Hello there,
In my campaign I'm planning a combat set on the back of a huge (as in, building size) beast who will fly at very high speed during the fight (think 100Km\h). Now, I thought that the relative wind produced by the beast's movement would be analogous to normal wind, so by the rules the fight would effectively take place under windstorm force wind.
Talking with a couple of my players (the characters know what awaits them so no big secrets) they told me that ranged weapons shouldn't be at a disadvantage in such a situation because they'd be part of the same inertial frame of reference. I'm not 100% sure this would be true: the relative wind should mess arrows pretty bad in my opinion. So I come to you asking for help!
Now, I'd like to keep things as simple as possible, and using the wind rules seems the most straightforward way. I just need your advice on "how much wind to use": should the relative wind be considered equal to normal wind, or should I lower it by one step? Or maybe my players are right and arrows shouldn't be affected at all?
On a side note: should ranged touch spells like Fiery Shuriken be affected like ranged weapons? And what about "incorporeal" ranged touch spells, like Scorching Ray?
Thanks!
When it's windy, they should use chakram! Arrows affect by wind a lot.
Make anything above light wind effect the arrows. Or Moderate Wind if you are being kind.
There are weapons like chakram which made for hunting in windy mountains, deserts and plain field, so keep that in mind they should not be effected as long as the target is within range. Spell shouldn't be effected too because it is guided by and powered by magic.
By the rules of the game the wind would not come into play. Most of the players like to think of themselves as fantasy heroes and in movies/books the ranged attacks of the characters are not affected if they are flying around, but if you really want to enforce this new rule then I would use the rules for tornadoes as a comparison.
For ranged touch it would not matter because they are not affected by physical forces, and as Nicos said casters would most likely have to make concentration checks.
Scorching ray is also not an "incorporeal" attack of any sort. It is just a ranged touch attack. What I am getting at is that not touch attacks or based on being incorporeal. For the most part it won't matter too much, but there may be a time when it not being called out as incorporeal might matter.
Thanks everyone :)
I think I will go for the middle ground, using Severe Wind (Severe Wind: In addition to automatically extinguishing any unprotected flames, winds of this magnitude cause protected flames (such as those of lanterns) to dance wildly and have a 50% chance of extinguishing these lights. Ranged weapon attacks and Perception checks are at a –4 penalty. This is the velocity of wind produced by a gust of wind spell.) and Lincoln Hills' suggestion of making them move around looking for a sweet spot :)