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Author Topic: Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic  (Read 50141 times)

Omega

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #15 on: May 28, 2017, 08:13:14 PM »
Quote from: Voros;964896
To die falling into a 10' pit would be highly unlikely in RL let alone a fantasy game.

My great grandfather died from falling a mere 5ft. He didnt die instantly. But its what did him in when bullets didnt. A fall of 10ft can be lethal. Its a matter of surface and how you land. Especially how you land.

AsenRG

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #16 on: May 28, 2017, 08:44:47 PM »
Even a simple fall can be lethal, depending on how you land.  Just ask anyone who has suffered a properly executed throw or takedown.
My point is that, reality aside, different editions of D&D take different threats as a baseline of "what stands a chance to kill you at a given level", and the dungeons for those editions are populated with threats that fit the baseline.
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Doom

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #17 on: May 28, 2017, 08:57:54 PM »
I had a cousin die from a 6ft fall...no bullets involved, but concrete is probably as hard as any stone floor in a dungeon.
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A nice education blog.

Voros
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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #18 on: May 28, 2017, 11:00:02 PM »
If you land on your head/spine no doubt it can be fatal.

Kyle Aaron

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #19 on: May 28, 2017, 11:20:19 PM »
Quote from: Voros;964896
To die falling into a 10' pit would be highly unlikely in RL let alone a fantasy game.

In AD&D1e you almost certainly wouldn't die, but you might be reduced to below 0HP, which means you'll take a week to recover. This is an abstraction of things like a twisted ankle, etc.

Just an example of the misunderstandings about 1e evident in the OP. But seriously: if you play 5e, play 5e. If you want to play 1e, play 1e.
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Omega

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #20 on: May 29, 2017, 02:33:59 AM »
Quote from: Doom;964958
I had a cousin die from a 6ft fall...no bullets involved, but concrete is probably as hard as any stone floor in a dungeon.

In my great grandfathers case he wasnt shot AND fell. He'd been shot before and lived through it. Law enforcement is hazardous.

Omega

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #21 on: May 29, 2017, 02:42:56 AM »
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;964975
In AD&D1e you almost certainly wouldn't die, but you might be reduced to below 0HP, which means you'll take a week to recover. This is an abstraction of things like a twisted ankle, etc.

Just an example of the misunderstandings about 1e evident in the OP. But seriously: if you play 5e, play 5e. If you want to play 1e, play 1e.

1: A 10ft fall could potentially kill a magic user or thief. You could well go into negatives enough to die if rescue didnt, or couldnt, get to you in time. 20ft using the correct falling rules could possibly flat out kill a first level MU on a really bad day. And if the DM is using the falling rules from the PHB then dont count on that damage being mere d6s.

2: Theres nothing wrong with wanting to fix a typo that was stupidly copied when it shouldn't have been.

Kyle Aaron

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #22 on: May 29, 2017, 03:31:39 AM »
Quote from: Omega;964995
1: A 10ft fall could potentially kill a magic user or thief. You could well go into negatives enough to die if rescue didnt, or couldnt, get to you in time.
That's why I said, "almost certainly" not kill you. A well-prepared party would be able to rescue them. A poorly-prepared party wouldn't, but anything can kill a poorly-prepared party. It's possible a combat or something could slow the rescue, but it'd be unusual. Also, the character could be some HP down from other stuff. But most parties won't have their members wandering around on 1HP if they can help it. Thus, "almost certainly" you'll survive.

Quote
2: Theres nothing wrong with wanting to fix a typo that was stupidly copied when it shouldn't have been.
After four decades I think it's fair to say it's no longer a typo, but is now part of the rules.
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Zalman

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #23 on: August 14, 2017, 10:43:01 AM »
Quote from: Voros;964896
To die falling into a 10' pit would be highly unlikely in RL let alone a fantasy game.

Agreed, certainly less than 50% likely regardless of anecdotes to the contrary. 1d6/10' Damage seems more realistic to me in later versions of D&D, so I'm in the camp that would simply prefer deeper (or spiked) pits to increase deadliness at first level.

That's also in line with various fantasy memes I consume in books and movies: it's never the 10' fall itself that kills, rather those nasty poisoned spikes at the bottom do the job. Even more commonly, falling in a pit simply puts the protagonist at a severe disadvantage while alerting the architects of the pit to surround it from above.
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Dumarest

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #24 on: August 17, 2017, 11:55:36 PM »
Quote from: Voros;964896
To die falling into a 10' pit would be highly unlikely in RL let alone a fantasy game.

Depends entirely on how you land. Trip or fall and break your neck on a rock or concrete sometime and see what I mean.

Edit: but worrying about whether it's realistic in D&D seems rather silly given ever-increasing hit points and magic potions and resurrections on every other street corner (or so it seems in most settings).
« Last Edit: August 17, 2017, 11:57:50 PM by Dumarest »

Headless

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #25 on: August 19, 2017, 11:01:14 AM »
Eagerly awaiting the 2nd instalment.

Kyle Aaron

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #26 on: August 19, 2017, 08:46:24 PM »
Why? The first one wasn't very smart or useful.
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Voros
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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #27 on: August 23, 2017, 04:43:29 AM »
At least he is producing creative content instead of redundant groupthink 'old school' theorycrafting.

Headless

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #28 on: August 25, 2017, 07:53:01 PM »
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;985337
Why? The first one wasn't very smart or useful.

I disagree.

Kyle Aaron

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Under the Hood: OldSchooling 5e: Falling Damage, and Magic
« Reply #29 on: August 25, 2017, 10:42:36 PM »
Quote from: Voros;986118
At least he is producing creative content instead of redundant groupthink 'old school' theorycrafting.
What creative content? I'm interested in game materials and examples. This is just musings about rules, and the musings bear no relation to actual play. As for example my noting, a 10ft pit will almost certainly not kill a 1st level character in AD&D1e, let alone in more generous later editions.

A long time ago on the GURPS mailing list, S John Ross noted that you could tell when someone was asking a question about something coming up in play, and a question about something coming just from reading the rules.

There's actually a third category of questions, where a person sort of half-remembers a rule that they never saw in play.

The questions from the OP and others in this thread are at best the second category, and uncharitably in the third.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2017, 10:45:56 PM by Kyle Aaron »
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