Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Deadly Falls

Most the D&D I run leans towards gritty and harsh. Dirty, ignorant, diseased. More Flesh+Blood and Dragon Slayer less high fantasy. In this type of world falling is deadly and injuries debilitate you. I've always house-ruled falling damage. Here is a version for 5ed D&D.

Falling
Feet DC   Damage is cumlative
10    5   1d6
20   10   3d6
30   15   6d6
40   20   10d6
50   25   15d6
60+  30   0hp and dying, 1 failed death save

Falling inflicts an Injury unless character passes a Constitution or Dexterity (player's choice) save with DC equal to 1/2 distance fallen (max 30).

Injury
When injured your maximum hit points are temporarily reduced to your current hit points (or 1 if current hit points are 0). And you suffer disadvantage on all physical (Strength, Constitution, Dexterity) attacks, saves and tasks.

Recuperation (from rulebook): After 3 days full rest DC15 Constitution check to remove one effect (injury) preventing regaining hp. Some spells (such as Greater Restoration) can also remove an injury.


If falling wasn't deadly, wizards would craft
infinite jump spells. Nobody wants that!

6 comments:

  1. So if you fall 60 feet your new max HP is 1 and you're immune to magical healing for at least 3 days? Harsh!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Really? You try falling from a six-story building and not be dead? Like I said this is for non-super hero fantasy campaigns. Death is something to be scared of.

      Delete
    2. It's the immune to healing part that seems harsh. A cleric should help, no?

      Delete
    3. They can heal to 1hp, and Cleric spells such as Greater Restoration can remove the max hp limitation. That is all core rulebook.

      But, sure if you want to call it harsh. I'm fine with that label.

      Delete
  2. Consider http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Alkemade  - I'm gonna use the following next time I run a game:

    10' d3 x d3
    20' d4 x d4
    30' d6 x d6
    40' d8 x d8
    50' d10 x d10
    60' d12 x d12
    120'+ d12 x d12 x d12
    500'+ d12 x d12 x d12 x d12

    Has higher max damage than 'most any method, but still permits a stupid lucky commoner to survive a long, long fall.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I worked in an office building where one of the windowwashers) had fallen over 8 stories onto the pavement. The man broke a whole lot of bones but survived as I got to meet him a couple decades after the fall.

    I used to recquire a save for falls over 20 feet or the character would break a limb which took 6 weeks to heal without powerful magic.

    ReplyDelete

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