D&D 5E Aerial Combat and Net

[Rya.Reisender]

Yeah, I mean adventurer's could just buy nets and rent an aerial mount and then hunt strong monsters in the air at low level and throw nets at them, making them take 20d6 falling damage. Then could powerlevel pretty fast like that.

(Also seems a bit anticlimatic in an adventure where you want that flying creature to be a hard boss.)

 

[KahlessNestor]

That takes a lot of DM complicity. I mean, you have to give them the mounts, and as others have said, they would give the monster a saving throw.

Now I want to make a barbarian trident and net gladiator...

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[jaelis]

Don't forget the part about nets getting disadvantage on every attack (unless you have Crossbow Expert and/or Sharpshooter).

 

[Imaculata]

So basically there's one thing the net is really good at (taking an aerial creature down), and this is considered too strong by some? Why?

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

So basically there's one thing the net is really good at (taking an aerial creature down), and this is considered too strong by some? Why?

Likely because of not proceeding past the "seems odd" initial hypothesis to the testing phase where attack rolls actually get compared to ACs of these "strong monsters in the air", and 20d6 damage (average 70) gets compared to HP totals, and all the other practical details (like how many of the monsters that are hoped to not be taken out by a net are actually huge or larger so they are immune to normal net attacks) get examined to actually evaluate the real impact of the net in aerial combat.

I mean, just having these aerial combats happen at altitudes of at least 600 feet changes the function of a net attack from the perceived "huge damage/maybe kill" to "lose some turns flying back up after the 1 round altitude drop and relatively easy escape without hitting the ground"

 

[Ancalagon]

Hmmm....

On one hand, in the real world, a flying creature tangled in a net is in *huge* trouble and will, at best, crash-land.

But on the other hand, so is someone shot or stabbed in the chest! But in D&D, if you have 100 hp, and you get attacked by someone doing 1d10+5 with a sword, you won't die from that. You're going to partially dodge etc. Only when your hp are low and your defenses have been reduced accordingly will that sword attack become potentially fatal.

The net skips that. It's realistic that it does... and that's why it's jarring.

 

[CydKnight]

Regardless of how far you can fall in a round, I see where at least two Save Throws would be required in most cases. The first would be to resist the grapple of the net.

The second would be to resist the fall outright or resist damage from the fall depending on whether the grapple save throw resisted immediately or sometime during the 6 second free fall. In other words I see different degrees of grapple resistance with different effects/outcomes on flight/fall. For example:

1. Surpassing the Save DC by 10 or more may mean that the grapple was avoided altogether and flight was never disrupted.
2. Surpassing the grapple DC by 5 to 10 and you have a situation where perhaps the net slightly covered you but you were able to shrug it off in a matter of a second or two. A 2nd Save Throw should be made to see if concentration of flight was maintained or regained in time to avoid the ground (perhaps with advantage or perhaps set the DC to moderate at 10). If flight concentration save is failed then a 3rd save could be made on the fall with a success halving fall damage.
3. Surpassing the grapple DC by 1 to 5 also shrugs off the grapple but makes the flight concentration Save Throw to be made either without advantage or perhaps set the DC to hard at 15. If the 2nd Save Throw is failed then a 3rd save could be made on the fall and perhaps at disadvantage with a success halving fall damage.

Anything ever additional 6 seconds of fall time (over 500 ft. ?), you could repeat up to all 3 of the Save Throws. Difficulty on the Saves can be adjusted depending on how far from the ground the creature happens to be when/if it regains control of it's flight.

The above is simply how I choose to deal with the scenario provided by the OP. As a DM it is up to you to decide what works best for you and your campaign so my way is not necessarily the right or best way for you.

 

[jaelis]

Regardless of how far you can fall in a round, I see where at least two Save Throws would be required in most cases. The first would be to resist the grapple of the net.

That is not how nets work, they don't grapple you. If the attack roll succeeds, then you are restrained.

 

[CydKnight]

That is not how nets work, they don't grapple you. If the attack roll succeeds, then you are restrained.

The above is simply how I choose to deal with the scenario provided by the OP. As a DM it is up to you to decide what works best for you and your campaign so my way is not necessarily the right or best way for you. You either missed this part of my post or chose to ignore it.

For the record, I acknowledge that nets are not described to work in this way officially and admit that I used the wrong term to describe it's use here (grapple vs. restrain). I choose to modify that mechanic in this situation because I feel it works better in this scenario (flying) the way I described. The attack roll still happens. Damage is still taken for a successful hit. I add the Saving Throw because, in my opinion, the net attack mechanics were meant to be used while on the ground. If it is used whilst flying in the air (attacker and defender), it should be harder to hit with it because there is more space and range of movement involved than there is while using gravity to occupy a level, immovable plane like the ground or the deck of an airship and the net is pretty unwieldy anyway per it's description. For this reason, I let attack damage stand but allow creatures that are flying to take a saving thrown against being permanently restrained in addition to the hit for damage. In other words, I feel it is a lot harder to restrain someone with a net in the air than it is while they're standing on a flat plane.

 

[jaelis]

Damage is still taken for a successful hit.

The net doesn't deal any damage in the standard rules.

But I guess your point is that you'd use house rules for flying creatures. Cool.