Trip or Grease Spell on Stairs

[Lud the Itinerant]

I have a fight likely to take place in and about a stairwell and I was wondering when someone is tripped via the combat action or goes prone via a grease spell while on the stairs would this mean the person is in danger of tumbling down the stairwell and taking additional damage?

I couldn't find anything specific during a quick search online and wondered if there were rules I had missed or how people may have house ruled it in the past. I know I have an NPC with a trip build and I foresee the Party wizard firing off a grease spell, so I wanted to prepare for those eventualities.

Any help appreciated.

[Claxon]

There aren't rules for covering such a situation.

Falling damage is based on a straight fall without anything to break your fall, where as when falling down stairs you're in contact with the stairs most of the time. I would say this would grant at most half as much damage as a normal fall for falling down the stairs.

Strictly speaking, trip causes you to go prone in the square you were standing in, same for grease.

[Alric Rahl]

This is one of those instances that requires you as the GM to make a decision.

Best thing to do would be to think more on how the stairs were constructed. is it more of long stair case, in which case the actual stairs would be wider and longer and maybe stop a character a couple down from falling too far. or are they more steep and sloped up, in this case I would assume that yes since each stair probably only has a couple inches of landing than the character would fall down.

Next consider where the wizard might place his spell. How wide are the stairs. 10' he could cover 2 10ft wide squares with grease. if its only 5ft wide he is allowed (I believe) to cover 20ft in a line as that is all the space provided for when he places the spell and so it spreads out to fill out to his maximum allowed area, however this would only be true if the stairwell is in between walls that go from floor to ceiling. if there is a railing you can rul that the excess drops to the floor below so he only covers a 10ft line on the stairs.

Next does the staircase have a railing? if so perhaps the character falling could get another Reflex save to catch himself from falling to far, the DC of which is either based on the same as the Spell or on the CLimb skill which I believe has a rule for catching yourself.

All things to consider but there is unfortunately no rule to how this would work it just requires you to make a decision. I always try and make a decision and then explain it logically to the PC's why I made such a call, 90% of the time they agree its fair.

EDIT: I believe you are asking because you anticipate your PC asking if he would fall down the stairs. While you can use the Rules to say they fall prone in the square and dont move, most players like the flavor of environmental things like this happening. Especially since we have all seen in movies when someone at the top of the stairs slips on grease they fall to the bottom. And I view RPG tabletop games as cinematic movies your characters are actors in. And adding that they take only half damage from falling because they are in contact with the stairs will more than satisfy your players. they just want to know its something they can doo and visually looks funny and cool.

[Lud the Itinerant]

Just a quick thank you for the information and input, folks!

In all honesty, the PCs got cold feet about the encounter, so it never happened, but it will not be information given in vain, I assure you!

[James F.D. Graham]

Too little, too late but I would use the rules for steep slopes found under the Environment section:

Steep Slope wrote:

Characters running or charging downhill (moving to an adjacent square of lower elevation) must succeed on a DC 10 Acrobatics check upon entering the first steep slope square. Mounted characters make a DC 10 Ride check instead. Characters who fail this check stumble and must end their movement 1d2 × 5 feet later. Characters who fail by 5 or more fall prone in the square where they end their movement.

Specifically, I'd use the part that says falling moves them a few squares. Makes sense for tripping/slipping down some stairs.

[Cleanthes]

Interestingly, in 3.5 the spell description talked about this sort of situation explicitly. It included a paragraph that said: "The DM should adjust saving throws by circumstance. For example, a creature charging down an incline that is suddenly greased has little chance to avoid the effect, but its ability to exit the affected area is almost assured (whether it wants to or not.)"

It does not, however, include rules for damage from falling down stairs.