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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9754778" data-attributes="member: 42582">4e D&D has advice on correlating suitable heights of drops to PC levels - that, is, the potential damage from falling is incorporated into the general framework for assigning a level to threats/challenges. I don't think any earlier versions of D&D do this - I'm not sure about 5e D&D.In any event, I agree with you that hp/defensive points serve as prompts. With hp, the prompt really only kicks in hard when hp are reduced to zero (as per your falling example); but whereas we're familiar with the hp narration of the character "being fine until they're not" - perhaps a bit winded at worst, or being gradually out-manoeuvred and pinned down - it's hard to interpret loss of defensive points in the same way. It's not as if a house is parrying or dodging or suffering near-misses! If a giant hurls a rock that does 4 points of damage to a wooden building (which is the damage from a frost, fire or cloud giant's boulder, per Gygax's DMG p 109), then surely we have to imagine the structure being damaged in some way - the roof partly broken, veranda posts splintering, etc.Exactly what we are to imagine is left open, of course. Typically it would be the job of the GM to narrate it, I think.</blockquote>