contradictory anecdotal, then I found an article using CDC data. http://ehstoday.com/nothing-easy-falling-off-ladder

It looks like the 50/50 point of death is about 20 feet. So if you are rolling (either damage or HPs), your average human should die on an average or higher roll and survive on a lower than average roll. (Reverse this if rolling HPs for the commoner instead of damage done to them.)

Maybe a commoner is too weak at 4 HPs, let's go for acolyte or cultist. At 1/4 CR and 9 HPs, that seems to be a common non-leveled but still active person.

So 19 ft/s^2 for a 20 ft drop works out to be about 1/2 a HP per ft/s^2. So take your original chart and chop it in two. (Which isn't too different from d6 per 10' fallen but rising a bit slower.)

This really shows the abstract measure of HPs where two fit and healthy adults could have 50, 100 or more HPs difference. But since there is one case of someone suriving a fall from 33K feet without a parachute, that's where the luck aspect of HPs come in.

Now, part of me feels that you were looking at a more realistic solution because you didn't like the idea of mid-level PCs falling 80' down and dusting themselves off. Unfortunately, and damage level that would seriously impact those PCs would be much higher lethality then in real life. At that point, it's not a more realistic system, just a more deadly one. If you want more deadly, why not just roll more or larger dice?

Remember that the CDC stats are for people with access to modern medicine. The D&D equivalent is stabilization via healing kit. In order to die from a fall, that 9 HP Cultist needs to take 18 points of damage to be killed. Otherwise he just wakes up 1d4 hours later after the equivalent of an ER visit.

So instead of chopping it in two, just use the original chart.

 

[Draegn]

I've ruled that for falling you have to roll the distance fallen or higher on percentage dice or die. If they voluntarily jump I give them a +20% to the roll. If the roll is made and an additional saving throw at -1 for every 10 feet is made, they can walk away with damage equal to their HP minus 10% for every 10 feet fallen. If the saving throw is failed they are crippled until help arrives.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'll keep to the RAW.

High-level characters are so bad ass they automatically pull a "Magee."

I figure if Alan Magee can survive a 4-mile fall from his gun turret on a B-17 bomber, without a parachute, WHILE wounded from enemy fire, which ended in his body crashing through the glass roof of a Nazi railway station, well...then your level 19 god-like fighter can too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee


See (e.g. "Google") also James Boole (6000 feet onto snow-covered rocks—broke backs and ribs, but survived), Nicholas Alkemade (18,000 feet, fall "broken" by pine trees and snow, suffered a ...sprained leg!), Ivan Chisov (22,000 feet, suffered some spinal injuries but was flying again a few months later), Danny Yamashiro (only 300 feet, but was head first, then during the rescue attempt, with news cameras recording it, feel another 100 feet, actually suffered the worst injuries of everyone on this list...fun fact he's the great grandson of "Charlie Chan"), AND the Guinesss book of World's Records surviving a fall without a parachut record goes to Vesna Vulonic: 33,000 feet (she is the only person on this list who was in [a part of] the plane when she fell—but c'mon—33,000 f'n feet!


Anyway if someone calls BS to falling damage in my game of high fantasy, I see "he pulled a Magee." Or I make the player recite a list the list and details of people who have survived documented high-altitude falls without parachutes until they learn their lesson and stop interrupting my game with "reality."

 

[Sunseeker]

I use an exponential damage system. The first 10 feet is free (based on size, large gets 20, huge gets 30, etc...) then it's +1d6, +2d6, +4d6, +8d6, 16d6, 32d6, 64d6. 128d6 and so on.