Shadow Trap on a falling target.

[Nuclearun]

I've got something of an odd question:

If a PC used Shadow trap on a falling target (lets assume an Ally who chooses not to resist), would they continue to fall? Spell description implies that a flying creature can only hover or fall... does that mean that a target who was already falling would continue to fall by definition?

I suppose a secondary question might be this: does the caster need to be able to SEE the shadow of the target? If a PC was flying ~500ft up and encountered an enemy (too high to make out a shadow) but the target was w/in range of the spell, would it still be effective?

Thanks for all the assistance/opinions.

For a little color, this question came to mind because I am part of a party that very nearly needed to jump off of a very high place (think 30k feet) and only 2 of us could fly out of a party of 5. I was thinking I could carry one down, flying next to the second, and when within... say 20 seconds of hitting the ground, shadow trap the second one, flair with the first ally, fly back up as the trap ended, and carry the second to safety. Wasn't needed, but wanted to be prepared.

Second question comes because I was thinking about a flying enemy hanging over a cliff or ledge preventing me from seeing the shadow, but keeping the enemy well within range.

[Kayerloth]

Shadow Trap? Unable to find and I'm not familiar with it. Link?

[Ferious Thune]

I don't think there's any reasonable way to interpret Shadow Trap as being able to stop someone from falling. It says a flying creature must hover or fall. A falling creature doesn't have the ability to hover, so they just fall.

I think GM interpretation that the ground is not close enough for the spell to work is a fair house rule. Going strictly by the text of the spell, there's no requirement that the caster be able to see the ground. Simply that the creature being affected casts a shadow. I could see a GM ruling that the creature is too high up to effectively cast a shadow, but there's nothing that specifies how far is too far.

Shadow Trap

[blahpers]

Kayerloth wrote:

Shadow Trap? Unable to find and I'm not familiar with it. Link?

shadow trap

[blahpers]

1. Since a flying creature is able to fall while its shadow is trapped, the presumption is that a creature cannot "dangle by their shadow"--a creature will fall if there is nothing but their shadow holding them up. No idea how that works in practice--does the shadow stay pinned but the creature separate from it? Does the shadow stretch really far as the creature falls?

2. The caster need only have line of sight to (or, more rarely, be touching) the target creature, not the target creature's shadow, per the Target line and no qualifying text to the contrary in the spell description.