Falling with Wings

[jgsugden]

In one of my games, we broke off the last session after the party teleported into the base of a huge natural cavern. There is a wood and rope bridge above them with some of their enemies crossing it. All these enemies are currently walking across the bridge. Some of them, however, have wings.

I expect that the sorcerer in the party will begin the combat at the start of the next session by fireballing the enemy, which will destroy the bridge. This should make all the creatures on the bridge start falling ... including the ones with wings, unless they can take flight.

Does anyone know of any official rules for this situation?

I see a few options on how to handle it:

1) Assume these winged foes start flying immediately.
2) Say that they can not use their wings, as that is movement, and they can not move when it is not their turn.
3) Give them a reflex save to start flying before they hit ground.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[Rath the Brown]

1) Assume these winged foes start flying immediately.
2) Say that they can not use their wings, as that is movement, and they can not move when it is not their turn.
3) Give them a reflex save to start flying before they hit ground.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Rules of the Game: All About Movement (Part 5)

I don't know how official you consider the RotG articles, but I would use the the method described to exit a freefall; which would include option 3 above.

 

[Len]

I would let them start flying. It doesn't make sense to me that a bird has to fall to its death when it has ample time to start flapping its wings.

 

[Gynsala]

I'd definitely say they need a reflex save, depending on how far they have to fall. The shorter the distance, obviously the harder it would be to open wings in time and get some downward thrust.

I'm assuming the wings they are using are like harpy wings that need large swoops to maintain flight.

 

[UltimaGabe]

2) Say that they can not use their wings, as that is movement, and they can not move when it is not their turn.

Whether or not flying takes movement is irrelevant. True, they can't take a Move action when it's not their turn- but saying that they can't move at all when it's not their turn is ridiculous, because in that case, they wouldn't be able to fall either.

Anyway, some tips would be to possibly look at the (cough broken cough) Raptoran race from Races of the Wild. They're a LA +0 race (cough broken cough) that eventually gets flight at will, but one of the things they get at 1st level (cough one of the many things that makes them unbalanced cough) is unlimited Slow Fall because of their wings. (Cough it's not like you have to take 18 levels of Monk or anything to get that ability cough.) You could always use that as a reference point.

Sorry. I've got this weird cough- the doctors call it "Raptorans-and-half-the-stuff-in-the-latest-WotC-books-are-broken-itis". It's new.

 

[Goolpsy]

They will either start hoovering imidiatly, or you could give them a reflex save making them fall like 30 feet if they fail it... then giving them the chance to hoover...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Most birds capable of flight can generally glide for significant distances without even flapping their wings. (Hummingbirds and most insects cannot because of the size of their wings relative to their mass- they have to beat their wings to generate any lift at all.) Large winged birds, like albatrosses, vultures and condors, etc., can soar, using thermals to gain altitude without expending much energy.

So, as long as their wings are unbound and they aren't stunned or otherwise immobilized, most winged fantasy creatures should be able to simply glide to the ground if they have enough time to react.

I'd use some kind of reflex save to determine how far the winged PC falls before he unfurls his wings. A save means virtually instantaneous reaction and thus, the PC is in a controlled glide. Failing by 1-2 results in a 10' drop before achieving glide, failing by 3-4 means a drop of 20', etc... A critical failure would be some kind of flat-footed surprise or a tangled wing resulting in hitting the cliff wall or any other kind of semi- to completely uncontrolled fall.

 

[Armadon63]

just base it on there flight catagory and make a judgement call. i mean if you have perfect flight then you really should just be able to fly as soon as the bridge collapsed. If it's poor or something make it a reflex save to start flapping in time.

 

[Krelios]

Whether or not flying takes movement is irrelevant. True, they can't take a Move action when it's not their turn- but saying that they can't move at all when it's not their turn is ridiculous, because in that case, they wouldn't be able to fall either.

Anyway, some tips would be to possibly look at the (cough broken cough) Raptoran race from Races of the Wild. They're a LA +0 race (cough broken cough) that eventually gets flight at will, but one of the things they get at 1st level (cough one of the many things that makes them unbalanced cough) is unlimited Slow Fall because of their wings. (Cough it's not like you have to take 18 levels of Monk or anything to get that ability cough.) You could always use that as a reference point.

Sorry. I've got this weird cough- the doctors call it "Raptorans-and-half-the-stuff-in-the-latest-WotC-books-are-broken-itis". It's new.

Have you actually seen a Raptoran in play? I didn't think so. I have two in my current campaign and those advantages are nice, but they rarely come into play. They are probably worth the feat and 21 skill points your 18th level human rogue has, but maybe not. Raptorans are a classic example (*cough* Mystic Theurge *cough*) of a race/class that everyone complained about on paper but those that have seen them in play think the opposite.

 

[Egres]

Rules of the Game: All About Movement (Part 5)

I don't know how official you consider the RotG articles, but I would use the the method described to exit a freefall; which would include option 3 above.

If you don't like the RotG article, use the FAQ.

How far does a character fall in a single round? If my
griffon-riding character falls off his mount 300 feet up, how
long do other characters have to catch him?

This ends up being both a rules and a physics question. The
short answer is, “In a single round, you fall far enough to hit
the ground in the vast majority circumstances that come up in
the game.”
Here’s the long answer: A falling character accelerates at a
rate of 32 feet per second per second. What that means is that
every second, a character’s “falling speed” increases by 32 feet.
The distance he falls in that second is equal to the average of
his falling speeds at the beginning of that second and at the end
of that second. Thus, during the first second he falls 16 feet (the
average of 0 feet and 32 feet, which are his speeds at the start
and end of that second). During the next second he falls 48 feet
(the average of 32 feet and 64 feet). He falls 80 feet during the
third second, 112 feet the fourth second, 144 feet the fifth
second, and 176 feet the sixth second. That’s a grand total of
576 feet fallen in the first round alone, hence the short answer
given above—the number of falls occurring in any campaign
longer than this is probably pretty small. For ease of play, you
could simply use 500 feet as a nice round number—it’s easier
to remember.
Of course, the character falls even farther the next round,
although acceleration soon ends due to the resistance of air on
the falling body (this is what’s called terminal velocity). If the
Sage remembers his high-school physics, terminal velocity for
a human body is roughly 120 mph (equivalent to a speed of
1,200 feet per round, or 200 feet per second); thus, the
character’s falling speed hits its maximum in the first second of
the second round. It’s safe to say that after 2 rounds the
character will have fallen nearly 2,000 feet, and will fall
another 1,200 feet per round thereafter.
In the example you give, other characters would clearly
have no more than a round to react, and it’s possible they’d
have even less time. Remember that despite the sequential
nature of D&D combat actions, things are happening very
quickly—virtually simultaneously, in many cases. As a DM,
I’d probably allow every character a chance to react to a long
fall (such as the one you describe), as long as their action
occurs before 1 full round has passed from the start of the fall.
(As a side note, that’s why feather fall allows its caster to cast
it even when it isn’t her turn—otherwise, adjudicating its
timing would be a nightmare.) The difference between “you
watch the character fall all the way to the ground before you
can react” and “the character starts to fall, what do you do?” is
really just up to the DM’s sense of fun and fair play. Off the top
of my head, I’d say that anything up to 50 or 60 feet is clearly
too fast to react to (barring a readied action, of course), and
anything that approaches 250 feet or more should probably
allow characters some chance to react, but that’s purely a
personal opinion.
Whatever decision you make, try to make the same
decision every time, so that players know what to expect. If this
situation comes up a lot in your game, it’s probably worth
creating a house rule so you don’t have to try to remember
what you did last time. (If your campaign routinely features
300-foot falls, your characters might want to invest in some
rings of feather falling!)
Now, if you start altering certain assumptions—such as the
force of gravity, or the density of air that’s resisting the falling
character, or even the mass of the falling character—these
calculations become less useful. Yet, unless your numbers are
much different than the standard values, you can still use these
as benchmarks.