D&D 4E Quick rules question about Pulling in 4E

[Dr. Confoundo]

Say you've got two combatants on separate balconies four squares apart, suspended 20 feet above jagged rocks.

One of the combatants has a magical whip, with which they can make a Range 5 attack that Pulls 5 on a hit. He uses it to attack his opponent on the opposite balcony, and successfully hits.

What happens? From my understanding of the rules, the defender would get to make a save to fall prone in his square and not fall, or else he's going over the edge of the balcony to the ground below.

Since the attacker can use any or all of his Pull, he could put the defender anywhere he wants, on the ground, between the two balconies.

Am I missing anything?

 

[Flipguarder]

From logic my rule would be that this power would stop functioning with the "pulling" once the target was 25ft (5 squares) away from his current position. If the balcony is higher then that, he doesn't get a huge say in where the target goes past that amount of distance.

 

[Cormacolinde]

But nothing prevents the puller from doing the pulling while the target is still in the air. Falling takes time

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Thread title fail! I had this horrible image of people taking the 4e = WoW image WAY to far.

 

[Flipguarder]

I would say this is much more a thread reading fail. I played wow for 2 years and did not make that reference.

 

[Gruns]

Looks like you got it.

Hey.
Sounds like you understand correctly.

In this situation if the whip guy hits and decides to pull the green guy 1-4 squares so that he falls, the green guy gets a Save to prevent it. (And fall prone at the edge of the balcony, where he happens to be at the moment.) And yes, this is exactly what you said, but I couldn't resist the chance to draw a stupid Paint picture.
Gruns

 

[Dr. Confoundo]

Hey.
Sounds like you understand correctly.

In this situation if the whip guy hits and decides to pull the green guy 1-4 squares so that he falls, the green guy gets a Save to prevent it. (And fall prone at the edge of the balcony, where he happens to be at the moment.) And yes, this is exactly what you said, but I couldn't resist the chance to draw a stupid Paint picture.
Gruns

Awesome pic! That's exactly what I was envisioning.

Now to take this another step: On round 2, after Mr. Green has been pulled off of his balcony and landed in the sharp rocks below, Mr. Red uses his whip power again.

Can he pull him 4 squares off of the ground, and then let go, dropping him into the rocks a second time? Repeat as necessary.

 

[Amaroq]

Love the cutting edge graphics, Gruns!

Dr., I'd argue not - "pull", "push", and "slide" are all keywords referring to horizontal movement, not vertical movement.

If you gave Mr. Red the ability to "pull" four squares into the air, and drop 20' onto the rocks for +2d10 damage, then any other character would be able to use "push" or "slide" to lift opponents into the air as well, doing additional damage if the effect is "push 3" or some such .. and at that point, you're giving all of those powers a significant boost in effectiveness.

 

[babinro]

My general understanding is that if forced movement would cause harm in the form of damage to a character, then they are entitled to a save.

So as awesome as your pull 4 squares off the ground would be...I'd rule there is a save to prevent the inevitable falling damage that is a direct result of the pull. If they fail the save, then let the good times roll.

 

[Destil]

There's a rule stating that forced movement needs to be horizontal. However it's pretty arbitrary; just lie prone on your side/back in this and you can horizontally move someone 5 squares up.