While progressing in DnD 5e, your character may fall off a cliff, and depending on the severity of the fall, you could receive fall damage.
Dungeons and Dragons 5e (DnD 5e) is a traditional, tabletop game that primarily focuses on storytelling. For this reason, each playing party needs a Dungeon Master (DM), who is responsible for the story and for the interactions between other players.
The other party members can create a character of their own before the campaign begins. Once all the party members have created a character, they have to advance in the story by defeating enemies, solving problems, gathering treasures, and discovering vast regions.
That being said, your character may receive damage while they are in battle or fall from a cliff and experience fall damage. It is advisable that you carefully consider your choices while you are in a campaign.
Types of damage
Damage is a numeric value that can cause harm to a character, creature, and object by reducing its hit point total. In DnD 5e, players can find 13 types of direct damage, some of which are:
| Damage type | Description |
| Slashing | This includes any type of cut, gash, or laceration |
| Acid | Acid has the ability to dissolve organic, and inorganic objects |
| Bludgeoning | It refers to damage caused by blunt weapons, like hammers and clubs |
| Cold | Subzero temperatures that freeze the flesh of creatures |
| Lightning | This electrical energy shocks a creature’s bodily functions |
| Piercing | Piercing is damage caused by sharpened points that pierce through flesh |
| Psychic | This type of damage affects the minds of living creatures |
DnD 5e: Fall damage
In addition to the above-mentioned damage types, your character may experience fall damage while progressing in the game. Falls and great heights can kill your player instantly.
According to the Player’s Handbook, a fall from a great height is one of the most common hazards of facing an adventure.
At the end of the fall, a creature, or a player, takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet that it fell, up to a maximum of 20d6. The creature lands vulnerable unless it avoids damage from the fall.
In order to determine your fall damage, add 1d6 for every 10 feet that your character has fallen. For example, if your character fell 70 foot, they will receive 7d6 damage. To calculate fall damage, players have to know how far they fell.
Next, you have to roll a 6-sided dice for every 10 feet of the fall before adding it up. Players can then consider any resistances or additional vulnerabilities. Finally, subtract the amount from your current hit points to get the total.
Since the maximum for fall damage is 20d6, the most fall damage that your character can take in DnD 5e is 120 points. However, this only applies if you are strictly following the game’s rules. Some DMs adjust the rules according to a specific situation.
It is worth noting that a character can fall up to 10 feet without taking damage, since damage is dealt after 10 feet. If you have to make a 10-foot fall, you should do a Dexterity check (Acrobatics) with a low DC, such as 10 or 12. If you make the DC, you can land safely without taking damage.
Can fall damage be reduced?
There are various ways to reduce your fall damage in DnD 5e. However, if you are following the rules strictly, you are going to need magic. Magic spells, like Levitate and Feather Fall, can prevent fall damage. Although they are low-level spells, they are somewhat nice in terms of their uses.
However, Monks can use their Slow Fall feature to reduce the amount of fall damage you receive. However, it is a 4th level skill, and it can take a while to unlock.
Moreover, any features that grant your character resistance to bludgeoning can reduce fall damage, but they cannot be resistant to bludgeoning damage from weapon attacks.
How fast does your character fall?
According to Zanathar’s Guide to Everything, the rate of falling is 500 feet per round, or 83.3 feet per second. However, another DnD expert, Chris Perkins claims that the rate of falling is 530 feet per round or 96.7 feet per second.
If you are a DM and a party member takes a 500-foot (or more) fall, you can give the other party members that round to react. The party may have a Bard that can use a spell to save their friend’s life, or a Monk could be fast enough to catch them.
What happens to a flying creature if it falls?
It is known that a fly creature that has its movement speed reduced to 0 feet starts falling. Similarly, if a spell or magic item that enables the creature to fly is negated, the creature will fall, but an exception is if the creature is able to hover.
It could thus be said that a flying creature has a better chance of surviving a fall than a non-flying creature.
