I liked the "fall distances" picture, Kyle. I'm saving that as a handy example.
I made a slight error earlier. An Assassin in the new rules could potentially fall unharmed upto 18m by
Rank 3 (not 5) - if they choose to forego
Alchemical Techniques. It's still a serious specialisation, though.
As Kyle makes clear, a fall of that magnitude is asking for serious injury or death to the vast majority of people. The fact that survival is possible (by rolling minimum on a series of d20), but highly unlikely, does imply that the standard falling rules do work.
The questions are whether Assassins have quasi-mystical powers that allow them to fall great distances without trouble, and is this desirable in terms of game balance? As Damian May says; these are characters who can learn to feign death and even to walk through walls(!) - they are not
ordinary people. In terms of the game though, a fall of 12m, or even 18m, is effectively being able to jump out off the top of a castle tower and simply keep on running... is this a bit much at Rank 3?
I can't help thinking of the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" when I read some of these rules...