I love staging fights where enemies (and potentially PCs) know that one wrong move and they're off the map -- or plunging to their death. There's an art to this, though, and it toes the fine line between making the threat feel real, tactical rules to support being knocked off a clif, and giving PCs a chance to use actions and resources to keep them in the game without a total party kill because of a few bad rolls.
Shoving: The New Way to Push People
Shoving has changed from the 2014 to the 2024 Editions of D&D. Originally, if a character wanted to push a target, they would engage in a contest of Strength (Athletics) against the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics). This was flavorful and allowed for moments of dramatic struggle, but it was also a "rolling tax" that slowed combat to a crawl, especially in encounters involving high-level martials with multiple attacks.The 2024 ruleset has streamlined this process by integrating the Shove into the broader, more versatile Unarmed Strike (this confused me; to me a "strike" is an attack roll, but that's not the case here). Under the new glossary definitions, an Unarmed Strike is no longer just a punch; it is a choice between three distinct tactical outcomes: Damage, Grapple, or Shove. In this new paradigm, the Shove has been stripped of its contested nature. When a character chooses the Shove option of an Unarmed Strike, the target must succeed on a Strength or Dexterity saving throw—the target chooses which—against the attacker’s save DC. This DC is calculated using the standard formula of eight plus the attacker’s Strength modifier plus their Proficiency Bonus. On a failed save, the attacker can either knock the target Prone or push them five feet away.
This shift effectively moves the burden of the dice roll from the active player to the defender, which, while marginally faster, also changes the mathematical reliability of the maneuver. In the old system, a specialized Athletics expert could nearly guarantee a shove against a low-strength caster; now, the floor for success is tethered to a static DC, making the outcome more predictable but perhaps less "heroic" in its variance.
Weapon Mastery has made pushing much more common. Now, a character with the Push mastery, using a weapon like a Greatclub, Pike, Warhammer, or Heavy Crossbow, can launch a Large or smaller creature ten feet directly away upon a successful hit—no saving throw required. Battle Masters, with Pushing Attack, increase this to 15 feet.
Add all this up, and being pushed and shoved against your will -- be it to a PC or monster -- is much more common. Which means a battle on a cliff face is about to get a lot more interesting ... or end very quickly.
Falling: Gravity Has Consequences
Falling damage has been controversial for as long as D&D has been around. Despite this, the rules have largely remained unchanged: a creature takes 1d6 of Bludgeoning damage for every ten feet it falls, to a maximum of 20d6. At the end of the fall, the creature lands Prone unless it somehow avoids taking damage. This 20d6 cap represents terminal velocity, the point at which air resistance prevents further acceleration—a physical reality that occurs after roughly two hundred feet of plummeting.Xanathar’s Guide clarified that someone falling descends five hundred feet in a round. If the fall is further than that, you descend another five hundred feet at the end of each of your turns until you reach the ground. This means that for any fall under five hundred feet—which covers nearly every pit, cliff, and castle wall in most campaigns—the fall and the impact happen simultaneously. There is no "Wile E. Coyote Moment" for the character to contemplate their life choices, nor is there a Rescue Window for allies to intervene unless they have a reaction specifically designed for such a moment.
The rules do offer some minor concessions to environmental hazards. Falling into water or other liquids now allows for a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check; if successful, the falling damage is reduced by half. Additionally, a flying creature that is knocked Prone, has its speed reduced to zero, or is Incapacitated will fall unless it has the Hover trait. On its next turn, if it hasn't hit the ground, the creature can "stand up" from the Prone condition by spending half its flying movement to resume flight.
The problem, as many a frustrated DM has discovered, is that 20d6 is simply not very much damage to a high-level hero. While 70 points of damage is a death sentence for a commoner with four hit points, it is a mere inconvenience for a 20th-level Barbarian with over two hundred hit points. In fact, it is entirely possible for a high-level Paladin to be shoved off the edge of a floating citadel, fall three miles through the atmosphere, hit the jagged rocks below, take seventy damage, and then simply use half their movement to stand up, dust themselves off, and use Lay on Hands to heal the majority of the damage on the same turn.
Combining this with the ability to be pushed off a cliff creates a strange dichotomy. It's now easier to push opponents, but for PCs with large amounts of hit points, the consequences of the impact are far less than the shove itself. Which is to say, at higher levels, a PC can just decide to take the damage rather than avoid being shoved, while at lower levels, a monster can simply shove a PC off a cliff to their doom. You are either on the ledge, or you are on the ground.
There is rarely a middle ground, rarely a moment of hanging by your fingernails while your friends scramble to save you. The gap between these two approaches—one that ignores physics for the sake of speed, and one that embraces it for the sake of safety—is where the tension lies. I wanted a system that acknowledges the space between the push and the impact, a system that provides the "clutch" moments that define great fantasy stories., an opportunity to dangle, to struggle, and to be rescued before they hit the dirt.
Precipice: The Drama of the Descent
To rectify the binary "instant-fall" problem and inject true tension into ledge-side encounters, I created a multi-stage rescue subsystem called The Precipice. This system replaces the immediate transition from "On the Ledge" to "On the Ground" with a more granular series of statuses: Standing, Precarious, Dangling, and Falling. The core of the Precipice subsystem is the transition between these states. When a creature is subjected to a shove or push that would move it off a ledge, the outcome is determined by the distance of the push and the creature's current status.- Precarious: A creature that is Standing and is pushed five feet—perhaps by a standard Shove or a Shield Bash—is not immediately sent over the edge. Instead, it is knocked into the Prone (Precarious) status. In this state, the creature is flat on its face at the very edge of the drop. Any further forced movement, no matter how small, will move it to the next, more dangerous stage. If a Prone (Precarious) creature is pushed even five feet by a Crusher feat or a minor Repelling Blast, it transitions to the Dangling status.
- Dangling: The Dangling status is where the real drama occurs. A creature enters this state if it is pushed ten feet or more off a ledge—such as by a Warhammer’s Push mastery—or if it is moved off the edge while already Precarious. When a creature enters the Dangling status, it is effectively restrained as it clings to the ledge with its hands or gear. At this moment, the creature must make a Precipice Save: a Dexterity saving throw with a DC 10 or half the damage of the attack that pushed it, whichever is higher. On a success, the creature is Dangling. On a failure, it immediately transitions to the Falling status and begins its descent.
- The Catch: But there's a catch (literally!). When a creature transitions to the Dangling or Falling status, any ally within five feet can use their Reaction to attempt to catch them. This transforms the static combat round into a dynamic scene of cooperation. The ally must have at least one hand free or be wielding a weapon with the Reach property to attempt the catch. The ally makes a Strength (Athletics) check with a DC based on the falling creature's size: 10for Tiny, 12 for Small, 15 for Medium, and 20 for Large. A success means the creature is now Dangling, held firmly by the ally. A failure means the creature continues to fall, and if the ally fails by five or more, they must make a DC 10 Dexterity save or be pulled into the Precarious status themselves as they lose their balance.
- Pulling Yourself Up: Once a creature is Dangling, they must use their Action on their turn to attempt to pull themselves up. This requires a Strength (Athletics) check against a DC 15. If an ally is holding them (The Catch), the dangling creature has Advantage on this check. If they fail the check, they remain Dangling, but if they fail by five or more, their grip slips, and they transition to Falling. This creates a "ticking clock" element; a dangling hero can only hold on for so long before their Strength gives out, forcing the rest of the party to act quickly to secure the ledge.
Does it Work?
I use this system regularly in my campaign for battles atop trains, out-of-control stagecoaches, over yawning chasms, and across rivers. In those situations, a creature who falls off is out of the battle, be it from certain death or just falls so far out of reach that they can't realistically get back in time to join the combat. And of course, the stakes are higher for lower level characters -- Feather Fall, or a different form of speed (Fly, Climb, or Swim) all resolve these issues much faster and make the stakes lower.Perhaps the biggest change is that it makes PCs work together and eats into their Action economy. Because my weekly library game typically has a large group of five or more PCs, a falling character effectively takes two of them out of the battle as they struggle to keep each other from falling. In at least one case, a Natural 1 on the roll caused both PCs to tumble into a gorge (where a monster was waiting). It made for some memorable battles.
Your Turn: How do you manage the drama of combat at precarious heights?
