If a flying creature is slowed........

[Tuzenbach]

And I mean a creature that flies via wings. If it's wings are all of a sudden beating at half normal speed, does it fall out of the air? I mean, it needs to maintain a number of beats per given time frame to achieve flight or hovering, yes?

I'm thinking there's no possible way a creature that needs beating wings to fly can achieve or maintain flight if it's magically slowed. Am I wrong in this thinking?

 

[calypso15]

Depends. Is it African or European?

 

[reanjr]

And I mean a creature that flies via wings. If it's wings are all of a sudden beating at half normal speed, does it fall out of the air? I mean, it needs to maintain a number of beats per given time frame to achieve flight or hovering, yes?

I'm thinking there's no possible way a creature that needs beating wings to fly can achieve or maintain flight if it's magically slowed. Am I wrong in this thinking?

Check on the maneuverability rules. If the creature can fly at half speed without problem, then let it fly, otherwise drop it.

 

[calypso15]

Sorry, got distracted.

On a more serious note... I would think most things would still be able to maintain enough lift to at least stay in the air. Even if they couldn't flap at all, most things could at least glide to the ground. Look at hawks... they rarely flap their wings.

Calypso

 

[Gizzard]

...it needs to maintain a number of beats per given time frame to achieve flight or hovering, yes?

Under the theory of "it's magic, not physics" I wouldn't worry about this.

I always imagined that Slow and Haste created sort of a localized temporal disruption (a la Time Stop). So a flying beast would exist happily in his little bubble of slow time and not have to worry about falling out of the sky. Think about it this way: if the beast stalled and fell would you make him fall at full falling speed?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Check on the maneuverability rules. If the creature can fly at half speed without problem, then let it fly, otherwise drop it.

Right.

Which is everyone, as it happens - even Clumsy fliers have a minimum forward speed of "Half".

But if you have a Clumsy flier with a fly speed of 40, say, he can normally fly 80 feet in a round (double move) without taking the Run action. Or he can move and also take a standard action. As long as he travels at least 20 feet, he doesn't fall.

If he's slowed, not only is he restricted to half speed (20), but he's also restricted to a single action.

Which means if he tries to ascend (half speed again), he doesn't make his minimum forward speed, and falls.

-Hyp.

 

[micromaximum]

Don't think about the side-affects of spells too much, the more you do the more problems you'll find.

Such as:

Does the target of a slow spell bleed half as fast? Does poison take twice as long to affect the target. When the target speaks does he sound like a slow-motion recording? Does the target think slower?

If you're really moving in slow motion you wouldn't make a very effective combatant. Anything that could move would be able to evade your attacks and your attacks wouldn't be forceful enough to cause any damage.

What happens if the slowed target is hit? Does the target react slower? Would it take longer for you to feel any pain? If physics operate differently for the target how would the force of the impact be applied to the target?

How about Haste? You could do a lot more damage if you could accelerate your weapon at a faster rate and it'd be next to impossible for anyone to dodge your attacks if you could move 50% to 100% faster than they.

You could try to explain slow by saying it's more of a mind-related effect, that it causes the target to take longer to react so they only have time for a single action and spend so much time thinking about where they want to go they only cover half as much ground. However, it's a transmutation effect so that doesn't really make sense.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Don't think about the side-affects of spells too much, the more you do the more problems you'll find.

It's not really a side-effect, though. Slow specifically halves your speed and restricts you to a single action.

If you don't maintain your minimum forward speed each round while flying, you fall.

If, after being Slowed, you are unable to maintain minimum forward speed, you fall.

-Hyp.

 

[Staffan]

If you're really moving in slow motion you wouldn't make a very effective combatant. Anything that could move would be able to evade your attacks and your attacks wouldn't be forceful enough to cause any damage.
[snip]
How about Haste? You could do a lot more damage if you could accelerate your weapon at a faster rate and it'd be next to impossible for anyone to dodge your attacks if you could move 50% to 100% faster than they.

This would be why slow and haste give a -1 or +1 to various rolls. The modifier in 3.0 was bigger for slow (-2, and it applied to damage rolls too), and more specialized for haste (+4, but only to AC and not to attacks or saves).