Running Curse of Strahd, while crossing the drawbridge, Rictavio falls through, players could not save him he falls 1,000 ft. that is 100d6 of damage for a total of 347 damage. instant death.
So my question is, can Rictavio cast Death Ward on himself before he hits the ground or would that be considered an instantaneously death?
Fall damage is capped at 20d6. Also, using xanathars rules falling 1000 feet would take two turns (500 feet per turn), so there would be time to cast Death Ward
The answer depends on whether you want to use the official rules, or homebrew rules. Technically, fall damage is capped at 20d6 and players fall at a speed of 60ft per round, which means it would take 16+ rounds to fall and Rictavio may have survived.
In the real world, it would take about 8 seconds to fall 1000ft, which is enough time for one in-game round.
If Rictavio successfully cast Death Ward on himself, it would bring him back to 1hp.
The answer depends on whether you want to use the official rules, or homebrew rules. Technically, fall damage is capped at 20d6 and players fall at a speed of 60ft per round, which means it would take 16+ rounds to fall and Rictavio may have survived.
In the real world, it would take about 8 seconds to fall 1000ft, which is enough time for one in-game round.
If Rictavio successfully cast Death Ward on himself, it would bring him back to 1hp.
Where is the bolded printed? I’ve only ever seen the rule in Xanathars actually give a distance...the default is to fall the whole distance immediately
Edit: your number looks like the slowed descent rate from the feather fall spell, not the “normal” rate, which, again, is “immediately” (PHB) or “500 ft/round” (XGtE)
What does "negated against the target" even mean? Would this be like if the target fell from a very great height and would have died from the fall, that it's like the fall never even happened? Or Something else? (thank you)
That clause only comes into effect when "the target is subjected to an effect that would kill it instantaneously without dealing damage". If a character falls from a great height, the fall doesn't kill them, the damage from the fall does. Therefore, that clause of Death Ward does not apply.
For an example of an effect that kills without dealing damage, look at Power Word Kill (https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/power-word-kill). PWK would trigger that clause of Death Ward, which means the PWK would have no effect on the target (this assumes the target has < 100 HP).
For a fall, a character takes up to 20d6 damage. If a character with Death Ward active on them took this damage, they would be reduced to 1 HP and Death Ward would end, but would otherwise be OK (as per the second paragraph of Death Ward).
What does "negated against the target" even mean? Would this be like if the target fell from a very great height and would have died from the fall, that it's like the fall never even happened? Or Something else? (thank you)
Like, if a character was going to hit the final level of exhaustion and die from it, they don't move up to that level where that the first death is stopped and then they're just killed again, I believe. Now if they were in a Sickening Radiance and didn't get out before their next turn, they'd be dead once the exhaustion level was reapplied, or if you're in the middle of a lava lake it will only stop you from dropping to 0 HP the first time it would happen. Basically, whatever would have immediately killed them is resolved in such a way that a new instance of it needs to be applied to kill them.
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Running Curse of Strahd, while crossing the drawbridge, Rictavio falls through, players could not save him he falls 1,000 ft. that is 100d6 of damage for a total of 347 damage. instant death.
So my question is, can Rictavio cast Death Ward on himself before he hits the ground or would that be considered an instantaneously death?
Fall damage is capped at 20d6. Also, using xanathars rules falling 1000 feet would take two turns (500 feet per turn), so there would be time to cast Death Ward
The answer depends on whether you want to use the official rules, or homebrew rules. Technically, fall damage is capped at 20d6
and players fall at a speed of 60ft per round, which meansit would take 16+ rounds to fall andRictavio may have survived.In the real world, it would take about 8 seconds to fall 1000ft, which is enough time for one in-game round.
If Rictavio successfully cast Death Ward on himself, it would bring him back to 1hp.
Where is the bolded printed? I’ve only ever seen the rule in Xanathars actually give a distance...the default is to fall the whole distance immediately
Edit: your number looks like the slowed descent rate from the feather fall spell, not the “normal” rate, which, again, is “immediately” (PHB) or “500 ft/round” (XGtE)
Ah, you're right. I was misremembering something I had heard.
Perkins recommended the following:
6 seconds: ~580ft
10 seconds: ~1,600ft
"If the spell is still in effect when the target is subjected to an effect that would kill it instantaneously without dealing
damage, that effect is instead negated against the target, and the spell end" source: https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/death-ward
What does "negated against the target" even mean? Would this be like if the target fell from a very great height and would have died from the fall, that it's like the fall never even happened? Or Something else? (thank you)
That clause only comes into effect when "the target is subjected to an effect that would kill it instantaneously without dealing damage". If a character falls from a great height, the fall doesn't kill them, the damage from the fall does. Therefore, that clause of Death Ward does not apply.
For an example of an effect that kills without dealing damage, look at Power Word Kill (https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/power-word-kill). PWK would trigger that clause of Death Ward, which means the PWK would have no effect on the target (this assumes the target has < 100 HP).
For a fall, a character takes up to 20d6 damage. If a character with Death Ward active on them took this damage, they would be reduced to 1 HP and Death Ward would end, but would otherwise be OK (as per the second paragraph of Death Ward).
Like, if a character was going to hit the final level of exhaustion and die from it, they don't move up to that level where that the first death is stopped and then they're just killed again, I believe. Now if they were in a Sickening Radiance and didn't get out before their next turn, they'd be dead once the exhaustion level was reapplied, or if you're in the middle of a lava lake it will only stop you from dropping to 0 HP the first time it would happen. Basically, whatever would have immediately killed them is resolved in such a way that a new instance of it needs to be applied to kill them.