I've been unable to find an official answer on this...
Where is the range or reach of abilities measured from? Specifically, when there is vertical distance involved?
Example: my character is a Medium-sized Human, attacking with a shortbow (range 80/320). If there is a creature flying directly overhead, at 85' from the ground, does my attack incur Disadvantage? Is the distance measured from the ground, or from the closest point in my "occupied space", which would be a 5x5x5 square around me?
It seems obvious to measure from the closest point, since otherwise Huge creatures with 5'-reach abilities would be unable to hit creatures flying directly overhead, adjacent to them (the distance would be 15'). But I haven't found any official source for this. It came up last night, when our Giant Ape-polymorphed Druid tried to throw a rock at a flying Adult Black Dragon, who was flying 40' away horizontally, and 40' up. We initially concluded the dragon was 55' away (Pythagoras: sqrt(40^2 + 40^2) =~ 55), which would incur Disadvantage (the range on the rock is 50/100). But then we considered that the ape is 15' tall, so we "measured" from there, which gave us 50' (sqrt(25^2 + 40^2) =~ 50). The DM accepted the 50' range, but I've been poring over the books and searching the internet for an official answer, and have been unable to.
I don’t think there is a “ruling” because it is essentially intuitive. Distance between you and the target is, well, you and the target, wherever you and the target may be. The rules fudge for the sake of grids, but aren’t built on them. Essentially, I would rule that you take your current range to target as the shortest logical distance to hit. However you do it, the key needs to be consistency. So if you argue your way to a particular interpretation of distance, then the DM gets to throw this back at you (possibly in a literal sense).
Is the distance measured from the ground, or from the closest point in my "occupied space", which would be a 5x5x5 square around me?
The game defines a creature's space in two dimensions: 5 feet by 5 feet for a medium creature, 10 by 10 for large, and so on. The rules never bring up the 3rd dimension when talking about a creature's space. You're also not going to find anything in the rules that explicitly says from where to measure your range when attacking directly above or below you.
That said, I recommend you consider a creature's space to be as tall as the creature currently is and measure the distance from there. I base this on the following two tweets from Crawford:
Both of these tweets suggest that a character's vertical space in combat is tied to how much space they occupy vertically. It makes sense to be able to measure attack reach from either your character's height or their feet, since your shoulders are close to your head and you can always bend or crouch down to attack below you. There's already some precedent for this: the high jump rules take your character's height into account when determining how high you can reach above you with a jump.
I think you meant to link this tweet for your first link (you linked to the same tweet twice).
Thanks a lot, I remembered having read something regarding height/reach, but couldn't remember where it was. That helps.
I wonder why they never address vertical distances (besides high jump) in a game filled with creatures with flying speed, items and spells that allow you to fly, climbing rules, etc. Seems like an odd omission.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I've been unable to find an official answer on this...
Where is the range or reach of abilities measured from? Specifically, when there is vertical distance involved?
Example: my character is a Medium-sized Human, attacking with a shortbow (range 80/320). If there is a creature flying directly overhead, at 85' from the ground, does my attack incur Disadvantage? Is the distance measured from the ground, or from the closest point in my "occupied space", which would be a 5x5x5 square around me?
It seems obvious to measure from the closest point, since otherwise Huge creatures with 5'-reach abilities would be unable to hit creatures flying directly overhead, adjacent to them (the distance would be 15'). But I haven't found any official source for this. It came up last night, when our Giant Ape-polymorphed Druid tried to throw a rock at a flying Adult Black Dragon, who was flying 40' away horizontally, and 40' up. We initially concluded the dragon was 55' away (Pythagoras: sqrt(40^2 + 40^2) =~ 55), which would incur Disadvantage (the range on the rock is 50/100). But then we considered that the ape is 15' tall, so we "measured" from there, which gave us 50' (sqrt(25^2 + 40^2) =~ 50). The DM accepted the 50' range, but I've been poring over the books and searching the internet for an official answer, and have been unable to.
I don’t think there is a “ruling” because it is essentially intuitive. Distance between you and the target is, well, you and the target, wherever you and the target may be. The rules fudge for the sake of grids, but aren’t built on them. Essentially, I would rule that you take your current range to target as the shortest logical distance to hit. However you do it, the key needs to be consistency. So if you argue your way to a particular interpretation of distance, then the DM gets to throw this back at you (possibly in a literal sense).
The game defines a creature's space in two dimensions: 5 feet by 5 feet for a medium creature, 10 by 10 for large, and so on. The rules never bring up the 3rd dimension when talking about a creature's space. You're also not going to find anything in the rules that explicitly says from where to measure your range when attacking directly above or below you.
That said, I recommend you consider a creature's space to be as tall as the creature currently is and measure the distance from there. I base this on the following two tweets from Crawford:
"If you're playing without a grid, distances in the D&D rules are meant to be read in their natural English sense. For example, I'm within 5 feet of you if any part of me is within 5 feet of you. We don't mean for you to mentally project a grid onto the action."
"Being prone doesn't turn you into a rug, but others can make a long jump over you pretty easily."
Both of these tweets suggest that a character's vertical space in combat is tied to how much space they occupy vertically. It makes sense to be able to measure attack reach from either your character's height or their feet, since your shoulders are close to your head and you can always bend or crouch down to attack below you. There's already some precedent for this: the high jump rules take your character's height into account when determining how high you can reach above you with a jump.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
I think you meant to link this tweet for your first link (you linked to the same tweet twice).
Thanks a lot, I remembered having read something regarding height/reach, but couldn't remember where it was. That helps.
I wonder why they never address vertical distances (besides high jump) in a game filled with creatures with flying speed, items and spells that allow you to fly, climbing rules, etc. Seems like an odd omission.