Type: Agility Skill (roll: 9 + (DEX/5) or less) Cost: 3 Character Points for a base roll, +1 to the
roll per +2 Character Points
This Agility Skill allows a character to roll out from a fall and stand up instantly, protect himself from the effects of falls, and perform related tasks. It has four primary uses:
■ it allows a character to stand up from a prone
position without taking a Half Phase
■ it allows a character to reduce the damage caused
by (and sometimes other effects of) a fall or from being thrown
■ it allows a character to land on his feet when
Knocked Back, Knocked Down, or otherwise knocked off of his feet
■ it allows a character to maintain his balance
and/or footing on narrow, slippery, or shaky surfaces (such as a slender ledge, ice, a bobbing rowboat, a tightrope, rain-slicked pavement, or the like)
STANDING UP FROM PRONE
Normally, a character must use a Half Phase Action to get on his feet from a prone position. A successful Breakfall roll allows a character to regain his feet as a Zero Phase Action. Usually this roll is unmodified, but if the character’s Encumbered, or the surface he attempts to stand up from is espe- cially slippery or uneven, the GM may impose a negative modifier as he sees fit.
Standing from a prone position applies to being prone for any reason. This includes lying on the ground after falling or being thrown, landing on the ground after taking Knockback, sleeping in a bed, resting on a floor, and so forth. However, a character cannot use Breakfall to instantly stand up after using a Combat or Martial Maneuver that automatically makes him fall or become prone (such as a Sacrifice Throw). But he can use Break- fall in a subsequent Phase to get to his feet without taking a Half Phase Action (or possibly even in a subsequent Segment, if the GM allows him to Abort to get to his feet to eliminate the DCV pen- alty for being prone).
REDUCING FALL AND THROW DAMAGE
A character who makes a Breakfall roll only takes half damage from a fall, or no damage if he makes his roll by half or more. However, there’s a -1 penalty to the roll for every 2” fallen, so characters shouldn’t expect to use Breakfall to walk away from major falls. (At the GM’s option, making an Extraordinary Skill Roll with Break- fall would allow a character to survive a fall from virtually any height... maybe only barely, but survive nonetheless.) See page 434 of The
HERO System 5th Edition, Revised for rules about falling damage.
Similarly, a character can use Breakfall to reduce the damage he takes from any attack that throws him to the ground (such as a Martial
Throw or Takedown maneuver). With a success- ful Breakfall roll, the character only takes half damage from the attack; if he makes his roll by half or more, he takes no damage. He suffers a -1 penalty to his roll for every 2d6 damage in the attack. For instance, if a Martial Throw does 6d6 damage, the character suffers a -3 penalty to his Breakfall roll to halve or avoid that damage. If he makes it, he only takes 3d6 damage (or no damage if he makes the roll by half or more). If he fails, he takes all 6d6. In addition to the damage modifier, the hardness and evenness of the surface the character’s thrown onto modify the roll (see the Breakfall Modifiers table).
Breakfall’s ability to reduce Throw damage works even if the attack that throws the character is defined as, for example, a punch strong enough to knock the character down. Some of the damage comes from the punch, but some comes from being knocked or thrown to the ground. A successful use of Breakfall eliminates the half of the damage that comes from hitting the ground; however, it cannot eliminate the damage from the punch. In these situations, the GM should determine what part of the damage, if any, a character can avoid with Breakfall.
A single Breakfall roll lets a character either halve the damage from a Throw or retain his foot- ing (see below); he can’t do both with one roll. However, the GM may allow a character to make two rolls to do both.
Going First In The Next Common Phase
Throws (including both Grab and Throw and any Martial Maneuver with the “Throw” element) have the effect that the attacker (the person who made the Throw) automatically gets to act first (regardless of relative DEX) if he and the victim have their next Phases in the same Segment. At the GM’s option, if the thrown character makes a Breakfall roll by half, he avoids this effect, and the characters act on their DEXs like normal. This Breakfall roll is in addition to any others made to avoid Throw damage or stand up from being prone. Thus, to avoid throwing damage, avoid the “initia- tive penalty,” and get to his feet instantly, a character has to succeed with three Breakfall rolls (and must succeed with the one to eliminate the initiative penalty by half).
BREAKFALL MODIFIERS
Surface Hardness Modifier Example
Extremely Soft +1 to +3 Pillows
Soft -0 to +1 Water, a cushion or mat, extremely soft earth
Average -1 Carpeted floor, average earth or sand
Hard -2 Wooden or tile floor, packed earth
Extremely Hard -3 Cement or asphalt, metal
Evenness
Smooth or even surface -0 Floor, most sidewalks
Sloped surface -0 to -1 Hillside, ramp
Bumpy, uneven surface -1 Stairs
Cluttered surface -1 Trash-strewn alley, rocky ground
These penalties are cumulative; an extremely hard, uneven surface (say, a side- walk with a lot of broken bricks and trash lying around) will impose a -4 to the target’s Breakfall roll.
Acrobatics And Throw Damage
Characters can also use Acrobatics to avoid some effects of throws (see page 71). A character cannot perform both a Breakfall roll and an Acro- batics roll in the same Phase to resist being thrown and to reduce the damage from being thrown: he can only use one of them against a given Throw attack. However, the character could make one Acrobatics or Breakfall roll to avoid some of the effects of the Throw, and then make a separate Breakfall roll to regain his feet instantly (without taking a Half Phase). He could make an additional Breakfall roll by half in the same Phase to negate the “initiative penalty” (see above).
Riding Animals And Vehicles
A character riding on an animal or in a vehicle may use Breakfall to avoid damage if he’s thrown off or out of his conveyance.
Diving
Related to the concept of avoiding falling damage is diving. A character who wants to dive into the water safely from a great height may make a Breakfall roll to do so (and an Acrobatics roll, if he wants to look graceful while diving). Standard height modifiers apply. If the character dives into shallow water, rocky water, or the like, the GM can impose a “hardness” or “evenness” penalty from the Breakfall Modifiers Table to simulate the difficulty this imposes on the dive.
AVOIDING THE EFFECTS OF KNOCKBACK
Whenever a character suffers Knock Down, Knockback, or any similar effect that knocks him off of his feet, he can make a Breakfall roll to land on his feet, provided the effect only knocks him into the ground, not into a wall or object (see below). This is an Action that takes no time. If the roll succeeds, the character takes no damage from the Knock Down or Knockback (and doesn’t have to spend any time getting back on his feet). The roll suffers a -1 penalty for every 2” of Knockback taken, in addition to any general modifiers that apply (thus, a character who suffers only Knock- down or 1” of Knockback suffers no penalty to his Breakfall roll to keep his feet). The character still “takes” the Knockback — he still gets moved back that number of inches — but he keeps his foot- ing and avoids taking any damage from hitting the ground. Since the character’s attempting to retain his footing (in other words, to avoid being knocked off his feet), not to avoid damage from landing on a surface, modifiers for the hardness of the surface do not apply to this type of Break- fall roll.
If a character fails his Breakfall roll to keep his footing and avoid Knockback damage, he takes the inches of Knockback, suffers any damage, and ends up prone. On his next Phase he can make a Break- fall roll to stand up as a Zero Phase Action. (The GM may even let him do this on a later Segment by Aborting to get to his feet and thus negate the DCV penalty for being prone.) Failing the damage-avoid- ance roll doesn’t preclude a later roll to stand up from being prone.
Knockback Into Objects
Breakfall does not apply to avoid any of the effects of Knockback if the character is knocked into a wall, tree, vehicle, or other object. Nor is it going to reduce the effect the character suf- fers if Knockback knocks him off a cliff, into a lava pit, or the like. It only applies if the char- acter is knocked to the ground. If a character is Knocked Back into an object, he becomes prone and cannot immediately make a Breakfall roll to land on/get to his feet. However, he may make a Breakfall roll to instantly get to his feet on his next Phase (or sometimes the next Segment, by Aborting), per the usual rules. Whether the object breaks or not has no effect on this rule.
MAINTAINING FOOTING
When a character stands on a slippery, slick, shaky, or difficult ground, Breakfall is the Skill he uses to try to keep his footing (if appropriate, the GM may allow characters without Breakfall to do this using just a DEX Roll, but with a -1 or greater penalty in addition to any applicable negative modifiers). Examples include ice or icy ground, wet floors, swampy or muddy ground, or standing in the middle of a stream or river. When a character attempts to move on such ground in a stressful situation (i.e., in combat), he must make a Breakfall roll to retain his footing. The modifiers listed in the accompanying Footing Table apply.
Additionally, per page 379 of The HERO
System 5th Edition, Revised, a character is at -1 DCV and -1 DC from all attacks made while on slippery ground unless he succeeds with a Breakfall roll. Similarly, he suffers a -2 DCV and -2 DCs while on narrow surfaces such as branches, tightropes, and building ledges unless he succeeds with a Breakfall roll. In both cases this is a normal roll, unmodified by the penalties in the Footing Table.
Balancing
Similarly, a character can use Breakfall to retain his balance when walking on narrow or dif- ficult surfaces, such as tiny mountain ledges, tree branches, the edges of buildings, or tightropes (if appropriate, the GM may allow characters without Breakfall to do this using just a DEX Roll, but with a -3 or greater penalty in addition to any applicable negative modifiers). The GM should assign modi- fiers according to the nature of the surface and the difficulty of the situation (see the Balancing Table and Footing Table for some suggestions). In easy situations — such as walking on top of a balance beam for practice, or creeping along a wide ledge under excellent conditions — there’s probably no need to even make the character roll. But in a crisis or under stressful or poor conditions, the GM should require a character to make a Breakfall roll to retain his balance.
At the GM’s option, if two characters use Breakfall to walk on the same narrow, flexible surface (such as a tightrope), as a Full Phase Action they can engage in a Skill Versus Skill Contest to try to make the task more difficult for the other person. After you determine who wins the contest, the character who lost must make
another Breakfall roll to keep his footing on the surface. In addition to other standard modi- fiers for the surface, he suffers a penalty of -1 per point by which the other character won the Contest. If the roll fails, he falls off the surface (though the GM may allow him a DEX Roll to grab hold of it as he falls, or the like).
OTHER USES FOR BREAKFALL
At the GM’s option, a character can make a Breakfall roll as a Complementary Skill Roll to Stealth to represent the fact that he can walk easily on his tip-toes and keep his balance while not step- ping on objects that might make noise. The charac- ter must make the roll each Phase he uses Stealth; a bad failure (by 4 or more) may completely ruin the character’s chance to remain stealthy, even if his Stealth roll succeeds. (Alternately, the character may have to make his Stealth roll by more than he failed his Breakfall roll to keep quiet.)
If the GM uses the optional new Feint Skill (page 360), he may allow a character to use Break- fall as a Complementary Skill to the roll he makes to avoid the effects of an attacker’s feint. Part of feinting involves balance and positioning of the feet, and a character with Breakfall knows how to judge these factors and determine how they’ll affect his attacker’s action.