Do spirit beasts fly?

[DracoSuave]

As a movable conjuration, you can move the conjuration in any direction. It can be moved vertically if need be.

It does not have a speed, so a fly speed would also be irrelevant to it; those are creature traits. It moves like any other power effect that can be moved.

 

[Nytmare]

Say your enemies are set up like this:

1|2|3
------
4|5|6
------
7|8|9

Conjurations don't occupy squares though, do they? So there's nothing stopping it from being in squre 5 and having the same net effect.

 

[Mort_Q]

Conjurations don't occupy squares though, do they?

By default no, but the Call Spirit Companion power specifically says otherwise.

Flaming sphere (revised) also occupies a square.

 

[bganon]

Yeah, and there's also the weird ruling (by CustServ, I believe), that blasts/bursts essentially extend infinitely far upward. To me, putting a flaming sphere in midair sounds absurd, but it's just not well-defined in the rules. Similarly, putting a spirit on top of allies to get more to be adjacent seems like an abuse of the intent, but it's up to the DM to rule.

Anyway, for the shaman's spirit case, it'll make some things more powerful to call it in midair but it's hard for me to imagine it completely breaking the game. And I guess as for the Flaming Sphere, the very similar summon spell (Summon Fire Warrior) has a fly speed, so there you go. It's probably OK after all.

 

[tmatk]

For what it's worth, I got a response from CS:

Thank you for writing.

A spirit companion cannot fly or be summoned in mid-air. You can always consult with your DM to see if they would rule differently for their game.

Good Gaming!

 

[boolean]

For what it's worth, I got a response from CS:

Could you do us a favour, and reply to this asking the CS person to show how they reached that conclusion?

I do agree that a spirit companion cannot be summoned in mid-air. However they can be conjured there.

 

[tmatk]

Could you do us a favour, and reply to this asking the CS person to show how they reached that conclusion?

I do agree that a spirit companion cannot be summoned in mid-air. However they can be conjured there.

OK, I can do that. I am a bit hesitant, since they gave me the answer I wanted.

Quick question though, what do you see as the difference between summoning and conjuring?

 

[boolean]

Quick question though, what do you see as the difference between summoning and conjuring?

A bunch of things, but mostly the fact that summoning creates something that acts in almost every way like a regular creature, while a conjuration isn't much like a creature at all. So, a conjuration being able to exist in mid-air unaffected by gravity is fine, while a summoned creature would fall to the ground (if it could be summoned in mid-air in the first place.

The use of the wrong term makes it look like the person answering the question doesn't get the difference between the two.

 

[tmatk]

I sent them a copy of the last 3 posts:

Unfortunately, there isn’t an official answer for the situation you describe. I’ve passed along this conversation to the game’s developers. Hopefully, we’ll see an update or FAQ entry covering it soon, but until then it’s up to the campaign’s Dungeon Master to decide. The DM is always the final arbiter on how they want their campaign to run. Have fun!

I guess it's up to each DM. Personally, I'm with keeping them on the ground.

 

[Jhaelen]

A bunch of things, but mostly the fact that summoning creates something that acts in almost every way like a regular creature, while a conjuration isn't much like a creature at all. So, a conjuration being able to exist in mid-air unaffected by gravity is fine, while a summoned creature would fall to the ground (if it could be summoned in mid-air in the first place.

The use of the wrong term makes it look like the person answering the question doesn't get the difference between the two.

Can you support your claim that this is indeed a difference between conjurations and summons according to the game rules?

Imho, it doesn't matter if you're dealing with conjurations or summons, 'mid-air' isn't a valid target destination for either.