Arcane Power- Wizards Stretched Thin

[baberg]

I'm curious to ask those insistent that falling is an implicit part of flying without a fly speed: should we just deem powers that explicity state "if you don't land, you fall" as simply engaging in unnecessary exposition?

I would say that the powers that don't explicitly state "if you don't land, you fall" are lacking in that respect rather than the other way around. IOW, I think the end errata for this power will be "Add the following sentence to the end of this power: If the target does not land at the end of this movement, it crashes."

I agree that under your interpretation of Fly, the power is broken. But I do not think that is the right interpretation and also disagree with CustServ's interpretation. If WotC had intended for this power to grant long-term flight they would have said "Fly Speed" as they have done in every other case where the flight is long-term (meaning encounter-length or longer)

I'm interested in hearing your responses to the points that Cadfan and I have made since you were a strong advocate that this power is broken.

 

[Cadfan]

Well, ever since Soulstorm posted the custserv response--you know, the one that contradicted the indisputably "obvious" answer--I've been tuning to watch how the worm has turned. I'm curious to ask those insistent that falling is an implicit part of flying without a fly speed: should we just deem powers that explicity state "if you don't land, you fall" as simply engaging in unnecessary exposition?

I don't think that a 100% textually consistent answer is possible at this point.

But I think that concluding that you fall if you're in the air without the ability to fly, you fall, generates uniformly consistent and playable results. All other conclusions are worse, save perhaps those that flat out rewrite the rules from the ground up.

 

[Felon]

I'm interested in hearing your responses to the points that Cadfan and I have made since you were a strong advocate that this power is broken.

I prefer the interpretation you and Cadfan came up with, but really the whole thing's out-of-whack. One of those "if you don't land, you fall" powers is a 16th-level Warlock utility, and it only allows flight for one round per encounter. There's little balance in giving the sorcerer at-will flight, especially since the sorcerer utilities tend to be on the weak side (at least for arcane utilities).

I don't think that a 100% textually consistent answer is possible at this point.

But I think that concluding that you fall if you're in the air without the ability to fly, you fall, generates uniformly consistent and playable results. All other conclusions are worse, save perhaps those that flat out rewrite the rules from the ground up.

Well, another possible interpretation--one that allows for the broken at-will flight--is that on the turn after you stop flying, you basically have the opportunity to cough up some flight during that turn, and if you don't manage to, then you fall.

 

[SoulStorm]

I was paraphrasing, and didn't mean to be offensive. I'm sorry if I did offend you. I'll put a real quote in there.

Thank you. All is forgiven.

 

[chaotix42]

IOW, I think the end errata for this power will be "Add the following sentence to the end of this power: If the target does not land at the end of this movement, it crashes."

Agreed!

I lol'ed when this was brought up on the WotC forums and the first impression was "at-will flight, because it doesn't state you fall if you don't land."

Let's see some errata WotC!

 

[Akaiku]

It'd be funny if they added, "This allows for at-will flight." to the end of it as errata.

 

[Byronic]

I would say that the powers that don't explicitly state "if you don't land, you fall" are lacking in that respect rather than the other way around. IOW, I think the end errata for this power will be "Add the following sentence to the end of this power: If the target does not land at the end of this movement, it crashes."

Shouldn't that be "if the target does not land by the end of his turn, it crashes"? This would allow the Sorcerer to use his Standard action as well to move himself even further. The way you say it makes it seem as if he can only use one movement action to fly before crashing.

I'm also not sure about the word "crash" instead of "land" But I'd have to look that up and I don't feel like it.