hi all,
gm wants to find a ruling on a flying pc taking 5ft steps in air while flying and performing full round flurry of bows. i suggested that any movement that increases your height would count as half movement. so, it would seem that 5ft stepping up in height would actually count as 10 feet of movement(not allowed as part of full-round action). the pc could move 5ft to the side or even down and not count as half movement.(allowing full-round action). hover checks at 15dc made before /after? full round action . pc has 10 ranks in fly so it auto-succeed ...
does this sound right? is it a grey area table ruling or solid corebook rules to follow?
ty for help
If the flying creature is using winged flight, then I think it costs 10ft of movement to go up and would no longer be a 5ft step. If the flying creature is using magic to fly I don't think the movement cost increases, so it would remain a 5ft step. If it remains a 5ft step they can take a full round action, just as though they had 5ft stepped on ground.
So the question is, under what circumstances does flying upward increase the movement speed cost?
You can ascend at a 45 degree angle with no penalty. So while you can't 5 foot step straight up. You can 5 foot step up and to a side. Think of it like taking a diagonal 5 foot step in 2 dimensions.
I would think the 5' straight up, when possible, would also count as "fly up at greater than 45 degree angle," requiring a DC 20 Fly check.
Where does it say that moving straight up is different for winged and magical flight?
Good points. If you fly up at more than 45 degrees, it requires a DC 20 fly check.
Flying up at all counts as twice the movement.
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.
As for magical flight not having the restriction....it may have actually just been a 3.0/3.5 thing. But magical flight was a perfect maneuverability rating, and you could move up at full speed.
Double checking the PRD, it appears perfect maneuverability only grants you a +8 bonus to flight, so even magical flight would be reduced to half speed while flying....I think this may not have been intentional. Or maybe it was.
Personally I don't like it, but it does appear to be the correct ruling by RAW, since they got rid of the rest of the table on how maneuverability affected what you could do in flight.
flying STRAIGHT up?
so moving as a 5ft step upwards at a 45 degree angle is permitted? so, every round you could gain 5 more feet in flight and perform a full-round action every turn?
When a character or creature is flying, and that creature decides to ascend at a 45 degree angle, the rules states that it moves at half speed? Do the rules for diagonal square counting still apply when moving up diagonally in this way?
No. Since the game is generally assumed to be played in two dimensions, even when representing three dimensional combat, the rules for ascending are handled by the speed reduction instead of asking players and GMs to ascertain the diagonal vertical movement.
so this is faq
5ft step upwards diagonal is still a 5ft step and the pc can perform a full-round action?
Yes, though you still need to make the roll for moving less than half your speed in order to stay flying. (With your character it's moot as they auto-succeed, but at lower levels it can be an issue.)
I think this relates to the larger question of whether you can 5' step doing thing that are done at half speed (Actobatics, Stealth, Grease, etc.)
It would be nice to get that FAQ, but I'm not sure which way they will go. Personally, I prefer ruling that you can still take a 5 foot step when your speed has been reduced, but the devs don't seem to agree with my opinions very often.