[Falling] No way for a falling flier to stop mid-air?

[EberronHoward]

Players used Gust of Wind to knock the Manticore out of the air, but I didn't have a precise idea of how high up everyone was from the bottom of the mountain. I checked the rules, and it seems that if someone does not have an Edge to Grasp when they start falling, they'll instantly go to the ground, where they can make an Arrest Falling check. Succeed or fail, they'll be on the ground.

It sounds like it would be easier to adjudicate, but I'm kind of disappointed that there's no way to stop mid-air. Plus, it seems that PCs with Legendary Acrobatics and Catfall can instantly go from mountain-tops to the ground. Feels like that would eliminate some interesting encounters, like the fights that happen in mid-freefall.

[vestris]

I guess falling for a round, with certain speed, instead would make it more realistic, it also avoids potential incredible high speeds of falling (falling of a mountain to the ground).

A secondary point just for that encounter I guess it is fine to ground him for a critical fail which involves rolling a 1 for its fort. check.

[DerNils]

The Speed of falling Needs to be clarified, and the Acrobatics skill Needs a reaction for Flyers to stop their fall after being tripped or whatever causes them to fall.

By the way, finding the fact that tripping a Flyer causes him to fall was quite an epic quest. You Need to crosschekc the Prone condition. I would have never intuited that.

[Fuzzypaws]

A good enough approximation of falling speed, given a world with the same gravity and atmosphere as Earth, is 500 ft in the first round (at which point you hit terminal velocity) and 1000 ft per round thereafter.

[Draco18s]

Mind, that's a full round. Getting knock out of the air just before you act wouldn't be a full round.

Of course, similar problems happen if you get knocked out of the air just after your turn, too.

[masda_gib]

Of cause static numbers can be inaccurate in round based combat in regards to when exactly the fall occurs. But that's a general problem of round based combat.

Fluffypaws numbers are easy to remember and big enough to only apply in great heights. So you don't have to bother with special falling-distance rules for critters flying 20ft above your head.

[DerNils]

Sounds like a good rule of thumb, would be great to have it in the CRB. I still feel someone with a f´Fly Speed should get a reaction comparable to Grab the Edge, in order to represent using your own ability to stop the fall before hitting dirt.

[Gaterie]

He has such a reaction, except it only prevents damages (he hit the dirt for no damages). And that's a good thing, since the only way he can fall is as a result of the PCs' actions: if I use my actions to make a monster fall and I succeed, I don't want the monster to get a second super-special-awesome new save to prevent my turn from having any effect.

[Draco18s]

There's a big difference between "it had no effect" and "it literally fell out of the sky, bounced off that mountain, and kept going."

[EberronHoward]

I wouldn't mind removing the existing stop-damage-from-falling effect in lieu of an "One saving throw per X feet falling". It might be very lethal to engage in aerial combat that way, but Feather Fall is a 1st-level spell. Mostly, I'd just really like to know how fast someone is falling, since I'm sure it's going to be relevant at some point.

[DerNils]

I know of the "Arresting a Fall" Option (even though gods above, is that well hidden if you start searching in Acrobatics), but it feels really gamey that independent of the height, you teleport to the ground.

And I don't see any difference between "I kicked someone down a pit" and "I kicked them out of the sky", so the effects/reactions should be similar.

By the way, does that mean that whenever I feel like spending 3 Actions as a Flyer, I can just do so and make an Acrobatics 15 check to not take any damage and teleport to the ground?