Hey guys, I had a situation come up in my game last night and I'm not sure I'm happy with it... I let it fly but made it clear I'd look into the logistics before the next session so hopefully you can help!

One player is an Air Genasi so has the levitate spell as a racial feature. He cast it on a player who was 15ft underwater and was about to be munched by Obliteros... This put the second player 5ft above the water (Not sure on the underwater effects on Levitate but I had no problem with this part).

He then told player 2 to use his movement, the very next turn, to raise himself another 20ft as the recipient can use their movement to alter the height of the spell. This would mean that working together the caster can move them 20ft and the recipient can move 20ft causing a combined 40ft/turn.

I'm inclined to tell them that the height can be changed by 20ft/round either by the caster OR via movement of the recipient but I wanted to check with y'all so see if I'm getting myself muddled about the rules! It just seems like it has double the effect if used on a willing recipient as opposed to yourself or an inanimate object.

Thanks in advance 😁

The spell states it is the caster that causes the vertical movement, otherwise levitate wouldn't be any use on enemies other than making them more mobile! So only 20 ft of upward movement per round.

 Yeah that's what I thought until the Genasi player pointed out this;

If you are the target, you can move up or down as part of your move

Well, it would only make them more mobile, vertically.  And vulnerable to your control as well. So even if you levitated them 20 ft on your turn, and they lowered themselves 20 ft, they still used their full turn’s movement to get back to the ground. And have not ended the spell, so you can raise them back up on your turn using your action.

You know I never appreciated how poorly this spell was written. That clause cited in the post above isn’t very definitive. No creatures that I know of have a Levitating Speed, so I have to assume they use the 20 ft max that the caster is allowed to move them per turn.  But it does say “as part of your move” and does not specify that 20 ft max speed, so RAW, they could lower themselves 20 ft to the ground and use 10+ more ft walking speed to move into melee and attack while still under the spell.  I don’t think that’s RAI, though.

It would help if they even just specified that “unwilling targets who fail their saving throws do not retain the ability to change their altitude, though creatures that willingly submitted to the casting may move up to 20 ft up or down as part of their movement.”

Reading it, I think no one but the caster can move the target 20 feet up or down via spell movement.

The spell says, clearly, "The target can move only by pushing or pulling against a fixed object or surface within reach (such as a wall or a ceiling), which allows it to move as if it were climbing."

Then it says it says, you can move the target 20' up or down on your turn. This  "you" is clearly meant to be the caster. As is every other instance of "you" in the entire spell description. ("A creature of your choice;" "You can use your action to move the target"). So the way I read this spell, if you are the target, you can move up or down as part of your move, means if you cast it on yourself. I.e., if you, the caster, are the target, then instead of using an action to move, you can use your movement to move up or down at will. That part of the spell is explaining what happens if you are both the caster and the target.  That's why the last two sentences say, "If you are the target, do this," but "Otherwise, do that."

If the caster self-targets, levitation movement happens on his movement. If the caster targets others, he has to use his action to move the other object/creature/etc.

Oh, OK.  So “If you target yourself, you may move up or down as part of your move,” would be a bit clearer.  And that would be more in line with the way you would expect a spell like that to work.  So yeah, with that interpretation clarified, I agree with the original ruling that only the caster can change the target’s altitude.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help!

Yes the use of the pronoun "you" throughout the text makes it a bit confusing. In principle, all the spell text should be clarified by using "the caster" instead of "you" and being written in 3rd person. But I think the D&D tradition of second person spell description goes back all the way to the beginning.

EDIT: This is what I get for teaching writing... ;)

The spell should read, "If you target yourself with this spell, you may levitate up or down as part of your Movement. If the target is not yourself, then you may levitate the target up or down as part of your Action."

This spell has a long and glorious history of immobilizing enemies by lifting them just off the ground so they can't go anywhere while everyone else beats them to a pulp.

Quote from TexasDevin >>

This spell has a long and glorious history of immobilizing enemies by lifting them just off the ground so they can't go anywhere while everyone else beats them to a pulp.

 Budget Hold Person?  Actually not really "budget", because Levitate lasts up to 10 minutes, where as Hold Person does not...