Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Scenario:
The level 3 party has reached the top of the castle tower and wants to avoid all the guards on the way back down. Nobody has flight, but somebody has feather fall. Can they jump from the top of the tower and then glide to outside castle walls where they can disappear into the woods?
More Questions:
For reference:
Feather Fall
1st LevelTransmutation
Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you or a creature you can see within 60 feet of you falls
Range/Area: 60ft.
Components: V, M(a small feather or piece of down)
Duration: 1 minute
Source:Player’s Handbook, pg. 271
Choose up to five falling creatures within range. A falling creature’s rate of descent slows to 60 feet per round until the spell ends. If a creature lands before the spell ends, the creature takes no damage from the fall, and the spell ends for that creature.
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Gust (from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
Transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
You seize the air and compel it to create one of the following effects at a point you can see within range:
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Telekinetic
General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+)
You gain the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Minor Telekinesis. You learn the Mage Hand spell. You can cast it without Verbal or Somatic components, you can make the spectral hand Invisible, and its range and the distance it can be away from you both increase by 30 feet when you cast it. The spell’s spellcasting ability is the ability increased by this feat.
Telekinetic Shove. As a Bonus Action, you can telekinetically shove one creature you can see within 30 feet of yourself. When you do so, the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 plus the ability modifier of the score increased by this feat and your Proficiency Bonus) or be moved 5 feet toward or away from you.
———
Jump
Level 1 Transmutation (Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard)
Casting Time: Bonus Action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a grasshopper’s hind leg)
Duration: 1 minute
You touch a willing creature. Once on each of its turns until the spell ends, that creature can jump up to 30 feet by spending 10 feet of movement.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. You can target one additional creature for each spell slot level above 1.
———/
Longstrider
Level 1 Transmutation (Bard, Druid, Ranger, Wizard)
Casting Time: Action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a pinch of dirt)
Duration: 1 hour
You touch a creature. The target’s Speed increases by 10 feet until the spell ends.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. You can target one additional creature for each spell slot level above 1.
1. No falling creature falls vertically down, and Feather Fall doesn't allow change of direction. Strong wind may possibly do so.
2. Yes a creature falling in a Gust of Wind must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed 15 feet away from the caster in a direction following the Line.
3. No Jump or Longstrider has no effect on falling creature.
4. Yes a falling creature targeted by Telekinetic Shove would be moved 5 feet toward or away from such creature.
(@packman767 as a suggestion, you can use tooltips in your posts: How To Add Tooltips)
Need a way to catch any wind to glide. Weight would make a difference as well, heavier means less travel:fall ratio.
My only slight disagreement is with 1 in that I think its perfectly reasonable with the slowed descent to extend an arc from a jump a bit. I don't think there is a RAI answer so I think it would be a okay DM judgement call to let a player go horizontally a bit further with the spell going if they had momentum. It is one of those how does a spell/crazy stunt work in the environment questions. While its true spells only do what they say, its also true the wording of spells will never cover all the crazy ideas a player will come up with. So unless the rules explain it you have to come up with the what happens when you cast fireball here, lightning bolt there, web there etc. Using web as an example if you cast it into an street below and then jump off a building onto it, what is the fall damage. It does not say it will reduce fall damage, but I think a lot of DMs would rule that way. And as a general rule I like the idea of rewarding clever/fun ideas.
That being said unless this object you are jumping off of is crazy high I'm not sure how much a player can expect. You fall 60 feet in one round, using the example above lets say your castle walls are 20 feet tall unless the tower is over 60 feet that is just one round of falling even if the DM gave you a perfect glide of some kind with 1 ft forward for 1 ft drop the tower would have to be either really tall or pretty close to the wall to clear it. And a lot of DMs who do allow this will likely not give a perfect glide they may just extend your jump a flat 10 feet before you go straight down or a 5ft drop for each extra ft of forward movement etc.
So RAW its not literally in the spell so its not RAW, though its not expressly against RAW, there is no line that says this spell does not increase horizontal movement at all under and circumstances. RAI though, I think RAI is the DM should support clever uses of spells and abilities that fall outside the letter of what they do as the RAW can't and shouldn't cover every situation.
Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head here.
Even if you COULD use spells or features for a propulsion effect, that 60 feet per round isn’t much to play with.
At best you might use Feather Fall with Misty Step/teleport…. but that would require a cost/benefit analysis. The reason I like Gust is it doesn’t cost anything other than an action. But you are probably spot on with your comments.
I want Feather Fall to have a “hang glider” effect, but I just can’t make the math work. 😬
I am a Goonie, sorry.
Feather Fall
I think gust of wind would be a hilarious combo with feather fall. You’d basically have to have a volunteer jump first, activate it, and then everyone else jumps after them using the effects of gust of wind to jump higher.
Let’s say the player jumping first is an Aarakoka or similar, and they can adjust their position midflight. It would seem that with FF and GoW and even cantrip Gust you could juggle the party a bit with a flying character.
Assume 10 feet horizontal jump before free fall, but they hit the wind wall and go up and forward before falling. So the jump might get extended to 20-25 feet. If the characters have jump activated they could probably hit 50 feet easy peasy. This might be enough to clear a wall if it is nearby.