Casting/activating before you hit the ground

[Quasqueton]

How would you rule this:

Wizard falls from great height and wants to cast feather fall when closer to the ground (duration = 1 round/level).

Fighter jumps off a cliff to escape rampaging giants, and wants to activate his boots of levitation before he hits the ground.

How do you adjudicate this?

Quasqueton

 

[Arnwyn]

What is the "great height"? How much is "closer to the ground"?

Not long ago, someone posted the falling speeds here in the Rules Forum, as calculated by WotC staff (the Sage, I think). I'd use that. (In other words, due to how far you fall in 1 round, unless you're talking about a wizard conducting a HALO jump, the answer is: activate right away [since feather fall is the virtual equivalent of an immediate action]).

For the fighter with the boots, he'd have to activate it immediately after running off the cliff (ie. completes his move action), assuming it takes a standard action to activate the boots, and that moving off the cliff was his move action.

 

[PrinceZane]

Nod, I don't remember the number off the top of my head, but I do remember they ran pretty fast... Unless its like 500'+ there's not going to be too long of a wait before they splatter

 

[griff_goodbeard]

In the Sharn Sourcebook it actually discusses this because it's a vertical city. They introduced an item called a feather fall token which let you feather fall for a short time. IIRC they said that it was a wis check DC 10 (I think) to activate close enough to the ground to avoid harm. I'll check my book when I get home, to double check the numbers.

 

[DanMcS]

How would you rule this:

Wizard falls from great height and wants to cast feather fall when closer to the ground (duration = 1 round/level).

Feather fall is an immediate action. The wizard automatically succeeds, in my book.

Fighter jumps off a cliff to escape rampaging giants, and wants to activate his boots of levitation before he hits the ground.

If he has a standard action left after he jumps, he's fine. If he has to wait until next round, he might be in trouble.

In 6 seconds (one round), he can fall 576 feet. 16 ft the first second, 48 the second, 80 the third, 112 the 4th, 144 the 5th, and 176 the 6th second of falling. If you figure a standard action is 3 seconds, then if he's at least 144 feet off the ground, he'll have time to activate the boots. If not, well, he's fallen less than 150 feet, so he's taking 14d6 or less falling damage, and he might be ok

 

[Hypersmurf]

For the fighter with the boots, he'd have to activate it immediately after running off the cliff (ie. completes his move action), assuming it takes a standard action to activate the boots, and that moving off the cliff was his move action.

Move action: step off the cliff.
Standard action: Ready an action to activate boots just before hitting the ground.
Falling...
... falling...
... readied action triggers.

I had an NPC wizard screw up his escape plan this way, once. He was overmatched, so he jumped off the cliff and cast Feather Fall, and started falling at sixty feet per round.

"So he's still well within one range increment for my composite longbow?"
"... uh... yeah."
"Okay. Full attack with Rapid Shot."

...

"... so if he's 120 feet away, that's only a -2 range penalty? Full attack with Rapid Shot."
"... 180 feet away? Still within 2 range increments! Full attack with Rapid Shot."

If he'd waited to cast Feather Fall until he was near the bottom of the cliff, he might have made it...

-Hyp.

 

[dvvega]

You can easily ready an action as stated by Hypersmurf to do anything you wanted.

Why? Because d20 indicates you may ready an action and take the action it described any time before your next turn.

Since in one round a standard object can fall almost 580' (ignoring terminal velocity) unless the jump was from an extreme height, any character can ready an action and finish that action before their next turn.

To include terminal velocity you would have to calculate the air drag on the falling character et c. I once did it and it is reached within a round. So within a round, unless the fall is enormous, characters will indeed by able to ready the action.

With all this I would personally impose a concentration check on the faller. See if they indeed are able to fight the rising panic of the ground hurtling towards them to do what is needed (use the boots, cast the spell, etc).

D

 

[Hypersmurf]

With all this I would personally impose a concentration check on the faller. See if they indeed are able to fight the rising panic of the ground hurtling towards them to do what is needed (use the boots, cast the spell, etc).

And don't forget the consequences if you time it wrong...

"Pveather-!"

-Hyp.

 

[Caliban]

The DMG states that winged creatures fall 150' in the first round, and 300' a round after that when they fail to maintain sufficient forward motion.

It doesn't list a falling speed for non-winged creatures, but I think the last time it came up it was calculated at something like 500' the first round, and 1000' per round after that.

Either the DMG takes into account the braking effect of wings, or they just used a number that sounded good.

 

[fett527]

...You can cast this spell with an instant utterance, quickly enough to save yourself if you unexpectedly fall. Casting the spell is a free action, like casting a quickened spell, and it counts toward the normal limit of one quickened spell per round. You may even cast this spell when it isn’t your turn.

The spell is a free action you can perform at any time. Wizard is fine. Doesn't need to ready it at all does he/she?