Knights & Knaves Alehouse

DISCLAIMER: This is a spin off of something I found interesting in a thread that got locked before I ever posted. What it is not is an attempt to revive that thread or the axes ground within it.

Okay so let's say a 10th level fighter with 47 falls off a cliff alongside his loyal level 2 henchman with 12 hp. Both take 10D6 damage and roll 40 and 32 respectively. The henchman is dead while the fighter is not.

The usual way to describe this is the guy bouncing off the the rocks, dusting himself down and getting back to business. But what if you simply followed the combat logic: a high level character taking hp damage might be dodging, parrying, getting tired, using up a bit of luck etc...

So would it be fair to say the fighter doesn't hit the bottom? But manages to grab onto a cliffside shrub and is now hanging off the cliff, or maybe simply lost his footing in the fight and is now teetering dangerously off the edge BUT HAS NOT ACTUALLY FALLEN AT ALL. Both these explanations seem less jarring to suspension of disbelief than the first and haven't actually change the rules (being pushed off a cliff for 10D6 damage still does 10D6 damage).

Since there is actually a change to the gameplay (where the fighter ends up after taking the falling damage) I might want to roll for an explanation. Say 1D4 (for no particular reason)

1 - the fighter lost his footing and is teetering on the edge
2 - the fighter fell off the cliff and grabbed a scrub: alive but he'll have to find a way up and might even fall again.
3 - the fighter landed on his henchman who broke his fall
4 - the fighter tumbled partway down the cliff onto an outlying ledge where he is now stranded (as per 2)

Does that seem like a fair way of handling it in the spirit of the original rules?

Sure. I would say well within the spirit and intention, very similar to the example given as to the chained fighter versus a dragoon breath attack.

Good to see you around Werral. Yeah, I think its fine to come up with all sorts of things that can break a fall as DM. How many times did James Bond fall off some roof and land in one of those canvas awnings or in some mud or hey. I remember once on a ski trip in high school, some kid with almost no ski experience purposely went down an advanced trail. Well, he should have died but ended up hung up in a bunch of branches having crashed threw several (Snow Shoe had alot of those sorts of narrow trails). He was still limping from that accident last I heard...but def. lucky.

I got a lot of flack back when I was new to the boards for suggesting the idea that the high level character might not have fallen at all despite losing the hit points. In the light of that almost-universal criticism I decided I was right and it is a perfectly reasonable approach

Nagora wrote:I got a lot of flack back when I was new to the boards for suggesting the idea that the high level character might not have fallen at all despite losing the hit points. In the light of that almost-universal criticism I decided I was right and it is a perfectly reasonable approach

I think that's a cool way of doing it: a character reduced to 1 hp might be hanging by their fingernails!

Axe: Cheers, I've just moved to the UK, started freelancing and generally been busy!

Werral wrote:

Nagora wrote:I got a lot of flack back when I was new to the boards for suggesting the idea that the high level character might not have fallen at all despite losing the hit points. In the light of that almost-universal criticism I decided I was right and it is a perfectly reasonable approach

I think that's a cool way of doing it: a character reduced to 1 hp might be hanging by their fingernails!

Axe: Cheers, I've just moved to the UK, started freelancing and generally been busy!

So what is your nationality? Hey, you should look up Matthew or P&P. Its an island after all.

AxeMental wrote:

Werral wrote:

Nagora wrote:I got a lot of flack back when I was new to the boards for suggesting the idea that the high level character might not have fallen at all despite losing the hit points. In the light of that almost-universal criticism I decided I was right and it is a perfectly reasonable approach

I think that's a cool way of doing it: a character reduced to 1 hp might be hanging by their fingernails!

Axe: Cheers, I've just moved to the UK, started freelancing and generally been busy!

So what is your nationality? Hey, you should look up Matthew or P&P. Its an island after all.

I'm British, but of Iranian origins and have bits of other nationalities here and there.

Werral wrote:3 - the fighter landed on his henchman who broke his fall

Forget rolling, this is your answer. Give extra HP is the player says something clever to eulogize his dead employee. "Alas, poor Yoric. I knew it was a smart move to buy him standard rations instead of iron rations!"