Does teleportation negate falling damage?

[hamishspence]

orcus tail swipe

as an immediate reaction keyed on moving into an adjacent square, should telepotation trigger it? it doesn't trigger opportunity attacks, but the tail swipe is not defined as an opportunity attack.

 

[webrunner]

as an immediate reaction keyed on moving into an adjacent square, should telepotation trigger it? it doesn't trigger opportunity attacks, but the tail swipe is not defined as an opportunity attack.

it does, as teleport is a move, and tail swipe isn't an opportunity attack.

Whether it SHOULD is up to you. If you're fighting Orcus, then you probably have a good idea of what sort of actions you allow and such. I'd say, it depends on how the player justifies it.

 

[Dausuul]

Normally, I'd say "you don't take damage for the distance you teleport through," but keep in mind that the special effect for Feystep (or whatever it's called) is that you're moving through the Feywild. If you're falling in the Feywild or falling in our world, you'd presumably take the same damage.

Mind you, I don't think you're meant to think too hard about this. (After all, I don't think there are any rules about not Feystepping when you're in the Feywild, but realistically -- where would you go? Back to our world? How weird would that be?)

Did they actually keep that "moving through the Feywild" bit? I didn't notice that in the description of Fey Step. And if they did include it, they shouldn't have, since the behavior of Fey Step is totally inconsistent with moving through the Feywild:

• You can Fey Step to places you couldn't reach through the Feywild (e.g., to the top of a cliff, even though the cliff is a natural feature and so exists in the Feywild as well).
• You can't Fey Step through the wall of a building, even though the building doesn't exist in the Feywild.
• You can use Fey Step on planes that don't connect to the Feywild, like the Elemental Tempest or the Astral Sea - or, as you point out, the Feywild itself.

The way I see it, Fey Step is just a teleportation ability which eladrins happen to possess, the same way dragonborn have a breath weapon.

Returning to the original question, I'd be inclined to say teleportation negates momentum, but you could go either way. However, I don't think you can Fey Step in the middle of a 10-square fall. The D&D rules generally treat falling as instantaneous unless you're falling a really long way. I'd allow free actions mid-fall, but not anything that actually "takes time" (minor, move, or standard).

 

[hamishspence]

red dragon, same would apply

Depending on situation, might describe tail as constantly flexing and sweeping. When you teleport in, you come out in the path of sweeping tail. Lets hope you can cope with it.

 

[Fiendish]

I would treat the falling into a pit as the character is surprised thus he can't take any actions while surprised so he can't teleport. Traps take people by surprise so it works for me.

 

[Kaffis]

Keeping momentum doesn't mean you necessarily take the falling damage though - there's lots of better ways to use it:

* Teleport to the bottom of the pit, but with orientation flipped so you fly upward from it and then fall back (you'd still take some damage from this, ~2-3 squares worth).

You'd still take 5 squares of falling. If you fall 5 squares, and then change your momentum so you're "falling" upwards, you'll come to a stop 5 squares up from your arrival point. Then, you'll 5 five squares again. All changing the orientation to up does is increase your air time. If you want to bleed energy, you have to do so in the horizontal axes, not the vertical axis.

Now, if there were a ledge you were trying to "jump down" to, that was, say, 5 feet up in a 10 foot pit, you could fall 5 feet, teleport to the bottom and change your momentum's direction to up, and then alight with no damage on the ledge after allowing gravity to slow your ascent to a rest 5 squares up from the bottom. But then, you could've just teleported straight to the ledge from the top.

Finally, I'm not sure I buy the notion of changing direction of momentum with non-portal teleportation. If I teleport, I just disappear one place, and arrive at the next. There's no external frame of reference (such as a portal would provide) to leverage a change in orientation or momentum. The exception might be something like the warlock's fey step, where his teleportation is marked by a silvery line of wispy whatever. If he wanted to trace and indirect path to count his teleportation distance, I'd be okay with changing direction that way, since the silvery stuff indicates that it's not a true teleport, but rather a rapid, intangible travel represented by teleportation rules. Since this exception could be flavored as actually passing through space, it can retain (and change) orientation and momentum as dictated by the path. Granted, fey step is, what, 3 squares? So that puts a bit of a damper on how wonky such a redirection could be.

 

[Kaffis]

Which basicaly means "If you teleport far enough, you're dead."

ooI ----> (your momentum vector before teleportation)
oooo
ooooo
ooooooooo(rotating planet - clockwise)
ooooo
oooo

oooo
ooooo
ooooo I ----> (your momentum vector after teleportation across one
oooooooooooooquarter of the planet, perfectly valid for some rituals)
oooo

Congratulation, you just launched yourself into space (or high enough to die from falling)

Any teleportation capable of such distance uses portals. The portal is an anchor to serve as a frame of reference for orientation, and is constructed (via the ritual) with such calculations in mind. Nearly all portals you'll ever see, for instance, are marked by circles on the ground. This prevents you from landing on your head when you teleport to the other hemisphere.

 

[WyzardWhately]

You know, I seem to recall seeing psionics rules in one of the old editions of Traveller. One of the powers was Teleport, and it included all the equations you needed to figure out how screwed you were if you tried to TP long distances on a planet. It WAS fairly easy to cook or freeze yourself, IIRC.

Also: I really like the idea of playing an Epic Eladrin Rogue and combo-ing fey step and cloud jump. To do something ridiculous.

 

[mlund]

Vectors are always relative.

Teleport effects typically change your orientation when they deliver you somewhere. That's why you don't arrive on the other side of a globe standing on your head.

Just replace your relationship relative to your dominant gravitational body with the same relationship at your new destination.

So if you were like this when you teleported:

XXXd->
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX

You wind up like this when you arrive:


XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XX<-p

It doesn't have to follow the rules of physics, just the rules of cinematic narrative continuity.

- Marty Lund

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

...to run and jump at a portcullis teleport 5 squares and then jump the remaining 3 squares of the 40ft moat on the other side.

This idea is so cool, I'd rule it this way just because...

I think folks are working overtime on this..

Momentum carries through a teleport when its appropriately heroic. Generally this is at the option of the person teleporting.

This mirrors how it works in the movie Jumpers and fits most stories.

This allows the 'cool' stunts of jumping through a portcullis and over a moat. However, the player still has to abide by the restrictions of the actoin economy.. meaning such a jump is only possibly by burning three Move actions in one round. {Action point!}

It also allows a Feystep to negate a fall...but only with a readied standard action to 'step when at the right distance from the ground. Something a RBDM might require an INT check to avoid mis-timing

Simple to run at the table and no need to do weird mental gymnastics.

Of course, most of this discussion would be negated if they simply declared Feystep as a 'phase' effect instead of 'teleport'.. but such is life. I am sure we would talk about some other power then