D&D Fall Damage Calculator | 5e 2014 & 2024 Rules
🧙 D&D Fall Damage Calculator
5e Fall Damage — 2014 & 2024 Rules — Feather Fall, Slow Fall, DEX Save Variants
Rule Set & Mode
Quick Presets
Character & Fall Details
Active Features & Items
Negates all fall damage, no prone
Reduce damage by 5 x Monk level
Halves damage as reaction (Rogue)
Same effect as Feather Fall spell
Fall damage in DnD is one of those things that seems simple but can actually get pretty wild. The basic rules say that you get 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet fallen, up to a maximum of 20d6. If a character falls less than 10 feet, they do not take damage. For instance, a fall of 70 feet causes 7d6 damage.
When you fall, the creature becomes prone unless it is immune to such damage
Fall Damage Rules in DnD
The limit of 20d6 represents terminal velocity. After a fall of 200 feet, the creature moves around 77.5 mph. The idea is that this is the highest speed you can reach falling.
Even so, there are big problems with the realism of that. Fall damage in DnD shows that the treatment of hit points, damage and healing is a bit nonsenscil. A fall of 200 feet would last only around one second, and that is far from the speed a body could actually reach.
Falling is actually much more brutal in DnD than in real life. Many people survived falls of 50 feet or more with only small wounds, but in DnD such a fall almost certainly would kill a person with average stats. On the other hand, strong characters technically can survive a fall even at the max speed.
You could roll only 1s for every die, in the end.
Many DMs use 10 feet as the minimum distance for real loss. A fall under 10 feet maybe does not cause damage, or the DM handles that as they want. One DM removed the first 1d6 because a 10-foot fall for heroes seemed like nothing.
But after someone fell 10 feet on concrete, that rule was quickly changed back.
Because fall damage is technically bludgeoning, any resistance against licking would reduce it. You also could put big spears below to make it piercing damage, or blades as a funnel for slashing damage. The type of damage changes depending on what you land on.
You take the damage at the end of the turn when you fall. So, during your turn, you can do things to reduce it. Monk skills, feather fall, teleporting or grabbing a rope all work.
There are ways to beat the limit also, and maybe take a total of 30d6 damage. Even so, if you are careful, the chance to die because of a fall is quite low.
Uncapped fall damage hurts martial characters more than casters. Martials have more hit points to survive such things, but casters have tools and skills that allow them to fly. A funny theory is that DnD worlds have higher air pressure with lower gravity; that explains why so many things can fly and why falling hurts less.
Falls and big heights are some of the few things that can entirely kill a player, and most veteran players recall at least one or two stories about jumping to their doom.
