Q:
If, during my move, my character falls down a shaft (or cliff, or whatever), can he continue to move with the same move action when he hits the bottom (assuming he survives)? What if he uses the catfall power (Expanded Psionics Handbook, page 82)? What about if he has a feather fall effect?
A: The simple answer is no—falling takes at least some time, and in most cases ends up with the character no longer standing up. Together, these issues result in the character’s move action “ending” with the fall.
A DM willing to take on some judgment calls, however, can be a little open-minded on the issue. Assuming the character lands on his feet, and the fall was short enough to not take an appreciable amount of time (say, no more than a second or so), it might well seem reasonable to allow him to continue moving as part of the same action. The rest of this answer will tackle these two requirements in reverse order.
As the Sage has pointed out in the past (see DRAGON #327), falling happens very quickly. In a single second, the typical character falls 16 feet; after 2 seconds, you’ve fallen 64 feet. It’s probably okay to let a character who falls up to 20 feet or so to continue moving as part of the same action (assuming he remains standing at the end of the drop). Feather fall says that the character falls 60 feet per round, or 10 feet per second. The Sage suggests that any feather fallaided drop of more than 10 feet is too slow to allow continued movement with the same action. (Catfall doesn’t reduce falling speed, so it wouldn’t have the same restriction.)
Obviously, if the character has to stand up after the fall, his movement has ended and he must take a new move action to move again. This is true even if he can stand up as a free action (since you can’t typically take free actions in the middle of a move). In general, characters don’t land on their feet after falling; however, the Sage could see some reasonable exceptions:
- A character who jumps down intentionally and takes no damage because of a successful Jump check (see the Jump skill)
- A character who jumps or falls down and takes no damage because of a successful Tumble check (see the Tumble skill)
- A character with the slow fall ability (such as a monk) who takes no damage from a fall because of this ability
- A character under the effect of feather fall or similar effect that negates falling damage.
- A character who uses the catfall power. This one is clear, as the power specifically states that the character lands on his feet no matter how far he falls.
Basically, if the character has some ability that negates the damage from the fall, it’s probably okay to say that she also lands on her feet; assuming the fall was brief enough, she should have the option to keep moving as part of the same action that took her off the edge.
