Incorporeal and Flight


Rules Discussion


Fly ((A)) wrote:
You move through the air up to your fly Speed. Moving upward (straight up or diagonally) uses the rules for moving 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.

Emphasis: Mine.

So, with this quote in mind, my question is this: What happens if a Banshee uses its Wail as a three-action activity to overcome a 6th-, 7th-, or 8th-level silence? It hasn't used an action to Fly that round, so would it fall? And if so, when would it stop? It has no physical form, so there is no obstruction to stop it (unless there was a sudden wall of force in Golarion's core, but that's beside the point).

The same question applies to any incorporeal creature that does a three-action activity (or just chooses not to Fly in a given round).

(As a quick aside, the Banshee's Spectral Ripple ability is useless by the RAW, since it doesn't have a land Speed, so it cannot Stride at least 10 feet.0

Dark Archive

Nothing stops the Banshee from having landed the round before, or ending it's movement less than 10 feet from the ground, so it takes no damage from the fall.
At least, that was my first thought.


I think the question was rather not about falling damage, but why would an incorporeal being stop falling at ground Level.
Personally, I would handwaive this with incorporeals having to consciously move through solid objects, ambient Magic in the ground, blalala, because RAW she would stop somewhere one the other side of Golarion (I seem to remember Incorporeals can't stop their movement in solid objects anymore)


I think the answer should be that incorporeal creatures float in the air, and do not fall if they do not take a fly action to otherwise move.

But that's not actually the rules.


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Claxon wrote:

I think the answer should be that incorporeal creatures float in the air, and do not fall if they do not take a fly action to otherwise move.

But that's not actually the rules.

"Incorporeal creatures usually have immunity to effects or conditions that require a physical body, like disease, poison, and precision damage." I'd list falling as an effect requiring a physical body.


graystone wrote:
Claxon wrote:

I think the answer should be that incorporeal creatures float in the air, and do not fall if they do not take a fly action to otherwise move.

But that's not actually the rules.

"Incorporeal creatures usually have immunity to effects or conditions that require a physical body, like disease, poison, and precision damage." I'd list falling as an effect requiring a physical body.

That would be a reasonable interpretation to get the desired result.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
DerNils wrote:
I seem to remember Incorporeals can't stop their movement in solid objects anymore

Indeed they can.

Bestiary page 346 wrote:
An incorporeal creature or object has no physical form. It can pass through solid objects, including walls. When inside an object, an incorporeal creature can’t perceive, attack, or interact with anything outside the object, and if it starts its turn in an object, it is slowed 1.

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