Casting spells while flying?

[shadowevor]

1. A player (lv3 wizard) claims that he could cast a Reduce Person spell to become small size, then order his familiar owl to grab him and fly so that he could cast spell in the air.
It seems very strange to me that a tiny owl carrying a small person. But I cannot find what's wrong with this.

2. If a cone spell is casted in the air, is it actually cone-shaped or just sector-shaped?
3-dimensional caculation would be a trouble......

 

[Dandu]

1. A player (lv3 wizard) claims that he could cast a Reduce Person spell to become small size, then order his familiar owl to grab him and fly so that he could cast spell in the air.
It seems very strange to me that a tiny owl carrying a small person. But I cannot find what's wrong with this.

Doubt it will work. If you want, I suppose you could look up the owl's strength and see if it can support the caster's new weight.

2. If a cone spell is casted in the air, is it actually cone-shaped or just sector-shaped?
3-dimensional caculation would be a trouble......

Break out your algebra book and start looking up the formula for the area of a cone.

 

[Vegepygmy]

1. A typical owl with Str 4 can carry 40 pounds as a heavy load. It's certainly possible, by the book. But as DM, I would strictly enforce the encumbrance penalties, make sure the player accounts for all his gear (including such often-overlooked things such as coinage), and you can bet that enemies would be targeting the owl with attacks, which might eventually cause a rather nasty fall. Lastly, you'd be quite justified in calling for Concentration checks (DC 10 or 15 + spell level) based on the vigorous (perhaps even violent) movement.

EDIT: Oh, also...make sure you read and understand the aerial combat rules on page 20 of the DMG. Very few people do, and owls are only average fliers.

2. It's a cone spell, not a sector spell. I think that answers your question.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I thought it was a rule that a flying creature can only carry a light load aloft? At least...every flying creature that could potentially serve as a mount seems to have such text in their descriptions...

 

[paigeoliver]

The caster was probably a gnome or halfling to begin with, making them tiny size. I saw that a lot in the rules heavy Living Greyhawk environment a few years back, so it must work.

 

[Sorry_Charry]

1. A typical owl with Str 4 can carry 40 pounds as a heavy load...

Wouldn't the creature's size affect its carrying capacity? As a tiny creature, a strength of 4 would result in a heavy load of 20 pounds.

 

[Persiflage]

I thought it was a rule that a flying creature can only carry a light load aloft? At least...every flying creature that could potentially serve as a mount seems to have such text in their descriptions...

Yes, this. The owl can carry up to 6.5 pounds and still fly: 13lbs for a light load at 4 Str, halved because it's Tiny. As such, if the wizard and his gear weigh more than 52lbs before casting reduce person, the owl can't carry him.

Also, as Vegepygmy says, do make sure you understand the rules of aerial movement and combat. Just for example, the wizard's Owl has a maneuverability rating of Average and thus has a minimum forward speed it has to maintain during a round: if it can't or doesn't move 20ft during its turn, it falls.

The Rules of the Game: All About Movement articles on the Wizards website are extremely helpful for expanding on the somewhat sketchy rules in the DMG. They cover such scenarios as mid-air grappling, striking objects, stalling, free-falling, turning (changing direction also uses movement for most creatures) and so on, as well as explicitly clarifying that creatures can only fly with a light load, as does the FAQ.

You can use a fly speed only when carrying a light load or less. If your load is medium or heavy, you cannot fly; certain kinds of magical flight, such as a fly spell, don’t have this restriction. Check the description of the flying effect to be sure. A griffin or a spider-eater can carry a medium or heavy load, but it cannot fly when doing so.

You'd just as well regard these articles as definitive: it's not like there's anything much else to go by!

The easiest way to deal with the "aerial cone" problem is probably to imagine it in two dimensions, then stand it upright: you don't actually have to perform any 3D calculations at all. Think triangles. You see, despite the PHB saying "A cone-shaped spell shoots away from you in a quarter-circle in the direction you designate," I'd be inclined to simplify matters a little. I do, in fact, on the grounds that the PHB's description is self-contradictory.

If you draw it as a quarter-circle in two dimensions, the result isn't a cone when translated into 3D: a cone has a flat base by definition, and as such would look like a triangle when viewed from above in 2D. So I just draw it as a right-angled triangle of a height equal to the listed range of the cone. The maths get much easier then because you're not having to calculate arcs any more. The answer to any question of whether or not someone's in the area of effect can be answered with a calculation involving nothing more complex than a right-angled triangle.

The width of a D&D cone-shaped burst (if you accept it terminating flat rather than curved) is equal to twice the range: a 60ft cone, for instance, terminates in a circle of 60ft radius or 120ft diameter. At half the distance, it's half the diameter, and so on. Easy. Well, easier, at any rate

I mean, by all means keep the PHB non-cone-shaped-cone-shaped burst if you prefer, but be prepared to exercise your geometry skills as a consequence.

 

[Callista]

He's probably also having to make concentration checks to cast in mid-flight.

 

[hippos purros]

it leads me to wonder, how is the owl carrying him, cuz if it grabs both his arms then he cant cast spells with somatic componenents and i assum your casters wearing a robe so if hes holding him by the robe he might fall out of it while doing his somatic components. and ofcourse there would be a concentration check, i can bartely keep my eyes open while flying in a plane let alone on the grasp of an owl, thirdly you cant teach an animal a trick (which pick up and carry would be) unless you had handle animal and then it would be a push check. also he might re correct himself and say he wants to fly on the owls back, hed need an exotic sadle and a ride check, im not to sure how your game works but i hope this helps


and cones a cone, algebra sucks but its how it works, i guess you could also think of it as an x,y graph if hes 30 feet in the air then it will hit a 6x6 area assuming the cone is even


hint you could give to the pc is to hit the owl with bulls strength to increases his Str to better carry the owner if you factor in weight

 

[Dross]

thirdly you cant teach an animal a trick (which pick up and carry would be) unless you had handle animal and then it would be a push check.

I wonder if this is still true for familiars. From the PHB on familiars:
Int: The familiar’s Intelligence score. Familiars are as smart as people,
though not necessarily as smart as smart people.

They do do a lot of other things that could be considered a trick that don't require such checks.