Did i just find a use for a monk's slow fall?

[mabriss lethe]

One of my running projects for a while has been "jailbreaking" a core only monk. Dear gods, that's a challenge. While doing that, I noticed something. Slow fall, often considered a terrible waste of an ability, has a hilarious combat application.

It only reduces the damage YOU take in a fall. If you decide to turn your 200+ lb monk into a living projectile, assuming the prerequisites are met, you can potentially deal a lot of damage to an opponent just by falling off a wall and letting gravity do its thing, walking away with barely a scratch.

[BowStreetRunner]

RAW...maybe...

RAI, I'd definitely rule that the monk's ability to "reduce the effective distance of the fall when next to a wall" counts both toward falling damage taking by the monk as well as falling object damage inflicted by the monk on others.

[DeTess]

Unless there's RAW somewhere that explicitly makes it work, I doubt this is going to work.

If a dm has to make a ruling on players dropping themselves on enemies from great heights he'll likely point out the 'slow' part in slow fall and rule that a slow-falling monk doesn't inflict extra damage. I know mine did when we suggested this trick in 5e.

[ComaVision]

In all my time with D&D 3.5e I've never seen that ability used at all, let alone in a useful manner.

[Elkad]

I've seen Slow Fall used, but could have easily been substituted for a climb check. We even had a rope (which everyone else used).
The monk was just showing off.

[AnimeTheCat]

When you said "Jailbreak" I thought you were going to say the monk climbed out of a hole in the wall of his/her jail cell (a la chrono trigger) and used it to safely get out and away from the jail.

Also, I see what you're talking about, but the text also later says "The monk’s ability to slow her fall (that is, to reduce the effective distance of the fall when next to a wall) improves with her monk level." which leads me to believe that this application of effective distance reduction is reduced for all parties involved, not just fall damage for the monk himself/herself.

[Zombulian]

Seems RAW legal to me. Throw this in a Battle Jump build maybe?

[Psyren]

When you said "Jailbreak" I thought you were going to say the monk climbed out of a hole in the wall of his/her jail cell (a la chrono trigger) and used it to safely get out and away from the jail.

Also, I see what you're talking about, but the text also later says "The monk’s ability to slow her fall (that is, to reduce the effective distance of the fall when next to a wall) improves with her monk level." which leads me to believe that this application of effective distance reduction is reduced for all parties involved, not just fall damage for the monk himself/herself.

This. It works by making the fall itself effectively shorter, not by reducing the damage the monk takes directly.

Also, if you really want to insist on RAW instead of common sense, the RAW is that the falling object rules are just that, for objetcs - not creatures.

[The Viscount]

It could be used to protect yourself in a battle jump or roof-jumper situation, but if you want to use yourself as a falling object you will unfortunately have to use Great Rift Skyguard to do it. Bonus points if you bind Haagenti and take Deformity Obese to pump up your weight.

[King of Nowhere]

I've seen Slow Fall used, but could have easily been substituted for a climb check. We even had a rope (which everyone else used).
The monk was just showing off.

I used it in actual combat situation: I was grappling a flying wizard with a cloak of flying, I stunned him and took off the cloak. we both fell, but I was able to use acrobacy and an adjaent wall to take minimal damage, while the wizard took full falling damage.

Not that the damage would have made any difference to the actual outcome of the fight (wizard escaping because I rolled a 1 at the wrong moment).

There was also a time when we were trying to capture a pirate that was trying to escape with a lifeboat, to jump on it while slowing myself on the flank of the main ship so as to not rock the boat.

narrow use, but it comes into play sometimes

[emeraldstreak]

One of my running projects for a while has been "jailbreaking" a core only monk. Dear gods, that's a challenge. While doing that, I noticed something. Slow fall, often considered a terrible waste of an ability, has a hilarious combat application.

It only reduces the damage YOU take in a fall. If you decide to turn your 200+ lb monk into a living projectile, assuming the prerequisites are met, you can potentially deal a lot of damage to an opponent just by falling off a wall and letting gravity do its thing, walking away with barely a scratch.

That's known as the Fat Orc build. Originally created with a Ring of Jumping, but your idea works too.

[Jormengand]

Only falling objects, not falling creatures, deal damage to anything they land on. Creatures are explicitly not objects. So did you just outplay the RAW, or did the RAW just outplay you?

[Mehangel]

Only falling objects, not falling creatures, deal damage to anything they land on. Creatures are explicitly not objects. So did you just outplay the RAW, or did the RAW just outplay you?

Except when they are dead.

[Jormengand]

Except when they are dead.

Of course, nothing stops your dead monk from taking actions... :smalltongue:

Yeah, if you're gonna go this far down the well of RAW, there are far worse things than a monk landing on people to hurt them.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Except when they are dead.
So all I need is a readied action to kill myself? Truly an exploit for the ages.

[KillianHawkeye]

Except when they are dead.


So all I need is a readied action to kill myself? Truly an exploit for the ages.

Did we just determine that Core-only Monks are more useful dead than alive? :smallamused::smallamused:

[King of Nowhere]

So all I need is a readied action to kill myself? Truly an exploit for the ages.

You may want to dump you CON score, least you accidentally pass the saving throw against coup-de-grace-ing yourself, spoiling the combo.

But that only means you have more points to spend elsewhere. double bonus!