When leveling up beyond first level, my players roll a little differently. This is similar to the whole "players re-roll 1s and 2s', but it guarantees at least half HPs on rolls. 

Have to say one thing... Even at 100 feet... A human can easily survive. It all depends on absorbing the impacts. The real question would be... What would it takes you to stop a fall at terminal velocity with your body only. Would a roll work ? Would the usual parkour work ? The answer in our current world is that a parkour guy that is pro can already jump a height of a 100 feet and easily live. Though most parkour people are able to survive with no damage a height of 50. The pros can go up to about that hundred. So...

Auto kill at 100 makes no sense. We also saw parachutist survive a fall of 5000 feets without chutes and survives. Mind you not conscious and a broken leg but still alive. The problem in calculating is the generalisation based on poor results ! If 1000 average people die from a height of 20 feet then thats the point we take but thats not the right thing to do.

In ttrpg our characters are heroes not blatantly normal people. For exemple a dash of 60 feet is already olympic sprinter material and thats with a huge bag on their backs. So your character should definitely able to survive a fall of 100 feet with enough hps.

Though i will say you are in the right direction though...

Heres my falling rulings...

- changed fall damage from bludgeoning to falling damage instead. No more resist or immune to it.

- any jump from 300 feet is an auto kill unless something is done to convince the dm otherwise. Because thing can make someone survive.

The only class that is really a problem is a druid with gain 150hp out of nowhere ability... Thats the only one where i need to find a way for them not to survive a fall of 10000 feet and make a thumbs up. Aka keyleth keyteor on critical role.

Quote from DnDPaladin >>

Have to say one thing... Even at 100 feet... A human can easily survive. It all depends on absorbing the impacts.

 
You know, I didn't really think about it, because dropping from the 10th floor onto concrete just SEEMS so deadly. But I think you're right... taking into account all situations (tumbling down the side of a mountain, getting a running jump to try some parkour maneuver at the end, etc.,) 100 ft. is probably too low for insta-kill. And yes, people have survived falling from planes, so even though making 300' the line seems like it would guarantee it, I guess there really is no guarantee. Perhaps just letting the dice fall where they may is best (in which case, might as well keep the 200' damage cap too.)

So then, my final falling damage mod...

Cumulative Falling Damage (10' = 1d6, 20' = 3d6, 30' = 6d6, 40' = 10d6, 50' = 15d6, etc.)
 - Damage still capped at 200' (212d6 damage, average 742 hp)
 - A character with enough HP could *potentially* survive a fall from an arbitrary height
 - Mitigating factors (wings, etc.) can turn the damage back to linear (10' = 1d6, 20' = 2d6, 30' = 3d6, etc.)
 - Players can take the average damage for the height instead of rolling (to save time)

Handy chart for damage at specific heights: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NUAKjRd6dZOqV2Vs7JzoDxFmFnN3uVkQUsttD3xwqd0/edit?usp=sharing

Personally instead of insta kill at 100 feet I would just have it max out at 55d6. That is sufficiently deadly enough that players will more than likely think twice, but not so deadly that death isn't a guarantee.

I do agree, however, that it should deal "fall damage" instead of bludgeoning so that barbarians can't rage for half. To me that feels as though that goes against the intent of a barbarian' rage. I'm more okay with the Druid since that does eat up one of their wild shapes, which they have a limited amount (until level 20).

@grizzlebub sure it eats up one of their wild shapes... But they still have a second one amd its not like yhey get yhem back at long rest. They gain them back at short rest which makes a druid almost capable of having them both back every battle. If barbarian rage allows them to eat up fall damage due to resistance. Basically gaining temporary hit points makes you the same.

I never liked the wild shaping ability as it basically allow the druid to keep fighting while literally having a scalling "heal" spell twice per short rest ! And if you have ever gotten a moon druid in your group it is easy to realise how hard it gets to kill said druid.

To me allowing druids to survive fall damage with ease and disallowing the rage to do the same is contradictory. I mean... The beast got its legs and body crushed... Why would the druid be having no scratch at all at the end of it ?

Usually, im not for limb damage tables or the likes... But i think the hit points lost should give out conditions like half speed until a short rest. You know simulate broken leg or something of the sort.

Fall damage is a thing that I see get discussed a lot, one of the things to watch or for is using fall damage again enemies, cast fly on the 5th level eagle totem Barbarian and he can grapple two enemys, dash, and carry them 60 feet into the air, (granted that's only if the enemies are next to the Barb already) and drop both of them for 21d6 damage.  And there are other ways of inflicting fall damage on enemies, the spell reverse gravity deals 55d6-110d6.

And for Druids Wild shaping , there can just turn into a bird or a lizard and fly/climb down, so it's not might of an issue.

Quote from DnDPaladin >>

Have to say one thing... Even at 100 feet... A human can easily survive. It all depends on absorbing the impacts. The real question would be... What would it takes you to stop a fall at terminal velocity with your body only. Would a roll work ? Would the usual parkour work ? The answer in our current world is that a parkour guy that is pro can already jump a height of a 100 feet and easily live. Though most parkour people are able to survive with no damage a height of 50. The pros can go up to about that hundred. So...

 

No. No, they can't.

Easily? No. That's an even worse claim. 

Quote from Demo_N >>

Fall damage is a thing that I see get discussed a lot, one of the things to watch or for is using fall damage again enemies, cast fly on the 5th level eagle totem Barbarian and he can grapple two enemys, dash, and carry them 60 feet into the air, (granted that's only if the enemies are next to the Barb already) and drop both of them for 21d6 damage.  And there are other ways of inflicting fall damage on enemies, the spell reverse gravity deals 55d6-110d6.

And for Druids Wild shaping , there can just turn into a bird or a lizard and fly/climb down, so it's not might of an issue.

 Nope the barb cant do that. He still cannot lift over his maximum capacity which is 15x his streght score. Over that his speed is reduced to 5 feet.

Quote from Brotherbock >>

Quote from DnDPaladin >>

Have to say one thing... Even at 100 feet... A human can easily survive. It all depends on absorbing the impacts. The real question would be... What would it takes you to stop a fall at terminal velocity with your body only. Would a roll work ? Would the usual parkour work ? The answer in our current world is that a parkour guy that is pro can already jump a height of a 100 feet and easily live. Though most parkour people are able to survive with no damage a height of 50. The pros can go up to about that hundred. So...

 

 

No. No, they can't.

Easily? No. That's an even worse claim. 

 I think you are mistaking fear of being hurt with physics. All impacts can be diminished with enough time to do so. And there are tons of videos on the net of people clearing 30 feet drops. Calculate all those clearing rooftop jumps into 2 floors below and thats about 50 feet from horizontal and verticals. 

My point is... Insta kill at 100 feet... 100 feet is the size of my parents court yard and its a small zone.

Quote from DnDPaladin >>

Quote from Brotherbock >>

Quote from DnDPaladin >>

Have to say one thing... Even at 100 feet... A human can easily survive. It all depends on absorbing the impacts. The real question would be... What would it takes you to stop a fall at terminal velocity with your body only. Would a roll work ? Would the usual parkour work ? The answer in our current world is that a parkour guy that is pro can already jump a height of a 100 feet and easily live. Though most parkour people are able to survive with no damage a height of 50. The pros can go up to about that hundred. So...

 

 

No. No, they can't.

Easily? No. That's an even worse claim. 

 I think you are mistaking fear of being hurt with physics. All impacts can be diminished with enough time to do so. And there are tons of videos on the net of people clearing 30 feet drops. Calculate all those clearing rooftop jumps into 2 floors below and thats about 50 feet from horizontal and verticals. 

My point is... Insta kill at 100 feet... 100 feet is the size of my parents court yard and its a small zone.

I think I want to see a video, even one, of a parkour athlete falling 100 feet. These guys post videos of their stuff all the time, there would have to be one video of someone jumping from 100 feet up, not touching anything on the way down, and landing safely. And, I'll note, you said 'easily'. 

You are mistaking the size of your parents yard (as a horizontal surface) with the physics of being constantly accelerated at 9.8m/s/s for that whole distance and then coming to a sudden stop at the end, about 2 and a half seconds later. 

When I talk about falling 100 feet, I don't mean falling 20 feet, hitting something, falling another 10 feet, hitting something else, etc etc. until they are 100 feet down. That sort of instance in the game would be a 20 foot fall, followed by a 10 foot fall, followed by etc etc. And I don't mean 'falling' as calculated by combining vertical and horizontal distances. I don't mean 'total distance traveled'. A) That's not how the game or any DM who values their time is going to calculate it, and B), horizontal distances do not have the same impact on your momentum and speed as the vertical distances. If you jump forward off of point X, and you travel a certain distance H horizontally, and a certain distance V vertically, the H is not going to factor into your downward momentum. You will still accelerate downward at 9.8m/s/s. Traveling horizontally, or not, in no way impacts your rate of fall or your momentum. 

Horizontal movement can impact how you can roll with the fall. Even in normal tumbling, you don't just jump straight down onto your head, you jump out and down. Surviving a jump off a 10 or 20 foot ledge can be aided by jumping out. But at 100 feet, you are no longer going to be traveling horizontally by the time you hit the bottom, unless you were traveling at speeds that no D&D character would reach. Your direction of travel at the bottom of a 100' cliff, regardless of how hard you jump, will be straight down. I'd love to see a video of someone parkouring their way out of that. Perpendicular travel into the ground at just under 55 mph (speed at the end of your 100 foot fall) isn't something you can roll out of. 

Here you go:

• Study showing 50% survivability from a 22.4m fall when there were no head/chest injuries (50% from 10.5m with head/chest injuries). At that point, you are still going to accelerate another 10mph before you hit 100 feet. 
• 50% of people who fall 4 stories will die. 90% of people who fall 7 stories will die. A story is typically around 10 feet. So there's still about 10mph to accelerate before 100 feet (or 10 stories). 
• 100% (statistically) of people die from 85 foot+ falls. 

Yes, a flight attendant fell from a plane and lived. So as I mentioned, you could be generous and give the player a 1% miracle chance. But bringing parkour into the discussion makes no sense. If one of my players had his character completely scout out the fall (like they do in parkour) and meticulously plan every part of the fall (like they do), and if that character made sure there were strategically placed wood chips and soft grass at the big landing points (like they do in parkour), and if that character wasn't wearing 30+ pounds of armor that would significantly restrict the ability to tumble and roll and significantly increase the momentum carried into the ground, and if that character was proficient in Athletics (like they are in parkour)...

That character still wouldn't get more than a 1% chance to survive a straight up not-broken-into-smaller-falls 100 foot fall. 

Again... All of your stats consider average humans who would die from just a breath of a dragon. While i am speaking of "trained" characters able to take a hit from 3 ******* meteors from meteor swarms.

While you take numbers from real world physics... Those physics makes no sense to fantasy worlds where characters can take a bath in lava and walk away !

You are right about the 100 straight drop onto concrete... But anything from sands, grass and water can easily make you live it.

And by the way... The world record for highest drop with roll from parkour guy is 45-50 feet. He dropped from a highway bridge.

Again im not saying there shouldnt be consequences to such drops... But telling heroes who can take a ******* moon on their head and live to tell the tale that they die from a stupid random drop out of a 2 story high building is pretty counter productive.

And... You want me to say fine, i admit the word was poorly chosen. Its not easy... But totally doable in the right circumstances.

Quote from DnDPaladin >>

Again... All of your stats consider average humans who would die from just a breath of a dragon. While i am speaking of "trained" characters able to take a hit from 3 ******* meteors from meteor swarms.

While you take numbers from real world physics... Those physics makes no sense to fantasy worlds where characters can take a bath in lava and walk away !

You are right about the 100 straight drop onto concrete... But anything from sands, grass and water can easily make you live it.

And by the way... The world record for highest drop with roll from parkour guy is 45-50 feet. He dropped from a highway bridge.

Again im not saying there shouldnt be consequences to such drops... But telling heroes who can take a ******* moon on their head and live to tell the tale that they die from a stupid random drop out of a 2 story high building is pretty counter productive.

And... You want me to say fine, i admit the word was poorly chosen. Its not easy... But totally doable in the right circumstances.

HP is not a measure of being able to be hit harder. Higher level characters are not more resistant to the laws of physics than lower level characters. The 20th level fighter can survive the dragon breath not by standing there and just taking it, but in part because he has learned to not be standing there. Being 'hit' by the meteor swarm spell for damage does not indicate that the meteors even hit you, as HP measures things like exhaustion as well. If you want to visualize and describe your characters being able to actually be cut 40 times with a sword and walk around, by all means, do what you want to do. But that's not what HP represent. Not every 'Hit' is a hit. 

(And meteor swarm is 'orbs of fire', not 'moons' or even anything solid. It's fire. That's why it can spread around corners.)

And yes, I'm talking about physics. My characters also can't fly without wings, or fart healing potions, or walk through walls. Being a 'fantasy game' doesn't mean 'break the laws of physics' in such a way that people float to the ground all around Faerun just because 'magic exists'. That might be an interesting world to play in, but it's not the worlds of D&D as they are described. The game asks us to suspend our disbelief in certain key ways, not in every way. If they published D&D and included "Hey, you know, fire also doesn't burn people in this world, for no reason", people probably wouldn't like that. The assumption is that the world works like this world, plus magic and monsters. Not 'like this world, plus magic and monsters, plus falling doesn't hurt you nearly as much for no apparent reason.' 

If you can auto-kill a tied up unconscious person in the game, that relies on those same rules of physics that you are saying we shouldn't be bringing up. If your DM says you can't breathe underwater, it's because of that whole physics thing. If swords can break, and rocks can fall on you, it's because of physics. My claim is that this example of a rule translating the physics of the world into game stats is wildly implausible, and not in a 'because magic' excusable way of being unrealistic. The actual facts are that the standard rules got into the 1st edition without anyone specifically intending them--they were a mistake. Falling was supposed to not be 'magical'. Just normal. And they got it wrong, and keep getting it wrong.

The world record is "45-50"? Not a specific height? Guinness doesn't tend to round, but let's say 50. Even then, you're talking 16 mph of acceleration left between 50 and 100 feet. And those speeds scale damage up rapidly...the difference between 38mph and 55 mph is much more significant than the difference between 0mph and 16mph. 

And I don't see these rules as counter-productive. I see them as, and have experienced them as, actually enhancing the enjoyment of the game for people who don't worship RAW for RAW's sake. Again, I have literally seen players throw their characters off of 100+ foot cliffs or the backs of dragons, and the next round get up and chase the escaping bad guy. And everyone around the table gives the universal WTF face, and argues that it's an absurd abuse of a bad rule. And now the story that's being told, of a tense and dangerous adventure, turns ridiculous.

But 'it's RAW', says the player. So I'll metagame by appealing to a fact I know that my character never would--that falling from that height will leave me with X percentage of my HP worst-case. That sort of metagaming is what's counter-productive. 

Look, if you want a game that doesn't pay attention to things like realism, or if you want to say that a fantasy world doesn't need to have any semblance to real-world physics just because it's a fantasy world, go ahead and play your game. But don't try to tell me that 100 foot falls in the real world are survivable. Not 'easily', and not even 'totally doable', unless you mean that falling from a plane with no parachute and living is also 'totally doable' because one person did it once and somehow lived. It's not statistically doable, realistic, plausible, etc. And it's certainly not common the way the current rules would have it. Parkour folks aren't doing it, they don't fall 100 feet and live.

I'm all for you wanting to argue that my rules are too strict. I'm not saying my way is the only way by any means. But you've been flat-out making up claims this whole time to try to prove your point, and when you use real-world physics to support your claim ('parkour pros easily survive 100 foot falls in the real world'), and I point out that you're just wrong, you then say "Well, we can't use real-world physics to figure this out." Your facts keep changing, and then you abandon the usefulness of facts in the first place. That's frustrating to try to reply to, so I'll just leave it at this:

The way I see fantasy RPG worlds, the non-fantasy parts of them (the parts not about elves, spells, dragons, i.e. the parts that are the same as our world) is that those parts work the same way as they work in our world. And the facts of our world demonstrate that you are wrong about the various claims you have made here regarding falling and survivability. People die, statistically 100% of the time they fall from 100+ feet (meaning the times they do not die are so rare as to amount to a 0% chance). Thus, auto-kill is perfectly acceptable.

Unless you want falling physics to function differently, for some unexplained reason. And then I'd ask, if falling doesn't hurt as much in your fantasy world, why do thrown boulders hurt as much? Why do maces and swords hurt as much? Why can't normal characters increase their jump by 10' every level? Why do streams still flow down in your world? Do they flow down, but slower? If all the other effects of gravity in your world are like they are in our world, why is this effect of gravity different?

So that's it. Gotta run. Hope I don't sound like a jerk, I'm not trying to be one. 

Using @RodTheBard's handy chart and @BrotherBock's statistics on probability of surviving a fall,  I created my own set of homebrew rules for fall damage. I took into account @DnDPaladin's desire to have heroic feats near impossible in the real world (such as falling from great distances and surviving) still possible, though difficult.

My personal homebrew rule can be found below:

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 Fall Damage from the below cumulative damage column. The creature lands prone, unless it avoids taking damage from the fall. As a reaction to falling, a creature can attempt an Acrobatics check to reduce the Fall Damage, moving from the cumulative damage column to the linear damage column. The DC for reducing the damage can be found in the Acrobatics DC column.

Other mitigating factors can turn the damage linear.

Thoughts?

I like the ability to use Acrobatics as a mitigating factor and reduce damage (that skill just doesn't get enough love.)

The other thing to note is that this homebrew deals Fall Damage not Bludgeoning Damage. Meaning Barbarians can't rage to reduce half. Also, at higher falls Druids will think twice of Wildshaping to cushion the blow, considering there is a very high chance that a lot of damage will roll over to their squishy druidic forms.

Quote from RodTheBard >>

I like the ability to use Acrobatics as a mitigating factor and reduce damage (that skill just doesn't get enough love.)

 I let a successful acrobatics check knock a d6 off falls of 20 feet or less.

Quote from Grizzlebub >>

The other thing to note is that this homebrew deals Fall Damage not Bludgeoning Damage. Meaning Barbarians can't rage to reduce half. Also, at higher falls Druids will think twice of Wildshaping to cushion the blow, considering there is a very high chance that a lot of damage will roll over to their squishy druidic forms.

I like the chart :D It provides a really clear example of what you're getting into with either choice. And the creation of Fall Damage also makes sense. The Barbarian surviving because he's just really angry that he's falling is funny, but, yeah. :) I personally would put in a straight 1% chance of survival after 100', and then allow a possible acrobatics check to go linear below that. Some instances just won't let that happen--falling into water, for example. Not only will it do as much damage as concrete from high levels, but unlike concrete there's zero chance of rolling with it. Falling onto a sloped hillside, otoh, is much more plausible. But at the same time, if you're falling right next to a wall or cliff, I might allow advantage on the check too. (The old Monk class in 1st/2nd mitigated fall damage if you were within reach of a wall.)

Not criticism but question, what led to the various plateaus of damage? E.G. 55/66/78d6 levels.

Well done :)

The main reason I had it start to Plateau off towards the end was mostly due to Max HPs for heroes. I still wanted heroically impossible scenarios where heroes defy the odds to survive great falls. Keep in mind to me, survive great falls does not mean they don't reach 0 HPs, it just means they don't die by massive damage.

With that, I calculated the maximum HPs any hero could have. As far as I know the maximum HPs any hero could possible have is a 20 Con + Hill Dwarf + Barbarian + Tough feat. If they roll 12 each time, that puts their max at 400 ([12 + 8] * 20). If you "take average", which is more in line with what you would expect, the Average 20 Con Hill Dwarf Barbarian with the Tough feat will have 305 ([7 * 19] + [8 * 20] + 12).

At 305 HPs, I looked at the cumulative chart and found one below that, which is 78d6. So the Average damage for that roll (273) actually would not even reduce the "Average" 20 Con + Hill Dwarf + Barbarian + Tough feat, but the maximum (468) would, which gives any player a moment to pause. I also didn't want it to be so high that it would obliterate the lesser hit-dice heroes, though 273 damage would more than likely kill Sorcerers and Wizards due to massive damage, they do have magical alternative to alleviate that problem.

Quote from Grizzlebub >>

The main reason I had it start to Plateau off towards the end was mostly due to Max HPs for heroes. I still wanted heroically impossible scenarios where heroes defy the odds to survive great falls. Keep in mind to me, survive great falls does not mean they don't reach 0 HPs, it just means they don't die by massive damage.

With that, I calculated the maximum HPs any hero could have. As far as I know the maximum HPs any hero could possible have is a 20 Con + Hill Dwarf + Barbarian + Tough feat. If they roll 12 each time, that puts their max at 400 ([12 + 8] * 20). If you "take average", which is more in line with what you would expect, the Average 20 Con Hill Dwarf Barbarian with the Tough feat will have 305 ([7 * 19] + [8 * 20] + 12).

At 305 HPs, I looked at the cumulative chart and found one below that, which is 78d6. So the Average damage for that roll (273) actually would not even reduce the "Average" 20 Con + Hill Dwarf + Barbarian + Tough feat, but the maximum (468) would, which gives any player a moment to pause. I also didn't want it to be so high that it would obliterate the lesser hit-dice heroes, though 273 damage would more than likely kill Sorcerers and Wizards due to massive damage, they do have magical alternative to alleviate that problem.

Gotcha, that makes a lot of sense all around. Nice work. I think I'll be grabbing that table for my own use. :D

House Rules

Proficiency Die (dP)

Instead of adding a flat proficiency bonus to rolls. Roll a die of size equal to twice the proficiency bonus, so a +2 becomes 1d4, +3 becomes 1d6 etc.

• If a 1 is rolled on the dP for an attack roll, then minimum damage is done
• If a maximum number is rolled for the dP on an attack roll, then the prodiciency die is added to the damage.

Fumbles

If an attack is a fumble then draw from fumble deck.

• If a 1 is rolled on an attack roll. The player may choose to reroll the attack. Treat this attack roll as normal, however, if it is not successful, then it is a fumble.
• If an attack is a miss the player may choose to make it a fumble and gain a fate point.

Fate Points

Inspiration is not used. Instead fate points are gained from good roleplaying or whenever a game mechanic says to gain one.

• A fate point may be spent to add 1dP to any Attack, Ability Check, Savinging Throw, or damage die.

0 Hit Point Rule
Being reduced to zero hit points and render unconscious can have its toll, even if you manage to survive.

• When reduced to zero hit points, you gain 1 level of exhaustion.
• When you fail a death save roll your proficiency die and reduce your maximum hit points by that amount.
• Your maximum hit points cannot be reduced below one.
• You regain dP + constitution modifier in lost maximum hit points when you complete a long rest.

Disarm

A creature can use a weapon attack to knock a weapon or another item from a target's grasp.

• The attacker uses the attack and makes an attack roll contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) check or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check.
• If the attacker wins the contest, the attack causes no damage or other ill effect, but the defender drops the item.
• If successful the target has disadvantage on attack rolls with the disarmed item until the end of their next turn.
• The attacker has disadvantage on its attack roll if the target is holding the item with two or more hands.
• The target has advantage on its ability check if it is larger than the attacking creature, or disadvantage if it is smaller.

Knockdown/Trip/Shove
A creature can use a an attack to knock a target back or knock them prone.

• The target must be no more than one size larger than you, and it must be within your reach.
• You make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use).
• If you win the contest, you either knock the target prone or push it 5 feet away from you,  and the target has disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the end of their enxt turn.

Short Rests

• Short rests take 1 entire round, you lose move, action and bonus action.
• You may only take 2 short rests
• You regain both short rests when you complete a long rest.

Barbarian

• Continue rage as long as you do something that is ragelike, you do not need to attack or be attacked. DM is final arbiter.

Monk

• Flurry of Blows (New): When a monk makes an unarmed attack or an attack with a monk weapon as part of an attack action, they may spend 1 ki point to make an additional unarmed attack.

Ranger

• Beastmaster: Pets continue with the last command as long as possible.

Sorcerer

• Wild Mage: Every time the Wild Mage casts a non-cantrip sell there is a 1 in 20 chance to consult the table. Also the Wild Mage may spend a sorcerer point to consult the table.

Warlocks:

• Pact of the blade: Grants medium armor and shield proficiency.

Dual Wielder Feat:

• Gain an additional attack when using bonus action to make off-hand attack

Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Master

• Instead of rolling dP on attack, roll 2dP and add to damage, if a 1 is rolled on the d20 then you fumble, unless you give the DM a fate point.

Potions

• Bonus action to drink