Falling damage

Example of falling damage.

Falling damage is the Damage a creature suffers to their Hit points, in the form of Bludgeoning damage, when they fall a sufficient distance. Falling damage is most commonly caused by Jumping from heights, being Shoved or Thrown from them, or being pushed from them by spells and abilities with knockback. Falling damage scales with the height of the fall and can additionally cause creatures to be knocked prone if the fall is high enough.

Falling damage calculation

Baldur's Gate 3 does not use the standard D&D 5e ruleset for falling damage, in which creatures take 1d6 damage for every 10ft they fall. Instead it uses its own formula in which the damage is consistent and scales more discretely as the height of the fall increases. The calculations used in the game seem to involve a lot of rounding, so the exact damage taken may not always perfectly match what you would expect from calculating it.

The amount of damage taken from falls scales linearly based on the height of the fall, dealing a percentage of the creature’s maximum health (including Temporary Hit Points):

• Falls of less than 4 m / 13 ft deal no damage.
• Falls over 4 m / 13 ft deal damage starting at 2% of the creature’s maximum health and increasing by an additional 1% for every additional 0.2 m / 1 ft fallen. The exact formula based on extensive experimentation seems to be:

${\text{Fall damage}}={\frac {{\big (}{\text{Maximum HP}}+{\text{Temporary HP}}{\big )}\times {\big (}{\text{Height}}-4{\big )}}{17}}+1\quad {\text{for Height}}\geq 4\;{\text{m}}$

• Without any damage resistance modifiers, a fall of just shy of 21 m / 70 ft will be lethal even from full HP. A fall into a chasm or outside of the playable game area will always be lethal.
• Creatures using  Displace will cause and additional 1d8Psychic damage to any creature that takes falling damage as a result of their actions.
• If the fall is caused by one creature throwing or shoving another, instead of from a jump, then certain damage affecting items or conditions will also be added to the falling damage, such as Lightning Charges or the Callous Glow Ring. These damage bonuses are applied even if the creature receiving the fall damage has the item or condition.

Example of a tooltip showing damage from a fall.

When jumping from a height great enough to deal damage, a tooltip will display the damage the creature will suffer if they jump to the targeted location. If the damage would be sufficient to kill the creature the text "Dead" will be displayed instead. This tooltip will accurately show the reduced damage from resistance to falling damage but will still incorrectly show the full damage amount for creatures resistant to bludgeoning damage. Any additional damage from displace or other effects will never be included in this tooltip, nor will flat damage reduction from features like  Heavy Armour Master. This tooltip will always suggest that a creature may be knocked prone by the fall, even if the fall is not high enough.

Prone

Falls can also cause creatures to be knocked Prone when they land. A fall will always cause a creature to be knocked prone if it deals more than 25% of their maximum HP, meaning falls of around 8m / 27ft for characters without resistance to falling damage or 12.3m / 40ft for creatures with resistance to falling damage. Creatures that are resistant to bludgeoning damage but not falling damage specifically will still be knocked prone from falls of 8m / 27ft despite receiving only 12.5% of their maximum HP in damage. Similarly, flat damage reduction does not affect the threshold.

Example

A creature that falls from a height of 5.4m / 17.7ft, with no resistance to falling damage, would be expected to take damage equal to 2% of their max health + 1% for every additional 0.2m / 0.6ft of height after damage begins, in this case giving us 2% + 7% or around 9% of a creatures max hit points from a 5.4m / 17.7ft fall. As the fall was less than 8m / 27ft, the creature will not fall prone. If the fall was caused by a shove or throw and either creature is wearing the Callous Glow Ring then the creature that falls will also suffer an additional 2 radiant damage.

Falling damage resistance and immunity

There are numerous sources of Resistance and Immunity to fall damage, some temporary from spells and consumables and some permanent from certain class or passive features.

Any source of resistance to bludgeoning damage will grant the creature resistance to falling damage and passive features such as Magical Plate will also reduce the damage, but in addition there are also sources that specifically provide resistance or immunity to only falling damage. If a creature has both resistance to bludgeoning and falling damage these effects will stack, granting a 75% reduction in the falling damage they recieve. Resistance to falling damage is not listed in the resistance section of a creature's character sheet and instead can only be seen in its list of notable features.

Sources of resistance

•  Second-Story Work: Class feature granted to rogues at level 3 if they choose the Thief subclass.
•  Slow Fall: Reaction granted to monks at level 4.
•  Aspect of the Beast: Chimpanzee: Class feature that can be taken by barbarians at level 6 or 10 if they chose the Wildheart subclass.
•  Cat's Grace: Variant of Enhance Ability availiable to bards, clerics, druids, and sorcerers at level 3 or from The Graceful Cloth.
•  Feline Fall: Passive feature unique to Cats.

Example of falling damage reduced by resistance.

Sources of immunity

•  Feather Fall: Condition granted by  Feather Fall, Potion of Feather Fall, Scroll of Feather Fall, and Corvid Token.
•  Web: Landing in the  Web surface created by this spell nullifies all fall damage from any height.
•  Veil of the Wind: Passive feature granted by Nyrulna.
•  Astral Gravity: Condition granted in the Astral Plane and the Shadowfell.
•  Unearthly: Passive feature unique to Poltergeists.

Achievements

Shove Off
Kill a creature with falling damage.