Feather fall has a material component of a feather, but it is cast as a reaction. Unless you knew someone was going to fall it would be rare that you were actually holding a feather. As such can you cast it as a reaction when it is not your turn if you don't have it in hand?
I mostly handwave this.
Feather fall has a material component of a feather, but it is cast as a reaction. Unless you knew someone was going to fall it would be rare that you were actually holding a feather. As such can you cast it as a reaction when it is not your turn if you don't have it in hand?
So you're saying that it doesn't work.
The RAW states that "A character can use a Component pouch or a Spellcasting focus (found in “Equipment”) in place of the Components specified for a spell." So, you do need a free hand, but you don't need to access the feather. Since the component pouch is used IN PLACE of the components specified for the spell, you just need to hold your component pouch (which, obviously, made of magic-transparent materials so holding it allows you to hold all the components inside it). There is no need to retrieve the particular material component from inside the component pouch as far as I know, making it more compatible with reaction spells.
You’d have to be falling awfully far for it to take 10 or 20 seconds. I recommend not thinking about it too hard. The rules say you just need the components or focus on your person and a free hand. Trying to work out how long you would actually have to grab and manipulate them based on how far you’re falling only leads to madness.It may be a reaction spell, but does that really matter it it takes 10 or 20 seconds of falling before you could splat? Even 5 seconds of falling is enough time, reaction or not. The small amount of distance someone would have to fall for the split-second casting to matter is not likely to kill, so it is unlikely to get cast. But in those very rare situations, I would probably let the player get away with it, even though I normally seem to be pickier about timing than a lot of other DMs are.