D&D 5E Feather Fall hanger on

S

sim-h

Explorer

• Jan 3, 2018

• #1

Something that came up in my campaign over a year ago is still bugging me, maybe people here have some opinions.

The situation: Thunderwave blasts a bad guy off the top of a tall tower. The bad guy uses his reaction to cast Feather Fall. As a reaction (after taking a hit reducing him to low HPs), the bard who casts it wants to leap off and grab the falling enemy to evade the other enemies outnumbering the party on top of the tower.

How would you resolve? Would it even work, if he hung on? OR would they both plummet?

In this case, I talked the player out of it, by indicating sure, he could try that, but if he failed to grab the falling enemy (dice), or the enemy wrestled him off (more dice), his L3 character was pretty much roadkill with a 120ft drop on low HPs.

The bard was KOd next round. The party were captured, but soon freed and the campaign continued, although the character in question died shortly afterwards and the player quit soon after that, when his replacement ranger refused to accept how 'Hail of Thorns' is supposed to work...but I digress...

 

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iserith

Magic Wordsmith

• Jan 3, 2018

• #2

The spell is silent on the matter of weight that a creature under its effects can carry. It seems reasonable to declare the player's approach to the goal to be uncertain as it's essentially a grapple against a defending creature. On a success, the bard grapples the villain and they both float at 60 feet per round to the ground. On a fail, the bard fails to grapple the villain and plummets. If the villain is grappled, he or she could certainly try to escape from the grapple and put the bard in a bad spot. I wouldn't go out of my way to talk to the player out of it, but I would make the stakes clear. It's risky, but with the expenditure of Inspiration or other resources, it might be worth risking, depending on the context of the situation.

The issue is the bard can't thunderwave, then make a grapple attempt in the same turn so far as I know. So we'd likely be looking at a situation where the bard would have to wait for the next turn. The villain would then be 60 feet lower which may make this a less risky tactic in that the villain's escape from the grapple would potentially be at a lower height.

 

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Cap'n Kobold

Hero

• Jan 3, 2018

• #3

Off the top of my head, I'd say that the spell grants the relative mass of a feather rather than actively applies buoyancy. So someone not under the effects of the spell would fall at the normal rate, pulling the featherfalled person with them. The hanger -on would take normal falling damage, the person under the effect of featherfall would still take no damage from the fall.

 

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Nailen

Explorer

• Jan 3, 2018

• #4

Was this from the top of Feathergale Spire by any chance?
Interesting idea. I would have mentioned the high difficulty skill check but would have allowed it if he wanted to do it.

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Nailen

Explorer

• Jan 3, 2018

• #5

Also, what was the misunderstanding on Hail of Thorns?

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jaelis

Oh this is where the title goes?

• Jan 3, 2018

• #6

I would let feather fall continue to work even if you are holding another creature. But I see a few problems with the plan.

As noted the bard would need to use their action to jump off and grapple the bad guy. And by the time the bard has a chance to act, he is already 60 ft down. That is already a pretty substantial drop. I'd probably require an Acrobatics(dex) check to hit the baddie at all, and then apply some falling damage. Maybe 3d6 for the bard and 3d6 for the baddie. If that all works out, then they could attempt the grapple.

 

S

sim-h

Explorer

• Jan 3, 2018

• #7

Nailen said:

Also, what was the misunderstanding on Hail of Thorns?

Click to expand...

The player - a lawyer by trade - insisted that the effect should occur for every attack throughout the one minute duration of the spell. As we all know, it affects the next (i.e. the first) attack that hits within that duration, and then the spell ends.

It didn't even matter since the enemies in that encounter died pretty quickly - but the player didn't like it and stormed out in a huff because "I'm not in the mood tonight..." - despite the session already being shorthanded due to a late dropout.

I didn't invite him back. He was the only player in my group not to buy a PHB, nor did he ever look any rulings up online. He just liked to live on his wits and make an argument of every point of contention for the sake of it!

 

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Nailen

Explorer

• Jan 3, 2018

• #8

Heh! It's literally the first part of the spell description..
Sounds like it's no great loss.

 

S

sim-h

Explorer

• Jan 3, 2018

• #9

Nailen said:

Was this from the top of Feathergale Spire by any chance?

Click to expand...

No comment

Well not really a spoiler that someone had Feather Fall - yes indeed!

 

S

sim-h

Explorer

• Jan 3, 2018

• #10

Thanks for the replies so far - it did occur to me I could let him try it for the drama, and then allow him to grab a ledge or overhang further down. I hardly ever cut people a break like that, and didn't want to set a precedent for super-heroics in future (suits some, but not my style of campaign).