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Questions about monsters in pt. 3 of Doomsday dawn.
A shadow or greater shadow only has fly 30 as a mode of movement. It states under fly action that if you do not use a fly action you fall. Since the earth does not represent an obstacle to an incorporeal creature, any round I do not use a fly action, the shadow falls 1500 feet into the earth.
So this appears that if I don't want to fall out out combat, I must burn an action every round on a fly action. Is this the intention?
Fly(Move) Requirements You have a fly Speed.
You move through the air up to your fly Speed. Moving upward (straight up or diagonally) counts as traveling through difficult terrain. You can move straight down 10 feet for every 5 feet of movement you spend. If you fly to the ground, you don’t take falling damage. You can use an action to Fly 0 feet to hover in place. If you’re airborne at the end of your turn and didn’t use a Fly action this round, you fall.
Also, If I just use a fly action to hover, it has the move property and this would trigger an attack of opportunity? (See Italicized)
ATTACK OF OPPORTUNITY
(Fighter) Trigger A creature within your reach uses a manipulate action or a move action, makes a ranged attack, or leaves a square during a move action it’s using.
Make a melee Strike against the triggering creature at a –2 penalty. If the attack hits and the trigger was a manipulate action, you disrupt that action. This Strike doesn’t count toward your multiple attack penalty, and your multiple attack penalty doesn’t apply to it.
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Moving upward (straight up or diagonally) counts as traveling through difficult terrain
Just occured to me that it might work buggy on characters and creatures who can move unhindered through difficult terrain thanks to feats or special abilities.
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Yes, hovering can provoke (for now), but the shadow can move away and up instead. (After attacks)
So it shouldn't be hard to make good use of a fly action in basic combat, but having to fly could interfere when trying to do some of the fancy stuff.
Traditionally, incorporeal creatures could rest/land on surfaces, I wonder if gravity is even meant to affect them.
Otherwise I would imagine all those falling undead would gravitate toward the Underdark which they could overrun with no worries about sunlight. Doh.
Bummer that this hasn't been answered.
RAW Shadows and Poltergeists have to spend 1 of their 3 actions each round to fly or they fall (not sure they fall 1500 feet, but they certainly fall RAW.)
The question is whether this was RAI. Are shadows and poltergeists not allowed to hover in place without spending an action to take the Fly action?
Maybe this was intentional but it feels like and oversite to my PF1E sensibilities.
Help/answer appreciated. Thanks.
I'll add Air Elementals to the list of creatures that shouldn't fall, or at least should hover for free. Now I wonder whether these creatures are balanced around "two actions plus a fly action" or not.
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They not balanced for two actions.
Every other creature in the game gets to Stand Still as a free action. The ground/floor supports them and they don't need to spend actions to stand on that surface. It's free. So they can take all their actions to fight, or move, or whatever.
Furthermore, they don't have to hover to keep from falling through the ground or floor.
Incorporeal states that they "can" move through solid objects but it does not say that they "must". Nor does it say that they are incapable of interacting with solid surfaces. It does say that they are incapable of making STR-based checks but standing on the ground or floor is not a STR-based check.
Reading the entry for orcs or goblins doesn't call out that the orc or goblin is capable of standing on the ground; this is an assumed property for EVERYTHING. Therefore, the only creatures that cannot stand on the ground are creatures that have an explicitly stated restriction that prevents them from standing.
Shadows don't have any such restriction. Nor do Poltergeists or Air Elementals.
Note that Shadows can Fly into the air (they have a 30' fly speed). In this case, if they choose to fly into the air and end their move airborne, then the Fly rules apply, including using an action to hover.
Otherwise, the unwritten Everything-Can-Stand-On-The-Ground rule applies.
On a related note, it would be great if creatures with no physical body would also have no mass and therefore could hover (when they actually ARE flying) without burning an action since gravity wouldn't pull them down.
This could be a fun rule enhancement or house rule.
Yeah I guess I'd just like to know the design intent. Were these flying incorporeal creatures designed to have a max of 2 actions a turn because they have to spend 1 flying? Or was that an oversite? If they weren't designed to spend 1 action each round flying and I playtest them RAW where they have to spend an action each round flying then the data on those encounters is off. Especially compared to someone who saw fly speed X and assumed it worked like PF1E.