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Bjarkmundur
2019-10-02, 06:32 AM
I have a barbarian who's pretty much obsessed with throwing himself off buildings. To keep things mechanically clear, I wrote a small clarification. I'll also post the things this mechanic references, just so you have all the pieces. Note that bludgeoning damage and falling damage is not the same thing, due to how injuries work in my game.
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Death From Above
If you are positioned at least 10 feet above a creature you can perform a drop-down attack as an action on your turn. As a part of the action, move up to your speed, initiate the fall, and make a single melee weapon attack against the target.
On hit, you deal an additional 1d4 damage for every 10 feet you traveled vertically, and take an equal number of 1d4 falling damage as you land. If the target is one size category larger than you or smaller, the target also falls prone.
On miss you fall prone in an unoccupied square within 5 feet of your target and take falling damage as normal. Note that taking 10 or more falling damage results in an Injury.



Minor and Major Injuries
You gain one Minor Injury whenever you take 10 or more damage from a single source either when Dying, while Incapacitated, or as a result of fall damage. You instead gain a Major Injury if the damage is 20 or more.
Whenever you would gain a Minor or Major Injury, you can choose to gain one failed death saving throw instead.
See downtime chapter on how to recover from Injuries.





d20


Minor Injury




1-3


Injured Leg: Movement speed is reduced by 10 ft.




4-8


Injured arm! One arm cannot be used to hold a shield and disadvantage on any rolls involving the use of that arm.




9-11


Multiple injuries! Maximum hit points reduced by an amount equivalent to half of the damage dealt by the attack.




12-16


Badly beaten! Disadvantage on Constitution saving throws.




17-19


Ringing blow! Stunned until the end of its next turn and deafened until it completes a the recuperate downtime activity.




20


Blow to the head! Unconscious for 2d12 hours.





Falling Damage
Falling damage has been increased to 1d10 per 10 feet. A successful DC 13 Dexterity (Mobility) check can reduce the damage by 1d10, and a DC 17 check reduces it by 2d10.
A character can use his action to lower himself down a ledge, reducing falling damage taken by 1d10.

Old Harry MTX
2019-10-02, 07:09 AM
I have a barbarian who's pretty much obsessed with throwing himself off buildings. To keep things mechanically clear, I wrote a small clarification. I'll also post the things this mechanic references, just so you have all the pieces. Note that bludgeoning damage and falling damage is not the same thing, due to how injuries work in my game.
.

Death From Above
If you are positioned at least 10 feet above a creature that is one size larger than you or smaller, you can perform a drop-down attack as an action on your turn. As a part of the action, move up to your speed and make a single melee weapon attack against the target as you fall. On hit, you both take additional 1d10 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet you travel vertically before you land, and both fall prone.
On miss you fall prone in an unoccupied square within 5 feet of your target and take falling damage as normal. Note that taking 10 or more falling damage results in an injury.

Minor and Major Injuries
You gain one Minor Injury whenever you take 10 or more damage from a single source either when Dying, while Incapacitated, or as a result of fall damage. You instead gain a Major Injury if the damage is 20 or more.
Whenever you would gain a Minor or Major Injury, you can choose to gain one failed death saving throw instead.
See downtime chapter on how to recover from Injuries.





d20


Minor Injury




1-3


Injured Leg: Movement speed is reduced by 10 ft.




4-8


Injured arm! One arm cannot be used to hold a shield and disadvantage on any rolls involving the use of that arm.




9-11


Multiple injuries! Maximum hit points reduced by an amount equivalent to half of the damage dealt by the attack.




12-16


Badly beaten! Disadvantage on Constitution saving throws.




17-19


Ringing blow! Stunned until the end of its next turn and deafened until it completes a the recuperate downtime activity.




20


Blow to the head! Unconscious for 2d12 hours.





Falling Damage
Falling damage has been increased to 1d10 per 10 feet. A successful DC 13 Dexterity (Mobility) check can reduce the damage by 1d10, and a DC 17 check reduces it by 2d10.
A character can use his action to lower himself down a ledge, reducing falling damage taken by 1d10.


This sound clear. I just don't understand one thing: why bludgeoning? Shouldn't it depend on the type of weapon used for the attack?

Also in this way the damage does not scale with the level, but only with the height of fall. You could reduce the additional damage dealed (e.g. to 1d8/10 feet) and give the opportunity to perform any extra attacks available to the character after the falling attack (maybe with a malus on the attack rolls?).

BerzerkerUnit
2019-10-02, 11:16 AM
I’ve always just allowed players to split the falling damage with the target. I can see the rationale for changing it if you have wounding rules and different thresholds for falls.

Bjarkmundur
2019-10-02, 11:31 AM
This sound clear. I just don't understand one thing: why bludgeoning? Shouldn't it depend on the type of weapon used for the attack?

Hmm, interesting.


Also in this way the damage does not scale with the level, but only with the height of fall. You could reduce the additional damage dealed (e.g. to 1d8/10 feet) and give the opportunity to perform any extra attacks available to the character after the falling attack (maybe with a malus on the attack rolls?).
I'll think about this, it's an excellent point.


I’ve always just allowed players to split the falling damage with the target. I can see the rationale for changing it if you have wounding rules and different thresholds for falls.
Splitting the falling damage makes sense on hit, I'm just wondering if it's too wordy :/
Note that the jumper doesn't suffer an injury on hit, only on a miss.

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I see I have somewhat missed the mark with this mechanic. I wrote it in two seperate sit-downs. In the first I must've been thinking of an Elbow Drop and in the second I was thinking of a weapon attack, and the two versions are now mixed together. I'll do some clean-up and report back.

Reporting back: There, cleaned it up. I loved the suggestion of splitting the damage, so I included that. Using this as precedent I now have a basis for rulings of this scenario:
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Player: I just let myself drop, aiming for the target. That shouldn't be an action, right?
DM: Yeah, you can 'belly flop' as a part of your movement, without taking an action. The target gets to make a Dexterity save to side-step you. On a fail, you both take 1d4 falling damage per 10 feet, as per the Drop-Down Attack. On success, you take full falling damage as your face meets the pavement.

I've learned that you don't need a rule for every scenario, you just need enough rules to be able to make reasonable suggestions as to how similar things would work.

BerzerkerUnit
2019-10-02, 04:53 PM
You got my Thumbs up

Bjarkmundur
2019-10-02, 05:07 PM
You got my Thumbs up

Reading this I realized that... this isn't usually done here. We either post criticism or personal opinions, or post nothing at all.
We should start doing this more often, sharing our approval with the poster instead of just nodding at our computer screen and moving on. You don't need to have a strong opinion to show support. Thanks man :D