>A domestic cat nearly always dies from a ten-foot drop
>An elephant has a very good chance of surviving a fall from a hundred feet or more
Clearly and indisputably, out of all the various rules of D&D, the way fall damage is handled is the silliest of them all.
>>44092871
was it 3.0 that had size give a bonus to climbing, resulting in the potential for tree-elephants?
Yeah, the flight and falling rules are fairly bad. But the size rules don't help either, since they only really reflect volume and not mass.
>>44092871
>>An elephant has a very good chance of surviving a fall from a hundred feet or more
How is that not realistic? I mean - show me one case where elephant died after such a fall.
>>44092871
This is one of those Rule 0 scenarios where a good gm would use his common sense as opposed to poor rules.
>>44092912
More massive creatures are less resistant to extreme shock.
The more mas something has, the more momentum, and thus the greater a fall of a given size will hurt it.
Ants on the other hand basically can survive any drop, because at terminal velocity, the force of hitting the ground is still minuscule.
>>44092912
Elephants have died from lesser drops, especially in tennessee.
Add size modifier to falling damage. Small creatures take half the damage from a fall, tiny creatures a quarter, large creatures double, huge creatures four times as much, and so forth.
Problem solved.
>>44092895
I think elephants had a climb speed
>>44092912
Elephants can't even jump. They're not good at surviving falls.
>>44093060
To the stat blocks!
>>44092871
>>44093059
If we start trying to apply the square-cube law to fantasy gaming, we'll find no end of things to nitpick. Every edition of D&D finds a place to draw the line and say "Yeah, I know this thing shouldn't even be able to support its own weight, but I don't give a shit." Dragons can fly, giants can walk, and halflings can be handled in almost the same way as humans twice their size and eight times their mass, because magic, motherfuckers.
>>44093329
It's far easier to accept things that aren't true in our world in the first place. We don't have halflings or dragons or magic, but we do have elephants, and elephants go SPLAT! when you drop them any real distance.
>>44093289
>>44093355
But rules that accounted for every possible event happening to every size of creature would be needlessly complicated. Focusing on things happening at the human scale is complicated enough.
>>44093289
>>44093364
So I looked trough, but there were no climb speed in 2e or 3.5 sources I quickly flicked trough.
That does not mean elephants can't climb.
3.5 elephants have str 30, so their str modifier is +10.
This gives them climb skill of 10.
So, if elephant is given enough time in a non-stressful situation(take 10), they could climb a tree(dc 15) and ambush unsuspecting people by jumping on them.
Even in a hurry they could climb a tree quite easily 10 feet per turn. You'd have to be quiet quick in order to catch a climbing elephant.
In short, elephants are quicker and better climber than Peasant NPCs who do it as their job.
>>44093503
Interestingly, if we go by RAW then they can't climb as they lack hands.
>You need both hands free to climb, ...
This is also a place where common sense and RAI takes over and says no.
>>44093811
Ah, I knew I missed something. Well it was funny so long as it lasted.
>>44092921
This. If you attempt anything else, you're an autist.
>>44093847
Or have a sense of humor commonly found in children.
I think the answer to all this is to play GURPS.
>>44093846
It's okay, we still have the fun of strapping magical indestructible coils to the undereside of an elephant's legs and seeing how high it can bounce until it dies.
>>44093811
How does that work for species (monsters, magical creatures) with more than two hands? Do they need two free, all of them free or what?
>>44093847
>>44093868
Wel, yeah. we're talking D&D rules after all.
>>44093889
They need 2 hands to be free but they can charge full price for all the rest of their hands.
>>44093889
Common sense says two hands.
>>44093811
Great, now ONLY Dire Elephants can fucking climb.
>>44093984
I dont see any hands there. So nope.
>>44094054
Well, it has more than enough things to grab with.
>>44094072
But the RAW says hands, and since we are going only by RAW, then they cant climb even though they have plenty of ranks in it.This is why RAW arguments are stupid
>>44093811
So how do bears climb? Or goats?
>>44093811
But Goats can climb, they don't have hands.
>>44096030
You're wrong - going by rules as they are written, goats can in fact not climb.
Every single mountain goat is a filthy cheater.
>>44096014
Bear paws are like hands with very short fingers.
>>44096014
claws + limb strength, and goats just have sure as fuck footing, and presumably the depth perception to go with it.
>Always a fan of dragoon types
>Eldritch Knight can eventually get jump
>Awww yis.
>Ask my GM if I could jump for bonus damage
>Yeah but you take the fall damage too
>mfw
>>44093984
that's not a Dire Elephant, that's a Trunk Flayer
>>44096263
Pretty sure it's biologically impossible to take fall damage from any height you can actually jump into.
>>44093882
>implying GURPS isn't a meme system that nobody outside of /tg/ has ever heard of
>>44098626
If you land wrong, you could potentially do your ankle in.
But yeah.
>>44092871
>>44092895
>>44093060
>>44093503
>they could climb a tree
Lel this shit is fucking retarded.
>>44093984
Top art.
>>44093355
For example if a dragon in flight picks them up and drops them. Delicious elephant gibs, folks. Dragons love that shit.
>>44092871
Hmm, now I wonder, what's the maximum height a cat can fall from in real life and survive!
>>44103334
My friend's cat banzai'd out of a 4th story window.
It stays away from the windows now.
>>44103334
My cat fell from my overlook on my second floor and managed to be fine. I think they can survive up to about 50 feet or so.
>>44103334
I read somewhere that after about 70 feet, their chances of survival actually go up, because at that point that hit terminal velocity AND have enough time to start slowing themselves down.
But that was many years ago, and I'm not sure where I read it, so take that with a grain of salt. Or a handful. Whatever you feel it needs.
>>44103334
The terminal velocity of a household cat is not enough to make them go splat except in very specific situations, so theoretically they can survive a fall from any height.
Now, before you start bringing your cat along for that skydiving trip you have planned, bear in mind that while it's unlikely for a cat to be killed outright by a fall, it will still be quite painful for them, and they can still suffer from dislocations and the like, so don't go throwing them of skyscrapers or anything.
>>44093425
Not really?
Basically D&D lacks, well, physical scales.
I mean, you don't have to account for it, just something like a multiplier on fall damage depending on your SM. Smaller SMs are fractional. Tah fucking Dah
>>44093811
Spiders and rats also lack hands.
>>44103334
>>44103750
Basically you know how cats have that flabby belly skin? They use it as parachutes.
The cat flips over, watches the ground, and waits, and waits, hits terminal velocity, and waits. Then finally splays their legs to slow the fuck down to the point where they can catch themselves without dying.
Shorter falls are more deadly because they might not be able to flip themselves over.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_righting_reflex
>>44104045
That gif is hypnotic.
>tfw based gurps handles falling damage based on your HP total (mass) and velocity
It's entirely possible if you're wearing a TL9 or TL10 battlesuit to drop from high altitudes or even low orbit without a parachute, doing a spread eagle at terminal velocity to survive the blunt trauma. If you manage to hit a body of water you'd be roughed up, but conscious.
>>44103334
Cats are immune to gravity
Theyre likely to break their jaw from the impact but otherwise cannot be killed from a fall where they reach terminal velocity unless they hit something or the grounds uneven or what have you
>>44092871
They should probably have an ability that cats and other veyr agile creatures would get that lets them do a reflex save or dex check to negate/reduce fall damage. Fall damage in DnD is kind of pathetic anyway. A high level fighter or another class that typically has lots of hitpoints has a good chanse of surviving orbital re-entry.
Compare to Dark Heresy and the like, where the best way to kill a Daemon Prince or a Hive Tyrant isn't to shoot it with a lascannon or punch it with a powerfist, but to push it off the roof of a two-storey building and watch it splatter on the pavement.
>>44092871
>tfw I dropped my cat from more than ten drop when I was younger only for her to land and run away
>an idea to do it again crosses my mind
It'd probably kill her at this point
>>44105279
Drop a mouse 30 feet and it scurries away unharmed, drop a cat 30 feet and it limps away quickly, drop a dog 30 feet and it limps away slowly, drop a man 30 feet and he probably breaks his legs, drop a horse 30 feet and it dies screaming, drop an elephant 30 feet and it splashes.
>>44096030
They don't climb, they jump.
>>44093882
That's not funny. I want to meme about terrible rules, not play a fucking role play game like a nerd.
>>44093048Mary did no wrong!
Aren't domestic house cats also one one of the most deadly threats to level 1 characters in 3rd edition D&D?
>>44107185
Well, that part at least is realistic.
>>44092912
You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes.
>>44096263
reduce falling damage via a jump check, its in the rules
>>44093984
Doesn't look like it needs to.
>>44107531
Tumble, actually, but close enough.
>>44093811
>>44094100
>>44096055
Wait, wait! So can Cats by RAW even climb?
>>44105384
Got a source on that? I want to read about this study for reasons.
>>44104045
I still want to know why they evolved the ability to do this. Is falling out of trees that much of a problem for the species?
>>44108534
He's quoting Pratchett, Feet Of Clay I think.
>>44108617
>'Right. The smaller yez are the lighter yez fall. Well known fact. A spider'll not even notice a drop like this, a mouse'd walk away, a horse'd break every bone in its body and a helephant would spla - '
>>44108603
Considering one of their primary hunting methods is dropping at their prey from above it's not so surprising.
>>44108603
>>44108721
It's like in Winnie the Pooh.
Jagulars climb trees and shout 'hullooo!'
And when you look up, they drop on you.
>>44107163
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylbRDXKSauQ
>>44107997
Both actually, you can jump check to avoid the first 10 feet of fall damage and convert the next 10 feet into non-lethal, or do a tumble check to avoid the first 30 feet of damage entirely.
>>44108721
My cat, despite being a great climber and a great mouser/bird catcher, has a horrific tendency of getting distracted while walking along thin elevated pathways and falling off of things.
>>44108603
Yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-rise_syndrome
>>44107185
Not really; there are considerably nastier monsters things with CR low enough for a lv. 1 character to potentially end up fighting, but housecats are a lot more dangerous than one might suspect due to having multiple attacks and high iniative. At low levels when nobody has very much health it's entirely possible for a housecat to kill a PC with some lucky hits.
Housecats versus commoners (who have worse stats than even 1st level PCs) is an about even fight, slightly in the cat's favour (it probably attacks first and has more attacks, although the commoner has more hp and hits a little harder).
>>44104045
So are you saying a fat cat would have a better chance of surviving a fall due to their cushion and plentiful drag chute?
>>44113019
Have you ever tried stuffing a parachute full of grease and shit before jumping off a plane with it?
>>44108130
No, they can't. It's a funny thing to be able to point to the rules and show how interpreting it strictly as its written makes certain things utterly ridiculous.
It's a perfect example of why RAI is how interpreting the rules must be done. Which means that yes, cats can climb, if you ignore the idiocy of RAW.
>>44096014
>So how do bears climb?
with their bare hands, obviously.
>>44098626
>>biologically impossible
Dude... you can kill yourself falling out of bed.
>>44115263
Probably not if you have a controlled fall on two feet.
>>44093503
How do you hide an elephant in a cherry tree?Paint its toenails red.
>>44108534
It's a popular example in elementary Dimensional Analysis.
Pic related.
>>44105279
To be fair, that high level fighter can also fist fight a dragon so surviving a fall isn't that strange
