Deliberately stop flying, action?


Rules Questions


Is there anything preventing a character from deliberately falling to the ground after they're flying? If you're flying 15 feet in the air on wings and simply stop flying, plummeting to the ground with a successful acrobatics check, did that require an action to do, or take time?

I can't see any reason that you can't basically just drop to the ground as an instant effect by simply not flying, and it could be a very cool way to launch an attack...


There is nothing stopping it, but you will have to make an acrobatics check to avoid taking damage from the fall.

Quote:
When you deliberately fall any distance, even as a result of a missed jump, a DC 15 Acrobatics skill check allows you to ignore the first 10 feet fallen, although you still end up prone if you take damage from a fall. See the falling rules for further details.

Since jumping counts against your movement I don't see why the falling would not either.

Quote:
No jump can allow you to exceed your maximum movement for the round.

I would enforce that to make sure people don't try to get free movement. That DC 15 acrobatics check can be made most of the time by a 1st level character.


doing nothing is a free action. I don't see how people can think otherwise. read the falling rules. going down is 1000x easier than going up!


So what you're saying is that it doesn't cost an action, but counts against movement? That was about what I figured.

I was thinking of it in terms of a really flavorful PC or monster tactic to launch an attack from above as a sort of pounce. The acrobatics check becomes a major issue if the intent is to drop into battle, since you can't take 10 and failure means you're on the ground bleeding. Not hard to do really, but very important. I guess there's also the fact that deliberately falling through a threatened square would arguably provoke, and deliberately falling would cancel taking a five foot step since you are technically 'performing' another kind of 'movement'... hmm.


ummmm, that's called falling? so the air technically fails to stop you from falling, where it becomes drag.
Takes no action but consumes time.
BTW you don't take damage from falling, it's the sudden stop at the end where you take the damage.

while you don't have to expend movement to fall, your rate of falling (in a vacuum) is governed by a simple formula, s=(a/2)*t^2, where s is distance, a=9.81m/s^2 or 32.19ft/s^2, t is time in seconds. A round is 6 sec so you can figure it out. I believe in Pathfinder that you hit a constant rate after 210ft (with the acrobatics check) (the first round) so the fall becomes 33.33 ft/sec after that.

wikipedia wrote:
Based on wind resistance, for example, the terminal velocity of a skydiver in a belly-to-earth (i.e., face down) free-fall position is about 195 km/h (122 mph or 54 m/s). This velocity is the asymptotic limiting value of the velocity, and the forces acting on the body balance each other more and more closely as the terminal velocity is approached. In this example, a speed of 50% of terminal velocity is reached after only about 3 seconds, while it takes 8 seconds to reach 90%, 15 seconds to reach 99% and so on. ...

You can have all the free movement from falling (downward), you just take damage when you hit the bottom.


the rule is a deliberate ascending vertical fly speed is at half movement and descending is at double movement.

Air Vehicles wrote:
Air vehicles fly through the air. They are usually propelled by air currents, alchemical engines, magic, or in the case of larger air vehicles, a mix of air currents and alchemical engines or magic. Airships, because of their nature, travel though all three dimensions instead of two. When they ascend, they must do so at half their current speed. When air vehicles descend, they can (but do not have to) move at double their current speed. After the ascent or descent, treat the vehicle’s current speed as it was before making the ascent or descent.

see FAQ and Fly skill.

dive bombing and such in a controlled manner usually involves a feat. see Power Dive (Ex), Aerial Charge (Ex).


BadBird wrote:

Is there anything preventing a character from deliberately falling to the ground after they're flying? If you're flying 15 feet in the air on wings and simply stop flying, plummeting to the ground with a successful acrobatics check, did that require an action to do, or take time?

I can't see any reason that you can't basically just drop to the ground as an instant effect by simply not flying, and it could be a very cool way to launch an attack...

You would basically use the rules for a deliberate fall from the point at which you stop flying.


vhok wrote:
doing nothing is a free action.

Actually, one might argue that doing nothing isn't an action at all!

To fall, all you need to do is not fly. So you just voluntarily choose not to take the action to remain flying, in much the same vein that being paralyzed causes creatures to be unable to take the action to remain flying, even if otherwise they could hover in place.


I am positing that since damage die stop accruing that terminal velocity has been reached... otherwise you can use a more realistic formula from physics...

A) distance from 20 die falling damage +10ft (successful acrobatics check) is 210ft, s=32.19/2*t^2=210; t=3.61s; or a classic 200ft yeilds t=3.53s, so let's call it 3.6s. At this point terminal velocity is about 58ft/s.

B) using a fall of 210ft in 6 sec yield a terminal velocity of 35ft/sec (or 200/6=33.33ft/s), but we have to remember that you are accelerating as you fall...

A is correct, so let's go with the longer time to accrue 20 dice lethal damage and then go constant (yes - it's a compromise) of 58ft/sec.
so in 6 sec a creature falls 210ft(in 3.6s) then 139.2ft(in 2.4sec) so it's 350ft in round 1, say 700ft in round 2, and 1050 in round 3...

distance = (350 +58*(r-1))ft/r for Pathfinder

from testing in RL terminal velocity is about 53-56m/s for spread eagle non-aerodynamic falls <grin> (174-184 ft/s), tumbling in air wasn't mentioned and that would slow the fall a bit, otherwise 180 ft/s is a good number. "The more compact and dense the object, the higher its terminal velocity will be. Typical examples are the following: raindrop, 25 ft/s, human being, 250 ft/s." Bueche, Fredrick. Principles of Physics. New York: McGraw Hill, 1977: 64. Since other reports are slower one can assume it's a dive or cannonball position.

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