My players are playing Descent into Avernus, trying to levitate down from Elturel to Avernus. A player noted that when you stop concentrating or the spell ends, you float gently to the ground.
So, if a character casts levitate on himself and jumps off Elturel then subsequently ends concentration on levitate they would then gently float to the ground hundreds of feet below them? Seems kinda broken to me
My players are playing Descent into Avernus, trying to levitate down from Elturel to Avernus. A player noted that when you stop concentrating or the spell ends, you float gently to the ground.
So, if a character casts levitate on himself and jumps off Elturel then subsequently ends concentration on levitate they would then gently float to the ground hundreds of feet below them? Seems kinda broken to me
Gently floating down through hell...
is not the same thing as being in a force field protected from rocks, arrow, spells, things that fly and bite, as you “gently” (so half speed at best) float to the ground, in a straight line.
I’d let them, but warn them, they will be split from their party who don’t do this... and they do fall at a steady rate in a straight line.
Yep, that's the RAW of it. Definitely seems like one of those spells where the creators didn't think through how easily it could be abused... or maybe they did think of it and thought that if a player was willing to cast the spell in that manner they should be rewarded for their creativity.
A second level spell isn't that expensive... but it is unfortunate that upcasting it doesn't target additional targets, since it means you have to take 4-5 rounds to drop ship your entire party instead of all jumping together. Unless, I suppose, you plan to be in freefall for multiple rounds and can afford to cast the spell on one party member per round while falling (yourself last), though that will leave everyone spread 500 feet from the person on either side of them in the chain :/
If you wanna go rules as intended instead of RAW, I would interpret that the "floats gently to the ground" thing was included to keep people from using levitate as a slam attack (levitate someone up 20 feet, slam into ground, repeat), so you could say that caveat only applies in combat. Maybe if do that over the side of a cliff, the "gently floating down" only covers the 20ft distance the spell specifies and then you plunge the rest of the way.
But I guess the real question is why don't they just cast levitate on themselves and then use the actual mechanics of the spell to float down? You can move up OR down 20 feet per turn for up to a minute, so unless the cliff they're descending is higher than 200ft, why not just use the actual spell?
Because assuming that "float gently to the ground" means something like Feather Fall, it is 3x as fast to descend by canceling the spell than it is to descend under the power of Levitate. And if we're talking about descending a long way (miles?), we don't want to be stuck floating forever!
Because levitate requires concentration and a flying (or levitating) character attracts the attention of flying devils and demons in the area. Initially the charcter was levitating, then a Vrock took interest in him.....
I think that's a neat use, as far as I can tell it's valid RAW, and I don't think it's brokenly powerful. After all, you're basically using a 2nd-level slot to duplicate the effects of a 1st-level spell (feather fall), but weaker because it's restricted to 1 character instead of 5.
So now you got me thinking what if you cast levitate and the spell drops so you are gently floating to the ground as we have discussed in this thread... but then you get tired of gently floating so you cast fly on yourself. When the fly spell wears off or your concentration breaks, do you drop like a stone?
So now you got me thinking what if you cast levitate and the spell drops so you are gently floating to the ground as we have discussed in this thread... but then you get tired of gently floating so you cast fly on yourself. When the fly spell wears off or your concentration breaks, do you drop like a stone?
The fly spell effect would kick in taking precedence over the residual effect of your canceled Levitate. If you were still aloft. You’d drop like a rock.
But I guess the real question is why don't they just cast levitate on themselves and then use the actual mechanics of the spell to float down? You can move up OR down 20 feet per turn for up to a minute, so unless the cliff they're descending is higher than 200ft, why not just use the actual spell?
The spell duration is actually 10 minutes. 2,000 feet in ten minutes, or 2.2 mph. Not fast. At that point the spell ends, and you “float gently to the ground”. RAW, indefinitely.
Limiting the float to 20 feet seems reasonable, but I wouldn’t personally enforce it. Especially not someplace like the Elemental Plane of Air, where clever players could get some real weirdness mileage out of it.
I would say dispel magic cancels the “float”. And if the target reaches terminal velocity (about 120 mph) before this spell is cast, and then instantly slows to 2.2 mph, I would roll bludgeoning damage. Lots of it. Someone let me know if the math is backwards? Thanks.
Posting on another thread because this one seems more apt for the question. the spell Description at the end says. ”Otherwise, you can use your action to move the target, which must remain within the spell's range.”
the spells range/area is 60ft does that mean from the occupying space of the target? Or from the caster themselves? Because if it’s from the caster then yeah. I’d say RAW you can use it as an “upgraded” feather fall. But if it’s Front point of origin, then it stops working after 60ft and you fall like normal.
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My players are playing Descent into Avernus, trying to levitate down from Elturel to Avernus. A player noted that when you stop concentrating or the spell ends, you float gently to the ground.
So, if a character casts levitate on himself and jumps off Elturel then subsequently ends concentration on levitate they would then gently float to the ground hundreds of feet below them? Seems kinda broken to me
Gently floating down through hell...
is not the same thing as being in a force field protected from rocks, arrow, spells, things that fly and bite, as you “gently” (so half speed at best) float to the ground, in a straight line.
I’d let them, but warn them, they will be split from their party who don’t do this... and they do fall at a steady rate in a straight line.
It's like a really expensive feather fall
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Yep, that's the RAW of it. Definitely seems like one of those spells where the creators didn't think through how easily it could be abused... or maybe they did think of it and thought that if a player was willing to cast the spell in that manner they should be rewarded for their creativity.
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A second level spell isn't that expensive... but it is unfortunate that upcasting it doesn't target additional targets, since it means you have to take 4-5 rounds to drop ship your entire party instead of all jumping together. Unless, I suppose, you plan to be in freefall for multiple rounds and can afford to cast the spell on one party member per round while falling (yourself last), though that will leave everyone spread 500 feet from the person on either side of them in the chain :/
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
If you wanna go rules as intended instead of RAW, I would interpret that the "floats gently to the ground" thing was included to keep people from using levitate as a slam attack (levitate someone up 20 feet, slam into ground, repeat), so you could say that caveat only applies in combat. Maybe if do that over the side of a cliff, the "gently floating down" only covers the 20ft distance the spell specifies and then you plunge the rest of the way.
But I guess the real question is why don't they just cast levitate on themselves and then use the actual mechanics of the spell to float down? You can move up OR down 20 feet per turn for up to a minute, so unless the cliff they're descending is higher than 200ft, why not just use the actual spell?
Because assuming that "float gently to the ground" means something like Feather Fall, it is 3x as fast to descend by canceling the spell than it is to descend under the power of Levitate. And if we're talking about descending a long way (miles?), we don't want to be stuck floating forever!
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Because levitate requires concentration and a flying (or levitating) character attracts the attention of flying devils and demons in the area. Initially the charcter was levitating, then a Vrock took interest in him.....
I think that's a neat use, as far as I can tell it's valid RAW, and I don't think it's brokenly powerful. After all, you're basically using a 2nd-level slot to duplicate the effects of a 1st-level spell (feather fall), but weaker because it's restricted to 1 character instead of 5.
Seems legit and fair, IMO.
So now you got me thinking what if you cast levitate and the spell drops so you are gently floating to the ground as we have discussed in this thread... but then you get tired of gently floating so you cast fly on yourself. When the fly spell wears off or your concentration breaks, do you drop like a stone?
"Not all those who wander are lost"
The fly spell effect would kick in taking precedence over the residual effect of your canceled Levitate. If you were still aloft. You’d drop like a rock.
The spell duration is actually 10 minutes. 2,000 feet in ten minutes, or 2.2 mph. Not fast. At that point the spell ends, and you “float gently to the ground”. RAW, indefinitely.
Limiting the float to 20 feet seems reasonable, but I wouldn’t personally enforce it. Especially not someplace like the Elemental Plane of Air, where clever players could get some real weirdness mileage out of it.
I would say dispel magic cancels the “float”. And if the target reaches terminal velocity (about 120 mph) before this spell is cast, and then instantly slows to 2.2 mph, I would roll bludgeoning damage. Lots of it. Someone let me know if the math is backwards? Thanks.
Posting on another thread because this one seems more apt for the question.
the spell Description at the end says.
”Otherwise, you can use your action to move the target, which must remain within the spell's range.”
the spells range/area is 60ft does that mean from the occupying space of the target? Or from the caster themselves? Because if it’s from the caster then yeah. I’d say RAW you can use it as an “upgraded” feather fall. But if it’s Front point of origin, then it stops working after 60ft and you fall like normal.