Reverse Gravity: stuck no matter what?

For some reason, my other poll dropped all my questions but one. 

So here's a question in a separate poll:

Someone casts Reverse Gravity on an area.   https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2618954-reverse-gravity

This spell reverses gravity in a 50-foot-radius, 100-foot high Cylinder centered on a point within range. All creatures and objects in that area that aren’t anchored to the ground fall upward and reach the top of the Cylinder. A creature can make a Dexterity saving throw to grab a fixed object it can reach, thus avoiding the fall upward.

If a ceiling or an anchored object is encountered in this upward fall, creatures and objects strike it just as they would during a downward fall. If an affected creature or object reaches the Cylinder’s top without striking anything, it hovers there for the duration. When the spell ends, affected objects and creatures fall downward.

Anything in the area makes a DEX save. On a fail, you fall upwards 100 feet. On a success, you grab onto something?

so, either way, you're stuck? You're either fail=suspended in midair, or you're success=holding onto a tree branch?

So, if you make the save, how do you deal with getting out of the AOE of the spell?

And what if the thing that's stuck holding onto a tree is something really dumb, like INT=3 or something?

Would it even know it has to hand-over-hand to get out? or would it just hold on? Or would it be so dumb as to not even make the connection and try to move, let go, and fall up?

Because if that's how it works, then Reverse Gravity traps everything big and dumb, even if they have legendary resistances. And anything smart is still going to have to use a spell or something to keep from falling, or hold onto that tree with both hands and... what?  Is it a crawl? Probably worse than a crawl? with some athletics check or somethign to move along the ground and not slip and fall up? Not a saving throw, mind you, that legendary resistance could get you through, but a check for actively trying to do something?

and you get 10 free rounds of pot shots at this thing? like shooting ducks in a barrel. or a tarrasque floating in air.

if its dumb and no ranged attack, reverse gravity lets a party kill it.

That is basically how it works, yes. 

Quote from Sequilonis >>

Once the spell is initially cast, the enemies will either be floating upwards or avoid the spell. After the initial casting, enemies that enter the area or are still in the area after making their save are not affected. It's a little counter-intuitive to how you would imagine the spell, but that's how it actually works.

Think of it this way, the spell reverses gravity's influence on a creature, it doesn't actual reverse the direction of gravity's pull in the area. You could think of it as reversing the polarity on a creature's internal magnet so it pushes off the ground instead of being attracted to it.

I don't agree with any of this.  The spell says that gravity in the cylinder is reversed.  All creatures and objects in there are affected.  The DEX save doesn't say anything about becoming unaffected.

Quote from SunIsGettingRealLow96589 >>

so, either way, you're stuck? You're either fail=suspended in midair, or you're success=holding onto a tree branch?

 

On a case-by-case basis this would have to be adjudicated by the DM, but in general you would not be totally stuck.  It would just be a difficult situation -- particularly if you were near the edge of the cylinder.

Mostly, you'd just need to picture being in the same situation under normal gravity.  Suppose you were hanging onto a tree branch under normal gravity?  What are the various things that you could do?  You could sit comfortably on the branch, but in this case, you couldn't climb "down" the tree since the tree trunk is going in the wrong direction.  How about swinging like a gymnast and releasing horizontally?  Or, jumping off of the branch?  Under normal gravity, suppose you knew that if you could just travel 10-feet that some sort of safety net begins there.  You might try it, and you may or may not be successful (ability check).  

In general, a DM could choose to use the INT of a creature to "roleplay" what it might do, but that's not something that is dictated by the spell itself.  The spell description doesn't say anything about INT, so the spell effect doesn't really interact with it.  Keep in mind that creatures as dumb as squirrels in real life are pretty adept at scampering up and down trees, leaping from treetop to treetop and so on.

A related thread created by SunIsGettingRealLow96589: Reverse Gravity and successful saving throw

Quote from Tarod_ >>

A related thread created by SunIsGettingRealLow96589: Reverse Gravity and successful saving throw

Yeah, maybe go read all the replies to that thread, everyone therr is saying the spell is a one time save and only those who fail are affected after that or other variations completely not describing an ongoing aoe.

How does a cylinder aoe interact with "cover" in the case of reverse gravity?

Do you draw a line from the point on ground at center of aoe, and extend it towards each creature and look for things that obstruct and provide some degree of cover?

Spell description doesnt say anything about ignoring cover, so....

https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2619078-spirit-guardians

"whenever the Emanation enters a creature’s space and whenever a creature enters the Emanation or ends its turn there, the creature must make a Wisdom saving throw."

A lot of spells will contain language that says when aoe enters creature space or when creature enters aoe, creature makes a saving throw.

Not reverse gravity.

And yet the replies here suggest thats how it works.