damage from falling stuff

[da newt]

Are there rules for calculating damage for something of X size/weight falling Y distance and landing on a creature/PC?

Specifically, if a large creature falls 40' and lands on a PC or two, how would you calculate damage? I know the creature would take 4d6 fall damage, but how about the poor goobers he lands on?




For reference an average draft horse weighs ~1750 lbs, riding horse ~1000 lbs, saltwater crock ~1000 lbs, male Grizzly ~ 600 lbs, male lion ~400 lbs, white rhino ~4500 lbs. All of these are large beasts.

[stoutstien]

Solely DMs call. The section on improvising damage in the DMG (pg 248) is a good place to see how deadly damage is depending on level.

[Lupine]

I typically rule that a falling creature deals damage to the other creatures equal to itself, see MOG's quote in my signature as to why.
If they are trying to do a drop assasination, they make a disadvantaged attack roll (which can occasionally be negated by a high acrobatics roll), and may add half the falling damage to their weapon attack. The result being that a drop assassination is difficult to pull off, but deals 1.5 fall damage on the target, in addition to the weapon attack. I like how it beefs up the "falling ninja" trope. You can also half the damage against the falling creature, if you want a less deadly game.
Note that I require creatures to make an acrobatics check DC(10+1*x) --x is the number of 10ft sections dropped-- to drop on the target intentionally, even if they are not intending to attack it with a weapon.

EDIT: Stoutstein has the right of it though. Totally up to the DM, and can be adjusted table to table. Mine is only one of many possible solutions.

[Tanarii]

Improvising damage suggestions are on DMG 249. (To parrot stoutstien :smallamused: )

Or just go with same damage as the creature takes. If it's lower than the DMG damage, it's because the creature did something to mitigate damage instead of splatting.

If the creature is trying to do more damage, it should definitely take more damage from the fall.

[Zhorn]

I've had some houserule for changing the fall damage of creatures to be based of the size categories for the purposes of falling on other creatures or attempting to catch other creatures.
Just posted them in homebrew once I saw this thread

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?615283-Size-Based-Falling-Creature-Damage&p=24597189#post24597189

[da newt]

Many thanks.

Zhorn - I think your house rules seem plausible and balanced.