Distribution of fall damage between the falling and the fallen upon. How does it apply when the damage is reduced by other means?

Question

I'm playing an Echo Knight/Path of the Giant Goliath. Or at least he will be if this question goes the way I hope it does. The intent is to rage, go large or giant sized (depending on PotG lvl). Then float his Echo over a group of enemies and teleport trade places with it. Falling onto a group of enemies smaller than him. The idea being that they at least hopefully fall prone.

The other factor I need to include is the use of the Perfect Landing Feat, from the Humblewood source book. Our DM allows such things, so I'm hoping to use it this way. It says:

Years of living at great heights have taught you how to fall more gracefully. You gain the following benefits:

• Increase you Dex score by 1.
• Reduce the damage die for fall damage from a d6 to a d4.
• You do not fall prone after taking fall damage.
• You do not take damage for the first 30 feet of your fall.

All this sounds good for what I want in getting enemies into the prone condition with a Bonus Action. But the optional fall rules from Tasha's does not make sense to me in this instance. It reads:

If a creature falls into the space of a second creature and neither of them is Tiny, the second creature must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be impacted by the falling creature, and any damage resulting from the fall is divided evenly between them. The impacted creature is also knocked prone, unless it is two or more sizes larger than the falling creature.

I've read the answers to another question on this topic, and it gave me some hope for applying fall damage along with knocking them prone. Such as the rage resistance to the fall bludgeoning damage only applies to the Barb and is not considered when splitting the damage.

But the part of the Perfect Landing feat stating that my guy takes no damage from the first 30 feet. I do not believe it makes any sense that the enemies would also receive no damage. Nor does it make sense to have their received damage reduced to d4's instead of d6's if he falls more than 30 feet. This reduction in damage is due to my guy's ability to take it due to his toughness. Unlike the Monk's slow fall ability which is reducing the damage inflicted by the fall. That makes complete sense to me.

So how would you suggest to best work the damage here? My hope is they take half of what would be considered normal damage from such a fall. They take half of 3d6 from 30 feet and my guy takes none. If he falls from 60 feet, he takes the 3d4 damage, but they should take half of the normal 6d6. That's how it makes sense to me. What say you?

**Thank you, Jack, for that correction. I amended the post to reflect it. And thanks for the welcome.

Answer 1

RAW, the impacted creature also takes reduced damage

The way the Tasha's Cauldron of Everything optional rule works is you roll the total falling damage and then divide by 2:

any damage resulting from the fall is divided evenly between them.

This means the reduced damage from the Perfect Landing is what is divided so for your 30 feet and 60 feet cases:

• 30 feet: you would take 0 damage, the impacted creature would take 0 damage
• 60 feet: the fall damage equals 6d4 which is then divided into you and the impacted creature

Talk to your DM about house ruling your interpretation

Your DM could very well agree that your reduced-damage landing shouldn't reduce the impact damage of the fall, and may house rule to permit the additional damage of your tactic.

I personally wouldn't allow this disparate damage since the reduced damage is a consequence of landing gracefully to reduce the force applied to your body (likely by increasing the time over which the momentum is transferred). This would in turn (from Newton's third law) reduce the force applied to the ground you land on, or in this case the creature you land on. That said, I could definitely see a different DM disagreeing.

In any case, RAW your tactic deals reduced damage, but talk to your DM about your interpretation.

Falling Onto Multiple Creatures

You also mention that you'd like to fall onto multiple creatures with this tactic:

Falling onto a group of enemies smaller than him. The idea being that they at least hopefully fall prone.

It isn't clear from the rules what happens if you fall onto multiple creatures. The rule uses singular language to describe the "impacted creature" so you may only be able to deal the damage and prone condition to one target using this fall.

Again, talk to your DM about how this would work before attempting it in a session.