When levitating a creature or object does the spell maintain it's spacial orientation? Spell does not specify if the caster has control over this or if the spell just picks things up by it's center of gravity and lets any unbalanced weight orient towards the pull of gravity... Levitate a sword it might swing pommel down, levitate your friendly top heavy orc barbarian friend only to spray vomit about from all the swinging. If the caster can control or change the orientation does it make the spells level go up?

Someone mentioned the cloud giants falling from "dragons are specks" hight, if they use this spell it states when it ends the effected thing slowly falls until it meets the ground but does not limit how far you can fall.

Quote from SizzleCorndog >>

So does the target constantly rise until it is 20ft off the ground or is that just the max that it can move within that period of time and it has to be specified? A player in my campaign was being sort of grappled by vines and he cast levitate to try to get out of it but didn't break the "grapple" so I just said he floated upright but the ones held him in the air just above the ground and would pull him down if he cast mold earth under himself since he was the target and not the vines. He made the case that the spell can move up to 500lbs worth of stuff and therefore the vines shouldn't be able to match that force so they should break, someone else said that he didn't say he moved himself up 20ft so he would just float there. Is he right or am I right in saying that he would just be held in the air a bit?

 If the player specified they are using the spell to elevate themselves above the plant while grappled I figure the vines would need to make an opposed strength check against the caster's spell DC to retain the grapple and continue to keep the player's movement at 0

Quote from Blazin65 >>

Would this work?  Grapple an enemy and cast levitate on yourself.  Float up as high as you can (up to 200' where the fall damage stops increasing), before they break the grapple and they drop or you drop them.  Thats a way to use for damage?

 Genius! Could be the signature move of a Goliath muscle wizard :D

Or you could have the fighter/barbarian grapple an enemy, and cast levitate on your friend. They float up, and then drop the enemy.

What happens if you cast this on a flying creature and then immidiatly end concentration ?

From what i can read here as RAW it is affected by "When the spell ends, the target floats gently to the ground if it is still aloft.", that would mean that it has to float to the ground before it can continue flying ?

This spell should have subsequent saves for unwilling creatures. Had a party levitate the boss of an encounter to get out of fighting the mainly melee bandit chief. Just held him in the air until he was dead.

The spell can levitate a target that weighs up to 500 pounds.

 

First paragraph, the target of the spell can weigh *up to* 500 lbs. 

Actually concentration is new to 5th edition, so all the previous rules and stories are from before the 'gods' got more strict in how much magics mortals could wield at once. 

Can Floating Disk + Levitate make a makeshift elevator by targeting the disk?

They both have a weight limit of 500 pounds so I imagine it would work. Tenser's Floating Disk is a conjuration spell, so perhaps the disk would count as an "object" for the purposes of Levitate. Thoughts?

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

So does this mean i can use my standard 30 ft. of movement at will and  mid air? but if i want to go up/down that's a max of 20 ft. per turn? (so still 10 ft. levitating in any other direction). And i don't have to use my action for up/down?

Can Floating Disk + Levitate make a makeshift elevator by targeting the disk?

My group has asked this and I haven't made up my mind yet. However, there's a lot of discussion about the 500 pound limit that I think is moot because of this: 

The *target* of the spell can weigh up to 500 lbs. Stacking things on top of the target doesn't add to the weight of the target. The spell doesn't state that there is a maximum weight that can be levitated - only that there is a maximum weight for the target. So if you build a sturdy platform, of wood reinforced with metal, say, weighing 400 lbs, you've got one heck of a siege weapon. Load whatever you want on there, as long as it doesn't break the platform, have a flying character tow it over the castle wall and set it down inside. Of course they'd be sitting ducks during the approach ... I'm sure there are all kinds of other applications as well.

Quote from ZardoktheDestroyer >>

Can Floating Disk + Levitate make a makeshift elevator by targeting the disk?

My group has asked this and I haven't made up my mind yet. However, there's a lot of discussion about the 500 pound limit that I think is moot because of this: 

The *target* of the spell can weigh up to 500 lbs. Stacking things on top of the target doesn't add to the weight of the target. The spell doesn't state that there is a maximum weight that can be levitated - only that there is a maximum weight for the target. So if you build a sturdy platform, of wood reinforced with metal, say, weighing 400 lbs, you've got one heck of a siege weapon. Load whatever you want on there, as long as it doesn't break the platform, have a flying character tow it over the castle wall and set it down inside. Of course they'd be sitting ducks during the approach ... I'm sure there are all kinds of other applications as well.

 
Agreed re the weight limit for Levitate (levitate an object weighing less than 500 pounds, and then jump on it). However, this doesn't work if the object you're levitating is the Floating Disk platform because the disk will dissipate once the total weight exceeds 500 pounds: "The disk remains for the duration, and can hold up to 500 pounds."

I see a lot of disagreement on whether you can drop something from a great height with this. You can, the height would just have to be 120 feet, as you could use dispel magic rather than ending the spell.

Edit: you could double the spells range with distant spell meta-magic on dispel magic, for a total height of 240 feet, or 24d6 damage.

Quote from Lethargic_Sloth >>

I see a lot of disagreement on whether you can drop something from a great height with this. You can, the height would just have to be 120 feet, as you could use dispel magic rather than ending the spell.

Edit: you could double the spells range with distant spell meta-magic on dispel magic, for a total height of 240 feet, or 24d6 damage.

 If you use Dispel Magic, the spell ends. If the spell ends, the target floats gently to the ground. You have to do some pretty wild mental gymnastics to interpret a way to exploit this.

Good news though: you really don't need to. Anything that would let you levitate it up 120ft (6 rounds) without using ranged attacks or spells to kill you, will die to your party shooting ranged attacks at it over the entire duration of the spell.

If you want to use it to start an encounter with an air raid, you'll need to cast the spell on a party member who can carry the missile. Then they can just drop the object when they get high enough. I would gently suggest you don't do this, though, because (among other reasons) it doesn't actually tell you the speed at which the person would float down, so there's no telling whether your strong-man target would be able to rejoin the fight in a reasonable amount of turns.

what would I roll for this

Quote from Zhannan >>

Could you combo Levitate and Catapult?

No, it wouldn't do anything

This acts as banishment in battlefield control terms. Provided the enemy is less than 500lbs you can make them save or lift 20 ft off the ground and lose their movement for the duration. They only get one chance to save, so its a save or die situation. Often strictly better than hold person, as you can save out of hold person. If enemy can use ranged attacks however it loses some of its might. 

Imagine you get robbed and someone tries to run away with your stuff. Levitate and boom. Harmless and flavorful capture.

Imagine you are fighting the big bad. He comes at you with a great-sword. Levitate and suddenly he's helpless.

Levitate yourself and you make the pack of wolves helpless. 

4/5 spell IMO. While it does eventually get beaten out by other save or die effects, this remains one of the most effective for the price. It is one of, if not the, earliest save or die spell. Its dripping in flavor. It also opens up fun play patterns when used indoors. It can be used both offensively and defensively. You should ALWAYS take this spell.

In combat:
Levitate can be an effective CC for single non-flying melee oriented targets. Once the spell lands, the only way to force the spell to end pre-maturely is to make the caster lose concentration. Until the spell ends, the target meeting the above mentioned criteria is effectively a non-factor regardless of how much DPR or how much HP it has.
Also great at:

• keeping important NPCs safe from melee harm
• "capturing" an escaping target that doesn't have any instantaneous movement spells

Exploring: 
For 10 minutes, the vertical plane is now a non-factor. So too is the horizontal plane with the assistance of an immovable rod, familiar* and rope (remember that a fixed object/surface is required to "move").  
A large piece of cloth can be used as an exploration vehicle* provided that total weight of cloth and passengers that are less than 500 lbs. It can move at the speed of 20ft per turn/6 seconds by pulling on the rope that is attached to the fixed immovable rod.
*Requires DM approval

Food for thought section:
The second paragraph doesn't go into the level of detail for niche situations so I'll leave the following for DM's to ponder if going by RAW.
The relevant part of the spell says "The target can move only by pushing or pulling against a fixed object or surface within reach which allows it to move as if it were climbing". 

1. The pulling part is not an issue - a rope will facilitate the horizontal movement of 20ft per round. What about the pushing part? How far does a "kick against the fixed object/surface" get you? 
2. What happens when a non-fixed object/surface comes into contact with the target? Say the target comes into contact with an object that was yeeted at the target?
3. What happens when a flying creature slams into the target? the spell specifically mentioned that the target can move "ONLY"  by........fixed object or surface... so a ROC slamming against the target will not cause movement? If this does do something - what about the liberal use of the mage hand cantrip or using a flying ally as a tow truck? 
4. What happens when the magic is "dispelled" compared to when the spell "ends"? Will the feather fall effect still trigger? what about while in an anti magic field such as a beholder's gaze?
5. What happens when the target becomes target of another spell and such as thunder wave or Telekinesis? 

Going by RAW, the above questions should end with the least fun/interesting results from what I can see.

Quote from ChoirOfFire >>

 

If you want to use it to start an encounter with an air raid, you'll need to cast the spell on a party member who can carry the missile. Then they can just drop the object when they get high enough. I would gently suggest you don't do this, though, because (among other reasons) it doesn't actually tell you the speed at which the person would float down, so there's no telling whether your strong-man target would be able to rejoin the fight in a reasonable amount of turns.

That's why you use it on a Ranger, Arcane Archer or other ranged fighter; so even if they're stuck gently drifting back to the ground they can just shoot the whole way down, while safely out of reach of melee (and hoping the enemy don't have archers of their own).

As for the speed though, I'd assume 20 feet per round; 20 feet in six seconds isn't that fast (it's slower than average walking speed) so it would qualify as "gently", plus it's the speed mentioned in the spell so makes the most sense.

One other thing worth mentioning about this spell and levitating characters is; remember you have equipment on top of your character's own weight. While Wizards of the Coast seem to have stopped giving weights on newer races (which is ridiculous), you must still weigh something, and players are often hoarders by nature so some of them may fill up that 500 lbs limit pretty quick unless you get them to drop some of their gear first.

Flying broom