Kemrain said:
Does this mean that I could start from a standing position on level ground, and fly up, say, 15 feet, before diving at someone in a charge to get the +2 charge bonus, the +1 higher ground bonus, and automatic double damage?
What if I didn't fly straight up but climbed at a 45 degree angle?
- Kemrain the Avian.
I would not think so. You have a 180 degree turn in the first example and a 90 degree turn in the second despite both being straight from a bird's eye perspective. I suppose my assertion between bird's eye views and vertical viewing deserves some qualification.
Let's start with this example: you and your opponent are on the exterior of a ginormous sphere. You are literally a spec by comparison. You run towards your foe intending to charge. We'll set up dimensions so that your body runs along the z axis forward and backwards is along the y and left and right is along the x. You move in a straight line in the x-y plane because your direction of movement is directly on the y axis. However, in the z y plane you are moving along a convex curved line. Can you charge?
Well as you might have guess, that ginormous sphere is intended to be a planet with the obvious correlary, that yes you can charge, even though your y-z movement is not precisely linear.
Take this a step further and say now the sphere is far tinier - say a 200' radius and you are now on the inside. You start at point a and move to a point b whose tangent line forms an isoscelesl triangle with the radii to a and b. In laymen's terms you start up the slope on a particular side of the sphere and move opposite the sphere down the center and then up the opposite side. You have in sense simply changed the arc curvature of your movement from the former planet example. I'll ignore the slippery slope this argument leads to (no pun intended).
It seems within the spirit of the rules to allow some sort of curvature to a charge so long as there is no x-y nonlinear movement. All of this of course only pertains to grounded characters - a caveat I did not include in the post above. Incorporating 3-D motility changes this a bit. The spirit is the same, but some additional qualifications are necessary for the lawyers.
A jumping character or aerial character I would think should follow the same general principle as the curvature example above. For example, a grounded character that leaps over a chasm doing a flying jump kick into an enemy on the other side I would think should be entitled to a charge. let's presume the following setup (in the z-y plane): (..=space, _=air, X=enemy, A=character)
A.....____......X
Technically the character ought to be moving as follows to get the charge bonus:
->->->->->->->
However, really the character would move something like this (it is a bit less fluid because of the format, but you get the idea):
.........->
......./....\
->->.____->->
Descriptively, the chracter races towards the edge, long jumps over and lands with his foot in X's face. To go back to the original thread, jumping down from the ledge fortunately doesn't even need consider this as it can actually be accomplished with a straight line in 3-D.
So for a jumping character, I'd say a long jump charge is allowable. I am not so sure about a high jump. A high jump is characterized by no forward movement. Therefore, by definition, the character is making a 180 degree change in vector angle:
..
..
..
X
..
..
X
..
..
X
..
..
X
..
..
..
..
X
..
..
..
..
X
..
..
..
..
X
X moves up and then reverses direction. Think of it in terms of physics vectors. gravity will be the y axis and forward movement is x. In the first example, y is a constant and x is a constant (for the jump portion). The character is continuously moving straight forward with some added lift that is counteracted by gravity.
In the latter example, x = 0 and thus cannot really be used for the purposes of the direction of movement. y must now be used for the direction of movement, and y changes in terms of direction whereas x did not change in the first example.
This same logic would apply to aerial movement, climbing and diving vertically would not grant a charge. However, as with the example of the long jump, I would think the angled climb followed by an angled dive would not be too different than the jumping example.
Of course, this vertical bit could be over come if the character jumped or flew high enough. You are limited to a certain distance of movement a round (even from falling - although I don't remember how far it is exactly). So if you jump high enough. You won't get back down to the ground all the way by the end of your turn, so the following turn, your movement will start in one direction and stay in that direction.
Another thing, you don't multiply your damage when doing a flying/jumping charge unless you have a specific feat that allows such. The only bonus damage you get is the falling damage you would take also being applied to what you land on. Normally this would be the ground and thus it would not matter.
