[3.5] Falling Speed

[Drakevarg]

I've been scouring Core from front to back in the search of this, but I can't find anything. At what rate do objects fall in DnD, in terms of Feet/Round? The only thing I can find is that they take 1d6 damage/10 feet of falling and that Feather Fall slows falling down to 60 ft/round.

I'm guessing that WotC was just lazy and assumed that falling occured pretty much instantly, which is of course not the case, but since I'm currently playing in a campaign where falling a mile straight down in the middle of combat is a very real possiblity, so I need to know how fast a character moves while in freefall.

I could simply use the physics answer, but I happen to like catgirls.

[sofawall]

I could simply use the physics answer, but I happen to like catgirls.

WotC doesn't, as that's basically what they used.

[Temotei]

I...like catgirls.

You lost me.

As far as I know, there is no rule for it. I suppose you have to accidentally ruin the catgirls. While any death is regrettable, these will be particularly mourned because of the whole "we could have made rules for this" thing.

[jokey665]

There is a spell or feat somewhere that mentions falling 150 feet the first round and 300 feat each following round. I'll try to find it again.

Edit: Okay not a spell/feat. Under the Tactical Aerial Movement section of the SRD it mentions how falling works if you're flying and stall, and I assume it works similarly for other applications of falling.

If a flying creature fails to maintain its minimum forward speed, it must land at the end of its movement. If it is too high above the ground to land, it falls straight down, descending 150 feet in the first round of falling. If this distance brings it to the ground, it takes falling damage. If the fall doesn’t bring the creature to the ground, it must spend its next turn recovering from the stall. It must succeed on a DC 20 Reflex save to recover. Otherwise it falls another 300 feet. If it hits the ground, it takes falling damage. Otherwise, it has another chance to recover on its next turn.

[Drakevarg]

Blargh...

*grabs calculator*

Falling = 10 m/s/s.
1 round = 6 seconds.
10 m = 32.8 ft/
32.8 ft/s/s.
Would it be /round/round?

If so, 196.8 ft/round/round... or in grid terms, roughly 200 ft/round/round.

[DarknessLord]

Blargh...

*grabs calculator*

Falling = 10 m/s/s.
1 round = 6 seconds.
10 m = 32.8 ft/
32.8 ft/s/s.
Would it be /round/round?

If so, 196.8 ft/round/round... or in grid terms, roughly 200 ft/round/round.

Don't forget to take into account air-resistance.

[Reaper_Monkey]

Don't forget to take into account air-resistance.

And terminal velocity, assuming there is room for it to be achieved.

Also, if you really want to murder catgirls you'll have to take into account initial velocity and if you are attempting to streamline your shape or not (and thus altering how much air-resistance is slowing you).

I think the only real answer which avoids killing catgirls is the narrators favourite of "as fast as they need to".

[Drakevarg]

Edit: Okay not a spell/feat. Under the Tactical Aerial Movement section of the SRD it mentions how falling works if you're flying and stall, and I assume it works similarly for other applications of falling.

Missed that part. I'd just noticed that part was about flying, not falling, so I just skimmed it and kept looking.

So is that implied to be "150 ft first round, then 300 ft every round thereafter" or "150 ft first round, then doubles each round thereafter" or "150 ft first round, then +150 each round thereafter"?

And terminal velocity, assuming there is room for it to be achieved.

Also, if you really want to murder catgirls you'll have to take into account initial velocity and if you are attempting to streamline your shape or not (and thus altering how much air-resistance is slowing you).

Please... do NOT turn this into the new grapple rules.

[hamishspence]

It came up in Sage Advice (Dragon 327).

576 ft in 6 seconds (it suggested using 500 ft as a nice round number)

It also mentioned that at terminal velocity, falling speed will be 1200 ft per round.

Followed by "its safe to say that after two rounds the character will have fallen nearly 2000 ft, and will fall another 1200 ft thereafter"

So, only when you are a long way up, will it matter.

Since the figure was a mile, thats going to be a case where time matters, since you have several rounds to do what you need to do.

[Drakevarg]

My DM seems to have a thing for Cliffs of Insanity, so I wouldn't be the least bit suprised by falling a LONG way down.

Though admittedly falling that fast pretty much means I'm screwed no matter what. (Doubly so if I incorporated such falls into my own campaign, since I'd ignore maximum falling damage.) That's, what, 120d6 per round?

[Reaper_Monkey]

Please... do NOT turn this into the new grapple rules.

Sorry . I did edit to lessen the nightmare that comes with the death of a thousand catgirls.

My DM seems to have a thing for Cliffs of Insanity, so I wouldn't be the least bit suprised by falling a LONG way down.

Though admittedly falling that fast pretty much means I'm screwed no matter what. (Doubly so if I incorporated such falls into my own campaign, since I'd ignore maximum falling damage.) That's, what, 120d6 per round?

What with them still being cliffs (and the true Cliffs of Insanity are tidal cliffs) don't forget that falling into water reduces fall damage as follows:

If the water is at least 10 feet deep, the first 20 feet of falling do no damage. The next 20 feet do nonlethal damage (1d3 per 10-foot increment). Beyond that, falling damage is lethal damage (1d6 per additional 10-foot increment).

So you're slightly less dead than you could've been... mind, its likely that the jagged rocks count similar to that of a spiked pit trap and thus you'll take more anyway.

[CTLC]

so a mile is five rounds, and large amounts of pain. but atleast theyll land on all fours!

[Drakevarg]

It came up in Sage Advice (Dragon 327).

576 ft in 6 seconds (it suggested using 500 ft as a nice round number)

It also mentioned that at terminal velocity, falling speed will be 1200 ft per round.

Followed by "its safe to say that after two rounds the character will have fallen nearly 2000 ft, and will fall another 1200 ft thereafter"

So, only when you are a long way up, will it matter.

Since the figure was a mile, thats going to be a case where time matters, since you have several rounds to do what you need to do.

So wait, 500 ft the first round, then 1500 ft the next round (2000 - 500 = 1500, yay arithmetic), THEN terminal velocity of 1200 ft/ round? Why do you surpass terminal velocity then slow down to it?

Whatever. Scruntching it up to something vaguely consistant-ish, let's just call it 600 ft the first round, then 1200 ft each round thereafter. (600 + 1200 = 1800, which is in the zip code as 2000.)

[carrion pigeons]

Spoiler

Show

At 200ft/round/round, falling a mile would take a little under 7 rounds. Unless you impose a terminal velocity, like real life has. Real life terminal velocity for an object with no drag and not trying to slow its descent is about 320km/hr, or about 89m/s, which translates to about 1780ft/round, which you would not reach before falling a mile. However, a person who is consciously trying to slow his descent can reduce his terminal velocity to about 55m/s, or 1100ft/round, which you would hit.

The tactical aerial movement bit in the SRD could also be interpreted to mean you have a falling rate of 150ft/round/round, and you either do not have a terminal velocity (in which case you fall a mile in 8 rounds), a terminal velocity matching real life (still 8 rounds, using any plausible number), or a terminal velocity of 300ft/round, in which case you get 19 rounds.

So basically, if you assume a person is falling and deliberately trying to slow down, then it's either 8rounds/mile, or 19rounds/mile, depending on how broadly you're willing to interpret the SRD.

[hamishspence]

Emphasis on the "nearly"

My guess is that the reason for rounding down, was so that if you don't activate something like Feather Fall in the first round of a 600 ft drop, you can activate it in the next round.

So, 500-odd feet, then 1200 ft, then 1200 ft each round thereafter.

[Drakevarg]

600 (or 500) ft first, then 1200 thereafer, or 150 first, then 300 thereafter.

Would the first be freefall, while the second is conciously attempting to slow one's decent?

[drengnikrafe]

600 (or 500) ft first, then 1200 thereafer, or 150 first, then 300 thereafter.

Would the first be freefall, while the second is conciously attempting to slow one's decent?

Wasn't the 150/300 in regards to flying creatures who don't have enough forward speed? Those creatures can probably easily create a lot of drag with their wings/whatever means of staying in the air.

[ericgrau]

Terminal velocity is 120 mph = 1056 feet per round. IIRC you fall half that in the first round. Just call it 500 feet in round 1 and 1000 feet each following round and call it a day. For flying creatures the rule for a stall is similar but only 150 and 300 feet.

EDIT: d = 0.5 * a * t^2 = 0.5 * 9.8m/s^2 * 6^2 = 176.4 meters = 580 feet. Yeup, about half in round 1. Call it 500 cuz it's easier, blame cloaks or something.

[Susano-wo]

if they are talking about a flying mount, they probably just figured that the mount still has wings, etc, so there is resistance. And then they came up with a random BS figure that sounded doable, game-wise :P

[Drakevarg]

Wasn't the 150/300 in regards to flying creatures who don't have enough forward speed? Those creatures can probably easily create a lot of drag with their wings/whatever means of staying in the air.

Can you create drag with your wingswhen, say, your wings have been ripped off? Or you're using a fly spell? Or you fly using fart gas, a fly spell or whatever?

EDIT: Ninja'd. 500 followed by 1000 sounds good. Nice, round figure to boot.

[Optimystik]

While we're talking physics in here, how high up and how fast would you have to be for Nailed to the Sky to work the way it does? (i.e. you keep falling past the Earth, effectively entering orbit.)

[Drakevarg]

Well, first it would require a round planet, no guarentee there... I think you need to move somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 mph to stay in orbit. Not sure, Honors Physics was a year ago. But again, that's assuming you're on Earth, which of course is not guarenteed in the least. It would change depending on the size of the planet. Strictly speaking you don't need any particular height to be in orbit, just be moving fast enough that your rate of fall is more or less negated by your sideways movement. The height part mostly comes in to keep you from hitting anything.

[Reaper_Monkey]

Nailed to the Sky

Huh, and I thought WOTC started killing catgirls and the genre in general with their time travel supplement. This makes me very sad indeed

[Optimystik]

Huh, and I thought WOTC started killing catgirls and the genre in general with their time travel supplement. This makes me very sad indeed

The ELH in general hides the brutalized corpse of many a catgirl

[magic9mushroom]

Well, first it would require a round planet, no guarentee there... I think you need to move somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 mph to stay in orbit. Not sure, Honors Physics was a year ago. But again, that's assuming you're on Earth, which of course is not guarenteed in the least. It would change depending on the size of the planet. Strictly speaking you don't need any particular height to be in orbit, just be moving fast enough that your rate of fall is more or less negated by your sideways movement. The height part mostly comes in to keep you from hitting anything.

You need to be above the atmosphere so that air resistance doesn't slow you down and turn you into a flaming meteor (which would presumably still be fatal).

And D&D is, by default, set in a universe with bazillions of round planets. Spelled out in Lords of Madness.

[Lamech]

By RAW, you fall at 150ft feet on the first round and 300ft each round thereafter. This is brought up in the manual of the planes for subjective gravity IIRC. Subjective gravity is equal in strength to normal gravity and causes this movement rate.

[Ravens_cry]

While we're talking physics in here, how high up and how fast would you have to be for Nailed to the Sky to work the way it does? (i.e. you keep falling past the Earth, effectively entering orbit.)

That IS, to the best of my knowledge, what an orbit is. Your falling but never hitting the ground. For Low Earth orbit, the speed is about 17,448 mph and a few hundred miles up. I love space travel ,I love magic and fantasy, combine them and it's nerdgasm for me.

[magic9mushroom]

That IS, to the best of my knowledge, what an orbit is. Your falling but never hitting the ground. For Low Earth orbit, the speed is about 17,448 mph and a few hundred miles up. I love space travel ,I love magic and fantasy, combine them and it's nerdgasm for me.

You'll love the backstories in Lords of Madness then.

[Optimystik]

That IS, to the best of my knowledge, what an orbit is. Your falling but never hitting the ground. For Low Earth orbit, the speed is about 17,448 mph and a few hundred miles up. I love space travel ,I love magic and fantasy, combine them and it's nerdgasm for me.

Obligatory:

Spoiler

Show

[ericgrau]

While we're talking physics in here, how high up and how fast would you have to be for Nailed to the Sky to work the way it does? (i.e. you keep falling past the Earth, effectively entering orbit.)

ac = v^2/R = g = 9.8 m/s^2

R ~= 4000 miles = 6437376 meters

v^2 = 63086284.8
v = 7943 m/s = 17,767 mph = 156,358 feet per round

EDIT: Ninja'd by real number.