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How can I become immune to fall damage?

I don’t mean things like feather fall that slow your descent or flight that prevents it from happening altogether; I'm more looking for an option that lets you fall, brush yourself off, and leave like nothing happened.

Non-spell solutions are preferred. I’m character building in E6 for a contest; Pathfinder content isn't allowed. The distance of the fall does not matter; I need something more universal.

V2Blast
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user63468
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    Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already and see the [help] or ask us here in the comments (use @ to ping someone) if you need more guidance. Good Luck and Happy Gaming! – Someone_Evil Apr 27 '20 at 14:39
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    Uh... DR doesn’t protect against environmental damages, only normal attacks. One of the reason why it’s not as good as Wizards thinks it is. But no, the distance of the fall does not matter. I need something more universal. Source: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/36745/how-do-i-determine-number-of-damage-sources-for-calculating-damage-reduction/36754#36754 – user63468 Apr 27 '20 at 14:52
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    It'd be useful if the contest's restrictions were provided and what you're trying to do. That way answers could be tailored to your need. (The site calls this an X/Y Problem: The question asks about immunity to falling damage, but with more information answers may be able solve the problem in such a way that immunity to falling damage is unnecessary.) – Hey I Can Chan Apr 28 '20 at 03:23
  • I’m trying to capitalize on the fact that falling damage bypasses DR, and hopefully AC if you’ve seen the question I just posted. The main thing is that I’m going straight fighter with an LA +0 Large race, trying to get myself a high Jump mod and as much garbage to carry on person as possible, so to deal more d6s of damage. However, this is E6 so I can only take so many feats. – user63468 Apr 28 '20 at 15:54
  • If this is for an optimization contest rather than for actual play, that's also relevant. – Mark Wells Apr 28 '20 at 17:26
  • Added that, but just want it to be slightly more subtle, because it’s an anonymous contest that unmasks users after judging finishes, and I plan to participate in it more than once. – user63468 Apr 28 '20 at 17:28
  • Are there any source limitations? What makes 'be Pun-Pun' not the answer for you? – Please stop being evil Apr 28 '20 at 17:48
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    ...that Pun-Pun is illegal in any sane game? – user63468 Apr 28 '20 at 17:50

2 Answers2

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Note: this answer has been posted before I knew it was for e6.


Fall damage is, well... damage.

So, the trivial answer is: be immune to damage.

Find a way to gain regeneration (unless it's damage of a specific type, it gets converted to nonlethal damage) on a character that is immune to nonlethal damage.

Being actually immune to the nonlethal damage is for the "it did nothing to me" effect, but if crashing really hard and then springing back with regeneration is ok, just regeneration will do.

For immunity to nonlethal damage, take enough levels in the Warforged Juggernaut or Bone Knight (Five Nations) prestige classes, both from the Eberron setting, or you can use a number of spells that provide it, as long as they don't turn you into a construct or an undead, which would bring your Con to - and remove your regeneration.

Zachiel
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  • Isn’t that basically just going Emerald Legion? I wasn’t looking for a broad solution to damage like that. – user63468 Apr 27 '20 at 17:07
  • Then I guess the most I can do is halve the damage with an armor enhancement. Let's hope somebody comes up with a different solution. – Zachiel Apr 27 '20 at 18:28
  • Thanks for trying anyway. – user63468 Apr 27 '20 at 18:32
  • I've never played 3.5e, but if trolls in that edition are similar to 5e, then they only die if they take fire or acid damage, meaning they'd survive any fall without requiring prestige classes. Would that also work in 3.5e? You'd obviously need to polymorph into a troll for that (unless 3.5e has some way to apply a troll's regen to your natural form), but you already listed the snowflake ooze as a polymorph target, so that doesn't seem to be an issue. – PixelMaster Apr 28 '20 at 10:43
  • I mean, if you really wanted to go for that the best option is to Ability Rip from a War Troll(regen except vs. acid), then Astral Seed it permanently to your body. Afterwards, dip in the Pugilist fighter variant class’s immunity to non lethal, and throw on acid immunity through black half-dragon or something. Fire immunity is relatively easy to bypass through holy fire. – user63468 Apr 28 '20 at 17:31
  • @user63468 I don't think I'd call "[w]henever the pugilist suffers nonlethal damage, the damage is reduced by a number equal to the pugilist's Constitution bonus" (Dragon #310 37–8) actual immunity to nonlethal damage. Is my Dragon wrong? Is there another reading of the iron jaw feat-ish thing that I'm unaware of? (If the latter is a yes then I'll gladly pose a new question.) – Hey I Can Chan Apr 28 '20 at 19:37
  • Shoot, you’re right. I knew the pugilist factored in their somewhere, but my bad memory messed me up. I actually meant Shake it Off, which you can then mix with Troll-Blooded. There’s an excessive number of ways to become immune to both types of damage! – user63468 Apr 28 '20 at 19:49
  • @user63468 Ah. That one. Cool. The feat-ish ability shake it off, in part, says, "The pugilist develops non-lethal damage only" (Dragon #310 38). Again, is my Dragon wrong? Was there an errata to it saying that the words immunity to were omitted? – Hey I Can Chan Apr 28 '20 at 19:59
  • If they can only develop non-lethal damage, doesn’t that mean they’re immune to lethal damage under RAW? I meant that I accidentally mixed up immunity to lethal with immunity to non-lethal. – user63468 Apr 28 '20 at 20:32
  • @user63468 Maybe pose a new question? I know that, for instance, many threads on the GitP forums say that shake it off makes the pugilist immune to nonlethal damage, but am I just underthinking that the phrase develops non-lethal damage only is, at the very least, not exactly standard rules terminology (and possibly even a nonsense editing error)? – Hey I Can Chan Apr 28 '20 at 21:19
  • Wouldn't anything that can prevent or neutralize 120 hp of damage do the trick? – nijineko Apr 29 '20 at 01:36
  • @nijineko I look forward to that E6 answer. – Hey I Can Chan May 01 '20 at 08:35
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The boots of landing (Magic Item Compendium 77–8) (500 gp; 1 lb.), in part, says, "While wearing boots of landing, you land on your feet no matter how far you fall, and you take 2 fewer dice of damage from the fall than normal (thus, a fall of 20 feet or less deals you no damage)." To be clear, the MIC update of the boots removes the 1/day limit of the linked version from the Expanded Psionics Handbook. (And if the MIC can even make this change should be answered by the table's primary sources; see here.)

Adding nine boots of landing effects to existing boots of landing has a price of 7,500 gp according to the MIC on Improving Magic Items (233), therefore 8,000 gp total. If the DM rules that the effects of multiple boots of landing don't combine for a cumulative effect, you might be out of luck acquiring immunity to falling damage with a reasonable expenditure of resources. However, if the DM rules that the effects of multiple boots of landing are cumulative then the wearer of the boots of landing-landing-landing-landing-landing-landing-landing-landing-landing-landing should be dealt no damage by most falls as the damage is reduced by 20 dice (see here).

Similar but less useful is the magic armor special ability landing (12) (4,000 gp; 0 lbs.) that had its SRD prerequisite for creation changed to the feather fall spell but was otherwise unchanged: The wearer "ignore[s] any damage dealt by the first 60 feet of a fall." However, since the first 60 ft. of a fall only happens once, adding the ability landing to one's armor more than once is a waste. Still, if the creature's not going higher than 60 ft. there's no question that the ability landing works. (And it's 80 ft. if the creature's also wearing normal boots of landing, so there's that.)

(This DM would likely allow the 10-boots workaround simply because what's desired seems unreasonably difficult to acquire otherwise and theoretically inoffensive but would make it clear that this sets no precedent.)

Otherwise, incorporeality (Dungeon Master's Guide 294–5), the 1st-level Sor/Wiz spell feather fall [trans] (Player's Handbook 229), the special ability slow fall (like that of the monk), and abilities, items, and spells that have like effects seem to be what the game expects folks to use to avoid falling damage, and none of those are particularly useful for the question's purposes. I mean, for example, like this fine answer mentions, a blanket immunity to damage works, but that is often considered unbalanced.

Hey I Can Chan
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