POSSIBLE HOUSE RULES FOR
3e D&D Dungeon's Master's Guide
Chapter One: Dungeon Mastering
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"In-Game" and "Out-of-Game" can be misleading and were poorly chosen. Use IC (In Character) and OOC (Out of Character) instead.
(Is a player in the game? Yes. He's In Game then. Their choice for this term is potentially more confusing. They don't even use it consistently. On page 13, they say: "Consider scaling back the computer's in-game use..." Is the computer in the game world? Not hardly. IC and OOC terms are more intuitively obvious)
Chapter Two: Characters
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Assassin: Alignment: Assassins tend toward evil, but this is not an absolute. Even lawful good assassins are possible. The vast majority, however, are evil, neutral, or chaotic in their outlooks.
Special: Naturally, if an assassin is of 'good' alignment, instead of murdering someone they would have to complete a quest.
(James Bond might be considered an assassin, license to kill, for king and country and all that. Alignments for classes should more often be given as strong tendencies, and not as absolutes, to avoid artificial rules forcing such rare and rather unique individuals from existing, for they surely do exist, however rarely.)
Chapter Three: Running The Game
Chapter Four: Adventures
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Falling Damage: 20d6 is the maximum falling damage, but this assumes air friction (terminal velocity). If no air resistance is there, use 1d6 with no limit for each 10 feet.
Furthermore, jagged rocks, spikes, etc. hitting the falling victim may cause considerably more damage, but this is not falling damage and is not restricted to or part of the 20d6 limit. Such 'spikes' or 'jagged rocks' may only do 1d4 or 1d6 damage each, or they may have damage multipliers (like a lance for a charging monster). The DM should use a multiplier equal to the number of 20 foot increments (or fraction thereof). i.e. 1 for 0 to 20 feet, 2 for 20 to 40 feet, 3 for 40 to 60 feet, 4 for 60 to 80 feet, etc.
EXAMPLE: Martock the warrior trusts his stamina and jumps off a 40 foot cliff thinking to give chase to the escaping orc. Poor Martock. Even with a deliberate leap and good jump skill check, this is still 1d6 subdual damage and 2d6 falling damage. But he didn't think about the jagged rocks below. The DM also adds 1d6 x 3 or 3d6 more for each jagged rock he hits (and the DM may rule he hits 1d2 of them, 1d3, or more). The multiplier of 3 is used in this example since the fall is between 40 and 60 feet. Lesson. Look before you leap.
Damage of this magnitude may often 'fall' under the Massive Damage rule (PHB page 129).
Chapter Eight: Combat (PHB Page 129, Massive Damage).
Finally, deliberately falling more than 40 feet (on hard surfaces or more than 80 feet in water) is like cutting your own throat with a dagger. Such damage is not limited to 1d4 dagger damage, nor would deliberate, almost suicidal leaps into chasms or off high cliffs be 'safe' even if you think your PC has enough hit points to survive. Do not think you can deliberately swan dive off a cliff and expect your PC's massive hit points to save them. Not only would the massive damage rule apply, the DM may add critical hit damage (akin to back stab damage). You may end up with special injuries (like broken bones), or a further damage multiplier (suggested at 1d4 x Nd6 where N equals the number of 10 foot increments) for deliberately diving off a cliff.
(Most hit points beyond the first hit dice are justified as it assumes you, your skill, and your god or your luck (or whatever) are doing their best to avoid injury. If your PC decides to deliberately do something like what is suggested above, the DM may and should add this additional damage to account for it. Note, in this abstract, the extra damage isn't really extra damage but more of a measure of how many fewer hit points your character would have for a self-inflicted wound. It just amounts to the same thing).
Chapter Five: Campaigns
Chapter Six: World-Building
Chapter Seven: Rewards
Chapter Eight: Magic Items
Appendix/Index:
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© April of 2001
by
James L.R. Beach
Waterville, MN 56096