D&D 5E Shooting at someone above you

[daimaru42]

How do you measure range to an elevated target? Do you add the height to the horizontal distance or take the diagonal? As an example, my longbow has an accurate range of 150 feet. Suppose my enemy is 80 feet away and 80 feet above me. If you add the two ranges together, he's outside my accurate range, but he's "really" (for some value of really) about 113 feet away. Or, if the target was 80 feet north and 80 feet west, the rules would let you call the diagonal distance 80 feet.
So there are three perfectly reasonable answers here.

 

[Soul Stigma]

How do you measure range to an elevated target? Do you add the height to the horizontal distance or take the diagonal? As an example, my longbow has an accurate range of 150 feet. Suppose my enemy is 80 feet away and 80 feet above me. If you add the two ranges together, he's outside my accurate range, but he's "really" (for some value of really) about 113 feet away. Or, if the target was 80 feet north and 80 feet west, the rules would let you call the diagonal distance 80 feet.
So there are three perfectly reasonable answers here.

The term "as the crow flies" could be just as easily delivered "as the arrow flies". Adding the distance of away and above would only make sense to me if you were trying to physically reach the target (move to surface, climb surface).


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[The Crimson Binome]

Or, if the target was 80 feet north and 80 feet west, the rules would let you call the diagonal distance 80 feet.

This is not true. If you're measuring diagonally on a grid, every other square counts as two, so it would effectively be ~120 feet. Even that is just an approximation, though.

The real answer is ~113 feet, as you already know, and 120 feet is close enough for most purposes.

 

[Oofta]

If you want to be accurate, you are trying to figure out the distance of the hypotenuse of a triangle. Pythagorean Theorem

We just cheat and just use the quick and dirty way: use the greater of the distance away or the distance up whichever is greater. It's close enough and we don't need to pull out calculators.

 

[LordEntrails]

I don't know what RAW says. Someone might jump in with it.

Me, I don't know which way I would rule. Pretty easy going. But for shooting up, I might add the two (i.e. 80+80=160) to account for the difficulty is shooting up, but, I wouldn't do the same thing for shooting down (gravity well and all).

But then, I'd probably just go with whatever was easiest at the moment like [MENTION=6801845]Oofta[/MENTION] unless it was going to take away fun.

 

[Tony Vargas]

How do you measure range to an elevated target? Do you add the height to the horizontal distance or take the diagonal?

When you're dealing with a range the rules state in feet you take the diagonal and round to the nearest foot.

Or you do whatever you want, 'cause your'e the DM.
Like, you can just cut to the chase and tell the player if he's in range or not.

"Is he in range?"
"Yes."

You can base that answer on the Pythagorean Theorem, on a rough rule of thumb, or simply on whether or not you'd prefer the target be in range.

 

[Soul Stigma]

I don't know what RAW says. Someone might jump in with it.

Me, I don't know which way I would rule. Pretty easy going. But for shooting up, I might add the two (i.e. 80+80=160) to account for the difficulty is shooting up, but, I wouldn't do the same thing for shooting down (gravity well and all).

But then, I'd probably just go with whatever was easiest at the moment like [MENTION=6801845]Oofta[/MENTION] unless it was going to take away fun.

I don't think I would reflect the difficulty by increasing the distance. However, I do apply cover in these circumstances. A target above you (unless hovering/flying) is usually on a platform, and the angle will usually be such that some of the platform acts as cover. In circumstances where this does not apply (OP stated 80 out and 80 high so, unless there is a partial wall or something, the target is probably fully exposed), I just rule it as normal.



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[LordEntrails]

@Soul Stigma,
I don't see cover and range being the same. i.e. I wouldn't add cover to adjust for some sort of "range" thing. Agreed that if the bluff, wall, or something else occludes the target, then apply cover as normal, irregardless of range.

Range, to me, accommodates two things; the distance off target based upon aiming error (i.e. 1 degree aiming error is not a big deal at 10 feet, but it is at 500 feet), and target deviation due to wind, drag, and imperfect aerodynamics, etc.

Does hitting a target high up (higher potential energy/higher in the gravity well) affected by range? Hmm.... thinking about it, I don't think it would affect accuracy, but it definitely would affect maximum range (since max range is dependent upon energy).

So, I guess (since I have now put more thought into this than I ever would while playing), I would use the simplest method for calculating if the target is in normal or long range (though hypotenuse would be most accurate). But, I would probably add horizontal distance plus positive vertical distance for max range. Meaning, a bow with a range of 150/600 feet would be at normal range for anything in 150 feet (true distance) in any direction. But, could only shoot 400 feet horizontal if the target was 200ft above the shooter. Or could shoot 800 feet horizontal if the target was 200ft below the shooter.

Conservation of energy or calculation of a ballistic trajectory I'm sure would prove those guideline wrong. But hey, that's too much worry for realistic physics!

 

[Shiroiken]

It depends on how the DM is using diagonals. If using the basic setup (each diagonal counts as 5 ft), then it's just 80 ft. If using the alternate setup (every 2 diagonals counts as 15 ft), then you would have 120 ft. Both are within your normal range. Also, the DM may (at his discretion) give a penalty for attacking an elevated target.

 

[hastur_nz]

D&D is notoriously 'unrealistic' in how it handles ranged combat in general, e.g. moving and shooting vs taking time to line up a good shot, shooting up or down vs 'flat', 'point blank' shots, etc. But the whole combat system is very abstract.

So keep it simple - you measure distance exactly the same way you do for everything else. Just be sure to account for any Cover e.g. in 3D a ledge is the same as a corner.