D&D 5E (2014) Can you use misty step to arrest a fall?

[Morrus]

You can arrest a fall, but it will ask for its lawyer.

 

[Azzy]

For example, on your turn you use movement to jump off of a 50 foot cliff. Then after you have dropped 20 feet you use misty step to misty step to the ground and land without taking any falling damage.

Would you allow this?

Yeah, why not? It sounds cool and ridiculous awesome. As a DM, I'd totally allow it.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Several hundred yards if there is line of sight, at the very least. (at night, if the torch is lit)

Miles really as long as there is line of sight, no mist and no brighter sources near the line of sight.
Edit: rain smoke and any dust or particulates in the air will affect the distance as will atmospheric disturbances over sufficiently long distances.
You will probably see a torch light much further in still dry desert air than the typically humid air in Ireland, for example.

At least in a premodern countryside with not much in artificial lights.
In the modern world much harder as there is a lot of light pollution. I know my vision is not as good as in my youth but there increase of housing, yard lights and traffic means that around where I live you can never get proper night vision going. There are too many lights in you line of sight that will ruin your night vision without illuminating much. So in that situation one could very well not notice a torch unless very close. There are I am sure places where you will spot one very easily.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Apologies, I was making an attempt at humour based on the rules not covering anything as basic as how far you can see a torch

You can see a torch several hundreds feet... behind you. Facing is an optional rule, so by default you can see the torches in every direction...

(as ruled by a DM on this very board, didn't complain, the DM is always right, but... surprising when we assume thing work like the real world).




So, basically, the options are :

1. Teleporting conserves facing => you arrive on your head when going on the other side of the planet
2. Teleporting conserves momentum => you are killed on arrival by colliding into a random wall or tree at high speed
3. Teleporting conserves momentum and you read rule literally => you arrive and collide at thousands of mph against a tree, and stop unharmed since it's not a fall and there is no rule saying that colliding sideways inflicts damage.
4. Teleporting swaps place with the things you move into: Misty Step becomes Baleful Transposition
5. Teleporting doesn't swap you : you make a "pop" sound when leaving because the air rushes into your former place, and you die a horrible death as your veins are filled with air bubbles on arrival.
6. Teleporting doesn't conserve temperature: on the plus side, the spell does only what it says it does, on the minus side, you die frozen on arrival.
7. Teleporting is intelligent and allow you to arrive at your destination with no more harm than explained in the spell's rule: omg, someone might be using a 2nd level spell to avoid a small fall damage by using creativity and being awesome.

All solutions present problems. Some are lesser than others.

 

[clearstream]

7. Teleporting is intelligent and allow you to arrive at your destination with no more harm than explained in the spell's rule: omg, someone might be using a 2nd level spell to avoid a small fall damage by using creativity and being awesome.

All solutions present problems. Some are lesser than others.

For example, on your turn you use movement to jump off of a 50 foot cliff. Then after you have dropped 20 feet you use misty step to misty step to the ground and land without taking any falling damage.

Would you allow this?

I would arrive at a ruling like this

1. Magic need not obey scientific principles (in fact, magic ought to disobey scientific principles)
2. RAW allows a reaction to be taken to falling, for example feather fall uses a reaction and is intended to soften a fall
3. By RAW you can't ready misty step, but you could ready a different teleportation spell - one that is cast with an action
4. I would rule that the character takes only the falling damage they were due up to the cast - 2d6 - albeit they could just as easily have triggered their reaction at the start of their fall and taken no damage (the falling 20' part first is peculiar: was it chosen to make the case more interesting?)

So I would allow it to work in principle, but not with misty step. @Galandris None of your solutions 1-7 capture my reasons, although I agree any solution will present problems and that some will be lesser than others.

 

[S'mon]

1. I would rule that the character takes only the falling damage they were due up to the cast - 2d6 - albeit they could just as easily have triggered their reaction at the start of their fall and taken no damage (the falling 20' part first is peculiar: was it chosen to make the case more interesting?)

Misty Step only has a 30' range. The PC is trying to reach the ground while minimising or avoiding fall damage. Using it to avoid 30' of fall damage looks reasonable to me; no matter how long it takes to cast, the PC moves while casting & times casting completion for when they are 30' off the ground.

Edit: I'm leaning towards "misty step & dimension door conserve momentum, long range teleport puts you at rest vs your environment". But one thing about Teleport is that it requires a 'destination', and in older editions this specifically had to be a stable surface (ground, building attached to ground) and not a moving vehicle such as a ship. I'd be inclined to rule similarly for 5e too.

 

[Azzy]

I think most of you are overthinking this waaaaaaaaaay too much.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

snip

Edit: I'm leaning towards "misty step & dimension door conserve momentum, long range teleport puts you at rest vs your environment". But one thing about Teleport is that it requires a 'destination', and in older editions this specifically had to be a stable surface (ground, building attached to ground) and not a moving vehicle such as a ship. I'd be inclined to rule similarly for 5e too.

I would consider that pretty restrictive, that means you cannot Misty Step of the back of a galloping horse, or Dimension Door to board a ship at sea with out matching velocities. Or Misty Step on to or off a flying Dragon.

 

[Horwath]

I think most of you are overthinking this waaaaaaaaaay too much.

aren't forums made for this kind of thing?

 

[tomBitonti]

Re: falls being instantaneous. I would think that actions mid-fall are possible. Trying to grab a small item lodged in the nearby wall. Making a charge attack near the bottom (while still having falling damage at the end). I’m thinking “instantaneous” is only meant to say that no game time is consumed by the fall. And that the fall should not be treated as really being instantaneous.
TomB