Why a 20-die cap on falling damage?

[uzagi_akimbo]

Ah, but with the way hit points work in D&D, the 2 bags of flour nailed the 1st level fighter dead on, whereas at 10th level, he got almost completely out of the way. On an amusing note, if you apply this to falling, you could say that characters get better at missing the ground as they increase in levels...

That's why the incoming ground floor packs more of a "whoompf" with me - including the simple expedient that besides a bunch of possible damage the character will be in a rather helpless and disadvantageous situation (and much more likely to be so with long drops than with 'mere' pitfalls).
Besides - if the fighter does not see the falling object coming, how does his experience help him to step aside ? I guess we are entering deep philosophy ground, here.....

 

[Storminator]

I use the accumulating method, 10'=1d6, 20'=3d6, 30'=6d6, 40'=10d6...

And I cap the damage at 200 feet, at 55d6. I once had the case where the fighter said, "wow, that giant with magic sword is pretty tough, but there's no way I'll die if I leap out of the cloud city! After all, it was only 7 leagues up, which is 20d6...

So I bumped up the damage considerably. If I want some 1st level schmuck to survive, I'll just have him survive -- I'm the DM.

Incidently, if you use the accumulating damage, the jump and tumble benefits are far greater. If you fall from 30 feet, you take 6d6. If you jump that's like falling 20 feet, and you take 3d6. If you jump and tumble, that's 1d6. And monks that jump, Slow Fall, and tumble, really can jump off the castle wall without a problem.

PS

 

[Gnimish88]

I use the accumulating method, 10'=1d6, 20'=3d6, 30'=6d6, 40'=10d6...

And I cap the damage at 200 feet, at 55d6. I once had the case where the fighter said, "wow, that giant with magic sword is pretty tough, but there's no way I'll die if I leap out of the cloud city! After all, it was only 7 leagues up, which is 20d6...

So I bumped up the damage considerably. If I want some 1st level schmuck to survive, I'll just have him survive -- I'm the DM.

Incidently, if you use the accumulating damage, the jump and tumble benefits are far greater. If you fall from 30 feet, you take 6d6. If you jump that's like falling 20 feet, and you take 3d6. If you jump and tumble, that's 1d6. And monks that jump, Slow Fall, and tumble, really can jump off the castle wall without a problem.

PS

I may end up regretting sugggesting this, but why not simply use a method for falling damage based on level, similar to natural healing? At base I would probably suggest using d6 per level per 10 feet, though one could also use d6+1 per level beyond 1st or some such thing. Anyone played around with this? It seems better for making falling a threat to high level characters without making even small falls absolutely lethal to low level ones.

On a side note, what is the real world lethality of falling? What, for example, is the percentage of people who die from 20 foot falls?

 

[Tarril Wolfeye]

Here's why falling damage is proportional to height fallen:
(caution: lots of math and physics follows)

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 in D&D, 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.


As we get maximum damage at 200 ft., the terminal velocity is reached after 3.5 seconds by the way.
Changing the maximum to 50d6 would make you reach terminal velocity after about 6.5 seconds which makes terminal velocity almost the same as in reality.

 

[diaglo]

how about b/c one of the optional rules works better.

20d6 does on average 70hp of damage.

the 50hp optional instant death rule makes taking 70hp of damage from a single fall pretty much fatal.

 

[Plane Sailing]

how about b/c one of the optional rules works better.

20d6 does on average 70hp of damage.

the 50hp optional instant death rule makes taking 70hp of damage from a single fall pretty much fatal.

I dunno. By the time they've got the hit points to do this reliably, any fighter type will probably find it pretty easy to make the paltry DC15 Fort save to avoid instant death.

 

[Gez]

There's a cap because people who can survive 20d6 damage ought to be able to survive any fall.

That said, the rules should propose something for heat damage for falling from space. Burning up in the atmosphere, you know.

 

[slingbld]

I think skydivers get higher speeds on account of (a) trying to minimize air resistance (hence the "diving" part) and (b) doing it at high altitudes where there's less air and thus less resistance.

As an aside, Spelljammer added rules for burning up on re-entry into the atmosphere

Problem with that is that the term "Terminal Velocity" basically means the absolute fastest you can fall. regarless if you are flailing your arms or trying to shoot down like a dart.
Skydivers with thier orms & legs out actualy fall less than terminal velocity. The combination of them speading themselves out & the type of baggy cloting creating more resistance.

 

[Gnimish88]

Here's why falling damage is proportional to height fallen:
(caution: lots of math and physics follows)

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 in D&D, 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.


As we get maximum damage at 200 ft., the terminal velocity is reached after 3.5 seconds by the way.
Changing the maximum to 50d6 would make you reach terminal velocity after about 6.5 seconds which makes terminal velocity almost the same as in reality.

While we are busy thowing around math, why does a halfling take the same falling damage that a human does? Taking your 180 lb human vs your 30 lb halfling, you have 1/6th the mass so you will have proportionally less energy and thus damage. This can be seen in real life by the fact that small animals more regularly take falls and run off that would seriously hurt or kill a person.

 

[dark2112]

Skydivers with thier orms & legs out actualy fall less than terminal velocity. The combination of them speading themselves out & the type of baggy cloting creating more resistance.

Actually, they don't fall less than terminal velocity. They fall at terminal velocity for people who are wearing baggy clothing and spread out arms.

Terminal velocity isn't some set number that never changes, it's merely the fastest you can accelerate under a set of conditions before you stop accelerating - thus you're changing your terminal velocity, not falling slower than it. If you were merely falling slower than terminal velocity, give it a few seconds, and you'll be back up to par again.