Make Falling Make Sense

Falling damage in D&D 5th Edition is a bit… anemic. 1d6 bludgeoning damage per 10 feet of distance capping out at 20d6 (for a 200-foot drop) leads to some very peculiar results when you consider things like truly massive falls from clifftops or off of flying dragon backs, or when the affected character has something like resistance to bludgeoning damage or, worse, immunity to it. Excessive realism is not a focus in our games, but I don’t think we want falls to become inconsequential at mid-tier levels, either for the player characters or any foes they may want to, you know, push over a cliff or kick off a castle wall. As such, we’ll use a house rule for falling damage.

Now, there are many, many variants of falling damage that different groups use as house rules. Some of them get incredibly complex in accounting for terminal velocities and such. Our approach is to simply take the overly simplified rules as written and build them up to be a little more rational without going over the top.

The House Rule in Detail

Falling damage does 1d10 damage per 10 feet of distance, with no cap. This type of damage is of the special type falling damage.

Clarifications and Definitions

This house rule is fairly simple and straightforward, but any clarifications needed in-game will be added here for posterity and precedent.

Falling Damage Type

The special falling damage type specified in the rule applies only to gravity-based pulls toward the earth from distances more than 10 feet or the creature’s standing height, whichever is greater. It does not apply, for example, to a fall to prone from the Shove action if the target creature is standing on flat ground. Likewise it does not apply to a creature knocked sideways through the air into a wall. The official rules do not specifically cover this scenario under the RAW falling rules (or any other specific rule) so it seems unbalanced to apply it here.

The essence of this damage type is to be a unique application of damage that prevents it from interacting implicitly with other effects, notably resistance and immunity. No creature is inherently resistant or immune to this type of damage, though creatures that can fly or do not have corporeal forms may avoid it by using the relevant ability before damage is applied. See below for specific rules interactions.

Acceleration Modifiers

Speed at time of impact is abstracted into the damage value, so real-world effects like terminal velocity do not need to be considered. Mechanical modifications to a creature’s fall, for example if a creature were pushed downward by an object that would accelerate them toward the ground faster than their natural falling speed, should be handled by adding acceleration modifiers to the effective distance. These modifiers are:

• If the target is hurled toward the ground or hit with a bludgeoning attack while falling or in order to produce a falling state, add half the attacker’s STR modifier times 10 to the distance of the fall
• If the target is being accelerated (pushed) toward the ground by a creature with flying, add the movement expended by the attacker to the fall distance

A target must be grappled in order to be thrown downward with enough force to qualify for an acceleration modifier. Likewise a target would need to be grappled in order to push them via the flying ability fast enough to matter. Acceleration modifiers from attacks do not require anything other than a successful attack roll.

Examples

• A creature with flying (50 foot movement speed) flies 10 feet toward an opponent standing at the edge of a 20-foot precipice and then makes a Shove action against that opponent. The creature succeeds in the opposed STR test and knocks the opponent over the edge. They then continue their movement 15 feet toward the ground, pushing the falling opponent and banking upward with their last 5 feet of flying motion. The falling distance (20 feet) is modified by the flying attacker’s push (20 + 15 feet = 35 feet, rounded down to 30 feet). Thus the creature would take 3d10 falling damage.
• A creature is held (grappled) by a flying character with STR 16 (+3) 50 feet over the ground. The character releases the grapple and hits the creature with a warhammer, intending to drive them into the ground from their height. The attack hits, doing 1d8 bludgeoning damage (7). The creature then falls 50 feet plus 10 feet for the acceleration from the warhammer blow, taking an additional 6d10 (5d10 for the 50 foot drop, 1d10 for the additional speed from the bludgeoning hit) falling damage (42) for a total of 49 damage.
• An attacker with STR 20 lifts a creature over its head and throws the creature off a 30 foot roof toward the ground. The attacker’s STR modifier (+5) is divided in half (2) and that value is multiplied by 10 (2 x 10 = 20) which is added to the distance of the fall (30 feet + 20 bonus distance = 50 feet). The creature then takes 5d10 falling damage.

Long Falls

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything has some rules for managing extremely long falls. It boils down to:

• Falling movement speed is 500 feet per round
• Creatures with flying can use half their movement speed to stop a descent if they start their turn falling

This rule interacts with the house rule only in that acceleration modifiers cannot be added to long falls. Any fall that takes longer than one round to complete already carries sufficient falling damage potential that a few extra die on the roll would be unnecessary. Otherwise long falls do not affect the house rule in any way other than delaying the application of falling damage until the creature impacts the ground (or another solid object).

The Flying Save

Xanathar’s also includes optional rules for reducing falling damage for creatures with the ability to fly. However, these rules feel somewhat forced as blanket application goes and probably better handled by DM choice based on the scenario and circumstances. Flying characters already need to be knocked prone or have some other status condition (or lose their ability to fly) in order to start falling. Since the 500ft/round abstraction from the long falls damage is pretty real-world accurate, the assumption is that unless a flying creature is above 500 feet at the time the fall begins, they may impact the ground before having a chance to recover (depending on initiative order). While, generally speaking, this would be the rules working as intended, it’s worth hedging a little for specific cases where low Dexterity creatures who typically have low Initiative rolls may prefer to target flying creatures with disabling or prone-inflicting attacks in order to achieve a large damage roll with no save possibility.

In the case of a creature with flying beginning to fall as a result of being grappled, knocked prone, or restrained, that creature may attempt their choice of DEX or CON saving throw as a reaction to stabilize and remain aloft.

If a creature with flying is incapacitated, they automatically fail any flying save.

Interactions

• Incorporeal movement — A creature who would take falling damage can mitigate it if they have this feature. However, they move five feet into or through any surface they strike and the force damage from ending a turn inside a solid object still applies.
• Feather Fall — Creatures affected by feather fall automatically pass any flying saves.
• Hover — Creatures who can hover do not need to spend half their movement stopping a fall.

HR02, Active, v1.0.1