InBaldur’s Gate 3, fall damage can knock your party members prone in combat, leaving them vulnerable to enemy attacks, but it’s just as dangerous outside turn-based mode. The notoriousshortcut to the Underdark from the Blighted Villagewill even play a humiliating cutscene of your character’s death if you jump in without preparations.
Most players opt for Feather Fall to avoid fall damage, and it will indeed save you the embarrassment of crashing to your death. However, there are more ways to avoid or negate fall damage when jumping from significant heights, and in many cases, you don’t even need to raid the local traders for the Feather Fall consumables for that. Here are all the options and whether they’llsave you from the notorious Underdark death.
9Blood of Lathander
Stand Back Up After The Fall
One of thebest weaponsin Baldur’s Gate 3,the Blood of Lathander macecan be obtained rather early in the Rosymorn Monastery (aka the Githyanki Creche) in the Mountain Pass. It’s incredibly useful in Act 2 of the game, thanks to its Lathander’s Light and Sunbeam abilities, but it has another great trick to ease your journey.
Lathander’s Blessing allows you to immediately restore 2-12 HP after dying once per Long Rest. Unlike theDeath Wardspell, Lathander’s Blessing doesn’t discriminate against fall damage, allowing you to go for that desperate jump in a dire situation.Surprisingly, it even helps you survive the semi-scripted Underdark fall.
8Diving Strike
Greet Your Enemies From Above
Only available to one Barbarian subclass, Wildheart, Diving Strike is a Weapon action that enables you to jump down at your enemy, crushing them with the might of your weight. Its notoriety for not working half of the time doesn’t mitigate its main advantage: when performing Diving Strike, you don’t take any fall damage.
While Diving Strike completely negates fall damage, it’s very context-sensitive. This ability needs to be aimed at an enemy who is below you, so you can’t use it to traverse any terrain, unless you’re in combat and have someone asking to be crushed in a convenient position.Thus, Diving Strike won’t take you to the Underdark.
7Crushing Flight
Owlbears Crush Any Party
Crushing Flight is a unique action available to Owlbears and Druids capable of assuming the Wild Shape of Owlbears. With this ability, you’re able to leap at an enemy to deal damage that scales with your character’s level, weight, and falling distance. Much like Diving Strike, Crushing Flight prevents you from taking fall damage.
Arguably, Crushing Flight is more useful since its use is not restricted to combat. This Class action can be activated when you see fit, so it’s a solid way of negating fall damage during your journey to Baldur’s Gate.Unfortunately, trying to use Crushing Flight on the Underdark chasm will still instantly kill your Druid.
6Landing on Web Surfaces
Soft And Sticky Breaks The Fall
There are several ways to create web surfaces. Magic-wielding Classes can do it using a level two spell Web; Phase Spiders have a special Web action; and anyone can conjure webs thanks to craftable Web Grenades. Web surfaces are hard to navigate as they slow or Enweb anyone within, but they also negate fall damage.
When you don’t have other methods of breaking fall damage, web surfaces are a solid option, albeit rather contextual. The setup required isn’t always available since not every party has a webcaster or a bag of Web Grenades.It’s also impossible to Web the Underdark landing platformbefore getting there.
5Slow Fall
At Least, It Won’t Hurt As Much
Exclusive to Monks, Slow Fall is a Reaction that allows these dextrous characters to gain Resistance to fall damage. Slow Fall is the least preferable of all the options since, instead of negating fall damage completely, it merely halves it.It’s alsoonlytriggered when an enemy pushes your character, which is just lame.
Adding to its imperfections, Slow Fall comes at the great expense of one Reaction slot. Due to these factors, its use is limited to very specific combat scenarios. If your Monk is pushed from a great height, Slow Fall will help you survive the fall, but that’s it.It’s impossible to use this Reaction when jumping into the Underdark chasm.
4Misty Step
For Those Scared Of Heights
The best repositioning spell in Baldur’s Gate 3,Misty Stepis available to most magic-wielding Classes and all Githyanki characters at Level Five and above. Misty Step allows for instant teleportation in a large radius, and there are several items that allow non-magical characters to use this ability even if they don’t know it by default.
Misty Step solves the fall damage problem elegantly: there is no damage if there is no fall. Whyjumpwhen you canteleport? This makes Misty Step a great choice for traversing the lands of Faerun, reaching secret locations, and repositioning during combat.You can even cast this spell on the Underdark chasm, butit won’t save you.
3Wild Shape: Dire Raven
Flap Your Little Wings To Survive
Available to all Druid characters early in the game, Wild Shape is a Class action that turns your character into an animal.Each Shape has unique abilities,with Dire Raven being the only Wild Shape that grants flight. It’s a great choice for reaching distant platforms, bypassing obstacles, and effortlessly changing elevations.
The Dire Raven Shape is useful for exploration, but it doesn’t fare too well in combat due to its low hit points and weak attacks. Also, both assuming and breaking out of a Wild Shape require action slots, so you’ll likely have to wastetwoturns if you want to use it to avoid fall damage in combat.But flying into the Underdark has never been easier!
2Grant Flight
Look, You’re Not Even Falling
Luckily, you don’t have to turn into a bird every time you want to fly. The Grant Flight spell, which is available to most spellcasting Classes, allows you to give your characters the ability to Fly for ten turns. While Grant Flight costs a spell slot, it makes your party very maneuverable in combat and casual exploration alike.
There are ways to make the Fly action available to youpermanently, too, like turning into Half-Illithid and acquiring this ability. When Flying, you don’t take any fall damage and can easily change elevations without spending additional actions on it.Just like with the Wild Shape Flight, you can Fly right into the Underdark.
1Feather Fall
Negate Fall Damage With Ease
Of course, nothing breaks fall damage quite like the spell that was specifically designed for it.Feather Fallgrants your character and their allies Immunity to fall damage, and that’s it. You don’t get to fly or teleport around, attack enemies, and be brought back from the dead as with other options, but you won’t die from the fall.
The Feather Fall spell only requires a Level One spell slot in combat and acts as a Ritual spell outside the turn-based mode. It’s the perfect means to an end of not breaking your legs — and for all of you desperate to conquer the nasty Underdark shortcut, great news:only Feather Fall activates the special descent cutscene.
