[RPG] Are there rules for dropping on an enethe as an attack

combatdnd-3.5efallingmovement

In our current campaign, our ninja decided to try to drop on a monster from a ledge 25 feet up, blade first. I house ruled that it would require an extra 10 to the Tumble of falling without damage, and the normal fall damage for the height would add to weapon damage. It worked well enough for our purposes, and the enemy dropped in one hit with the added sneak damage, so positioning wasn't a problem. Is there any official ruling for that situation though, in case he tries that again?

Best Answer

A character can damage someone else based on the rules for objects falling on creatures. For most characters, this won’t be much damage and even if you get it to count as a lot of damage, it’s not really an “attack” per se.

Aside from that, the only default rule is the +1 attack bonus you receive for attacking from high ground.

But with the right feats, you can fix that!

Cityscape has a short feat chain in Roofwalker and Roof-jumper, the latter of which gives you extra damage based on how far you have fallen on top of your enemy.

The Urban Class Features web enhancement for Cityscape has a Roof-dweller alternate class feature for the Barbarian, granting these two feats earlier than you usually could get them, instead of Fast Movement.

The Leap Attack feat from Complete Adventurer doubles your bonus damage from Power Attack based on horizontal movement. If you’re jumping from a height, you should be able to cover 10 feet horizontally.

Then Battle Jump from Unapproachable East is the best of them: if you drop from at least 5 feet above your opponent, your attack automatically counts as a Charge and you either deal double damage or count as a size category larger for the purposes of tripping or grappling.

Try to combine these with Pounce or with Tiger Claw maneuvers from Tome of Battle.

For more ways to optimize the art of jumping on your enemies for extra pain, I’ll point you to Little Red Raiding Hood: Guide to the Dragoon.

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