The legend is that Gygax wanted falling damage to more emulate real life, with increasing damage per ten feet as velocity increases. But the printer misread the text and we got a flat table, as opposed to an hyperbolic table.
I have introduced this House Rule:
10 feet = d6
20 feet = d6 + 2d6 = 3d6
30 feet = 1d6 + 2d6 + 3d6 = 6d6
40 feet = 10d6
50 feet = 15d6 etc etc
No cap on damage.
You fall any sizeable distance, you die (unless you are somehow a raging barbarian)
Distance Covered: ~1,500ft (slightly shorter than the Twin Towers)
The problem with attempting to accurately represent Fall damage is that it's affected by several factors that would be hard to handle accurately. Not only would you take more damage the further you fall, (up to 1,500ft), but you would also fall faster, meaning you would have to track non-linear speeds round by round. Definitely not worth the effort.
There are also remarkable stories of people surviving falls from incredible heights:
On 26 January 1972, Vesna Vulovic, a 22 year old serbian flight attendant was the sole survivor of a doomed flight after being sucked out of a plane at 33,330ft. She spent a few days in a coma and was in a hospital for several months, but eventually made a near full recovery, living another 44 years.
So, if we crunch the numbers on that and say that the average "commoner" has 1d8 hitpoints and Vesna was not an adventurer with special abilities, then giving her max hp of 8 and taking the minimum possible damage would put surviving 8d6 damage at approximately 1 in 17,000. (Being dropped to exactly 0hp)
With the 5e mechanic of death saving throws, the math gets a little more screwy.
The current cap of 20d6 basically guaranties that any 1st level character, other than a Barbarian, faces Insta-Death from just a 200ft fall (75% terminal velocity upon impact).
TL;DR
Your houserule would make falling far more dangerous than in real life. Adventurers are vastly more resilient than the average commoner and should be expected to regularly survive seemingly impossible odds.
Additional Info:
The book Trauma Anesthesia states that the following values are representative fall mortality probabilities by height:
48ft (50%)
84ft (90%)
So, if you wanted to add realism into your game, you could switch to an alternative system like the one spoilered below:
{Edited for clarity/accuracy}
Change in velocity is a linear function of acceleration over time, not distance, so every additional 10ft contributes less, rather than more to the total fall speed.
If you want to have it scale more realistically by distance, you would want to do something equivalent to Xd6 where "X" is the square root of the [distance/10].
At 12d6, a commoner would need a 7 HP (Max) to have any chance of avoiding Instant Death from terminal velocity.
Using a normal distribution for Commoner HP (2.14% chance of 7hp+) and the probability of rolling at most 13 points of damage (5.5e^-7%), the odds of a commoner surviving a fall from a plane is 1.17 in 100 Million, which sounds about right.
If you regularly have problems with players jumping off of things you don't want them to, then just don't tell them the height. Use darkness, mist or whatever to obscure the full height of a chasm or such so your players don't know how far they will fall, so if they jump without protection you can then just roll a d20 to see how large of a splat they make. Then wait to see if anyone else wants to try it. 😈
Or just tell them there is some other obstacle at the bottom, such as spikes, lava, an unknowable eldritch horror etc; make it absolutely clear they're not supposed to go down there.
Otherwise I think the current rules are fine; the main problem is different players can have wildly different amounts of hit-points, so upping falling damage only penalises an unlucky Wizard while the Barbarian can still just Rage leap head first off of whatever they want to. Personally I'd prefer to just ignore damage rolling except for clearly survivable falls, while unwise ones will immediately KO or kill (with clear hints this will be the outcome).
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Again, D&D is not supposed to be a realistic game. It's at best a simulation of heroic fantasy, and no hero ever dies from a relatively small fall, because there are always reasons for slowing down the fall, whether luck and/or divine favor, which coincidentally are a part of what hit points, and therefore damage points, represent.
The kind of model that you are presenting is actually extremely old as well, I'm too lazy to look but I think it was already as an option in the AD&D1 Unearthed Arcana or in the Dungeoneer/Wilderness Survival guide.
There are good reasons for which that model never made it in the main rules, as explained above, but also because it's simple and goes across the spirit of Maximum Game Fun.
I also remember a female Paladin jumping into a chasm because she could only take 20d6 damage and she had like 150 hp, and she could heal easily. I don't like this much but most editions also had a kind of instant death threshold.
And you point about a Barbarian, Fighter, or Paladin falling 1000 feet and laughing it off is why I have implemented this House Rule. Yes, as with the 1st poster states, there is an example of a single human being surviving an insane fall. And for the hundreds of thousands of other humans who have not, there is this thing called gravity. Yes, gravity does exist in the D&D world. Now, maybe it is not 9.8 m/s/s, but it is still there. You fall from 2000 feet on the moon, you still splatter. Characters are heroic, of course. But the laws of physics override them, unless of course they use magic. And before anyone goes down that path, yes, large flying creatures in my game genetically are using some form of magic to fly, because under earth-like gravity, no way no how can large creatures fly.
I had a Monk try to grapple a flying devil in one game, from a distance of 50 feet in the air (he jumped off a ledge to try to grapple it). He missed the grapple, and then ALL the players wanted to roll the damage dice, as opposed to me rolling it, because they realized how dumb the player had been.
I made a lot of edits to my original post, so my latest spoilered revisions might have gotten lost. I'd like to reiterate that even without an atmosphere, change in velocity is a linear function of time. The further you fall, each increment of distance contributes less, not more. The OP house rule operates opposite to reality.
Check out the spoiler in my original post for a more accurate Fall Damage chart. (Using that chart, I calculated a rough probability of Vesna's survival at 1.17 in 100 million.)
If you want to penalize players for doing stupid things, you might consider implementing an injury chart for non-magical massive damage. (e.g. Roll a percentile against the percent of their Max HP lost to Fall damage and they have to roll higher than that to avoid broken limbs/paralysis/incapacitation/etc...) Knowing that you can technically survive the damage cap may not matter if you are paralyzed or knocked unconscious for 3 rounds in a hostile environment.
Also, note that there are many non-flying animals that can survive falls from any height. Gravity in an atmosphere is far from a death sentence, humans just aren't properly equipped for it. The resiliency of magically enhanced adventurers shouldn't have any problem replicating the benefit of a small swath of fabric.
I made a lot of edits to my original post, so my latest spoilered revisions might have gotten lost. I'd like to reiterate that even without an atmosphere, change in velocity is a linear function of time. The further you fall, each increment of distance contributes less, not more. The OP house rule operates opposite to reality.
Check out the spoiler in my original post for a more accurate Fall Damage chart. (Using that chart, I calculated a rough probability of Vesna's survival at 1.17 in 100 million.)
If you want to penalize players for doing stupid things, you might consider implementing an injury chart for non-magical massive damage. (e.g. Roll a percentile against the percent of their Max HP lost to Fall damage and they have to roll higher than that to avoid broken limbs/paralysis/incapacitation/etc...) Knowing that you can technically survive the damage cap may not matter if you are paralyzed or knocked unconscious for 3 rounds in a hostile environment.
Also, note that there are many non-flying animals that can survive falls from any height. Gravity in an atmosphere is far from a death sentence, humans just aren't properly equipped for it. The resiliency of magically enhanced adventurers shouldn't have any problem replicating the benefit of a small swath of fabric.
Well, I was going to avoid this, but while you are accurate about the increase in velocity is parabolic, kinetic energy is based on the square of velocity. It is still parabolic, but not nearly as much as velocity. When someone hits a wall coming at them at 150 mph, or when they hit the ground at 150 mph, either way, they are turned into jam as their insides suddenly stop moving. D&D is still built around some level of physics. When someone, or something is hit with a weapon, it is a transfer of kinetic energy, that is translated into many differentiated forms inside D&D damage charts.
A bow, sword, or mace works the same way in the D&D world as it does in the real world. I am not going to get into the debate that a single arrow into an eye socket on Earth will kill the most hardened Seal Team or SAS commando, and that D&D combat is different. I am saying that physics works close enough, and that includes gravity. My chart is an easy enough abstraction that any player can follow. It is not 100% accurate when it comes to damage vs velocity, but it is better than the existing damage charts.
I will concede, I should put a cap on the damage, to factor in terminal velocity. But that number is so big, anyone near that velocity is a stain on whatever surface they hit.
So, we're essentially back to the existing 5e mechanic (in a vacuum), except that the "true" cap should be approximately 75d6.
Your chart is still exponentially more dangerous than real life, but I'm perfectly happy bumping the cap up.
This would mean that a 20th level Raging Barbarian would probably remain conscious after a fall from terminal velocity, (and possibly a Druid polymorphed into a meat shield), but anyone else would go unconscious. A Wizard would probably Insta-die.
The better chart might be: 1d6 per 10ft (up to 200ft), 1d6 per 20ft (from 201 to 600), 1d6 per 40ft (from 601 to 1500),
So, we're essentially back to the existing 5e mechanic (in a vacuum), except that the "true" cap should be approximately 75d6.
Your chart is still exponentially more dangerous than real life, but I'm perfectly happy bumping the cap up.
This would mean that a 20th level Raging Barbarian would probably remain conscious after a fall from terminal velocity, (and possibly a Druid polymorphed into a meat shield), but anyone else would go unconscious. A Wizard would probably Insta-die.
The better chart might be: 1d6 per 10ft (up to 200ft), 1d6 per 20ft (from 201 to 600), 1d6 per 40ft (from 601 to 1500),
when accounting for an atmosphere.
I just don't think the damage is enough. We are back to whether a char can survive a fall from any sizeable distance. d6 per 10 feet is too small. All commoners and most chars should be dead after a fall of 60 feet, or at least in very serious trouble. With my original table, 60 feet = 21d6 = 74 HP damage. That will kill off most pure casters, to say, 15th level. But many Fighter classes (d10's) start shaking that off at 7th or 8th level, assuming a 16 Con (10 + 7*6 +30 = 82 HP at 8th level). I can see making my table parabolic in damage, taking into account increased wind resistance. But the base damage has to be greater.
I just don't think the damage is enough. We are back to whether a char can survive a fall from any sizeable distance. d6 per 10 feet is too small. All commoners and most chars should be dead after a fall of 60 feet, or at least in very serious trouble.
Lyxen already pointed out the survivability of most spells that players get access to pretty early, so I won't belabor that thread.
Just keep in mind that Commoners have an average of 4hp. 1d6 damage, whether from a sword or from falling 10ft, is nearly 50% lethal. 2d6 damage (20ft) will probably Insta-Kill the average NPC.
High level players, on the other hand, are expected to fight and possibly win against Gargantuan Elemental Monstrosities, Gods, Tsunamis, and Sentient Planes. They're like Saiyans from DBZ, or Marvel superheros; they look humanoid, but they aren't made from the same "stuff".
If you need Falling to do more damage, then the easiest thing to do while keeping a realistic scale is to simply change the die depending on the terrain they land on.
Turbulent water: d2 Swamp/Soft ground: d4 Average ground: d6 Paved/Hard ground: d8 Sharp/jagged ground: d10 Literally a pile of vertically mounted swords: d12
Well, I was going to avoid this, but while you are accurate about the increase in velocity is parabolic, kinetic energy is based on the square of velocity. It is still parabolic, but not nearly as much as velocity.
This does not make any sense in real world physics. Potential energy theoretically converts to cinetic energy based on the square of velocity, right, but your model fails to account for the loss of energy due to air friction, which is again exactly what terminal velocity is about. Whatever model you use, you can't escape that fact.
When someone hits a wall coming at them at 150 mph, or when they hit the ground at 150 mph, either way, they are turned into jam as their insides suddenly stop moving. D&D is still built around some level of physics.
No, it's not. Take any book of movie of High Fantasy, and you will find real-world physics defying moves and survival. And the heroes will on average survive when the grunts do not, and not because they are better trained, just because they are more lucky or whatever, which involves more hit points and plot protection from falls.
A Lvl 10 mage, who never trained a day in his life to avoid sword blows, will have 40 hit points, and will survive falls that would kill anyone in real life whatever fall damage model you put in place unless it's so harsh as to be really not fun to play with.
When someone, or something is hit with a weapon, it is a transfer of kinetic energy, that is translated into many differentiated forms inside D&D damage charts.
A bow, sword, or mace works the same way in the D&D world as it does in the real world.
They absolutely do not. Really, please document yourself. For example, a sword and a spear do the same amout of damage (actually a spear usually does less just because the D&D designers never thought the spears as "cool"for knights, these are just good for soldiers standing in ranks whereas it's proven that both in terms of battlefield tactics (because of the density of the troops) and one on one a spear wielder will outfight a sword wielder every time at the same skill level - for example a naginata wielder trounces a katana wielder of 2 dans higher in general) but a spear is much more dangerous to your body as it will puncture vital organs in your chest whereas the slashing sword might take out your arms but will not kill you that quickly.
D&D has never been, and actually has never intended to be a realistic game that models real life, even in its chainmail incarnation where it was mostly about troops.
I am not going to get into the debate that a single arrow into an eye socket on Earth will kill the most hardened Seal Team or SAS commando, and that D&D combat is different. I am saying that physics works close enough, and that includes gravity.
And again, where is the proof of that ? Once more, document yourself and have a look at gravity in Spelljammer.
My chart is an easy enough abstraction that any player can follow. It is not 100% accurate when it comes to damage vs velocity, but it is better than the existing damage charts.
Not it's not. Realism does not count, and even if that were the case, it's wrong to simulate normal life where no one survives a fall of 10 meters on concrete. No one. Cases of survival of higher falls depend on lots of circumstances about the landing area that your model fails to take into account in any way, shape or form.
Also, it's not your chart. That chart has been proposed and debunked in the game probably since before you were even born.
I will concede, I should put a cap on the damage, to factor in terminal velocity. But that number is so big, anyone near that velocity is a stain on whatever surface they hit.
And again, this is totally besides the point for D&D. Anyone caught in a ball of fire is dead in real life, so what are you going to do, increase fireball damage to 1023902394d6 ?
OK, not going to discuss every point, but bottom line, every single bit of non-magical damage done with a weapon has everything to do with kinetic energy, or more specifically, velocity of the weapon. They are essentially one and the same, as there is an "=" sign in the equation. If there is no kinetic energy associated with a weapon, then it has zero velocity, and does no damage, as it just lies there.
And gravity is applied to every char the same (let's keep magic out of the equation). A commoner dies from a fall of 10 feet. A mid-level high HP char laughs off a fall from 100 feet with the existing rules. Sorry, my games have more reality than that. I am trying to balance the heroic qualities of the chars against real-world physics, or D&D world physics. (BTW, Xanathar's defines how far a char can fall in a single round, and I think it is 500 feet, which should kill each and every char in the game that can't mitigate that damage via magic or features.) There are going to be tradeoffs. My system is more accurate than the existing system. It is not perfect, but better.
Gravity also applies to creatures of different sizes.
A Stone Giant weighs approximately 12,800lbs, so stepping on any player should be instant death, regardless of level.
If you're goal is to be consistent with real world physics, a lot of D&D content simply becomes impossible to interact with, even when restricted to non-magical damage, because the features of the world themselves already break with reality.
Be careful of spells like Thorn Whip and tactics that involve grappling and dropping your monsters from relatively low heights. Or anything that involves dropping weights. And be mindful of players dropping boulders on fortresses to meteoric effects...
The more I think about it, the more I see the 20d6 Fall damage cap as a safety net for the DM as much as the players...
The legend is that Gygax wanted falling damage to more emulate real life, with increasing damage per ten feet as velocity increases. But the printer misread the text and we got a flat table, as opposed to an hyperbolic table.
I have introduced this House Rule:
10 feet = d6
20 feet = d6 + 2d6 = 3d6
30 feet = 1d6 + 2d6 + 3d6 = 6d6
40 feet = 10d6
50 feet = 15d6 etc etc
No cap on damage.
You fall any sizeable distance, you die (unless you are somehow a raging barbarian)
I understand this system, but I dont think any non fourth level monk class will be able to endure falling 60 feet.
It sure does make slipping and falling of a bridge take on a whole new meaning though.
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The legend is that Gygax wanted falling damage to more emulate real life, with increasing damage per ten feet as velocity increases. But the printer misread the text and we got a flat table, as opposed to an hyperbolic table.
I have introduced this House Rule:
10 feet = d6
20 feet = d6 + 2d6 = 3d6
30 feet = 1d6 + 2d6 + 3d6 = 6d6
40 feet = 10d6
50 feet = 15d6 etc etc
No cap on damage.
You fall any sizeable distance, you die (unless you are somehow a raging barbarian)
I understand this system, but I dont think any non fourth level monk class will be able to endure falling 60 feet.
It sure does make slipping and falling of a bridge take on a whole new meaning though.
It is a completely insane amount of damage. Something you would expect on a brown dwarf or even a white dwarf star, for heights near terminal velocity. It actually increases the opposite of fall velocity, slowly at first and then increasing exponentially.
Damage calculations aside, if someone wants to make falling more dangerous/interesting, a DM could homebrew a "Winded" rider for fall damage.
Every X feet fallen, the player takes a point of exhaustion upon impact. Death is automatic at 6 points of exhaustion, so just choose some fatal height and roughly divide by 6. E.g. Gain an exhaustion point every 50ft.
0~40ft: Damage as normal
50~290ft: Damage + Conditions
300ft: Instant Death
At 250ft+, even if the character survives, their speed is reduced to zero and they can't stand up. Basically equivalent to breaking their legs.
"Damage calculations aside, if someone wants to make falling more dangerous/interesting, a DM could homebrew a "Winded" rider for fall damage.
Every X feet fallen, the player takes a point of exhaustion upon impact. Death is automatic at 6 points of exhaustion, so just choose some fatal height and roughly divide by 6. E.g. Gain an exhaustion point every 50ft.
0~40ft: Damage as normal
50~290ft: Damage + Conditions
300ft: Instant Death
At 250ft+, even if the character survives, their speed is reduced to zero and they can't stand up. Basically equivalent to breaking their legs."
- - - -
I have never used it in a game but I made a fall injury list with thousands of injuries based on rolling four d8s. You roll a Constitution check with a DC equal to your fall damage, to see if you sustain an injury. Check the link I posted. Each injury causes 1 level of exhaustion, and some cause more than 1.
The problem with thousands of possible injuries is that no player is going to read that chart, which means they won't know the consequences of falling. Making choices without knowing the possible consequences of those choices doesn't make for fun roleplaying. It just turns into blind gambling.
At least with Vince's chart, as problematic as it is, the players can decide to take calculated risks.
The problem with thousands of possible injuries is that no player is going to read that chart, which means they won't know the consequences of falling. Making choices without knowing the possible consequences of those choices doesn't make for fun roleplaying. It just turns into blind gambling.
At least with Vince's chart, as problematic as it is, the players can decide to take calculated risks.
Did I say thousands? Well, there are thousands of rolls (4000+) and millions of combinations, but actually around 200 detailed injuries.
The injuries are sort of repetitive: 1-2 serious, 2-4 moderate, 4+ minor; repeated a couple dozen times for various areas of the body.
Injuries become less likely the higher the roll but are mixed up a bit to make the outcome a surprise. At least 1 point of exhaustion is guaranteed.
The injuries are exactly what one might expect after falling 20+ feet. The chart uses real world injury probabilities, with a few strange eye injuries for flavor.
A lot of injuries means that you slowed your fall by breaking everything, while very few injuries means you kind of hit everywhere at once, and these things happen in real falls. Someone trips on a curb and receives a debilitating head injury that affects them for years, someone else falls off a roof and gets a stiff shoulder lasting the rest of the day.
The number of injuries is independent of height or damage, any failed CON save might result in various maladies of any degree. Not as much paralysis as one might expect but plenty of broken bones. Most mid-level characters can probably handle a 100 foot fall rather easily but could wind up requiring 1-5 days of rest and might suffer a medical emergency requiring immediate medical care.
More than likely, in most cases, the result is a sprained wrist or something else minor.
If players wish to, there is a Table B on the next page which could be used instead. It is more predictable than rolling on the main table and could be used if you want to share more exact knowledge of what injuries are possible.
The legend is that Gygax wanted falling damage to more emulate real life, with increasing damage per ten feet as velocity increases. But the printer misread the text and we got a flat table, as opposed to an hyperbolic table.
I have introduced this House Rule:
10 feet = d6
20 feet = d6 + 2d6 = 3d6
30 feet = 1d6 + 2d6 + 3d6 = 6d6
40 feet = 10d6
50 feet = 15d6 etc etc
No cap on damage.
You fall any sizeable distance, you die (unless you are somehow a raging barbarian)
A few things to note:
The problem with attempting to accurately represent Fall damage is that it's affected by several factors that would be hard to handle accurately. Not only would you take more damage the further you fall, (up to 1,500ft), but you would also fall faster, meaning you would have to track non-linear speeds round by round. Definitely not worth the effort.
There are also remarkable stories of people surviving falls from incredible heights:
On 26 January 1972, Vesna Vulovic, a 22 year old serbian flight attendant was the sole survivor of a doomed flight after being sucked out of a plane at 33,330ft. She spent a few days in a coma and was in a hospital for several months, but eventually made a near full recovery, living another 44 years.
So, if we crunch the numbers on that and say that the average "commoner" has 1d8 hitpoints and Vesna was not an adventurer with special abilities, then giving her max hp of 8 and taking the minimum possible damage would put surviving 8d6 damage at approximately 1 in 17,000. (Being dropped to exactly 0hp)
With the 5e mechanic of death saving throws, the math gets a little more screwy.
The current cap of 20d6 basically guaranties that any 1st level character, other than a Barbarian, faces Insta-Death from just a 200ft fall (75% terminal velocity upon impact).
TL;DR
Your houserule would make falling far more dangerous than in real life. Adventurers are vastly more resilient than the average commoner and should be expected to regularly survive seemingly impossible odds.
Additional Info:
The book Trauma Anesthesia states that the following values are representative fall mortality probabilities by height:
So, if you wanted to add realism into your game, you could switch to an alternative system like the one spoilered below:
{Edited for clarity/accuracy}
Change in velocity is a linear function of acceleration over time, not distance, so every additional 10ft contributes less, rather than more to the total fall speed.
If you want to have it scale more realistically by distance, you would want to do something equivalent to Xd6 where "X" is the square root of the [distance/10].
[10ft] 1d6
[40ft] 2d6
[90ft] 3d6
[160ft] 4d6
[250ft] 5d6
[640ft] 8d6
[810ft] 9d6
[1000ft] 10d6
[1210ft] 11d6
[1500ft] 12d6
At 12d6, a commoner would need a 7 HP (Max) to have any chance of avoiding Instant Death from terminal velocity.
Using a normal distribution for Commoner HP (2.14% chance of 7hp+) and the probability of rolling at most 13 points of damage (5.5e^-7%), the odds of a commoner surviving a fall from a plane is 1.17 in 100 Million, which sounds about right.
If you regularly have problems with players jumping off of things you don't want them to, then just don't tell them the height. Use darkness, mist or whatever to obscure the full height of a chasm or such so your players don't know how far they will fall, so if they jump without protection you can then just roll a d20 to see how large of a splat they make. Then wait to see if anyone else wants to try it. 😈
Or just tell them there is some other obstacle at the bottom, such as spikes, lava, an unknowable eldritch horror etc; make it absolutely clear they're not supposed to go down there.
Otherwise I think the current rules are fine; the main problem is different players can have wildly different amounts of hit-points, so upping falling damage only penalises an unlucky Wizard while the Barbarian can still just Rage leap head first off of whatever they want to. Personally I'd prefer to just ignore damage rolling except for clearly survivable falls, while unwise ones will immediately KO or kill (with clear hints this will be the outcome).
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And you point about a Barbarian, Fighter, or Paladin falling 1000 feet and laughing it off is why I have implemented this House Rule. Yes, as with the 1st poster states, there is an example of a single human being surviving an insane fall. And for the hundreds of thousands of other humans who have not, there is this thing called gravity. Yes, gravity does exist in the D&D world. Now, maybe it is not 9.8 m/s/s, but it is still there. You fall from 2000 feet on the moon, you still splatter. Characters are heroic, of course. But the laws of physics override them, unless of course they use magic. And before anyone goes down that path, yes, large flying creatures in my game genetically are using some form of magic to fly, because under earth-like gravity, no way no how can large creatures fly.
I had a Monk try to grapple a flying devil in one game, from a distance of 50 feet in the air (he jumped off a ledge to try to grapple it). He missed the grapple, and then ALL the players wanted to roll the damage dice, as opposed to me rolling it, because they realized how dumb the player had been.
I made a lot of edits to my original post, so my latest spoilered revisions might have gotten lost. I'd like to reiterate that even without an atmosphere, change in velocity is a linear function of time. The further you fall, each increment of distance contributes less, not more. The OP house rule operates opposite to reality.
Check out the spoiler in my original post for a more accurate Fall Damage chart. (Using that chart, I calculated a rough probability of Vesna's survival at 1.17 in 100 million.)
If you want to penalize players for doing stupid things, you might consider implementing an injury chart for non-magical massive damage. (e.g. Roll a percentile against the percent of their Max HP lost to Fall damage and they have to roll higher than that to avoid broken limbs/paralysis/incapacitation/etc...) Knowing that you can technically survive the damage cap may not matter if you are paralyzed or knocked unconscious for 3 rounds in a hostile environment.
Also, note that there are many non-flying animals that can survive falls from any height. Gravity in an atmosphere is far from a death sentence, humans just aren't properly equipped for it. The resiliency of magically enhanced adventurers shouldn't have any problem replicating the benefit of a small swath of fabric.
Well, I was going to avoid this, but while you are accurate about the increase in velocity is parabolic, kinetic energy is based on the square of velocity. It is still parabolic, but not nearly as much as velocity. When someone hits a wall coming at them at 150 mph, or when they hit the ground at 150 mph, either way, they are turned into jam as their insides suddenly stop moving. D&D is still built around some level of physics. When someone, or something is hit with a weapon, it is a transfer of kinetic energy, that is translated into many differentiated forms inside D&D damage charts.
A bow, sword, or mace works the same way in the D&D world as it does in the real world. I am not going to get into the debate that a single arrow into an eye socket on Earth will kill the most hardened Seal Team or SAS commando, and that D&D combat is different. I am saying that physics works close enough, and that includes gravity. My chart is an easy enough abstraction that any player can follow. It is not 100% accurate when it comes to damage vs velocity, but it is better than the existing damage charts.
I will concede, I should put a cap on the damage, to factor in terminal velocity. But that number is so big, anyone near that velocity is a stain on whatever surface they hit.
Good point, we can make a chart directly based on kinetic energy:
KE for a 160lb object by velocity as determined by fall distance.
1500ft (163167 J) 75d6
200ft (43388 J) 20d6
100ft (21690 J) 10d6
10ft (2169.4J) 1d6
So, we're essentially back to the existing 5e mechanic (in a vacuum), except that the "true" cap should be approximately 75d6.
Your chart is still exponentially more dangerous than real life, but I'm perfectly happy bumping the cap up.
This would mean that a 20th level Raging Barbarian would probably remain conscious after a fall from terminal velocity, (and possibly a Druid polymorphed into a meat shield), but anyone else would go unconscious. A Wizard would probably Insta-die.
The better chart might be:
1d6 per 10ft (up to 200ft),
1d6 per 20ft (from 201 to 600),
1d6 per 40ft (from 601 to 1500),
when accounting for an atmosphere.
I just don't think the damage is enough. We are back to whether a char can survive a fall from any sizeable distance. d6 per 10 feet is too small. All commoners and most chars should be dead after a fall of 60 feet, or at least in very serious trouble. With my original table, 60 feet = 21d6 = 74 HP damage. That will kill off most pure casters, to say, 15th level. But many Fighter classes (d10's) start shaking that off at 7th or 8th level, assuming a 16 Con (10 + 7*6 +30 = 82 HP at 8th level). I can see making my table parabolic in damage, taking into account increased wind resistance. But the base damage has to be greater.
Lyxen already pointed out the survivability of most spells that players get access to pretty early, so I won't belabor that thread.
Just keep in mind that Commoners have an average of 4hp. 1d6 damage, whether from a sword or from falling 10ft, is nearly 50% lethal. 2d6 damage (20ft) will probably Insta-Kill the average NPC.
High level players, on the other hand, are expected to fight and possibly win against Gargantuan Elemental Monstrosities, Gods, Tsunamis, and Sentient Planes. They're like Saiyans from DBZ, or Marvel superheros; they look humanoid, but they aren't made from the same "stuff".
If you need Falling to do more damage, then the easiest thing to do while keeping a realistic scale is to simply change the die depending on the terrain they land on.
Turbulent water: d2
Swamp/Soft ground: d4
Average ground: d6
Paved/Hard ground: d8
Sharp/jagged ground: d10
Literally a pile of vertically mounted swords: d12
OK, not going to discuss every point, but bottom line, every single bit of non-magical damage done with a weapon has everything to do with kinetic energy, or more specifically, velocity of the weapon. They are essentially one and the same, as there is an "=" sign in the equation. If there is no kinetic energy associated with a weapon, then it has zero velocity, and does no damage, as it just lies there.
And gravity is applied to every char the same (let's keep magic out of the equation). A commoner dies from a fall of 10 feet. A mid-level high HP char laughs off a fall from 100 feet with the existing rules. Sorry, my games have more reality than that. I am trying to balance the heroic qualities of the chars against real-world physics, or D&D world physics. (BTW, Xanathar's defines how far a char can fall in a single round, and I think it is 500 feet, which should kill each and every char in the game that can't mitigate that damage via magic or features.) There are going to be tradeoffs. My system is more accurate than the existing system. It is not perfect, but better.
Gravity also applies to creatures of different sizes.
A Stone Giant weighs approximately 12,800lbs, so stepping on any player should be instant death, regardless of level.
If you're goal is to be consistent with real world physics, a lot of D&D content simply becomes impossible to interact with, even when restricted to non-magical damage, because the features of the world themselves already break with reality.
Be careful of spells like Thorn Whip and tactics that involve grappling and dropping your monsters from relatively low heights. Or anything that involves dropping weights. And be mindful of players dropping boulders on fortresses to meteoric effects...
The more I think about it, the more I see the 20d6 Fall damage cap as a safety net for the DM as much as the players...
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/pw5kf1/suggested_fix_for_fall_damage/
A 150 pound commoner hitting d6 concrete and rolling a strength save:
[10ft] 0-10d6
[40ft] 0-18d6
[90ft] 3-22d6
[160ft] 8-27d6
[250ft] 13-32d6
[640ft] 25-44d6
[810ft] 29-48d6
[1000ft] 33-52d6
[1210ft] 36-55d6
[1500ft] 40-59d6 (capped at 1469 ft)
I understand this system, but I dont think any non fourth level monk class will be able to endure falling 60 feet.
It sure does make slipping and falling of a bridge take on a whole new meaning though.
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HERE.It is a completely insane amount of damage. Something you would expect on a brown dwarf or even a white dwarf star, for heights near terminal velocity. It actually increases the opposite of fall velocity, slowly at first and then increasing exponentially.
NASA:
Time = 0, Accel = 9.8, Velocity = 0.0, Distance = 0.0
Time = 1, Accel = 9.8, Velocity = 9.8, Distance = 4.9
Time = 2, Accel = 9.8, Velocity = 19.6, Distance = 19.6
Time = 3, Accel = 9.8, Velocity = 29.4, Distance = 44.1
Time = 4, Accel = 9.8, Velocity = 39.2, Distance = 78.4
Time = 5, Accel = 9.8, Velocity = 49.0, Distance = 122.5
Time = 6, Accel = 9.8, Velocity = 58.8, Distance = 176.4
Time = 7, Accel = 9.8, Velocity = 68.6, Distance = 240.1
Time = 8, Accel = 9.8, Velocity = 78.4, Distance = 313.6
Damage calculations aside, if someone wants to make falling more dangerous/interesting, a DM could homebrew a "Winded" rider for fall damage.
Every X feet fallen, the player takes a point of exhaustion upon impact. Death is automatic at 6 points of exhaustion, so just choose some fatal height and roughly divide by 6. E.g. Gain an exhaustion point every 50ft.
0~40ft: Damage as normal
50~290ft: Damage + Conditions
300ft: Instant Death
At 250ft+, even if the character survives, their speed is reduced to zero and they can't stand up. Basically equivalent to breaking their legs.
"Damage calculations aside, if someone wants to make falling more dangerous/interesting, a DM could homebrew a "Winded" rider for fall damage.
Every X feet fallen, the player takes a point of exhaustion upon impact. Death is automatic at 6 points of exhaustion, so just choose some fatal height and roughly divide by 6. E.g. Gain an exhaustion point every 50ft.
0~40ft: Damage as normal
50~290ft: Damage + Conditions
300ft: Instant Death
At 250ft+, even if the character survives, their speed is reduced to zero and they can't stand up. Basically equivalent to breaking their legs."
- - - -
I have never used it in a game but I made a fall injury list with thousands of injuries based on rolling four d8s. You roll a Constitution check with a DC equal to your fall damage, to see if you sustain an injury. Check the link I posted. Each injury causes 1 level of exhaustion, and some cause more than 1.
The problem with thousands of possible injuries is that no player is going to read that chart, which means they won't know the consequences of falling. Making choices without knowing the possible consequences of those choices doesn't make for fun roleplaying. It just turns into blind gambling.
At least with Vince's chart, as problematic as it is, the players can decide to take calculated risks.
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
Did I say thousands? Well, there are thousands of rolls (4000+) and millions of combinations, but actually around 200 detailed injuries.
The injuries are sort of repetitive: 1-2 serious, 2-4 moderate, 4+ minor; repeated a couple dozen times for various areas of the body.
Injuries become less likely the higher the roll but are mixed up a bit to make the outcome a surprise. At least 1 point of exhaustion is guaranteed.
The injuries are exactly what one might expect after falling 20+ feet. The chart uses real world injury probabilities, with a few strange eye injuries for flavor.
A lot of injuries means that you slowed your fall by breaking everything, while very few injuries means you kind of hit everywhere at once, and these things happen in real falls. Someone trips on a curb and receives a debilitating head injury that affects them for years, someone else falls off a roof and gets a stiff shoulder lasting the rest of the day.
The number of injuries is independent of height or damage, any failed CON save might result in various maladies of any degree. Not as much paralysis as one might expect but plenty of broken bones. Most mid-level characters can probably handle a 100 foot fall rather easily but could wind up requiring 1-5 days of rest and might suffer a medical emergency requiring immediate medical care.
More than likely, in most cases, the result is a sprained wrist or something else minor.
If players wish to, there is a Table B on the next page which could be used instead. It is more predictable than rolling on the main table and could be used if you want to share more exact knowledge of what injuries are possible.