Tumbling to avoid falling damage?

[Studio69]

I'm thinking about creating my own campaign setting as a world building experiment and this thought crossed my mind.

If a character falls a number of feet equal to their base land speed (before any class or feat modifications) they can avoid taking falling damage if they succeed a Tumble check with the DC equal to 5 + 1 per two feet fallen). Thoughts?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

So you're basically just severely weakening the ability of Tumble to soften a fall? Well, it's stronger at low heights, then useless. By your formula, average human could avoid damage completely up to 30 ft, with a DC 20 Tumble check. And then suddenly from any point higher, can't do anything but take it like a man. I don't like it, to be honest. And if you adopted this rule, would you also alter Jump?

Finally, one thing to keep in mind: the falling rules as they are now allow for more than merely reducing damage. You can also convert some of it to nonlethal damage.
Environment :: d20srd.org

[sblock]"If a character deliberately jumps instead of merely slipping or falling, the damage is the same but the first 1d6 is nonlethal damage. A DC 15 Jump check or DC 15 Tumble check allows the character to avoid any damage from the first 10 feet fallen and converts any damage from the second 10 feet to nonlethal damage. Thus, a character who slips from a ledge 30 feet up takes 3d6 damage. If the same character deliberately jumped, he takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage and 2d6 points of lethal damage. And if the character leaps down with a successful Jump or Tumble check, he takes only 1d6 points of nonlethal damage and 1d6 points of lethal damage from the plunge.

Falls onto yielding surfaces (soft ground, mud) also convert the first 1d6 of damage to nonlethal damage. This reduction is cumulative with reduced damage due to deliberate jumps and the Jump skill. "[/sblock]

 

[Studio69]

So you're basically just severely weakening the ability of Tumble to soften a fall? Well, it's stronger at low heights, then useless. By your formula, average human could avoid damage completely up to 30 ft, with a DC 20 Tumble check. And then suddenly from any point higher, can't do anything but take it like a man. I don't like it, to be honest. And if you adopted this rule, would you also alter Jump?

Well, it seems reasonable to me. Batman seems more than capable of rolling with it when falling from a 30' drop. Tumble would still keep its other aspects; it would just add this ability to its repertoire.

I most likely would alter Jump. I'm just not sure how yet.