In any dice game, rolling a 20 on a 20-sided dice is a huge sign of success… or utter horror, if the DM rolls it. In combat, rolling a 20 when attacking someone means you’ve struck an artery, or the jugular, and your damage increases massively. However, critical hits in 5E work a bit differently than they do in previous editions. If you’ve played earlier editions of D&D, or if you’re brand new to the system, our DnD 5E Critical Hits guide will help you to understand things better.
DnD 5E Critical Hits Guide
A “critical hit” usually occurs in combat when you roll a 20 on an attack roll. It can also occur when you are trying to break an object and you roll a 20 on it.
D&D 5e Damage Types Overview. D&D 5e Damage Types: Resistance, Vulnerability, and Immunity. Certain monsters or characters may have abilities which make them resistant to fire damage or vulnerable to acid damage, for example. Each of these essentially acts as a modifier to the total damage taken by that specific type of damage. Specifically, I wanted to throw out some possible critical hit effects and see what people think. At the moment, I'm thinking that these would happen in addition to the usual doubled damage dice, and would apply to NPC attacks as well as PCs. Cold: speed reduced by 10 ft. (Strength save ends).
What Does a Crit Do?
When you roll a critical hit, you keep your original damage roll and roll all of the dice again. For example, Bertha rolls a critical hit on a Greataxe swing. She rolls d12+4 on the damage roll, getting a 7. She then rolls an additional d12, getting an 8. She adds that d12 to the original damage roll, totaling a 15.
Some specific weapons might have enchantments that do something on a critical hit, but those would not be useful to list out. If your weapon has a specific effect on a critical hit, make sure you read it and understand it.
In addition, some class features can change the effect of a critical hit. For example, Bertha gets her 9th level in barbarian, and gets Brutal Critical. Brutal Critical adds an extra dice to her roll for every critical hit she lands. So, her Greataxe Critical hit becomes 3d12+4.
This is much different than older editions of Dungeons & Dragons, since critical hits no longer double modifier to damage. That’s a pretty big nerf to weapon users, since you can’t double your Great Weapon Master or Sharpshooter. However, spells were completely unaffected. You can sling a critical Disintegrate and completely end someone’s existence!
Is There Any Way to Increase Critical Hit Rate?
There are a few ways to increase critical hit rate. The main source of bonus crits is the Champion archetype for Fighter. Champions, at level 3, get a critical hit on a 19-20. Then, at level 15, the range increases to include 18. That’s a 15% chance to double your weapon damage dice! Hopefully by then, you can get a bunch of dice on your weapon to maximize your damage potential!
Crit Damage Dnd 5e
In addition, the Assassin archetype for Rogue gains guaranteed critical hits on surprised opponents. If you get enough levels in Rogue, any class can get guaranteed crits… as long as you’re willing to dump levels into Rogue and another class!
Otherwise, you can get some guaranteed crits with abilities like the School of Divination’s Portent, hitting a Paralyzed or Unconscious foe, or spamming Advantage mechanics.
See Also: Conditions 5E Guide
Conclusions
I personally don’t like critical hits in 5E. As someone who adores the mechanic in older editions, the lack of doubling modifier damage for weapon swings saddens me. But, critical hits are still really important to keep in mind whenever you swing a weapon or shoot a laser. May your dice roll 20s often!
Falling in any TTRPG is a real hazard adventurers face. If your Dungeon Master likes adding elevation to their battle maps, you need to be careful or your character might find themselves plummeting straight into death saves…
…Or, mild bruising, in some cases.
In this article, you’re going to find out what fall damage is in 5e, how to calculate it, and a few other helpful tips to either present real danger to your players or remember how to keep your character alive.
First off, let’s start with what fall damage is in Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition.
What is Fall Damage?
Let’s start off with how the Player’s Handbook describes fall damage on page 183:
'A fall from a great height is on of the most common hazards facing an adventurer.
At the end of a fall, a creature takes 1d6 bludgeoning damages for every 10 feet it fell, to a maximum of 20d6. The creature lands prone, unless it avoids taking damage from the fall.'
And…that’s about it.
Fall damage in 5e is how much damage you take…from falling. It’s as simple as that.
How Do You Calculate Fall Damage in 5e?
Calculating 5e’s fall damage is easy.
- Know how far you’re falling
- Roll one six-sided die for every 10 feet fell
- Add it all up
- Factor in any resistances or vulnerabilities
- Subtract from your Current Hit Points
Now, there are ways to either reduce or negate fall damage altogether. So, let’s go over how to prevent your character’s squishy body from splattering over the ground.
How Do You Negate Fall Damage?
There are a few ways to reduce or negate fall damage in 5e.
Strictly from the rules, you’ll probably need magic to help. Spells like Feather Fall and Levitate prevent fall damage. Both of these are low-level spells. So, even though they’re kind of niche in terms of their uses, you’ll be glad your caster has them when you’re plummeting to your death.
Monks also get their Slow Fall feature at 4th level which reduces the amount of fall damage you take.
Also, any features that grant resistance to bludgeoning reduce how much fall damage you take. But remember: it can’t be resistance to bludgeoning damage from weapon attacks. If the feature explicitly states that you resist damage from a weapon attack, it doesn’t apply to fall damage because falling isn’t a weapons.
…Well, not in the strictest sense, I guess.
Fall Damage & the Acrobatics Skill
This is a bit of a house rule. But, I’ve seen a few people use some variation of it. So, I’m including it.
If you don’t like the finality of fall damage let your players make a Dexterity saving throw or roll a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to reduce the damage.
A lot of traps or damage sources allow saves to prevent or reduce damage. So, it wouldn’t be outside of the theme of DnD 5e to allow some sort of save against fall damage. Whether you elect to prevent all damage or reduce it by half is up to you.
Personally, I’d say just reduce it by half rather than prevent all fall damage. But, you do you.
Fall Damage Alternatives & House Rules
Now, one complaint I often see in regards to fall damage in 5e is the lack of realism.
Not to mention the lack of consistency in the rules themselves. The most dice you can roll for fall damage is 20d6…but a character falls way faster than that at 500 feet/round. So, why wouldn’t you roll up to 50d6? Or, even 58d6 (if you listen to Chris Perkins)?
There are loads of alternatives to fall damage in 5e.
For one, you can use the optional Massive Damage rule on page 273 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Basically, it’s a table of horrible things that happen to you if you take damage equal to or greater than half of your hit point maximum.
Now, I don’t really like this rule normally. But, it can add a bit more oomph if you want falls to present more danger to your players.
Personally, I like the idea of making it a max of 50d6 (for up to 500 feet fallen) and a Dexterity saving throw to reduce it to half. Also, for falls greater than, say, 30 feet, the Massive Damage table can come into play. Realistically, 20 foot falls are deadly to normal humans (as such, the Commoners in the Monster Manual). But, I feel like 30 feet is a good starting point to let your player characters survive short-ish falls and be the heroes they want to be.
Another fun option is the Fixing Falling Damage house rule by Eventyr. In a nutshell, their rule basis the effect of a fall on a character’s Constitution score. Not the modifier, the actual score. Which, on its own, I can appreciate since Ability Scores are only ever given love for their corresponding modifiers.
And, I have one last one, it’s both a bit more and a bit less forgiving than Eventyr’s method.
Hipsters & Dragons’ Revising Fall Damage post expands on the damage while incorporating a save. I took inspiration from this method for my own house rule because I’m a weenie and don’t like seeing my players fail. Basically, H&D implements a Hard Fall rule with a Dexterity (Acrobatics) save, maxes out the fall damage to 50d6, and sets a limit as to how far a character can fall and still make a save.
It’s brutal. But, if that’s what you’re looking for, I’ve recommend trying it in your game.
Just make sure you let your players know what fall damage rules you’ll use in your DnD 5e game.
5e Fall Damage FAQ
Here are a few frequently asked questions about fall damage in 5e.
If you have others, please leave a comment. I’ll help as best I can.
What is the Maximum Fall Damage?
Max fall damage in 5e is 120 hit points.
Rules as written, you roll a maximum of 20d6 (for up to 200 feet fallen). So, 20 times 6 equals 120 hit points of damage.
Crit Dmg Dnd 5e Stats
Now, the average fall damage is ’round abouts 70 points. So, deadly for lower levels and enough to hurt at later ones.
Is Fall Damage Bludgeoning?
Yes. Fall damage in 5e is considered bludgeoning damage.
As such, spells, features, and other abilities that affect bludgeoning damage also affect damage taken from falling.
But, it’s important to note, the wording of certain abilities is important.
For example, lycanthropes are immune to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non-magical, non-silvered weapons. Since the bludgeoning damage taken from a long fall IS NOT FROM A WEAPON, lycanthropes still take fall damage normally.
Jeremy Crawford confirmed this on Twitter in 2015.
It’s little, semantic things like that to keep an eye out for.
Does Rage Reduce Fall Damage?
Yes. The Barbarian’s Rage feature reduces fall damage by half.
This is because the wording of Rage is vague enough to cover it.
Crit Damage Dnd 5e
Since its a blanket statement without any modifiers (like the lycanthrope example above mentioning 'from non-magical, non-silvered weapons'), Barbarian’s resist fall damage in 5e while they are raging.
If you want more, Mike Mearls, former Senior Manager for the Dungeons & Dragons research and design team, confirmed that Barbarian’s resist bludgeoning damage from falling on Twitter in 2017.
How Fast Do You Fall in 5e?
This wasn’t explained in the sourcebooks until Xanathar’s Guide to Everything came out. According to page 77:
'When you fall from a great height, you instantly descend up to 500 feet. If you’re still falling on your next turn, you descend up to 500 feet at the end of that turn. This process continues until the fall ends, either because you hit the ground or the fall is otherwise halted.'
So, in short, in DnD 5e, you fall at a rate of about 500 feet per 6 seconds (1 round of combat). Or, 83.3 feet per second.
Since a round of combat takes 6 seconds (PHB, p. 189) and you fall once each turn, meaning it takes a full round to come back to your turn, we can roughly estimate the fall rate from the given information.
Alternatively, Chris Perkins suggested a character falls about 580 feet per 6 seconds, or roughly 97 feet/second. So, take whichever feels better for your game.
And, that about covers fall damage in 5e.
- Fall damage is an easy environmental hazard you can add to your game
- In the base rules, you take 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet fallen, up to 20d6 (or 200 feet)
- There are a few ways to reduce or negate fall damage through spells and other class features
- If you’re looking for a more realistic take on fall damage, alternatives exist to make it a bit deadlier
But remember; the base rules work fine and don’t require a lot of work. If you don’t want to bother with throwing a frankly ludicrous amount of dice at your players or are just starting out DMing, stick with the rules as written. There’s nothing wrong with that.
What are your falling stories? Do you use an alternative to fall damage? If so, what are your house rules? Leave a comment and we can discuss the finer points of falling in 5e.