Wildshape, flying and Stun

[Aaron2]

Ok, the Druid in the party wildshaped into an eagle and flew after the bad guy. If you flying and get Stunned (say, from a Mind Flayer's Mind Blast) do you fall out of the sky?

Fortunately, she made all her saves so I never had to make the ruling but I'm still unsure.


Aaron (the DM)

 

[Dr. Zoom]

If the creature must maintain a minimum forward speed, then the stun might cause them to fall to the ground because it permits no actions, including movement. It would depend on how high they are. Read the paragraph in the DMG, page 69, under "Minimum Forward Speed" for the details of how a flying creature falls when it cannot maintain its minimum forward speed. Not that those creatures with Good or Perfect maneuverability would not be affected in this way by a stun because they can hover.

 

[NilCat]

The fact that they can hover does not mean that they must not use their wings for it. As I don't have the MM handy I can't check on any of the monsters, but one example from the real world would be the humming-bird. It hovers by using the same wings it uses to fly with.

On the other hand there are of course plenty of things in the D&D universe that flies without the use of wings (beholders being the most obvious example)

So I'd say that fliers with wings would fall, those without would not regardless of their maneuverability.

My interpretation does not use any rules, only common sense (to me anyway) and we all know how well that mixes with D&D

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Do stunned creatures with legs fall to the ground because they stop using their legs?

I don't think so.

My own "common sense" answer is that higher maneuverablity creatures just hover in place, and most low maneuver creatures glide forward at half speed (probably losing altitude slowly).

By the spirit of the rules IMHO, stun is the loss of actions and not the loss of activity. So stunned cavalrymen do not fall off their horses, stunned swimmers do not automatically start drowning, stunned bipeds do not fall prone, stunned birds do not plumment like a rock.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

They do stop using their legs for movement, though. Stun does not allow any actions, and that includes movement. The bird will not plummet like a rock, but since it cannot make any movement actions until the stun wears off, it follows the rules for minimum forward speed. For short duration stuns, it may quite possibly recover before hitting the ground.

 

[Gromm]

A case could be made for gliding creatures- dragons and most birds. While insects and hummingbirds would plummet to the ground, most creatures would probably continue in a straight line, possibly crashing into the ground or something else, but most likely they wouldn't drop out of the sky.

If you stun a dragon flying across the sky its probably just going to glide in the same direction, unless it was hovering (in which case it would drop), or its wings were in mid beat (ie top or bottom of the stroke).

Unfortunately the rules don't really handle these things too well, so its hard to say.