What's the benefit of Pinioning Vortex?

[Mistwell]

I was referring to people who seem to think that this power can be used on the turn of the enemy in order to lift him into the air and deny him the ability to attack. That would only work if the enemy did something in its turn before attacking or charging, because otherwise they'd get to complete their action before getting Pinioned. Its possible to stop someone from attacking with this power, but its very tricky, and works under basically the same circumstances as a power that knocks someone prone.

As for the utility of reading actions to beat an enemy like a pinata when this power releases and drops them to the ground... good luck? Anyone capable of readying an attack against a pinioned enemy so as to trigger when they return to the ground would also have been able to actually attack the same enemy had he never been pinioned in the first place.

Obviously you would use the readied action to do something to effectively waste the targets turn for yet another round. The power is all about taking someone out of the action for a while, and whacking them again with some sort of temporarily disabling attack once they land is the most likely follow-up to it.

 

[Cadfan]

But since very few powers waste an enemy's turn if and only if they are used during the enemy's turn, just hit them with the power while its NOT their turn. If you were going to stun or daze or knock them prone or push them somewhere, you didn't need a readied action to make that work.

There's just not that much difference between hitting an enemy with an obnoxious status effect before their turn starts and at the exact moment their turn starts. The fact that this power disables an enemy until the beginning of their next turn makes it an aberration, not the usual.

 

[Mistwell]

But since very few powers waste an enemy's turn if and only if they are used during the enemy's turn, just hit them with the power while its NOT their turn.

How do you knock someone prone while they are up in the air?

If you were going to stun or daze or knock them prone or push them somewhere, you didn't need a readied action to make that work.

Yes, you did. Because they either 1) are already that, or 2) are up in the air and cannot have that condition. Only once they land and are about to take their turn are those really useful things to do to them, making them miss all or part of their turn again.

 

[webrunner]

How do you knock someone prone while they are up in the air?

Knocked Prone: A flying creature that is knocked prone crashes.

From the definition of "flying"

 

[Mistwell]

Knocked Prone: A flying creature that is knocked prone crashes.

From the definition of "flying"

Are they flying with this spell?

 

[webrunner]

Are they flying with this spell?

Regardless if they are or not, the point is the rules go out of the way to make an exception to what normally happens if you are flying.. "prone" is a condition and may not actually be "on the ground prone" but may be "upside down in the air" or "unbalanced" or something. Prone doesn't say you can't use it against an airborne target.

 

[Mistwell]

Regardless if they are or not, the point is the rules go out of the way to make an exception to what normally happens if you are flying.. "prone" is a condition and may not actually be "on the ground prone" but may be "upside down in the air" or "unbalanced" or something. Prone doesn't say you can't use it against an airborne target.

Would they have to get back up from being prone, if you knocked them prone while under the effects of this spell?

Given the spell seems to not be flying, and be an exception to the flying rules, I don't think the target can be knocked prone while under the effects.

 

[Plane Sailing]

To get back to the original question, it is a wizard encounter 3 power.

There is a warlock encounter 7 power called infernal moon curse which is ranged 10, one creature, vs Fort, does 2d8+Con poison damage and holds the target immobilised 5 feet off the ground until the end of your next turn.

So perhaps someone wanted to do a wizard power which was a kinda weaker version of this?

(I'm not convinced, as I'm not convinced that pinioning vortex is much use apart from the special case where you've got a foe behind cover and you want to lift them up so all the rogues in your party can fill him full of holes. Fun for that specific kind of situation, but otherwise a bit meh).

Cheers