Negating falling damage

[tuesdayscoming]

How should one best go about falling from ridiculous heights? Note, I'm not looking for something like feather fall, that actively slows your descent. I wanna crash into the earth like a meteor and stand up afterwards, completely unfazed.

Dragonborn (wings) and Raptoran both have a built in mechanic for this. Catfall (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/catfall.htm) is also one option.

Anyone know of any others off hand? I seem to recall a feat that gives you glide, though I can't for the life of me remember where.

Also, on the topic of catfall, how precisely do psionic items work? Could the crafter pay more so that an item of catfall worked as if it had, say, 10pp invested?

[Curmudgeon]

While the drag from most wings greatly reduce your terminal velocity, they don't have any effect on the maximum falling damage, which is always 20d6. Dragonborn wings are a special case, but they still don't negate all falling damage. No winged creature is going to "crash into the earth like a meteor" because of that reduced terminal velocity.

[tuesdayscoming]

Dragonborn wings are a special case, but they still don't negate all falling damage.

"A dragonborn can use her wings to glide, negating damage from a fall from any height" (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060105b)

Granted, the text does also say that this is a meteoric descent, but the basic mechanic is there.

[Curmudgeon]

"A dragonborn can use her wings to glide, negating damage from a fall from any height" (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060105b)
That's only with a controlled descent. An unconscious dragonborn still takes falling damage, though it's a small amount (1d6 points).

[aquaticrna]

raptorens never take any falling damage, they're in races of the wild. even if unconscious their wings reflexively snap out and they glide to the ground in a tight spiral

[TroubleBrewing]

If your DM is alright with third-party sources, there's a class out of the Mongoose book "Quintessential Rogue II" called the Spirit of Misrule. They're basically insane jesters. They can roll a tumble check with a fixed DC and ignore any amount of falling damage.

I used one of these as an NPC, and as his introduction, he jumped out of an airship and hit the ground right in front of the party, then stood up and ran into the woods giggling like a lunatic.

[Necroticplague]

I think their as a race in Bastards and Bloodlines that had wings that have it immunity to fall damage (I think it was a gargoyle/dwarf or gargoyle/goliath race).

[Tyndmyr]

I'd be curious for a way of negating fall damage that doesn't include fluff about slowing yourself down.

Specifically, I'm visualizing a person who doesn't bother with parachutes, feather fall, or the like, and just slams into the ground and walks out of the rubble.

[Cog]

I'd be curious for a way of negating fall damage that doesn't include fluff about slowing yourself down.

Specifically, I'm visualizing a person who doesn't bother with parachutes, feather fall, or the like, and just slams into the ground and walks out of the rubble.
Aren't there a few damage-immunity builds floating around? That should do the trick.

[Necroticplague]

Theirs a psionic power called timeless body that makes you immune to everything for one round. Manifest when you would hit the ground, be perfectly fine.

[tyckspoon]

Theirs a psionic power called timeless body that makes you immune to everything for one round. Manifest when you would hit the ground, be perfectly fine.

Catfall doesn't mention anything about slowing either, although I don't know if there's a way to get a full strength manifestation of it without actually being a manifester.. psionic items don't give a mention of increasing the PP used in the item-power.

You could also go for a high-powered Vigor and just soak the damage that way; if all of the damage is absorbed by temp HP, then you haven't really been hurt.

[Cog]

Ah, here we go. A Warforged Barb/Ftr/Whatever 5 Warforged Juggernaut 2, with Toughness (prereq) and Troll Blooded at first level. Requires a flaw, since Troll Blooded is first-level only, and it comes with a regional restriction, but you now have regeneration that converts your falling damage to nonlethal, and immunity to nonlethal damage. You might want to pick up fire immunity if you plan to kamikaze into planets from orbit, though.

[Provengreil]

I'd be curious for a way of negating fall damage that doesn't include fluff about slowing yourself down.

Specifically, I'm visualizing a person who doesn't bother with parachutes, feather fall, or the like, and just slams into the ground and walks out of the rubble.

be a barbarian with ranks in jump. oppose the fall with a jump check; you can lose a few d6s there. DR applies, though it isn't much, and you can just soak the rest of the damage.the max is 20d6, so a barbarian can fall pretty much from orbit and walk out just fine after 7th level, unless the ground rolls really high damage.

tumble works better than jump because jump has a limit on the d6s you can lose, which tumble doesn't IIRC. however, it doesn't have the meteoric entry you seem to want. bonus points if you hit someone with your axe for an uber chop.

[aquaticrna]

are you wanting to make this fall from any distance? or is a maximum distance ok? there are boots that negate 60ft of falling, jump takes of 10ft, tumble can take of a lot with a really good check (dc 15 / 10ft taken off) i'm sure there is more that i can't remember off the top of my head.

[Cog]

DR applies, though it isn't much, and you can just soak the rest of the damage...tumble works better than jump because jump has a limit on the d6s you can lose, which tumble doesn't IIRC.
Unless you use the Epic skill rules, tumble is limited to -10' of damage. DR doesn't apply, as the ground isn't attacking you, and DR only works against attacks (this is one of the few distinctions between DR and hardness).

[blackjack217]

would that trick for missing the ground work?

[Maryring]

What about...

monks?

[Provengreil]

Unless you use the Epic skill rules, tumble is limited to -10' of damage. DR doesn't apply, as the ground isn't attacking you, and DR only works against attacks (this is one of the few distinctions between DR and hardness).

really(on the DR)? we ruled that it does apply, in the specific case of falling damage at least, in addition to standard weapon damages, etc. it just made sense. in any case, just having the HP to soak it is well within possibility.

[Alleine]

Proper use of the Boots of Gravity from the Planar Handbook can negate falling damage. Right before hitting the ground change 'down' from your perspective to be parallel to the ground. Next round change 'down' back towards the ground again.

[Cog]

really?
Really. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#damageReduction) No, I don't have anything more to say, but the board software disagrees.

[HalfDragonCube]

What about...

monks?

If you're a monk, you're so sucky you deserve to die from a fall.

[Curmudgeon]

Unless you use the Epic skill rules, tumble is limited to -10' of damage.
No, that's not right; there's no limit. Epic skill checks don't require Epic levels, so they're always available (assuming you can make those high DCs, of course). Plus most of those Tumble options have appeared elsewhere than the Epic Level Handbook: Oriental Adventures (page 58) and Complete Adventurer (page 103).

[tuesdayscoming]

Ah, here we go. A Warforged Barb/Ftr/Whatever 5 Warforged Juggernaut 2, with Toughness (prereq) and Troll Blooded at first level. Requires a flaw, since Troll Blooded is first-level only, and it comes with a regional restriction, but you now have regeneration that converts your falling damage to nonlethal, and immunity to nonlethal damage. You might want to pick up fire immunity if you plan to kamikaze into planets from orbit, though.

This is so deliciously cheesetastic. Effective immunity to all damage? Yes, please! Of course, no DM will ever let it slide, but that's a different story...

Epic tumble checks are good, except that the DCs get so damn ridiculously high so very quickly...

The gravity boots idea is nifty, too, but not for this concept. See, I want to be able to crush people in my landing, but if I slow myself with gravity tricks to the point of not taking damage, then my opponent wouldn't take damage either :-\.

Unfortunately, it seems like Catfall might still be my best bet.

Will continue looking when I'm back to books.

[ericgrau]

If you're a monk, you're so sucky you deserve to die from a fall.

He meant at high enough level there's no limit to the distance fallen... as long as he's near a wall. All we need now is a space elevator.

[tuesdayscoming]

are you wanting to make this fall from any distance? or is a maximum distance ok? there are boots that negate 60ft of falling, jump takes of 10ft, tumble can take of a lot with a really good check (dc 15 / 10ft taken off) i'm sure there is more that i can't remember off the top of my head.

If I could get a consistent 100ft of falling damage reduction, I'd be pretty content, though even just this 80 would probably be more than adequate.

Anyone know where these boots are located?

[TroubleBrewing]

He meant at high enough level there's no limit to the distance fallen... as long as he's near a wall. All we need now is a space elevator.

Space elevators don't even have walls. Most designs have a carbon nanotube cable.

Yet another reason a ring of feather falling is superior to 20 levels of monk.

[Alleine]

There are boots in the Magic Item compendium that reduce the damage you take from falling by 2 dice. So a 20 ft fall would deal no damage. Useful if you can't quite get tumble as high as you'd like.