does this work? (both RAW and in game) 3.5

[Brendan]

so, after a sufficiently awesome battle I was just in, I wanted to check if my character's signature move actually works. as a character with a small bit of DR, and some flying boots, can I intentionally fall on a large character and still attack with a flurry that round? by the way, we are playing with my alternate monk class that can flurry after a move action.

the epic battle was against skeletons: two trolls, an owlbear, and three humans. we were a wizard whose spells were all either mind effecting or an energy type the skeletons had DR for, a rogue with only a crossbow and a rapier, and my lizardfolk monk. the rogue realized early on that he was more effective PUNCHING the monsters, even without IUS. The wizzy spent the entire time trying to hit with natural 1.and twos with spels that dealt barely any damage. meanwhile, I systematically killed EVERY SINGLE monster by myself. at the end, I had to stabilize both characters with no ranks in heal at -6 and -8hp. it was a fun battle.

[Jack Zander]

Fun for you maybe.

[jiriku]

Not only does it work, but if you take the Battle Jump feat (From Races of Faerun I think or maybe Unapproachable East), you'll count as charging and deal double damage with every attack you make.

[Tinydwarfman]

Not only does it work, but if you take the Battle Jump feat (From Races of Faerun I think or maybe Unapproachable East), you'll count as charging and deal double damage with every attack you make.

Not quite. You get to make a free charge attempt, which does double damage, so no flurry. I'm not sure on the text of boots of flying either, so the feat might not work at all with it.

By RAW, falling takes no action, although a DM could interpret it as a jump since you're doing it intentionally, thus making you use your move action and flurry. Otherwise, you can flurry every other round. I'm not seeing why this is such a good tactic though, as you need to spend a round getting back up, and the BGs will most certainly use readied actions, or just attack you while you're down there.

[Brendan]

The ruling we have is that if I can fly far enough in one round, I can do the whole thing in that round, that is to say, if I can move at 60fpr, I can move more than enough to get all the way up, fall, and flurry.
battle jump sounds kind of fun. do you know which book it is?
however, if I lose the boots, the feat would be pretty much worthless. although my +4 lizardfolk bonus to jump could be very good.
can you use the run feat to fly faster? if you can speed up running, and you control the speed, could you push the boots to go faster?

[Tinydwarfman]

The ruling we have is that if I can fly far enough in one round, I can do the whole thing in that round, that is to say, if I can move at 60fpr, I can move more than enough to get all the way up, fall, and flurry.
battle jump sounds kind of fun. do you know which book it is?
however, if I lose the boots, the feat would be pretty much worthless. although my +4 lizardfolk bonus to jump could be very good.
can you use the run feat to fly faster? if you can speed up running, and you control the speed, could you push the boots to go faster?

Well that's definitely a house-rule. You don't even have spring attack? Not sure about the logic there.
Battle Jump is from Unapproachable East, a Forgotten Realms book. And a really good one at that.
Your monk speed boost also boosts flying speed, so I don't think you'll need to move any faster than that.

[Thurbane]

Great story, sounds like a fun session!

Two things I can see:

1. The Rogue's unarmed strikes should not have done anything - creatures with the Undead type are immune to nonlethal damage. Gauntlets would get around this. He could also have used the butt of the crossbow as an improvised weapon.

2. If the boots are Winged Boots, they give you a set fly speed (as per the Fly spell), and your Monk movement would have no bearing on this.

...also, are you applying DR to your fall damage? By RAW, DR does not reduce falling damage.

Of course, these are all minor points, and easily houseruled. The game itself sounds great.

[Curmudgeon]

so, after a sufficiently awesome battle I was just in, I wanted to check if my character's signature move actually works. as a character with a small bit of DR, and some flying boots, can I intentionally fall on a large character

Well, you can try. This comes in 3 parts:

1. Aiming to hit the designated square. Your body is an improvised ranged weapon (-4 penalty), and each 10' of distance imposes a further -2 penalty. The maximum you can fall and still hit a square is 5 improvised weapon range increments (50' total). But the AC of a square is only 5.
2. If you hit the square, the target creature also has to get hit, and they can avoid a falling object (you) with a DC 15 Reflex save (see Heroes of Battle on page 68).
3. If you also hit the creature, you deal damage based on height dropped and your weight, using the "Improvised Weapon Damage" table on page 159 of Complete Warrior.

[Irreverent Fool]

I thought the rules for damage from falling objects only applied to falling objects. I was also under the assumption that falling damage was never negated by DR.

Falling Objects
Just as characters take damage when they fall more than 10 feet, so too do they take damage when they are hit by falling objects.

Objects that fall upon characters deal damage based on their weight and the distance they have fallen.

Damage Reduction
A creature with this special quality ignores damage from most weapons and natural attacks.

Falling doesn't normally take movement, but if you're trying to control the fall at all, it probably should. Moreover, if you are falling, you're subject to the risks of doing so. I'd say falling onto another creature counts as a yielding surface.

Falling
If a character deliberately jumps instead of merely slipping or falling, the damage is the same but the first 1d6 is nonlethal damage. A DC 15 Jump check or DC 15 Tumble check allows the character to avoid any damage from the first 10 feet fallen and converts any damage from the second 10 feet to nonlethal damage. Thus, a character who slips from a ledge 30 feet up takes 3d6 damage. If the same character deliberately jumped, he takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage and 2d6 points of lethal damage. And if the character leaps down with a successful Jump or Tumble check, he takes only 1d6 points of nonlethal damage and 1d6 points of lethal damage from the plunge.

Falls onto yielding surfaces (soft ground, mud) also convert the first 1d6 of damage to nonlethal damage. This reduction is cumulative with reduced damage due to deliberate jumps and the Jump skill.

If you're intentionally jumping down, it's going to cost you movement. Or you could fly down (faster) at double your flight speed. In either of those cases, you're not getting a full attack, though. I had been under the assumption that one fell prone after a fall, but I can't seem to to find a rule anywhere.

It looks as though you can choose to fall and hit the creature (reducing falling damage). After this, you immediately end up in an adjacent space unless the size difference is enough that you are allowed to occupy the same space. After this, you may make a full attack, assuming I haven't missed anything. However, as a creature, you are not an object and do not deal damage to the creature on which you fall. This last part at least is clear.

Remember that if you use jump or tumble to reduce damage and fail by enough, you do fall prone under the rules for those skills.

obnoxious
sig