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Alright, i know that if you have a 5 foot reach, you can reach five feet up in the air. so if someone's ten feet up in the air, you cannot hit them. Now, what if you're the person flying. are the people you're attacking a their height off the ground, or are they considered to be flat? essentially, would you need a ten foot reach to hit a med creature if you're flying ten feet up? what if they're a dragon?
it doesnt seem to be covered in the rules.. so how should we handle this?
Regardless of if you are on the ground or are flying your reach extends in all three dimensions. Only intervening objects change that.
You are at the 10foot height. You have a 5foot reach. You can strike the 5foot height (which is where a medium creature standing on the ground is).
Note: a medium creature standing on the ground is not at 'zero' they are at '5feet' just like a creature standing next to you is 5feet away.
- Gauss
Think of it as cubes. Character fill the entire 5 ft cube they're in. The can reach the cube above them (with normal 5 ft reach), just as they can reach the cubes beside them.
As such vertical reach can be seen just like horizontal reach:
xxxxx
xyyyx
xyAyx
xyyyx
xxBxx
GGGGG
Where:
A = the flying medium creature
B = the grounded medium creature
G = the ground
y = squares threathened by A, with 5 ft reach.
x = squares not threatened.
In this instance a 10 ft. reach would be necessary for A to hit target B. I don't see it as characters being flat, more that they are somewhere inside that 5 ft cube (thus A is actually flying somewhere between 10-15 ft above ground).
alright, so what's the height of say, a huge creature? fifteen feet tall?
Yes, from a purely mechanical perspective they fill a 15 ft cube. Often this might not make sense concerning the monster in question.
Consider the Cloud Giant and the Triceratops, both huge creatures.
The description of the cloud giant states 18 ft tall.
The triceratops being long, is obviously not as tall as that. Even more confusing (compared to the space of the creature) is the description that it is 30 feat long.
When reduced to fit battle maps creatures follow generalized mechanics for space and reach. However, it is something you should play around with.
Xavier319:
Actual height/dimensions are not really relevant to D&D/PF size rules. If you are playing a 6'3" medium character you still occupy a 5' cube. A huge creature occupies a 15foot cube regardless of actual height. Considering the large number of things in D&D/PF that do not make sense if compared to real world physics..this is a minor thing.
Ie: Dont look behind the curtain, the Wizard of Oz wont be a Wizard at all but just a man.
- Gauss
