Spider Climb While Falling?

[diggerariel]

If a character falls down a pit (5 - 10 feet across let's say) with the spider climb spell active, can he/she have a chance of stopping the fall by sticking to the wall in some way (one foot at least?)?? Is the distance from the wall a factor? What about how deep the pit is? What about how wide the pit is? What if it's a cliff? Any/all thoughts or answers on the matter would be very much appreciated.

 

[frankthedm]

If a character falls down a pit (5 - 10 feet across let's say) with the spider climb spell active, can he/she have a chance of stopping the fall by sticking to the wall in some way (one foot at least?)?? Is the distance from the wall a factor? What about how deep the pit is? What about how wide the pit is? What if it's a cliff? Any/all thoughts or answers on the matter would be very much appreciated.

You are not "transversing" a wall when you are falling next to it, so no auto-success. I would say the faller gets a climb check to catch them self on the wall, with +8 from having a climb speed, for each 5' fallen. I'd say the DC would be 20, 0 from the wall [due to spider climb] +20 from the falling. Taking 10 would be an option.

I could see the DC being 5 to 10 points higher though i am feeling generous since spider climb is now a second level spell.

I say none of that applies if you are not adjacent to a wall.

 

[phindar]

How would you determine how far you've fallen before the check though? Unless the pit is deep enough that you're falling for mulitple rounds, if its +1 per 5' I'd be trying to catch in the first 5'. There doesn't seem to be much incentive to wait until you're 60' down.

I'm leaning more towards a Reflex Save on this one, though. Since if you're falling down a pit you've probably already failed a Climb or Jump check or a Save vs a trap, and normally wouldn't get any sort of a roll other than maybe a Tumble check at the bottom. The benefit of having Spider Climb up would be you'd get the saving throw to catch yourself. I don't know about the DC though, maybe a blanket 15 or equal to the Climb check of the wall. (Off the top of my head, I'm leaning towards the latter. Assuming you can lean off the top of your own head.)