[3.5] Ways to avoid dying from a fall?

[aboyd]

I have non-flying humanoids who live in a giant tree. They have walkways with no rails. During day-to-day life, some may have mishaps. It's also possible some have encountered enemies who got into the trees and attempted to bull rush them off the walkways. Yet somehow most of them have lived. I'd like to assume most have lived simply because they're not klutzes. But I think it would be cool if 2 or 3 had survived falling somehow.

I know the standard solution here is a ring of Feather Fall. That's good. I'll use one. But for the rest, what else is there in the official D&D 3.5 edition books? For example, in the Magic Item Compendium, Rock Boots & Steadfast Boots will confer a +4 to resist bull rushes. That might help explain how they aren't pushed off when an enemy breaks into the tree village.

I was thinking maybe an immediate action teleport item might let someone zap back onto a stable platform, but I've not found such an item yet.

What else should I consider? What items (or even low-level immediate action spells) would you use, if you knew your character was going to be living 100' off the ground?

[Alleran]

Something that isn't feather fall?

Levitate.

[Ernir]

Hmm. Not falling in the first place is pretty difficult, if someone who is good at pushing people around wants to push you around, you're likely going to be pushed.

Silverbrow Humans (Dragon Magic) get Feather Fall 1/day (additional uses with more HD). You could steal that racial trait and put them on your wingless creatures.
If it sounds random... well, you could say that them having this ability is what allowed them to safely colonize the trees in the first place.

Alternatively, you could give them a Climb speed, which means always taking 10 on Climb checks, which means no falls due to just-barely-not meeting the Climb DC -4. Coupled with a suitably massive racial bonus on climb check, they might be able to make a Climb (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/climb.htm) check to make sure they can catch themselves even if they fall.

[Volthawk]

Balance and Tumble may come in handy as well.

[Khatoblepas]

I would install safety rails. They're free, you can use a series of quarterstaves. Because having no natural way of surviving falls and living up in the air on unprotected balconies is suicide. And if they haven't realised they need to stop people from falling off when enemies take advantage of this and try to push them off their walkways, they're as dumb as rocks. They seriously need a PSA on safety. Either that or give them a net to land on so they don't take up to 60 points of falling damage.

Either that, or make them really great climbers, and have the branches count as walls for climbing. Then you can catch yourself as you fall. There's really no point in having a cure when a preventative is a lot cheaper and more effective. Is there any reason that they don't have handrails, and you need expensive magical items to stop them falling? Is it a religious or cultural thing?

[Volos]

Perhaps the tree has huge leaves that help to break their fall? It could be a magical tree that they live on, granting them feather fall if they are currently 'in favor' with the spirit of the tree. This all sounds very Avatar-ish, but it does kinda make sense in it's own way.

Other than that... :smalleek:

[sonofzeal]

Handrail technology, guys. Look into it. (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=753) :smallwink:

[Tiki Snakes]

I say go one better than the Tree Spirit route;


http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/040/3/0/God_of_the_forest_by_noah_kh.jpg
Have the tree itself 'catch' them.

[big teej]

depending on the size of the population....

it is a given that some number have fallen.

it isn't that hard to say that eventually somebody fell and had a really lucky fall (rolled all ones for the falling damage)

"it's a miracle he survived that fall, he should have burst like an over-ripe melon, but there he sits, drinking his ale"

[Glimbur]

I'd get a high con and pick up ranks in tumble. By mid levels 100' is not scary.

Have you considered nets strung around below the walk ways? Then they are still rail-less but you'll probably just fall in to a net.

[aboyd]

Is there any reason that they don't have handrails, and you need expensive magical items to stop them falling?
They don't have handrails because the module intends for them to bull rush the PCs off the edge. The module doesn't get deep into ecology or anything, so it's not bothering to explain how diligent they are or how much they've fallen or not. I'm just adding a little life to the backstory by thinking about it.

And the items don't have to be expensive. I think I've found some cheap-ish ones:


1400 gp - Steadfast Boots, +4 to resist bull rush
2000 gp - Rock Boots, +4 to resist bull rush
2200 gp - Ring of Feather Fall
500 gp - Boots of Landing, reduces falling damage by 2d6
2000 gp - Ring of Four Winds, Feather Fall
250 gp - Safewing Emblem, Feather Fall single use


I couldn't find any immediate action teleport items, though. Bummed about that. I don't believe I will use all the items I've found. Probably one creature will have Steadfast Boots, one will have a Ring of Feather Fall, and one will have Boots of Landing. That's it.

Question: The Tumble skill can negate 10' of falling damage. Does anyone know if that stacks with the Boots of Landing?

[Curmudgeon]

The fixed price Anti-Impact armor enhancement (Complete Warrior) will halve falling damage. DC 15 Tumble and Jump checks will reduce effective distance fallen by 10' each. The combination may very well result in survivable falls.

[OverdrivePrime]

They live in trees and they haven't picked up the Brachination feat? Why not? If you don't want them to blow a feat on it, maybe make it a racial special. Should be really easy for one of them to catch themselves on vines, branches and whatnot if they do get drunk and stumble off a path.

[Qwertystop]

Make the tree have knots of wood that activate that spell that reverses personal gravity when touched. Make the walkways have small posts made of this knotwood hanging down from them, disguised as just being rough work. When they fall, they grab those and fall back up, hitting the underside of the platforms. Then, they climb to the edge, hang "up", and touch it again to fall back to the platform.

[TroubleBrewing]

Yeah, Brachiation is out of MotW. It's a good one for this situation.

[Chuckthedwarf]

Some kind of grab-able vines and branches down below would help...
Maybe give this race of people some kind of a racial feat or racial ability. Brachiation could help. Something homebrew that reduces damage from falls or lets you do multiple reflex saves to grab onto things as you fall would be fine too.

Or have huge leafs everywhere Avatar-style >_<

[unosarta]

Yeah, Brachiation is out of MotW. It's a good one for this situation.

Or the Complete Adventurer.

I love that feat.

[DrGonzo]

Make them all high level monks, so they can slow fall all the way..

[Dalek-K]

Make them race of O-Chul's falling from any height would no longer be a problem :D

But levels in monk seem to be the best bet... Unless you want the tree to give off a "feather fall" magical aura to people that know the secrete pass word.

[Kobold Esq]

Eberron Campaign Setting or Sharn: City of Towers has little single use feather fall tokens. I recall them being very cheap.

[MammonAzrael]

I can't believe I'm about to say this from a practical optimization standpoint.

Make them monks. No expensive magic needed.

Or you could do something like this (http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0128.html). :smallsmile:

[herrhauptmann]

Handrail technology, guys. Look into it. (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=753) :smallwink:See:


Or you could do something like this (http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0128.html). :smallsmile:
Damn you, I was about to say that too.


The fixed price Anti-Impact armor enhancement (Complete Warrior) will halve falling damage. DC 15 Tumble and Jump checks will reduce effective distance fallen by 10' each. The combination may very well result in survivable falls.
The armor enhancement can be key to surviving those "Everybody dies" things. Though even if you survive, falling out of the tree 100 feet to the ground effectively takes most characters out of the fight. No short range spells, and having branches in the way can ruin your line of sight to the fight (especially big Avatar/Kashyyk trees with branches like roads), so very few targeted medium and long range spells.
Of course, if the party knows they're losing, and knows they can reasonably survive the fall, they could also jump as a way of evading pursuit or avoid getting captured.



Eberron Campaign Setting or Sharn: City of Towers has little single use feather fall tokens. I recall them being very cheap.
You know, I could've sworn those were DMG standard feather tokens, but now that I look, I don't see that featherfall effect.

Perhaps, along with the idea of secret words granting you a featherfall from the tree, you establish a Mythal type thing. Silverymoon I believe has one which negates or reduces the effects of certain spells, and also grants certain other effects to citizens, guards, and important people respectively. A citizen power could be the featherfall. Guards get a spiderclimb or something else granting a good climb speed. Important people get a fly speed so they can go where they want.

[Greenish]

Eberron Campaign Setting or Sharn: City of Towers has little single use feather fall tokens. I recall them being very cheap.250gp a pop. Pretty handy. Explorer's Handbook has a "life ring" version for several people, but that's less practical.

Sharn also has zones of Slow Fall above major causeways so you don't get killed by someone landing on you.


Another option would be to give the race a glide speed. It's not true flight, but it'll still save your bacon if you happen to fall. For example, Hadozee have a racial glide speed without ever gaining true flight, while wing-aspect dragonborn and raptoran start with it and eventually gain flight. The feat Dragon Wings also gives glide for anyone with Dragonblood subtype (or Dragon type).

[Bayar]

The trees themselves giving off a featherfall effect would be so awesome.

[Darrin]

250gp a pop. Pretty handy. Explorer's Handbook has a "life ring" version for several people, but that's less practical.


More like 50 GP: Feather Fall Talisman, Sharn: City of Towers p. 170.

[AtomicKitKat]

You don't need to be a Monk. I think being able to Slow Fall(if you have something within reach to grab on to) up to say, 50 feet per round, is worth less than Feather Fall(which can work even in a large pit with glass walls) unless falling out of trees is something that happens every other round, in which case you have a bigger problem). Certainly less than 1 LA.

[Telonius]

Attempt to tumble to the ground, and willingly fail the check. Logic dictates that you would immediately start flying. :smallbiggrin:

[Veyr]

The Landing armor property reduces the effective falling distance by 60'. There's some boots in the MIC that also reduce effective falling distance; I think those only do 20' though.

The Cityscape feats Roofwalker and Roof-Jumper both might have something to add: the former allows (among other things) you to shave (effectively) 20 ft. off of an intentional fall with a Jump check (this is in addition to the usual check that you can make), and Roof-Jumper allows you to get +1d6 damage per 10' past 20' that you fall. The Cityscape Web Enhancement (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) has a Roof Dweller ACF for Barbarians to allow them to get both feats as bonus feats, and without the pre-reqs. Jump and Tumble checks can remove more.


Between the armor, the boots, the feat, and the skills, you're looking at falls counting as 120' less than it actually is. If you take Roof-Jumper, you get +10d6 to attacks made this way, too, if you have these things jumping down on top of players.

[Ernir]

The Shadow Cloak (Drow of the Underdark) offers immediate-action teleportation 3/day.

EDIT: Possibly requires you to be attacked before it can be activated.

[Reluctance]

It still sounds silly to me that these tree-dwellers would ignore an obvious safety feature simply so they could use a combat tactic against passing adventurers.

Why not include rope railings? Fragile enough for an errant swing or spell to break, and losing one section will weaken the ones all around it. Then you can have the bull rushes without massive NPC brainfarts.

[Qwertystop]

Attempt to tumble to the ground, and willingly fail the check. Logic dictates that you would immediately start flying. :smallbiggrin:

How does that work?

[Jothki]

Nets. Fairly elastic ones. String them below walkways, and they're good to go. Falling into a net would deal little to no damage, while still being temporarily disabling and making it difficult to get back onto the walkways.

[unosarta]

How does that work?

Never read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, have you?

Also, you can't willingly do it, you have to be suddenly and inextricably distracted by something. But if you could get something to distract you during the time between falling and hitting the ground, you could do it.

There should be a spell for this. >_>

[Qwertystop]

Never read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, have you?

Also, you can't willingly do it, you have to be suddenly and inextricably distracted by something. But if you could get something to distract you during the time between falling and hitting the ground, you could do it.

There should be a spell for this. >_>

I've read it, just thought he was talking about some RAW-nonsense thing that happens when failing a tumble check in midair, like "if you fail the check, you go nowhere".

[unosarta]

I've read it, just thought he was talking about some RAW-nonsense thing that happens when failing a tumble check in midair, like "if you fail the check, you go nowhere".

Ah, RAW, how it makes me laugh.

"That man is dying! Quick shove his head in water! That will save him for sure!"

[Lans]

Shape soulmeld: Pegasus Cloak does it I believe

[HalfDragonCube]

Soft, mossy ground on the forest floor?

Would still provide a tactical advantage, just drop rocks/acid flasks/really annoyed ferrets down on enemies trying to climb back up.

[Malevolence]

Single use Feather Fall items. Like the ring, but one shot and cheaper.