Potions of Fly, who'd use them?


Age of Worms Adventure Path


We finished the Champion's Belt last night. After the performance of the gladiator teams, I'm wondering why half of them had potions of Fly.

The Pitch Blade dwarves came swooping in against my party, all went well until the cleric cast Dispel Magic, causing one dwarf to nose dive for 3d6 falling damage.

In the final round, I set up Auric's band as suggested. In round 1 the sorceror sets off a fireball enhanced with explosive metamagic (pushing subjects to the edge of the effect) which lofts Khellek over the 40' ceiling and disqualifies him.

If the next fight were not the party's first dragon, I would make them fight mutliple dwarven defenders!


Not every configuration of characters is going to react the same to a situation. In my campaign, Pitch Blade stomped arse with their potions of fly. The next fight, every PC was packing two of them in their inventory (they slipped out of the coenoby to resupply). The party warmage can't cast dispel magic, and the party cleric didn't choose it that day.


Well, pushing someone above the 40' ceiling is certainly a valid tactic. However, it's impossible to take falling damage from having your fly spell dispelled.

"SRD wrote:
Should the spell duration expire while the subject is still aloft, the magic fails slowly. The subject floats downward 60 feet per round for 1d6 rounds. If it reaches the ground in that amount of time, it lands safely. If not, it falls the rest of the distance, taking 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet of fall. Since dispelling a spell effectively ends it, the subject also descends in this way if the fly spell is dispelled, but not if it is negated by an antimagic field.

(emphasis added)

Just something to keep in mind for future encounters.


Upon re-reading my post, I thought that I should make it clear that what I meant was that it's impossible to take falling damage from having your fly dispelled while playing in the Games. Characters will not be flying over 40' high, and so even if they only get one round of floating down, they still make it safely.

Yeah, that's what I meant.


Never noticed that in the description. I wonder why its worded that way. Shouldn't flying come at a risk? Guess thats why they call it magic.

Dark Archive Bella Sara Charter Superscriber

I’ve Got Reach wrote:
Never noticed that in the description. I wonder why its worded that way. Shouldn't flying come at a risk? Guess thats why they call it magic.

They made a decision to increase the utility of fly by adding in the auto feather fall. Otherwise, there is a strong disincentive to use the spell given that dispel magic is the same level. The problem was even worse in prior editions, when fly lasted for a randomly determined amount of time (which the DM did not share with the players).


Does Dispell Magic speed a spell to the end of it's duration, or pull the plug on it? I will look up the spell, but that means the difference between a crash landing and a feather fall. If the spell was just cut off, they would be falling forward. Anybody they crash into would take the effects of a charge and the falling damage.

Dark Archive Bella Sara Charter Superscriber

Read the spell:

Should the spell duration expire while the subject is still aloft, the magic fails slowly. The subject floats downward 60 feet per round for 1d6 rounds. If it reaches the ground in that amount of time, it lands safely. If not, it falls the rest of the distance, taking 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet of fall. Since dispelling a spell effectively ends it, the subject also descends in this way if the fly spell is dispelled, but not if it is negated by an antimagic field.

Contributor

Gotta get 'em while they're higher up. Also, a soft landing is OK as long you are landing on something that isn't going to, oh, I don't know, eat you, immolate you, pierce you, or maybe whack the stuffing out of you like a baseball.


Quoth the PH,"A dispelled spell ends as if it's duration had expired".
The invisable parachute is open.

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