When it comes to fall damage it's usually because of the laws of physics, taking into account the mass and the gravitational pull. But for instance, ants practically can live after being throw from the empire state because of their mass. Would this apply in dnd?
In Dnd it's a pretty blanket number; 1d6 for every 10ft and maxes out at 20d6 (or 200ft).
However, as a DM, it is entirely in their control whether this number and value changes due to circumstances.
In the purest form, even a ant (that could normally walk away from a 200ft drop) would take full the 20d6 damage after falling 200ft. But that isn't (or shouldn't) be correct... unless I missed something and there is mention in the handbook about variables to that.
I'd personally consider it to be a general damage factor based on a medium-sized Human (and any playable race in general). 20d6 being for when the playable character's race has reached terminal velocity. <Therefore, even if the cliff or airship that the person fell from is 1,000ft in the air (And don't forget that in 5e you fall at a rate of 500ft each turn), they'd reach terminal velocity at 200ft down and would not go any faster than that.
Example:
Druid begins to fall off of a 1,000ft cliff. In 1 turn reaches terminal velocity at 200ft down and is already 500ft down and 500ft away from hitting the bottom. Turns into a goldfish (yep... we all know where this is going). The next turn he or she hits the bottom. The DM rolls the max amount of 20d6 dice and the goldfish evaporates and the players character gets splattered into a million pieces and dies.
That is, by all rights, the correct way to play the game by the book. The DM didn't have to do any additional math and the game progressed quickly (and became one of the most memorable moments of that show lol)
Alternatively the DM could have ruled, because the fish would not be falling as fast as a human-shaped creature, it would not reach the same velocity and have reduce the damage according to what they'd consider applicable.
So, officially, even a Ant would end up vaporized when it hit the ground by official fall damage (unless the creature stat block stated it was immune to fall damage).
Also officially, the DM can decide if the Ant takes any fall damage at all. <Ask and/or try to reason with your DM why the ant shouldn't take fall damage, but don't hold it against them if they decide to follow the rule book.
The thing with terminal velocity is that, for anything larger than a cat, it becomes irrelevant - it simply becomes "enough to kill you".
You could rule that a tiny creature takes and deals less fall damage (dealing if landing on something), but then you have to consider that a bowling ball is considered Tiny, and it's not falling any slower than a person!
If you're interested in more in-depth falling rules, which I grant you haven't got anything about tiny critters not getting splattered when they land but do take into account your creature's statistics, then please check out my in-depth falling rules! They replace your basic 1d6 per 5ft with a system which makes falls less damaging on shorter drops and more damaging on higher ones, depending on how well you roll for your landing (and how you land!).
As you can see from w being in the numerator and a being in the denominator, we can expect terminal velocity to scale linearly (before square rooting) in "size" - if these were spheres, terminal velocity would scale with the square root of the diameter or radius. Of course, that's deeply misleading for humans, for example - a human of any height tends to have roughly the same size head, for example, which is why children don't look like scaled down adults.
If you wanted a house rule for terminal velocity based only on size categories, meaning we need the same rule for a seahorse and a housecat (and don't forget, gargantuan is also a bunch of different size categories), you could do it roughly like this, assuming falling damage scales directly with terminal velocity:
Tiny: Maximum damage 10d6
Small: 14d6
Medium: 20d6
Large: 28d6
Huge: 40d6
Gargantuan: 57d6
That's based on sticking to d6s as closely as possible. If the goal is instead sticking to around 20 dice, as closely as possible to average falling damage:
Tiny: 18d3
Small: 20d4
Medium: 20d6
Large: 22d8
Huge: 22d12
Gargantuan: 19d20, or 30d12 if you want at least as many dice as Huge rolls for consistency.
Based on maximum damage, this is also shockingly close, if you want to commit to 20 dice:
Seems you have your answer. I just have one addendum: not everything included in the game is intended to be representational of the real world. An elephant can make a running long jump of 22 feet and a running high jump of 9 feet. As funny as it might be to think of them all like Shep, and you can absolutely do that in your home game, that's not how the real world works.
Ants don't have HP. They're not monsters. HP would be useless for them because you'd never roll initiative against an ant. It's just a little bug. It doesn't need stats.
If you throw an ant off a building, and you have any way of finding out whether or not it lived, then I would imagine most DMs would just say it died, because it's difficult to imagine a scenario where it would matter at all. I guess I'd rule that it lived, but you're probably never going to see it again, because it's an ant.
D&D isn't a reality simulator. If you try to use it that way, it doesn't hold up, in the same way that you can't really use a teacup as a shoe.
Edit: Dang, Brendan Fraser was really ripped in that movie, huh?
If you throw an ant off a building, and you have any way of finding out whether or not it lived, then I would imagine most DMs would just say it died, because it's difficult to imagine a scenario where it would matter at all. I guess I'd rule that it lived, but you're probably never going to see it again, because it's an ant.
I think the point of an ant dying or not dying is that the above-mentioned druid, while falling the 1000 feet, could shapechange into an ant and possibly survive. (Though it would admittedly make more sense instead to change into something like a gnat instead and just stop falling.)
If you throw an ant off a building, and you have any way of finding out whether or not it lived, then I would imagine most DMs would just say it died, because it's difficult to imagine a scenario where it would matter at all. I guess I'd rule that it lived, but you're probably never going to see it again, because it's an ant.
I think the point of an ant dying or not dying is that the above-mentioned druid, while falling the 1000 feet, could shapechange into an ant and possibly survive. (Though it would admittedly make more sense instead to change into something like a gnat instead and just stop falling.)
RAW, they can't, because an ant has no challenge rating, because it has no stats at all. Only if the DM wants to rule that it would logically be a beast with a low enough challenge rating (probably 0) could the Druid choose to become an ant. This is a ruling that makes sense, but does have some other implications, so I think it would also be reasonable to deny it -- but ultimately, the DM always has that authority, so my opinion isn't relevant.
And anyway, they only get a moment to act if they're using the optional rule in Xanathar's about falling. Otherwise they just fall the full distance right away.
But yes. If the DM is using that rule, and if the DM is making that ruling, and if the height is that high, and if the falling character is a Druid with a use of Wild Shape remaining, then the DM would have to decide whether or not to favor realism. And I'd estimate that they would, because that's basically what the Xanathar's falling rule is for, is to favor realism. If a DM doesn't value realism that highly, they probably aren't using that rule in the first place.
Even still, I would be hard pressed to support anything more granular than "you don't take any damage." Then you start getting into the maths of whether it's better to become a bug or, like, a rhinoceros to soak the damage, and then it's quickly becoming kind of silly.
Druid shapeshift only specifies the max CR into which you can transform.
I would consider a normal-sized ant to be an animal with a challenge rating of zero. The closest such animal with an actual official statblock would be a normal-sized Spider, which also has a challenge rating of zero and which would also have the same "terminal velocity" question as an ant.
Of course, RAW I'd still apply full falling damage to an ant or spider.
Realistically, even without terminal velocity, big creatures should take more damage from falling than small creatures, but ... D&D is not trying to be a physics emulator.
Just shapeshift into something that can fly and stop falling? I don't know how this can even come up in a game unless your Druid wantsto fall and possibly take falling damage...
Oh, my bad, just checked and you can't actually wild shape into something with a flying speed until Druid level 8 so I guess there is a niche use case where this can be relevant.
And how about a wildshape into something like a “flying”squirrel or snake? These creatures aren’t actually flying - they are just “falling with style” but enough style to generate terminal velocities that are extremely low so that they don’t take falling damage.
…(And don't forget that in 5e you fall at a rate of 500ft each turn)….
A minor, little, itty bitty, teeny tiny, li’l correction: A creature instantly falls up to 500 ft., and if still falling they fall up to an additional 500 at the end of each of “its turns” until it stops. That’s only 500 ft per round. In D&D, the phrase “per turn” literally means on every creature’s turn. That’s why rogues can’tcan use Sneak Attack on attacks made as reactions. If a creature fell at a rate of “500 ft per turn” then their velocity would change based on how many creatures were involved, and as creatures died their rate of decent would decrease.
If flying spuirrels or flying snakes are deemed to exist in that campaign's universe, it would be hard for the DM to not allow a Druid PC to take that option, so long as they can Wildshape before falling. This is why it's good idea to ask the DM "what creatures exist in this world?" at the start of a campaign and also why Druids are a bit of a pain for new DMs to adapt to sometimes.
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When it comes to fall damage it's usually because of the laws of physics, taking into account the mass and the gravitational pull. But for instance, ants practically can live after being throw from the empire state because of their mass. Would this apply in dnd?
In Dnd it's a pretty blanket number; 1d6 for every 10ft and maxes out at 20d6 (or 200ft).
However, as a DM, it is entirely in their control whether this number and value changes due to circumstances.
In the purest form, even a ant (that could normally walk away from a 200ft drop) would take full the 20d6 damage after falling 200ft. But that isn't (or shouldn't) be correct... unless I missed something and there is mention in the handbook about variables to that.
I'd personally consider it to be a general damage factor based on a medium-sized Human (and any playable race in general). 20d6 being for when the playable character's race has reached terminal velocity. <Therefore, even if the cliff or airship that the person fell from is 1,000ft in the air (And don't forget that in 5e you fall at a rate of 500ft each turn), they'd reach terminal velocity at 200ft down and would not go any faster than that.
Example:
Druid begins to fall off of a 1,000ft cliff. In 1 turn reaches terminal velocity at 200ft down and is already 500ft down and 500ft away from hitting the bottom. Turns into a goldfish (yep... we all know where this is going). The next turn he or she hits the bottom. The DM rolls the max amount of 20d6 dice and the goldfish evaporates and the players character gets splattered into a million pieces and dies.
That is, by all rights, the correct way to play the game by the book. The DM didn't have to do any additional math and the game progressed quickly (and became one of the most memorable moments of that show lol)
Alternatively the DM could have ruled, because the fish would not be falling as fast as a human-shaped creature, it would not reach the same velocity and have reduce the damage according to what they'd consider applicable.
So, officially, even a Ant would end up vaporized when it hit the ground by official fall damage (unless the creature stat block stated it was immune to fall damage).
Also officially, the DM can decide if the Ant takes any fall damage at all. <Ask and/or try to reason with your DM why the ant shouldn't take fall damage, but don't hold it against them if they decide to follow the rule book.
Falling rules are intentionally simple and make abstraction of size or gravitation. The DM can always rule differently from the rulebook.
The thing with terminal velocity is that, for anything larger than a cat, it becomes irrelevant - it simply becomes "enough to kill you".
You could rule that a tiny creature takes and deals less fall damage (dealing if landing on something), but then you have to consider that a bowling ball is considered Tiny, and it's not falling any slower than a person!
If you're interested in more in-depth falling rules, which I grant you haven't got anything about tiny critters not getting splattered when they land but do take into account your creature's statistics, then please check out my in-depth falling rules! They replace your basic 1d6 per 5ft with a system which makes falls less damaging on shorter drops and more damaging on higher ones, depending on how well you roll for your landing (and how you land!).
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Well, terminal velocity in a fluid is:
(2*g*w*(q-p)/(a*c*p))^(1/2)
where:
As you can see from w being in the numerator and a being in the denominator, we can expect terminal velocity to scale linearly (before square rooting) in "size" - if these were spheres, terminal velocity would scale with the square root of the diameter or radius. Of course, that's deeply misleading for humans, for example - a human of any height tends to have roughly the same size head, for example, which is why children don't look like scaled down adults.
If you wanted a house rule for terminal velocity based only on size categories, meaning we need the same rule for a seahorse and a housecat (and don't forget, gargantuan is also a bunch of different size categories), you could do it roughly like this, assuming falling damage scales directly with terminal velocity:
That's based on sticking to d6s as closely as possible. If the goal is instead sticking to around 20 dice, as closely as possible to average falling damage:
Based on maximum damage, this is also shockingly close, if you want to commit to 20 dice:
Awesome, I like this. Thank you
Seems you have your answer. I just have one addendum: not everything included in the game is intended to be representational of the real world. An elephant can make a running long jump of 22 feet and a running high jump of 9 feet. As funny as it might be to think of them all like Shep, and you can absolutely do that in your home game, that's not how the real world works.
Ants don't have HP. They're not monsters. HP would be useless for them because you'd never roll initiative against an ant. It's just a little bug. It doesn't need stats.
If you throw an ant off a building, and you have any way of finding out whether or not it lived, then I would imagine most DMs would just say it died, because it's difficult to imagine a scenario where it would matter at all. I guess I'd rule that it lived, but you're probably never going to see it again, because it's an ant.
D&D isn't a reality simulator. If you try to use it that way, it doesn't hold up, in the same way that you can't really use a teacup as a shoe.
Edit: Dang, Brendan Fraser was really ripped in that movie, huh?
I think the point of an ant dying or not dying is that the above-mentioned druid, while falling the 1000 feet, could shapechange into an ant and possibly survive. (Though it would admittedly make more sense instead to change into something like a gnat instead and just stop falling.)
RAW, they can't, because an ant has no challenge rating, because it has no stats at all. Only if the DM wants to rule that it would logically be a beast with a low enough challenge rating (probably 0) could the Druid choose to become an ant. This is a ruling that makes sense, but does have some other implications, so I think it would also be reasonable to deny it -- but ultimately, the DM always has that authority, so my opinion isn't relevant.
And anyway, they only get a moment to act if they're using the optional rule in Xanathar's about falling. Otherwise they just fall the full distance right away.
But yes. If the DM is using that rule, and if the DM is making that ruling, and if the height is that high, and if the falling character is a Druid with a use of Wild Shape remaining, then the DM would have to decide whether or not to favor realism. And I'd estimate that they would, because that's basically what the Xanathar's falling rule is for, is to favor realism. If a DM doesn't value realism that highly, they probably aren't using that rule in the first place.
Even still, I would be hard pressed to support anything more granular than "you don't take any damage." Then you start getting into the maths of whether it's better to become a bug or, like, a rhinoceros to soak the damage, and then it's quickly becoming kind of silly.
Druid shapeshift only specifies the max CR into which you can transform.
I would consider a normal-sized ant to be an animal with a challenge rating of zero. The closest such animal with an actual official statblock would be a normal-sized Spider, which also has a challenge rating of zero and which would also have the same "terminal velocity" question as an ant.
Of course, RAW I'd still apply full falling damage to an ant or spider.
Realistically, even without terminal velocity, big creatures should take more damage from falling than small creatures, but ... D&D is not trying to be a physics emulator.
Just shapeshift into something that can fly and stop falling? I don't know how this can even come up in a game unless your Druid wants to fall and possibly take falling damage...
Oh, my bad, just checked and you can't actually wild shape into something with a flying speed until Druid level 8 so I guess there is a niche use case where this can be relevant.
And how about a wildshape into something like a “flying”squirrel or snake? These creatures aren’t actually flying - they are just “falling with style” but enough style to generate terminal velocities that are extremely low so that they don’t take falling damage.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
A minor, little, itty bitty, teeny tiny, li’l correction: A creature instantly falls up to 500 ft., and if still falling they fall up to an additional 500 at the end of each of “its turns” until it stops. That’s only 500 ft per round. In D&D, the phrase “per turn” literally means on every creature’s turn. That’s why rogues
can’tcan use Sneak Attack on attacks made as reactions. If a creature fell at a rate of “500 ft per turn” then their velocity would change based on how many creatures were involved, and as creatures died their rate of decent would decrease.Edit:
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A minor, little, itty bitty, teeny tiny, li’l correction: ☺
A rogue can use Sneak Attack once per turn, which mean on every creature's turn, including on Opportunity Attack made as reaction.
Did you mean "can"? Because Sneak Attack is once per turn, not once on each of your turns.
Yeah, it's one of the few situations where Commander's Strike is useful.
Yes, thank you. (😒 Gorram typos’ll be the end of me one day.)
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If flying spuirrels or flying snakes are deemed to exist in that campaign's universe, it would be hard for the DM to not allow a Druid PC to take that option, so long as they can Wildshape before falling. This is why it's good idea to ask the DM "what creatures exist in this world?" at the start of a campaign and also why Druids are a bit of a pain for new DMs to adapt to sometimes.