I see what you’re saying but if it has no mass then what’s stopping you from floating it about like watery sphere? Where as the water does have mass?? I get it’s RAW but seems pretty odd. I took inspiration from this from the balders gate 3 version that is basically a flaming Boulder as when you summon it it does crash down but it is a totally different game but is still supposed to be the same spell.
Flaming Sphere *has* to fall, or this text wouldn't make sense:
When you move the sphere, you can direct it over barriers up to 5 feet tall and jump it across pits up to 10 feet wide.
If the sphere floated, jumping it across pits would not only be undefined, there would be no upper limit to the width of the pits it could cross. This implies it can fall into a 15 foot wide pit, and which would mean it can fall.
Granted, the *other* text in the spell is identical to effects that everyone agrees float, like mage hand. If it weren't for the text about barriers and pits, I would have agreed it floats, but it must fall.
You don't need a bonus action to ram. You need a bonus action to move it, and there are rules for what happens when you ram with it. No actual rules text requires a bonus action for ramming to occur, and ramming is not actually defined.
I would argue you can unequivocally bonus action shove the sphere over a 40 foot cliff, and the sphere will call to the ground. If it hits a creature, the ram rules should apply.
If you summon the sphere above a target and the sphere falls on its own... then I'd have to make a judgment call, as the gm, as to what consitutes ramming. Not sure how I'd rule.
I agree with the others that it would drop, but not deal fall damage on impact. I don’t know if it has mass or not, but that really doesn’t matter — it’s magic, it breaks physics.
I guess the issue would be if you drop it off a cliff with your bonus action, can it go more than 30 feet, since you can only move it 30 with your bonus action. Of course, if it falls more than 60, it just vanish for being out of range, but the in-between might be weird. I’d probably let it fall the rest of the way down, assuming a 35-60 foot fall, but not attack.
If the bad guy is exactly 30 feet down (or less) I’d let you attack with it, but more than that, just fall harmlessly to the ground.
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Can you drop summon flaming sphere above an enemy and have it deal damage when it lands???
Your DM is entitled to rule differently at the table, but by RAW, the only way for the spell to deal damage is as listed in its description.
I see what you’re saying but if it has no mass then what’s stopping you from floating it about like watery sphere? Where as the water does have mass?? I get it’s RAW but seems pretty odd. I took inspiration from this from the balders gate 3 version that is basically a flaming Boulder as when you summon it it does crash down but it is a totally different game but is still supposed to be the same spell.
Flaming Sphere *has* to fall, or this text wouldn't make sense:
When you move the sphere, you can direct it over barriers up to 5 feet tall and jump it across pits up to 10 feet wide.
If the sphere floated, jumping it across pits would not only be undefined, there would be no upper limit to the width of the pits it could cross. This implies it can fall into a 15 foot wide pit, and which would mean it can fall.
Granted, the *other* text in the spell is identical to effects that everyone agrees float, like mage hand. If it weren't for the text about barriers and pits, I would have agreed it floats, but it must fall.
You don't need a bonus action to ram. You need a bonus action to move it, and there are rules for what happens when you ram with it. No actual rules text requires a bonus action for ramming to occur, and ramming is not actually defined.
I would argue you can unequivocally bonus action shove the sphere over a 40 foot cliff, and the sphere will call to the ground. If it hits a creature, the ram rules should apply.
If you summon the sphere above a target and the sphere falls on its own... then I'd have to make a judgment call, as the gm, as to what consitutes ramming. Not sure how I'd rule.
The description is vague in 5e. In previous editions, Flaming Sphere was basically a soft squishy "sponge" of fire.
So the practical interpretation from precedent is that it does indeed have mass, it is simply so negligible as to be irrelevant.
I agree with the others that it would drop, but not deal fall damage on impact. I don’t know if it has mass or not, but that really doesn’t matter — it’s magic, it breaks physics.
I guess the issue would be if you drop it off a cliff with your bonus action, can it go more than 30 feet, since you can only move it 30 with your bonus action. Of course, if it falls more than 60, it just vanish for being out of range, but the in-between might be weird. I’d probably let it fall the rest of the way down, assuming a 35-60 foot fall, but not attack.
If the bad guy is exactly 30 feet down (or less) I’d let you attack with it, but more than that, just fall harmlessly to the ground.