If we assume Aaracokra 20th level monk, they can fly up 80 ft, if they dash as action and use step of the wind that's 240 ft. If they had Boots of Speed and somebody used Haste on them they could get 1,120 feet up. So they can easily achieve the 20d6 max fall damage which is an average of 70. Slow fall would negate up to 120 pts of damage (max of 20d6 is 120, a monk of 20th level is literally immune to fall damage).
Slow fall negates 5 times your monk level, which maxes out at 100 points instead of 120.
The monk would be free to do this every turn for 1 ki point for step of wind, if even needed. Anyone trying to abuse this would probably get the Athlete feat and so doesn't suffer the "half your movement" cost to get up from prone, just 5 ft of movement they could easily spare.
The character you are suggesting could abuse this is level 20 and relies on a magic item and a spell cast on them to pull it off (which comes down to DMs discretion and party layout). Dealing effectively 10d6 damage to a creature every turn at level 20 isnt overly OP, even for monks. The cost is a bit higher at 3 ki points, but Quivering Palm deals a minimum of 10d10 necrotic damage, maximum of the creature's HP maximum.
Slow Fall does not mention the means by which the damage reduction happens - and so even by RAW it's a pure DM call.
Slow fall reduces the "damage you take." I can agree that RAI and thematically it feels like the damage the creature should take would be reduced, but RAW for how the falling rules and Slow Fall work it seems like it would only reduce the damage the monk would take and not the target.
Edit: Looking more closely at the Tasha's falling onto another creature rule, I could see the argument that "any damage resulting from the fall" could also account for effects like Slow Fall. If a monk reduces their damage portion to 0, then effectively there is "no damage resulting from the fall" to split between them.
Remember that the slow fall feature of monks does not reduce damage from falling.
It reduces the damage the monk would take from falling.
In the above example there is no way to know this until you determine if the target of the dropbear attack makes it save or not.
Whatever the total fall damage is, you first have to determine if it will be split among two targets or all of it goes to the monk.
Once you know if the monk is taking full damage or half, then and only then do you only reduce the falling damage dealt to the monk.
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
However Mage Armor technically does still give you armor. It's just not physical. It's basically a weightless force construct. So it does technically still give you armor.
In an informal sense, yes. But not for the purposes of any rules that care about whether you're wearing armor or not.
Ultimately the names of features can give you some idea of what they do but they're not necessarily accurate. Another good example is the College of Sword's Blade Flourish, which doesn't require a sword or even a melee weapon, and its Slashing Flourish option works with any damage type. It's really tempting to extrapolate from the name you can only really count on the description.
If we want to go with the formal Sense. The reality is that in older versions where it was more obviously a sense of armor. It actually called out that it it didn't work with things that worked with Armor or the game revolved around abilities talking about specific types of wearable armor that Mage Armor refused to actually fall into because it was usually it's own special type. But in the simpler format of 5e. It still doesn't work with them but instead of because they added in a part saying it doesn't. It's actually instead the fact that they omitted making a distinction that it could. Though in a few instance it is because Mage armor lacks the light, medium, or heavy description once more.
As for Slashing Flourish. I've always considered that one odd. In Older Systems the name would cause issues because it's limiting types of damage though the wording would often be such to try and make only slashing damage plausable. But people would find reasons why they should be able to do other forms of damage if they did it right. We're just trading out arguments in sense with it over the name being misleading instead of allowing other kinds of damage. that ultimately results in "Well they had to call it something" which is probably how it got the name in the first place. Because it was good enough to get the job done and they couldn't think of a better one and now it's too late to change it.
Remember that the slow fall feature of monks does not reduce damage from falling.
It reduces the damage the monk would take from falling.
In the above example there is no way to know this until you determine if the target of the dropbear attack makes it save or not.
Whatever the total fall damage is, you first have to determine if it will be split among two targets or all of it goes to the monk.
Once you know if the monk is taking full damage or half, then and only then do you only reduce the falling damage dealt to the monk.
Except that's not quite how it works. It's not whether the monk is taking full damage or Half. The Monk is taking the Damage regardless. Sharing the Damage is not an application of actually taking half damage but a matter of where some or all of the damage is applied in regards to the two. Applying Damage is one of the last actual steps in the order of Operations. While Calculating the Damage is one of the first. The Problem is that splitting it in this instance is not a matter of damage calculation. It's a matter of applying the Damage. whether it's all applied to the monk or if some is shifted onto the person the monk lands on. However, Reducing the Damage is actually part of calculating the Damage to be applied in the first place so it has to be done before dividing it up.
The amount of damage rolled for fall doesn't independently become two separate amounts of damage. It's literally one instance of damage being split between both when being applied.
...and when it is applied to the Monk he can reduce some of it with his ability.
The ability only reduces the damage the monk takes.
It cannot reduce the falling damage at all.
Since it can't reduce the falling damage at all, you have to calculate the full falling damage.
Then determine if it is split or not... if the creature on the ground that is getting landed on fails it's saving throw, then the damage is split.
The monk takes half of it and can use the monk's slow fall ability to only reduce some of that damage that would be dealt to the monk... and the monk alone.
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
I think the answer to this question is in the name of the skill: SLOW Fall. This indicates that the monk is able to slow his speed of descent, and thus, lessen the force of his fall. This would also negate any damage done to anyone he lands on.
You are reading it as "Slow [adjective] fall [noun]" when it should most likely be read as "Slow [verb] fall [noun]". As in, the monk does a roll or some other suitable martial art monk shit when landing. It does not mean that monks suddenly can defy gravity.
Let's look at both, side by side, and figure out when they apply. First up are the rules for falling.
Falling
A fall from a great height is one of the most common hazards facing an adventurer. At the end of a fall, a creature takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it fell, to a maximum of 20d6. The creature lands prone, unless it avoids taking damage from the fall.
Next, we have the monk's Slow Fall.
Slow Fall
Beginning at 4th level, you can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level.
Well, that's interesting. The trigger for Slow Fall is the moment you begin falling, not the moment damage is assessed. The monk doesn't wait until the fall is completed; at the moment of impact.
Lastly, we have Falling onto a Creature, which can be found on page 170 of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
Falling onto a Creature
If a creature falls into the space of a second creature and neither of them is Tiny, the second creature must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be impacted by the falling creature, and any damage resulting from the fall is divided evenly between them. The impacted creature is also knocked prone, unless it is two or more sizes larger than the falling creature.
Okay, I think I have this. The potential damage dealt is first reduced by Slow Fall, which triggers when the fall first takes place. The feature, essentially, creates a threshold the dice must overcome. The dice aren't actually rolled until the end of the fall. And whatever damage makes it over the threshold is split evenly between the impactor and the impacted; if the impacted fails their saving throw.
But here's where it gets kind of funny. There's no minimum damage which must be assessed, so it's possible for the sum of the roll of the dice to be 1 over the monk's threshold and split to be functionally nonexistent. Both parties can take no damage from the fall, but the impacted character would still be knocked prone. And the monk, having suffered no damage, would not be prone. But the monk cannot also end their movement in another creature's space, so someone is getting displaced.
Sounds about right... except Slow Fall doesn't reduce falling damage.
It only reduces falling damage that the monk takes.
In order to figure out how much damage he takes you have to figure out if it's split or not.
Once you know if the monk is taking the full falling damage or just half from it being split.
When all that is done, then the Slow Fall of the monk only reduces damage that is dealt to the monk.
The other creature takes half of the full amount if it fails it's saving throw. The monk's Slow Fall ability doesn't reduce some other creature's damage... nice try. lol
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
So it looks like the Monk and Barbarian are good candidates for the dropbear attack.
But what about a Warlock using the Tomb of Levistus invocation?
Could they pull off some form of the dropbear attack?
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
Sounds about right... except Slow Fall doesn't reduce falling damage.
It only reduces falling damage that the monk takes.
In order to figure out how much damage he takes you have to figure out if it's split or not.
Once you know if the monk is taking the full falling damage or just half from it being split.
When all that is done, then the Slow Fall of the monk only reduces damage that is dealt to the monk.
The other creature takes half of the full amount if it fails it's saving throw. The monk's Slow Fall ability doesn't reduce some other creature's damage... nice try. lol
So your excuse for what it doesn't work. Is now not the order of operations. Which actually supports Jounichi. But the wording of an ability written before the rule you want to use actually existed. Even though the Rule your trying to use actually changes the wording that your relying on?
Because here's the Thing. Not only is Jounichi right in the order. But the Rule that we're talking about introduced in Tasha's changes the wording of who takes the damage when it's finally applied. Changing it from The Monk that is mentioned in the slow fall ability to the Monk and Another person when the damage is applied after it has been fully calculated, which means that Slow fall has been already applied to it, and if the one you fell on failed their saving throw. But you still somehow want the power to apply only to the monk after how it's been changed by another rule.
Edit: By the Way. Your First and Second Sentence are completely contradictory. If it doesn't reduce falling damage (which it does) then it doesn't matter who is taking it to reduce the falling damage. So your first statement technically contradicts and invalidates your second statement. But your First statement is wrong and your Second Statement is actually partially incorrect as I've explained.
It clearly states in the monk's slow fall ability that it only reduces damage from falling that would be dealt to the monk.
If the damage is split from falling on someone who fails their saving throw then the 'pancake' (creature who was landed on) takes half of the full damage calculated and the half that would be dealt to the monk is reduced by the monk's slow fall which only applies to the monk.
ps. and only reduces falling damage that is applied to the monk.
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
Sounds about right... except Slow Fall doesn't reduce falling damage.
It only reduces falling damage that the monk takes.
In order to figure out how much damage he takes you have to figure out if it's split or not.
Once you know if the monk is taking the full falling damage or just half from it being split.
When all that is done, then the Slow Fall of the monk only reduces damage that is dealt to the monk.
The other creature takes half of the full amount if it fails it's saving throw. The monk's Slow Fall ability doesn't reduce some other creature's damage... nice try. lol
Maybe you're confused.
In this example, the amount of falling damage dealt will always be the monk's, by default. Whether or not the damage is shared is up to whether or not the impacted character is actually impacted. They can succeed in their saving throw and avoid the split entirely.
But let's say they don't.
The monk is still using Slow Fall to reduce the damage they're supposed to suffer from the dice. And that slowed fall is going to reduce the damage both parties suffer; should the monk be an impactee.
You're using the slow fall to reduce the overall falling damage... that's not what slow fall does.
It only reduces falling damage the monk takes, not what he's supposed to take, or might take... only the final amount he will take from the fall.
Once total damage has been calculated you have to determine if it will be split or not and then deliver the entire half of the entire total to the creature impacted.
Then the monk's ability to only reduce damage to the monk kicks in and the monk probably takes nothing or very little.
Then completes the dropbear attack by unleashing multiple attacks and flurry of blows, all 4 attacks with advantage because the 'pancake' is prone.
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
You're using the slow fall to reduce the overall falling damage... that's not what slow fall does.
That is precisely what Slow Fall does. Remember, timing is everything. The trigger for Slow Fall is when the monk is falling, not after they've fallen and impacted. In other words, the trigger is not when they take damage at the end of the fall.
This means the damage reduction takes place before damage is even rolled.
And this, in turn, lessens the damage that can be divided between the monk and the impacted character.
Sometimes the rules are unclear or may seem paradoxical as they appear to contradict each other.
Take the Shield spell for example, you have to be hit first to trigger the conditions for you to use your reaction to even cast it, then your +5 bonus can be applied to the triggering attack which might make it miss.
This works similar to that except you have to apply all the rules, not just the falling and splat rules but the monk's too. The tricky part is the monk's slow fall ability can only reduce damage to the monk's fall. Anyone else is on their own.
If the monk could reduce damage to others with his slow fall then he and a party could jump off a cliff and he could prevent the fall damage they would all take.
You need to apply all 3 rules, the falling rule, the 'pancake' or 'splat' rule for landing on someone after a fall, AND the monk's slow fall rule.
If I am mistaken and you are applying the monk slow fall rule can you quote it in your post so we know we are each looking at the same rule. The one where it says the monk can only reduce damage to himself from a fall. (let me try in a new post)
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
If the monk could reduce damage to others with his slow fall then he and a party could jump off a cliff and he could prevent the fall damage they would all take.
You need to apply all 3 rules, the falling rule, the 'pancake' or 'splat' rule for landing on someone after a fall, AND the monk's slow fall rule.
This is false equivalency. The Monk could never effect somebody elses fall because of their power with what we are saying. The only way they could reduce damage from somebody elses fall is by the way that your applying the rule.
I'll give an example.
By your way of doing the rule. The monk can jump down first. They can use slow fall to remove their own damage. And then they can effectively be used as a landing pad and let others fall on them. Reducing the Damage for everybody by outright having damage by choosing to fail their dex save. And then applying their Slow Fall Ability to remove falling damage that lands on them potentially leaving them unharmed and the person that fell on them taking dramatically less damage.
However. What we are telling you is that it does not work this way. How it actually works is that the Monk Must be Falling to use the Ability and they use their ability to reduce the damage before they ever technically have damage to reduce. This is because it is triggered by the Fall and Not by the damage. Much like the Shield you mentioned is triggered when you get hit and Not by the Damage of the blow. Both Activate before Damage is ever figured out. This is a very important detail. Because this means your actively slowing your fall before you ever get hurt or even know the damage that your going to take and this is how you are reducing your damage in whatever way that you want to describe it. They are not in fact acting to reduce the Damage after it is taken.
What this all Means is that the Monk is applying it's reduction of damage no matter where it lands or what ever else effects it's damage, or even who else the monks falling damage can be applied to. And this damage reduction comes into play in the order of activation before damage is Applied. Not after. The total damage the monk takes is not the base damage of the fall that you roll. The Damage that is applied is the damage after all of the modifiers are applied such as Reduce Fall. Reduce Fall is actually the first thing you apply to the damage rolled in order of operations. It reduces the damage before even things like Resistances, immunities, and all of that. The Falling rule at best kicks in when your applying resistance and immunities and at worst only kicks in at the very end when the Monk is actually taking their damage by splitting it with the person they landed on because the Rule that exists is basically just one of the final damage mitigation values that you apply as your altering your hp to it's new lower value. This is well after Slow Fall has been applied.
What really sucks for the Monk is that there is a decent chance that the person you land on is actually going to have reductions applied when they take damage. Not when an action that can later deal damage triggers. Things like Damage resistance is triggered at the time of applying the damage itself. Which is a big difference Between how Slow Fall works and any power that gives damage resistance. This means that the person you land on might actually have their damage reduced further. But the Monk because the damage reduction is triggered like shield does not get this benefit. Slow Fall would not work if you are landed on because it's not the falling damage that triggers it. It's the active issue of the monk Falling.
And Trust me. I wish it worked the way you wanted it to work. I wish it was the Damage that triggered it. Not because it would work only on the monk like your hoping to turn this into a movement based attack. But because it would be useful to apply it on falling damage as a defense from others. I don't want to deal with the issues of trying to convince or having a player trying to convince me that a player falling on them is a missile object they want to try to deflect Or simply stop their fall so that you'd be able to catch somebody and hopefully save their life. Because there are plenty of times where even half damage would have been enough to stop a fall from being fatal and save issues like having to resurrect the person.
While I get that because no resources are spent to perform slow fall, I always imagined slow fall as being mystical in nature as opposed to a physical control of one's fall. No amount of physical training prevents you from walking away from a 50 foot fall without taking damage. It's more akin to the kungfu or ninja movies where people are literally leaping from building to building.
As RAW, I think damage would be based on the overall damage that a character took from the fall, after damage reduction from slow fall is calculated..
...however as a house rule at my table, provided that this fit the naraticr of the monk, I would convert the reduced fall damage from slow fall or ignore the slow fall damage when applying damage to the creature to the creature the monk landed on. Just because flavor text looks awesome
I am simply saying that the monk can only reduce damage to monk.
You are saying the monk somehow reduces the overall damage that might get split between the two.
This is not how it works.
1. Figure out total falling damage.
2. Have the victim (pancake) make a save to determine if the damage is even split or not.
3. The monk can only reduce the damage the monk takes.
Done
It's that simple and none of the 3 rules are broken.
Your way only 2 rules are followed as you insist on ignoring the part of the slow fall rule where it states the monk can only reduce damage to himself.
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
Slow fall negates 5 times your monk level, which maxes out at 100 points instead of 120.
The character you are suggesting could abuse this is level 20 and relies on a magic item and a spell cast on them to pull it off (which comes down to DMs discretion and party layout). Dealing effectively 10d6 damage to a creature every turn at level 20 isnt overly OP, even for monks. The cost is a bit higher at 3 ki points, but Quivering Palm deals a minimum of 10d10 necrotic damage, maximum of the creature's HP maximum.
Slow fall reduces the "damage you take." I can agree that RAI and thematically it feels like the damage the creature should take would be reduced, but RAW for how the falling rules and Slow Fall work it seems like it would only reduce the damage the monk would take and not the target.
Edit: Looking more closely at the Tasha's falling onto another creature rule, I could see the argument that "any damage resulting from the fall" could also account for effects like Slow Fall. If a monk reduces their damage portion to 0, then effectively there is "no damage resulting from the fall" to split between them.
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Remember that the slow fall feature of monks does not reduce damage from falling.
It reduces the damage the monk would take from falling.
In the above example there is no way to know this until you determine if the target of the dropbear attack makes it save or not.
Whatever the total fall damage is, you first have to determine if it will be split among two targets or all of it goes to the monk.
Once you know if the monk is taking full damage or half, then and only then do you only reduce the falling damage dealt to the monk.
If we want to go with the formal Sense. The reality is that in older versions where it was more obviously a sense of armor. It actually called out that it it didn't work with things that worked with Armor or the game revolved around abilities talking about specific types of wearable armor that Mage Armor refused to actually fall into because it was usually it's own special type. But in the simpler format of 5e. It still doesn't work with them but instead of because they added in a part saying it doesn't. It's actually instead the fact that they omitted making a distinction that it could. Though in a few instance it is because Mage armor lacks the light, medium, or heavy description once more.
As for Slashing Flourish. I've always considered that one odd. In Older Systems the name would cause issues because it's limiting types of damage though the wording would often be such to try and make only slashing damage plausable. But people would find reasons why they should be able to do other forms of damage if they did it right. We're just trading out arguments in sense with it over the name being misleading instead of allowing other kinds of damage. that ultimately results in "Well they had to call it something" which is probably how it got the name in the first place. Because it was good enough to get the job done and they couldn't think of a better one and now it's too late to change it.
Except that's not quite how it works. It's not whether the monk is taking full damage or Half. The Monk is taking the Damage regardless. Sharing the Damage is not an application of actually taking half damage but a matter of where some or all of the damage is applied in regards to the two. Applying Damage is one of the last actual steps in the order of Operations. While Calculating the Damage is one of the first. The Problem is that splitting it in this instance is not a matter of damage calculation. It's a matter of applying the Damage. whether it's all applied to the monk or if some is shifted onto the person the monk lands on. However, Reducing the Damage is actually part of calculating the Damage to be applied in the first place so it has to be done before dividing it up.
The amount of damage rolled for fall doesn't independently become two separate amounts of damage. It's literally one instance of damage being split between both when being applied.
...and when it is applied to the Monk he can reduce some of it with his ability.
The ability only reduces the damage the monk takes.
It cannot reduce the falling damage at all.
Since it can't reduce the falling damage at all, you have to calculate the full falling damage.
Then determine if it is split or not... if the creature on the ground that is getting landed on fails it's saving throw, then the damage is split.
The monk takes half of it and can use the monk's slow fall ability to only reduce some of that damage that would be dealt to the monk... and the monk alone.
You are reading it as "Slow [adjective] fall [noun]" when it should most likely be read as "Slow [verb] fall [noun]". As in, the monk does a roll or some other suitable martial art monk shit when landing. It does not mean that monks suddenly can defy gravity.
Let's look at both, side by side, and figure out when they apply. First up are the rules for falling.
Next, we have the monk's Slow Fall.
Well, that's interesting. The trigger for Slow Fall is the moment you begin falling, not the moment damage is assessed. The monk doesn't wait until the fall is completed; at the moment of impact.
Lastly, we have Falling onto a Creature, which can be found on page 170 of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
Okay, I think I have this. The potential damage dealt is first reduced by Slow Fall, which triggers when the fall first takes place. The feature, essentially, creates a threshold the dice must overcome. The dice aren't actually rolled until the end of the fall. And whatever damage makes it over the threshold is split evenly between the impactor and the impacted; if the impacted fails their saving throw.
But here's where it gets kind of funny. There's no minimum damage which must be assessed, so it's possible for the sum of the roll of the dice to be 1 over the monk's threshold and split to be functionally nonexistent. Both parties can take no damage from the fall, but the impacted character would still be knocked prone. And the monk, having suffered no damage, would not be prone. But the monk cannot also end their movement in another creature's space, so someone is getting displaced.
Sounds about right... except Slow Fall doesn't reduce falling damage.
It only reduces falling damage that the monk takes.
In order to figure out how much damage he takes you have to figure out if it's split or not.
Once you know if the monk is taking the full falling damage or just half from it being split.
When all that is done, then the Slow Fall of the monk only reduces damage that is dealt to the monk.
The other creature takes half of the full amount if it fails it's saving throw. The monk's Slow Fall ability doesn't reduce some other creature's damage... nice try. lol
So it looks like the Monk and Barbarian are good candidates for the dropbear attack.
But what about a Warlock using the Tomb of Levistus invocation?
Could they pull off some form of the dropbear attack?
So your excuse for what it doesn't work. Is now not the order of operations. Which actually supports Jounichi. But the wording of an ability written before the rule you want to use actually existed. Even though the Rule your trying to use actually changes the wording that your relying on?
Because here's the Thing. Not only is Jounichi right in the order. But the Rule that we're talking about introduced in Tasha's changes the wording of who takes the damage when it's finally applied. Changing it from The Monk that is mentioned in the slow fall ability to the Monk and Another person when the damage is applied after it has been fully calculated, which means that Slow fall has been already applied to it, and if the one you fell on failed their saving throw. But you still somehow want the power to apply only to the monk after how it's been changed by another rule.
Edit: By the Way. Your First and Second Sentence are completely contradictory. If it doesn't reduce falling damage (which it does) then it doesn't matter who is taking it to reduce the falling damage. So your first statement technically contradicts and invalidates your second statement. But your First statement is wrong and your Second Statement is actually partially incorrect as I've explained.
It clearly states in the monk's slow fall ability that it only reduces damage from falling that would be dealt to the monk.
If the damage is split from falling on someone who fails their saving throw then the 'pancake' (creature who was landed on) takes half of the full damage calculated and the half that would be dealt to the monk is reduced by the monk's slow fall which only applies to the monk.
ps. and only reduces falling damage that is applied to the monk.
Maybe you're confused.
In this example, the amount of falling damage dealt will always be the monk's, by default. Whether or not the damage is shared is up to whether or not the impacted character is actually impacted. They can succeed in their saving throw and avoid the split entirely.
But let's say they don't.
The monk is still using Slow Fall to reduce the damage they're supposed to suffer from the dice. And that slowed fall is going to reduce the damage both parties suffer; should the monk be an impactee.
You're using the slow fall to reduce the overall falling damage... that's not what slow fall does.
It only reduces falling damage the monk takes, not what he's supposed to take, or might take... only the final amount he will take from the fall.
Once total damage has been calculated you have to determine if it will be split or not and then deliver the entire half of the entire total to the creature impacted.
Then the monk's ability to only reduce damage to the monk kicks in and the monk probably takes nothing or very little.
Then completes the dropbear attack by unleashing multiple attacks and flurry of blows, all 4 attacks with advantage because the 'pancake' is prone.
That is precisely what Slow Fall does. Remember, timing is everything. The trigger for Slow Fall is when the monk is falling, not after they've fallen and impacted. In other words, the trigger is not when they take damage at the end of the fall.
This means the damage reduction takes place before damage is even rolled.
And this, in turn, lessens the damage that can be divided between the monk and the impacted character.
Sometimes the rules are unclear or may seem paradoxical as they appear to contradict each other.
Take the Shield spell for example, you have to be hit first to trigger the conditions for you to use your reaction to even cast it, then your +5 bonus can be applied to the triggering attack which might make it miss.
This works similar to that except you have to apply all the rules, not just the falling and splat rules but the monk's too. The tricky part is the monk's slow fall ability can only reduce damage to the monk's fall. Anyone else is on their own.
If the monk could reduce damage to others with his slow fall then he and a party could jump off a cliff and he could prevent the fall damage they would all take.
You need to apply all 3 rules, the falling rule, the 'pancake' or 'splat' rule for landing on someone after a fall, AND the monk's slow fall rule.
If I am mistaken and you are applying the monk slow fall rule can you quote it in your post so we know we are each looking at the same rule. The one where it says the monk can only reduce damage to himself from a fall. (let me try in a new post)
Slow Fall
Beginning at 4th level, you can use your reaction when you fall to reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level.
This is false equivalency. The Monk could never effect somebody elses fall because of their power with what we are saying. The only way they could reduce damage from somebody elses fall is by the way that your applying the rule.
I'll give an example.
By your way of doing the rule. The monk can jump down first. They can use slow fall to remove their own damage. And then they can effectively be used as a landing pad and let others fall on them. Reducing the Damage for everybody by outright having damage by choosing to fail their dex save. And then applying their Slow Fall Ability to remove falling damage that lands on them potentially leaving them unharmed and the person that fell on them taking dramatically less damage.
However. What we are telling you is that it does not work this way. How it actually works is that the Monk Must be Falling to use the Ability and they use their ability to reduce the damage before they ever technically have damage to reduce. This is because it is triggered by the Fall and Not by the damage. Much like the Shield you mentioned is triggered when you get hit and Not by the Damage of the blow. Both Activate before Damage is ever figured out. This is a very important detail. Because this means your actively slowing your fall before you ever get hurt or even know the damage that your going to take and this is how you are reducing your damage in whatever way that you want to describe it. They are not in fact acting to reduce the Damage after it is taken.
What this all Means is that the Monk is applying it's reduction of damage no matter where it lands or what ever else effects it's damage, or even who else the monks falling damage can be applied to. And this damage reduction comes into play in the order of activation before damage is Applied. Not after. The total damage the monk takes is not the base damage of the fall that you roll. The Damage that is applied is the damage after all of the modifiers are applied such as Reduce Fall. Reduce Fall is actually the first thing you apply to the damage rolled in order of operations. It reduces the damage before even things like Resistances, immunities, and all of that. The Falling rule at best kicks in when your applying resistance and immunities and at worst only kicks in at the very end when the Monk is actually taking their damage by splitting it with the person they landed on because the Rule that exists is basically just one of the final damage mitigation values that you apply as your altering your hp to it's new lower value. This is well after Slow Fall has been applied.
What really sucks for the Monk is that there is a decent chance that the person you land on is actually going to have reductions applied when they take damage. Not when an action that can later deal damage triggers. Things like Damage resistance is triggered at the time of applying the damage itself. Which is a big difference Between how Slow Fall works and any power that gives damage resistance. This means that the person you land on might actually have their damage reduced further. But the Monk because the damage reduction is triggered like shield does not get this benefit. Slow Fall would not work if you are landed on because it's not the falling damage that triggers it. It's the active issue of the monk Falling.
And Trust me. I wish it worked the way you wanted it to work. I wish it was the Damage that triggered it. Not because it would work only on the monk like your hoping to turn this into a movement based attack. But because it would be useful to apply it on falling damage as a defense from others. I don't want to deal with the issues of trying to convince or having a player trying to convince me that a player falling on them is a missile object they want to try to deflect Or simply stop their fall so that you'd be able to catch somebody and hopefully save their life. Because there are plenty of times where even half damage would have been enough to stop a fall from being fatal and save issues like having to resurrect the person.
While I get that because no resources are spent to perform slow fall, I always imagined slow fall as being mystical in nature as opposed to a physical control of one's fall. No amount of physical training prevents you from walking away from a 50 foot fall without taking damage. It's more akin to the kungfu or ninja movies where people are literally leaping from building to building.
As RAW, I think damage would be based on the overall damage that a character took from the fall, after damage reduction from slow fall is calculated..
...however as a house rule at my table, provided that this fit the naraticr of the monk, I would convert the reduced fall damage from slow fall or ignore the slow fall damage when applying damage to the creature to the creature the monk landed on. Just because flavor text looks awesome
I am not saying any of that... you are.
I am simply saying that the monk can only reduce damage to monk.
You are saying the monk somehow reduces the overall damage that might get split between the two.
This is not how it works.
1. Figure out total falling damage.
2. Have the victim (pancake) make a save to determine if the damage is even split or not.
3. The monk can only reduce the damage the monk takes.
Done
It's that simple and none of the 3 rules are broken.
Your way only 2 rules are followed as you insist on ignoring the part of the slow fall rule where it states the monk can only reduce damage to himself.
Your Three Rules don't exist in the game. So it's no wonder when they aren't broken when you make them to fit your stance.