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Draak_Grafula
2007-03-23, 12:27 PM
Inspired by the latest oots. If you jump realy high do you suffer falling damage on your way down? I imagine f you take the rules literally you would be taking damage. What would you enforce as a DM? Lets considder a jump where you would land on the same height as you started first.

Innis Cabal
2007-03-23, 12:30 PM
if you jump up like 20 feet....then yes your going to be taking damage on the way down. Physics has a place in my games

Fax Celestis
2007-03-23, 12:43 PM
I would say it depends on the circumstances.

I would also say that falling damage is different in my games. It uses d10s, and has no cap.

silentknight
2007-03-23, 12:48 PM
Am I remembering correctly that "jumping down" from a high location negates the first 10 ft of falling damage or converts some damage to nonlethal?

If so, I think that coming back down from a high jump would be a controlled fall, the same a "jumping down."

silentknight
2007-03-23, 12:49 PM
Oops. It double posted.

Muurgh
2007-03-23, 12:58 PM
well if your jumping straight, landing on the same elevation as when you start then you never go up more than half of what you go out. So at a max jump of 30 ft you wont go more than 15 ft high. It almost seems to me that a successful dex or tumble check would allow you to not take any damage. Also i play 2nd ed, so if none of this is applicable. my bad.

Innis Cabal
2007-03-23, 12:59 PM
why would falling not have a cap? You can only fall so far before you hit terminal velocity

Tallis
2007-03-23, 01:05 PM
Am I remembering correctly that "jumping down" from a high location negates the first 10 ft of falling damage or converts some damage to nonlethal?

If so, I think that coming back down from a high jump would be a controlled fall, the same a "jumping down."

Jumping down does negate the first 10 ft for damage purposes, but I didn't see anything about converting to non-lethal damage. I agree that this would be applicable to coming down from a really high jump.

Sornas
2007-03-23, 01:09 PM
why would falling not have a cap? You can only fall so far before you hit terminal velocity

I'm willing to bet it's becasue if you DO hit terminal velocity, you are most likely going to die, despite the fact that you can swing a sword really well. >.>

I know there is the whole "HP is also avoiding injury," but there is a limit to how much you can avoid when you are hitting terminal velocity.

Olethros
2007-03-23, 01:19 PM
If we want to consider realities for a second (and for the most part I dont) there is no known animal that can propell itself upward so high it harms itself in the return (barring accidents), do the hight attained from a "normal" jump check should not hurt you. The muscles and structures that get you up there protect you on the way down. As for magic, like a ring of jumping, Id say the magic that gets you up there also gets you down.

jjpickar
2007-03-23, 01:34 PM
I like Olethro's explanation but would like to point out that that ring should only protect you from jumps you have made with the aid of the ring and only within the extra height added by the ring. You shouldn't be protected from jumping off a sky scraper.

Erom
2007-03-23, 01:53 PM
Yeah, I always figured if the magic item could generate the force to get you there, it can generate the force to get you down safely, since those forces are pretty damn close to identical, neglecting air resistance on _really_ high jumps.

Of course, you still take damadge if your ending height is sufficiently below your starting height.

Fax Celestis
2007-03-23, 02:19 PM
I'm willing to bet it's becasue if you DO hit terminal velocity, you are most likely going to die, despite the fact that you can swing a sword really well.

That is indeed the case.

Further remember that one must make a massive damage save or be just as dead.

Black Hand
2007-03-23, 02:43 PM
Out of curiosity nobody's mentioned on the use of a ring of jumping? or the Spell Jump?

I have always wondered how one would adjucate the use of that? Such as using the ring of jumping to jump down a 20-30' drop?

Anyone have encountered this before?

Fax Celestis
2007-03-23, 02:53 PM
Out of curiosity nobody's mentioned on the use of a ring of jumping? or the Spell Jump?

I have always wondered how one would adjucate the use of that? Such as using the ring of jumping to jump down a 20-30' drop?

Anyone have encountered this before?

Spells and magic items break normal physics. No problems.

Runeclaw
2007-03-23, 02:53 PM
I'm willing to bet it's becasue if you DO hit terminal velocity, you are most likely going to die, despite the fact that you can swing a sword really well. >.>

Which just means that the damage cap on falling should be enough to 'most likely' kill 'most people' - not that the damage should be infinite or that death should be judged automatic.

People do occasionally survive falling at terminal velocity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall#People_surviving_free_fall) - and if ordinary people can occasionally survive it, than high-level heroes certainly ought to at least have a shot.

ChaosOfTheStick
2007-03-23, 02:57 PM
Ive never seen this as much of a problem since its pretty hard to jump high enough to hurt yourself in d20. You need to beat a DC 40 to jump 10' vertically and if your somehow able to get the DC 80 to jump 20' (the point were a you will take damage, even with a jump check to reduce damage) you most likely have access to something to prevent falling damage by that point.

Fax Celestis
2007-03-23, 02:58 PM
Which just means that the damage cap on falling should be enough to 'most likely' kill 'most people' - not that the damage should be infinite or that death should be judged automatic.

People do occasionally survive falling at terminal velocity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall#People_surviving_free_fall) - and if ordinary people can occasionally survive it, than high-level heroes certainly ought to at least have a shot.

Entirely granted. It's just not very likely, which is why I still roll dice instead of saying, "I'm sorry, you've fallen a mile. You're dead."

njero
2007-03-23, 03:09 PM
Maximum falling damage by RAW is 120. Barring extra damage from hitting a weak spot, an Iron Colossus does 107 damage on a perfect hit. With a successful save versus massive damage your average 12th level barbarian can keep swinging. If someone can survive the maximum damage output from several hundred tons of solid self-propelled iron, they can probably survive landing in your average field.

Here's another way to look at it, the large majority of (accidental) falls past 30' are fatal, but this has little to do with how much blunt trauma a person receives. People have fallen from past the average 1800' terminal velocity threshold and survived. We're talking people with no ranks in tumble here. Essentially, once you've gotten up high enough you still only care about those last couple hundred feet. How you land, and on what surface, is more important than how fast you're going, because you won't be going more than around 120 mph.

If you don't believe that falling from high in the sky isn't necessarily going to kill you, go here:
http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffresearch.html

I'd say I got simu-ninja'd, but thanks to a phone call I took around two hours to post that.:smallredface:

Edo
2007-03-23, 03:13 PM
If you jump realy high do you suffer falling damage on your way down?Of course not, for three reasons:
At levels 1-4, who jumps best? Barbarians, monks, scouts, and swordsages (with Wind Stride, but that's like "druids with Natural Spell.") These classes are meant to be mobile, and it's perverse to deal damage to them for it.

(Of course, a Wiz1 can rack up a Jump bonus of +22 from spells alone, but that's neither here nor there.)
At level 5, the highest level we have any reference point with according to the Alexandrian (http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/d&d-calibrating.html), it IS realistic to be able to do mind-blowing jumps and land unscathed. (Case in point: David Belle (http://youtube.com/watch?v=SAMAr8y-Vtw).)
Past level 5, the two classes that continue to shine for jumping are the monk and swordsage. At 10th level, both can have a Jump bonus in the +35 range without trying. With a bit of setup, swordsages can get into the low +50s.

Bear in mind, at this point, that you're not dealing with mortals any more. The law of gravity is optional anyways once flight is an option. More importantly, you're dealing with two classes of Exalted-level supernatural martial artists. The realistic thing to do IS to assume that they know how to land from their own jumps.

Diggorian
2007-03-23, 03:31 PM
I'd judge no damage from the second half of any jump reasoning that the same skill/ability that gets you up lets you stick a landing. Otherwise, thri-kreen would kill themselves :smallbiggrin:

If a player pulled off an epic jump unaided by magic I'd narrate swinging off branches, stalagtites, even stepping on a birds back to raise versimulatude.

PinkysBrain
2007-03-23, 03:46 PM
if you jump up like 20 feet....then yes your going to be taking damage on the way down. Physics has a place in my games
The forces on your body are approximately the same on the way down as up ... so if you want to kill cat girls then if you can jump higher you should be able to fall from higher without damage.

Arbitrarity
2007-03-23, 05:09 PM
And you have to jump 30 ft to take any damage other than non-lethal.

Deliberate jump converts 1d6 to nonlethal, DC 15 jump or tumble negates 1d6.

And epic just makes things insane.


Balance
1-2 inches wide 20
Up to 1 inch wide 40
Hair-thin 60
Liquid1 90
Cloud 120

120 Pass through wall of force
80 Swim up waterfall
100 Ignore falling damage.