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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7370384" data-attributes="member: 2629">The description seems to clearly create an environmental effect to me.  It reverses gravity in the area.  I also think it is such a fun idea that I make sure to really play it out and make it a fun spell.  This is a role playing game in which characters take a role in a story.  Creative uses of this spell are an excellent way to tell a great story.  I've allowed (and used) a lot of creativity for this spell for several editions, under several versions of the spell.  It has never been a mistake to think about the physics described and play them up.  It is rarely selected by PCs as a spell, but it is a favorite of mine for signature bad guys.  This means that I overlook the "slightly" after the word oscillating, generally, and go crazy.As a DM, I also have impacted creatures/objects "launch" from the reverse gravity into the normal gravity.  That means they go much higher than 100 feet in the air if there is no obstruction.  They fall up for about one round (effectively falling 100 feet twice which takes about 5 seconds), then down for one round (again, 5 more seconds) and end up a bit above the floor, then up for another round to a lower max height, then down for a round, etc... I have the height decrease by 10 feet for every interval, in general, but things offering more air resistance will be decreasing their height swing by more each interval.   As it only lasts a minute, at most, I have them take a full minute to settle in at 100 feet.  I usually wing it, but the pattern for humanoids is usually something like:Rd 1: Launch to 195 feetRd 2: Drop to 10 feetRd 3: Launch to 185 feetRd 4: Drop to 20 feetRd 5: Launch to 170 feetRd 6: Drop to 40 feetRd 7: I stop being so precise and say they're oscillating between 50 and 150 feet.Rd 8: ... between 60 and 140 feet.Rd 9: ... between 80 and 120 feet.Rd 10: I have them settle in at roughly 100 feet.I let people push off floating objects to try to get out of the gravity area, etc...  I allow people to interact with the objects and flyers to try to push them (or themselves) out of the area of effect, as well, causing them to drop early.  If they ask, I also let them try to guide the movement through the air in the same way a sky diver would, but it is minimal as they do not have the same maximum force in play.... Yes, I do allow a spellcaster to cease concentration at the top of that first oscillation.  This translated into the enemy launching into the air for a round, then crashing down to take 19d6 damage at the end of a second round.  That is less than disintegrate (a lower level single target spell)... and is avoidable by a wide swath of creatures (flyers, teleporters, etc...)Best use of the spell from my history was from a clever PC: They started an avalanche to take out an enemy encampment.  The villain wizard put up a wall of force to block it.  The PC used reverse gravity to launch the boulders (which had forward momentum towards the encampment from the angle of the avalanche) into the air, over the wall, and down onto the camp.  I made him make some "spellcrafting" roles to see how well he was able to target the flying avalanche, but it was an iconic moment for that campaign when he nailed those roles and just crushed everything.  I also had a PC use it as a way to allow an army to scale a tall cliff very quickly.  They charged at the cliff, running into the area, and then flew up and out of the area of effect - and the speed and angle of entry allowed them to drop fairly gently onto the top of the cliff at the "height" of their reverse fall (again - spellcrafting roles showed how well they did on setting this up).  It was chaotic, didn't go exactly as planned, etc... but it was so creative I had to applaud (and reward) the idea.</blockquote>

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