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This was brought up in another thread, and I thought it was a good question:
My take on it is the rules say this:I do kinda get confused by the new rules sometimes; the whole "fly spell vs. fly skill" thing just recently gave me some befuddlement...
when a levitating mindflayer mindblasts a flying attacker into a stunned condition, does the flyer bob around unconsciously like an untethered helium balloon, or does he plummet to the ground since he can't make a fly check to hover?
You generally need only make a Fly check when you are attempting a complex maneuver. Without making a check, a flying creature can remain flying at the end of its turn so long as it moves a distance greater than half its speed. It can also turn up to 45 degrees by sacrificing 5 feet of movement, can rise at half speed at an angle of 45 degrees, and can descend at any angle at normal speed.
So if you go unconscious, I would say you continue drifting at half-speed in the direction you were going previously... or possibly even circling in a 'holding pattern' (<45* = no check). That could obviously cause problems itself, but isn't insta-pancake if you are at high altitude. The main thing is dispelling fly still leaves you floating down at 60'/round, just becoming unconscious should not be WORSE than that scenario.
But the rules themselves are pretty much silent on this situation where you CAN'T make a Fly check, and can't even decide ANY course of action, i.e. to do what's necessary to avoid a Fly check (since hovering in place itself requires a Fly check). Some sort of incapacitation is pretty common in the game, so it would be nice if it was actually covered by the rules in some way.
Yeah, I was going to add, another alternative with less scope for "where do you move to?" is saying you drift downwards AT YOUR MOVEMENT RATE (single move) - the basic threshold to not make a check when descending, which is exactly like what happens when fly is dispelled (only without the limitation on duration, convenient at very high altitudes).
Personally, I'd treat stunned and other unconsciousness effects as a dispel while they last. You can't focus so you really lose access to the ability and start drifting to the ground, a la Feather Fall. It's the simplest approach and doesn't punish the player if they fail a save.
Yeah; I think this is what I eventually came around to thinking;
I recently had a p.c. who was meleeing a mindflayer get mindblasted.I determined he was "hovering," and as such needed a skill roll or would plummet to the ground; and since he was stunned, he couldn't very well make the skill roll....RAW would seem to indicate he would plummet to the ground.
Thinking more on the subject, this was a fifteen foot drop; somebody fighting a dragon in the air 250 feet up would be toast in such a situation, and that hardly seems fair or condusive to using a fly spell, so the erzatz featherfall seems a whole lot more feasible.
A stunned character (not unconscious, that is different) cannot take actions on his turn, therefore cannot move half his speed forward. There are no rules for momentum that I'm aware of.
The only question is whether or not being unable to make a fly check equates to failing a fly check. To me it seems intuitively obvious, if you are stunned or unconscious you can't move and therefore cannot make a check to continue flying and thus plummet to the ground. The rules are not clear on this particular point however, at least not that I can see.
Personally I think it SHOULD be an insta-pancake as you say when flying at high altitudes. There need to be benefits and dangers to flying. If you're flying high in the air and it gets dispelled, well you better hope you have a feather fall prepared. If a villain is flying and you bring him to -1 (unconsciousness) he shouldn't still be able to fly off. Think about the consequences of your houserule is all.
There need to be benefits and dangers to flying. If you're flying high in the air and it gets dispelled, well you better hope you have a feather fall prepared.Fly's 'parachute' provision hasn't changed from 3.5. FYI.
Which is exactly my point. When the spell ends you fall safely 60 feet a round for 1d6 rounds. Say average of 200 feet or so. If you're flying higher than that you take falling distance for the remainder of the distance, hence why I said flying at high altitudes.
But stunning or bringing to unconsciousness doesn't end the spell hence you wouldn't get that provision when unable to make a fly check.