How far do you fall in a round?

[Gungor]

I play a battlemaster fighter in AL running tomb of annihilation. Last night we were fighting some flying pterodactyl people (I forget what the monster name is). I successfully landed a trip attack with a bow on one of the enemies who was about 200 feet in the air. So I knocked it prone and by the rules it falls out of the sky.

The question then became, how far does it fall before it gets to act? Another player at my table asserted “you fall 90 feet in 6 seconds”. I don’t know if he was citing some D&D rule source or making a real world assertion. I didn’t independently check if the 90 feet makes sense IRL, though the player has been wrong about other “real world” assertions in the past.

In any case, the DM decided that is what would happen so it fell 90 feet, didn’t hit the ground, and on its turn it expended half its movement to “stand up” (i.e. right itself from the prone position) and then continued to fly.

I was a bit unhappy because in real life, it would take significant effort for a flying creature to offset their downward speed after being in free fall for a time. But I know D&D is not real life and there are many game mechanics which don’t track reality. It also didn’t really matter as the battle was well in hand, so I just let it go at the table.

Is there any RAW source on how long it takes to fall? Or is it DM judgement? How have you seen it ruled? And what about a flying creature recovering from being knocked prone in mid air?

[Lombra]

Xanathar's Guide to Everything introduces an optional rule that caps falling distance in a round to 500ft. Along other rules to address exactly your situation.

[Keravath]

Actual falling distance in the real world is quite a bit more than you might think.

d = 1/2 a t^2
d is distance, a is time and t is time assuming it starts falling at time=0

On earth, a is 9.8 m/s2, in d&d a round is 6 seconds, so an object falls about 176m in 6 seconds .. or about 570 feet .. which it sounds like Xanathars rounds off to 500 feet since the calculation doesn’t include friction.

So .. the flying creature would have time to take a reaction like feather fall but little time to take an action.

[Vingelot]

Actual falling distance in the real world is quite a bit more than you might think.

d = 1/2 a t^2
d is distance, a is time and t is time assuming it starts falling at time=0

On earth, a is 9.8 m/s2, in d&d a round is 6 seconds, so an object falls about 176m in 6 seconds .. or about 570 feet .. which it sounds like Xanathars rounds off to 500 feet since the calculation doesn’t include friction.

So .. the flying creature would have time to take a reaction like feather fall but little time to take an action.

Indeed. In the first round. If you don't consider friction, the speed continually increases by 570 feet per round. So it's quite a benevolent thing of Xanathar to do, capping falling distance at 500 feet. If it didn't, a long enough fall might have dire consequences (https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/).

[PhoenixPhyre]

Indeed. In the first round. If you don't consider friction, the speed continually increases by 570 feet per round. So it's quite a benevolent thing of Xanathar to do, capping falling distance at 500 feet. If it didn't, a long enough fall might have dire consequences (https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/).

Yeah, without friction bad things happen. With friction, you end up at terminal velocity pretty fast (for normal-shaped things). Winged things are better at resisting falls (because they can drastically increase their air resistance).

[Spookykid]

A humans terminal velocity usually caps at 122 mph which is just over 1000 feet per round. Still only 20d6 damage!

[Greywander]

Considering that magic exists in the world of D&D, I would think anything past Newtonian physics would be considered optional by the DM. Physics, as well as other sciences, need to mirror the real world closely enough that everyday interactions look the same, but Relativity and Quantum Mechanics aren't required in a fantasy setting.

If a player tries to break the game using real-world science that both their character would not know and that would be far beyond the scientific advancement of the world, I think it would be fair, and charitable, to tell them that physics doesn't work that way in this world. Or you can let them try their crazy plan and have it go horribly wrong because, again, physics doesn't work that way in this world.

If you do allow for this sort of thing, then it's more likely that you're running a sci-fi or science fantasy game, which is fine. But if you're running straight fantasy, then the DM is not obligated to adhere to real-world physics.

[Demonslayer666]

I play a battlemaster fighter in AL running tomb of annihilation. Last night we were fighting some flying pterodactyl people (I forget what the monster name is). I successfully landed a trip attack with a bow on one of the enemies who was about 200 feet in the air. So I knocked it prone and by the rules it falls out of the sky.

The question then became, how far does it fall before it gets to act? Another player at my table asserted “you fall 90 feet in 6 seconds”. I don’t know if he was citing some D&D rule source or making a real world assertion. I didn’t independently check if the 90 feet makes sense IRL, though the player has been wrong about other “real world” assertions in the past.

In any case, the DM decided that is what would happen so it fell 90 feet, didn’t hit the ground, and on its turn it expended half its movement to “stand up” (i.e. right itself from the prone position) and then continued to fly.

I was a bit unhappy because in real life, it would take significant effort for a flying creature to offset their downward speed after being in free fall for a time. But I know D&D is not real life and there are many game mechanics which don’t track reality. It also didn’t really matter as the battle was well in hand, so I just let it go at the table.

Is there any RAW source on how long it takes to fall? Or is it DM judgement? How have you seen it ruled? And what about a flying creature recovering from being knocked prone in mid air?

I think I would have ruled very similarly, but not for the same reason. (90 ft is way off)

Let's not get into how silly it is to trip a flying creature with an arrow. :smalleek: Let's assume that's ok, and you succeeded in knocking them prone.

You didn't stop him from flying for 6 seconds, only from your turn until their turn, where they corrected the prone condition. This is a problem with turn based combat where each combatant completes their actions before the next gets to go. It's more like each person is taking 6 seconds to do something while everyone else stands still waiting for their turn. It's clunky, but it works for D&D. You just need to think of it like they are flying the whole time, and you interrupted some of that (an arbitrary amount).

Had you stunned, paralyzed, or knocked them out for a round, reducing their movement to zero - that's a different story.

[Greywander]

Let's not get into how silly it is to trip a flying creature with an arrow. :smalleek: Let's assume that's ok, and you succeeded in knocking them prone.
Wing shot. It's not as silly as it sounds. Flight, especially the non-magical kind, is particularly delicate, and it's easy to disrupt it.

[Zippee]

Wing shot. It's not as silly as it sounds. Flight, especially the non-magical kind, is particularly delicate, and it's easy to disrupt it.

Agreed - the terms are just rule mechanisms and shouldn't necessarily be taken literally. A flying creature is tripped/winged and thus subject to the prone condition and starts falling. We know it takes half your movement to recover from the prone condition. We also know that in DnD a falling creature falls 500' a round. It would therefore seem reasonable that on its turn it falls (has fallen, depending on your aesthetics of in-round sequencing) 250' (half the falling distance) and then recovers from prone with half its Fly Move left unless it hit the ground because it was less than 250' up in which case damage and other effects apply.

Given that most Fly Moves are 60' or less, a tripped/winged creature is going to be 2-3 Dashes away from the combat area and possibly a good deal more - that's the equivalent of being shoved 120-150' away in a ground combat for average 30' Move creatures. Still close enough to engage with ranged effects but irksome if you need to be in melee.

Take home from this is, if flying always ensure you're at a minimum of 251' in altitude, just in case.