So...let's face it. The 5e system of fall damage and falling mechanics is unrealistic and sometimes pretty annoying. So what can we do about it?
XGtE says that you descend 500 feet per round. This is a speed of 152.4 meters/6 seconds, or 25.4 m/s.
In the real world, in t seconds, you will fall gt²/2 meters. In other words, in the first six seconds (one round) of falling, you will have fallen (9.8)(6²)/2 meters, or 176.4 meters. This is roughly equal to 578.74 feet. Already, XGtE is off by a factor of over 15 percent.
This gets worse as we fall further.
Let's say you fall off of an airship 30,000 feet in the air during the climactic boss battle. Will you companions be able to save you? According to XGtE, of course they will! In fact, they'll have a full sixty rounds to finish off the BBEG and find some spell to save you. However, while this may be good for the characters, it's extremely unrealistic. So what really happens when you fall off the airship? Well, let's see. Your terminal velocity depends a lot on who you're playing:
A 350-pound, six-foot-six dragonborn barbarian has a terminal velocity of about 60 m/s (if they're falling belly-down).
A 40-pound, three-foot goblin wizard has a terminal velocity of about 30 m/s (if they're falling belly-down).
However, let's assume you're somewhere in between, since it would be a nightmare for DMs and players alike if we had to get these details each time. Let's say you're five feet six and weigh 140 pounds. Your terminal velocity will be 50 m/s (belly-down), which you will reach in about five seconds. In those five seconds, you will fall (9.8)(5²)/2 meters, which is 122.5 meters (almost exactly 400 feet). After those four hundred feet, you'll be falling a little over 160 feet each second, or 960 feet per round. So, what happens to our poor character who fell off the airship? In the first round, they fall 560 feet. Each round after that, it's another 960. So, I'm sorry, you'll only have thirty to thirty-one rounds to figure it out.
We need to come up with a good, realistic house rule for falling.
Do we? I mean the most realistic case for falling damage is that if you reach terminal velocity, your character is straight up dead when they hit the ground. That's... not exactly fun. In the case you mentioned, the difference between sixty and thirty rounds is hardly material because most DMs have probably never run a combat that's lasted even half that time. Once out of combat, whether you have six minutes or three to figure out what to do, again either you have the resources to survive or not.
As others have stated in other threads, if anything the current rules are too HARSH. People have fallen from aircraft and survived, although others have fallen 10 ft and died. But we are playing heroic characters.
Instead of 1d6 for every 10 ft, max of 20d6 at 200 ft, I would probably make it 1d12 for every 20 ft, max of 10d12 at 200 ft. Then throw in an acrobatic check DC to reduce effective height by 20 ft for every 2 points above 10 DC if conditions are good. I.e. falling through trees or landing in snow/water (people routinely dive off of 50 ft cliffs, and the world record is 193 ft dive by Mr. Laso Schaller in 2015 who only dislocated his hip). Note, height reduction applies BEFORE caculating damage, so if you are falling from 400 pts and you reduce effective height by 200 because you rolled a 30, you still get the same max damage of 10d12.
I made a set of in-depth falling rules while back.
The key features are that it accounts for your characters stats (EG someone with high constitution will withstand falling better than someone with low constitution) and that there are two types of falling - Tumbling and Dropping.
It has seemed to work quite well thus far, and isn't excessively complex. I did consider the whole idea of S=UT+1/2AT^2 and all that jazz to work out just how hard they'll hit for each band, but it isn't a simple set of equations and so anything on that front would end up being either a complex table or a formula for people to use, which isn't going to be quick!
The best rule is to keep it simple, and IMO the standard rules are fine for that. The only things I'd add on top are:
Be clear about which falls are fatal; make the height impossible to determine, or just straight up put spikes, lava, or a raging underground river or something at the bottom. Just tell your players "this will kill you, don't do that"; it might feel meta-gamey but adventurers should be able to tell when throwing themselves down a bottomless pit is a stupid idea.
For high, survivable falls consider having the player roll some form of check or save; they'll still take the damage, but on a failure they may suffer some other form of wound, made worse by the how badly they fail.
I think the second one is the important point for me, as I find raw damage a poor representation of the risk of falling, and just throwing more damage at the problem still won't guarantee that you'll discourage a Barbarian from Rage jumping off of everything. But if that Barbarian is trying to fight on with two broken legs they might think twice next time. 😝
The way I'd run it is when dealing with larger falls (more than double the character's vertical jump distance?) I'd ask for a check or save based on the height, if they fail they suffer a sprain, and if they fail badly they might suffer a broken leg. You can use the DMG Injuries for a sprain (Limp) and a break (Lost a Foot or Leg), ignore the part about requiring regenerate for a break, but don't make it too easy to heal (a bad break should require several long rests plus healing).
Basically make sure there are consequences for not climbing down or using feather fall, because raw damage won't be a threat for characters that can take a lot of it, and making it purely about damage only penalises players with fewer hit-points.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
So...let's face it. The 5e system of fall damage and falling mechanics is unrealistic and sometimes pretty annoying. So what can we do about it?
XGtE says that you descend 500 feet per round. This is a speed of 152.4 meters/6 seconds, or 25.4 m/s.
In the real world, in t seconds, you will fall gt²/2 meters. In other words, in the first six seconds (one round) of falling, you will have fallen (9.8)(6²)/2 meters, or 176.4 meters. This is roughly equal to 578.74 feet. Already, XGtE is off by a factor of over 15 percent.
This gets worse as we fall further.
Let's say you fall off of an airship 30,000 feet in the air during the climactic boss battle. Will you companions be able to save you? According to XGtE, of course they will! In fact, they'll have a full sixty rounds to finish off the BBEG and find some spell to save you. However, while this may be good for the characters, it's extremely unrealistic. So what really happens when you fall off the airship? Well, let's see. Your terminal velocity depends a lot on who you're playing:
A 350-pound, six-foot-six dragonborn barbarian has a terminal velocity of about 60 m/s (if they're falling belly-down).
A 40-pound, three-foot goblin wizard has a terminal velocity of about 30 m/s (if they're falling belly-down).
However, let's assume you're somewhere in between, since it would be a nightmare for DMs and players alike if we had to get these details each time. Let's say you're five feet six and weigh 140 pounds. Your terminal velocity will be 50 m/s (belly-down), which you will reach in about five seconds. In those five seconds, you will fall (9.8)(5²)/2 meters, which is 122.5 meters (almost exactly 400 feet). After those four hundred feet, you'll be falling a little over 160 feet each second, or 960 feet per round. So, what happens to our poor character who fell off the airship? In the first round, they fall 560 feet. Each round after that, it's another 960. So, I'm sorry, you'll only have thirty to thirty-one rounds to figure it out.
These examples of problems both seem fine to me. 15% off is actually a lot closer to real life than I expected. And 30 rounds and 60 rounds both fall into the "so long you're not actually in rounds anymore" category. Your BBEG fight is going to be over in maybe 5 rounds, which leaves enough time for 1 minute spells but not enough for 10 minute spells. Functionally the same at the table, unless you're excruciatingly stretching out a scene that should be urgent and fast-paced.
There's also no reason to assume Earth gravity in your fantasy world, but that's neither here nor there.
Both of these feel like you already had your conclusion before you looked for your examples. The falling system hits a really nice spot between simulation and simplicity. I'm happy with it.
Use the fact that the velocity, and damage is limited by terminal velocity, but terminal should also have the other meaning aka dead. But also use the acceleration due to gravity.
30 feet = 20 falling distance + 3d6 = 3d6 + 3d6 = 6d6 = 21 HP expected value
40 feet = 6d6 + 4d6 = 10d6 = 35 expected value
50 feet = 15d6
60 feet = 21d6
and so on...
By 100 feet, it is 55d6 = expected value of 192.5 Blunt force trauma = Bludgeoning.
You can add modifiers like crashing through trees, landing in sand, or water, or whatever you like, but that gives you a solid baseline. In the real world, the greatest athlete on the planet is still dead 99.9% of the time from falling 100 feet onto hard ground, or maybe even a higher percentage.
NOPE. Well, not if you get reasonable medical attention. Falling depends mostly on how you hit. If you fall head first, you break your neck and die. If you fall feet first, you break other bones and live.
Terminal velocity is 115 mph, give or take 10 mph. Your chances of surviving a motorcycle accident at 115 mph is low, but doable, particularly if you are wearing a helmet which protects your head. More than 1%, I would guess around 5-10%. Not only are many D&D characters wearing helmets designed to protect their head, but like I said, if you fall feat first, you will likely break your legs, possibly pelvis and ribs, but your head will be cushioned by never receiving a blow directly.
Use the fact that the velocity, and damage is limited by terminal velocity, but terminal should also have the other meaning aka dead. But also use the acceleration due to gravity.
30 feet = 20 falling distance + 3d6 = 3d6 + 3d6 = 6d6 = 21 HP expected value
40 feet = 6d6 + 4d6 = 10d6 = 35 expected value
50 feet = 15d6
60 feet = 21d6
and so on...
By 100 feet, it is 55d6 = expected value of 192.5 Blunt force trauma = Bludgeoning.
You can add modifiers like crashing through trees, landing in sand, or water, or whatever you like, but that gives you a solid baseline. In the real world, the greatest athlete on the planet is still dead 99.9% of the time from falling 100 feet onto hard ground, or maybe even a higher percentage.
NOPE. Well, not if you get reasonable medical attention. Falling depends mostly on how you hit. If you fall head first, you break your neck and die. If you fall feet first, you break other bones and live.
Terminal velocity is 115 mph, give or take 10 mph. Your chances of surviving a motorcycle accident at 115 mph is low, but doable, particularly if you are wearing a helmet which protects your head. More than 1%, I would guess around 5-10%. Not only are many D&D characters wearing helmets designed to protect their head, but like I said, if you fall feat first, you will likely break your legs, possibly pelvis and ribs, but your head will be cushioned by never receiving a blow directly.
There's a fair amount of difference between a motorbike helmet and a suit-of-armour helmet though. Whilst I agree that it might protect against dashing your brains out on the whiplash, it will not keep your neck from breaking like a motorbike helmet will (it's wide at the base to keep your head from over-rotating in a crash).
also worth noting that the ones who walk away from a 115mph crash do so because they slid to a stop or into bushes. I doubt anyone's done 115mph into a boulder and walked away. Plus "survive" is not the goal - "live" is the goal. To walk away, not be wheeled away. breaking ones legs, pelvis, and ribs is a sure fire way to retire an adventurer!
So...let's face it. The 5e system of fall damage and falling mechanics is unrealistic and sometimes pretty annoying. So what can we do about it?
XGtE says that you descend 500 feet per round. This is a speed of 152.4 meters/6 seconds, or 25.4 m/s.
In the real world, in t seconds, you will fall gt²/2 meters. In other words, in the first six seconds (one round) of falling, you will have fallen (9.8)(6²)/2 meters, or 176.4 meters. This is roughly equal to 578.74 feet. Already, XGtE is off by a factor of over 15 percent.
This gets worse as we fall further.
Let's say you fall off of an airship 30,000 feet in the air during the climactic boss battle. Will you companions be able to save you? According to XGtE, of course they will! In fact, they'll have a full sixty rounds to finish off the BBEG and find some spell to save you. However, while this may be good for the characters, it's extremely unrealistic. So what really happens when you fall off the airship? Well, let's see. Your terminal velocity depends a lot on who you're playing:
However, let's assume you're somewhere in between, since it would be a nightmare for DMs and players alike if we had to get these details each time. Let's say you're five feet six and weigh 140 pounds. Your terminal velocity will be 50 m/s (belly-down), which you will reach in about five seconds. In those five seconds, you will fall (9.8)(5²)/2 meters, which is 122.5 meters (almost exactly 400 feet). After those four hundred feet, you'll be falling a little over 160 feet each second, or 960 feet per round. So, what happens to our poor character who fell off the airship? In the first round, they fall 560 feet. Each round after that, it's another 960. So, I'm sorry, you'll only have thirty to thirty-one rounds to figure it out.
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We need to come up with a good, realistic house rule for falling.
pm me the word "tomato"
she/her
Do we? I mean the most realistic case for falling damage is that if you reach terminal velocity, your character is straight up dead when they hit the ground. That's... not exactly fun. In the case you mentioned, the difference between sixty and thirty rounds is hardly material because most DMs have probably never run a combat that's lasted even half that time. Once out of combat, whether you have six minutes or three to figure out what to do, again either you have the resources to survive or not.
As others have stated in other threads, if anything the current rules are too HARSH. People have fallen from aircraft and survived, although others have fallen 10 ft and died. But we are playing heroic characters.
Instead of 1d6 for every 10 ft, max of 20d6 at 200 ft, I would probably make it 1d12 for every 20 ft, max of 10d12 at 200 ft. Then throw in an acrobatic check DC to reduce effective height by 20 ft for every 2 points above 10 DC if conditions are good. I.e. falling through trees or landing in snow/water (people routinely dive off of 50 ft cliffs, and the world record is 193 ft dive by Mr. Laso Schaller in 2015 who only dislocated his hip). Note, height reduction applies BEFORE caculating damage, so if you are falling from 400 pts and you reduce effective height by 200 because you rolled a 30, you still get the same max damage of 10d12.
I made a set of in-depth falling rules while back.
The key features are that it accounts for your characters stats (EG someone with high constitution will withstand falling better than someone with low constitution) and that there are two types of falling - Tumbling and Dropping.
It has seemed to work quite well thus far, and isn't excessively complex. I did consider the whole idea of S=UT+1/2AT^2 and all that jazz to work out just how hard they'll hit for each band, but it isn't a simple set of equations and so anything on that front would end up being either a complex table or a formula for people to use, which isn't going to be quick!
Check out my In-Depth Falling Rules on Homebrewery!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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The best rule is to keep it simple, and IMO the standard rules are fine for that. The only things I'd add on top are:
I think the second one is the important point for me, as I find raw damage a poor representation of the risk of falling, and just throwing more damage at the problem still won't guarantee that you'll discourage a Barbarian from Rage jumping off of everything. But if that Barbarian is trying to fight on with two broken legs they might think twice next time. 😝
The way I'd run it is when dealing with larger falls (more than double the character's vertical jump distance?) I'd ask for a check or save based on the height, if they fail they suffer a sprain, and if they fail badly they might suffer a broken leg. You can use the DMG Injuries for a sprain (Limp) and a break (Lost a Foot or Leg), ignore the part about requiring regenerate for a break, but don't make it too easy to heal (a bad break should require several long rests plus healing).
Basically make sure there are consequences for not climbing down or using feather fall, because raw damage won't be a threat for characters that can take a lot of it, and making it purely about damage only penalises players with fewer hit-points.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
These examples of problems both seem fine to me. 15% off is actually a lot closer to real life than I expected. And 30 rounds and 60 rounds both fall into the "so long you're not actually in rounds anymore" category. Your BBEG fight is going to be over in maybe 5 rounds, which leaves enough time for 1 minute spells but not enough for 10 minute spells. Functionally the same at the table, unless you're excruciatingly stretching out a scene that should be urgent and fast-paced.
There's also no reason to assume Earth gravity in your fantasy world, but that's neither here nor there.
Both of these feel like you already had your conclusion before you looked for your examples. The falling system hits a really nice spot between simulation and simplicity. I'm happy with it.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
NOPE. Well, not if you get reasonable medical attention. Falling depends mostly on how you hit. If you fall head first, you break your neck and die. If you fall feet first, you break other bones and live.
Terminal velocity is 115 mph, give or take 10 mph. Your chances of surviving a motorcycle accident at 115 mph is low, but doable, particularly if you are wearing a helmet which protects your head. More than 1%, I would guess around 5-10%. Not only are many D&D characters wearing helmets designed to protect their head, but like I said, if you fall feat first, you will likely break your legs, possibly pelvis and ribs, but your head will be cushioned by never receiving a blow directly.
There's a fair amount of difference between a motorbike helmet and a suit-of-armour helmet though. Whilst I agree that it might protect against dashing your brains out on the whiplash, it will not keep your neck from breaking like a motorbike helmet will (it's wide at the base to keep your head from over-rotating in a crash).
also worth noting that the ones who walk away from a 115mph crash do so because they slid to a stop or into bushes. I doubt anyone's done 115mph into a boulder and walked away. Plus "survive" is not the goal - "live" is the goal. To walk away, not be wheeled away. breaking ones legs, pelvis, and ribs is a sure fire way to retire an adventurer!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!