Aborting falls

[hyphz]

Are there any rules for aborting a fall in the middle?

This has come up with some of the APs which include aerial encounters. The PCs are high in the sky above the city on a flying vehicle.

They encounter a dragon. A PC crits the dragon with a flail.

Per RAW, the dragon now plunges all the way down to the ground. While it can use the Arrest a Fall action to avoid taking any damage, it can't use it to stop the fall. Assuming it fell 500' as per the rules on one round of falling, and even if it has an 80 foot fly speed, it will now take 4 rounds to get back up again (half speed to fly upwards, 500 / (40 * 3)) by which time the PCs may be long gone. It seems ridiculous that in this case it can be practically defeated by a single blow.

If it had, say, 1000' foot to fall, then it spends two rounds falling. The RAW is silent on what you can do when it's your turn in a round while falling, and whether or not taking a Fly action in that round will end the fall. It's not readily obvious, especially given that ruling that it does gives flying creatures the ability to make stall descents, which may not be the intent.

[breithauptclan]

I'm not aware of anything more than what you have already listed.

Yes, a flying enemy (or player character) can be knocked 500 ft down by a critical hit of a flail weapon or other effect that would otherwise knock them prone. I'm not sure that the PCs would be 'long gone' afterwards - the encounter might instead turn into a chase scenario.

As for the question of how to handle falls more than 500 feet, where the falling creature gets its turn before reaching the ground: I would think that it can use its actions as normal. And if they choose to use the Fly action, then they begin flying as normal instead of falling.

A 'stall' descent exploit seems like a much smaller exploit than most PCs are going to try and use. If it does become a problem, maybe require a free action acrobatics check to recover from the stall/fall before they can use a fly action. Not sure what DC to use for that though.

[HumbleGamer]

hyphz wrote:

The PCs are high in the sky above the city on a flying vehicle.

They encounter a dragon. A PC crits the dragon with a flail.

Per RAW, the dragon now plunges all the way down to the ground.

Yikes!

[_benno]

breithauptclan wrote:

A 'stall' descent exploit seems like a much smaller exploit than most PCs are going to try and use. If it does become a problem, maybe require a free action acrobatics check to recover from the stall/fall before they can use a fly action. Not sure what DC to use for that though.

Its pretty logical though. If you are flying higher you will have much more time to react. I don't think this is an exploit at all.

[Captain Zoom]

hyphz wrote:

Are there any rules for aborting a fall in the middle

Yes, there are.

1. The critical hit effect for a flail is the target is knocked prone.

2. The prone rules say:

If you would be knocked prone while you're Climbing or Flying, you fall (see Falling for the rules on falling).

3. The Falling rules say:

You fall about 500 feet in the first round of falling and about 1,500 feet each round thereafter.

Thus, our hypothetical dragon flying at 1000' altitude falls 500' and when it next gets an action, it can right itself and start flying again. As a GM I'd require the dragon to use one action to right itself (same as standing up from prone). I'd be disinclined to require an aerial maneuver roll unless there was some reason the dragon might have difficulty righting itself, like it was adjacent to a tall tower or its wings were impaired or something.

If the dragon was knocked out or for some reason could not take actions (maybe stun 3?), then it would continue to fall under the falling rules until it either managed to take an action to right itself and fly OR it hit the ground.

The flail strategy can be awesome if the dragon is within 500' of the ground as it will crash and take falling damage.

EDIT: This addresses your specific situation. As to your question, I think a reasonable GM could apply the same rules if someone fell a long distance. Say, PC falls off a sky castle 5000' in the air, he falls 500' the first round, then can take actions to address the situation, which might include casting a spell to fly or something, then continues falling, getting actions each turn until he hits the ground.

[Gisher]

HumbleGamer wrote:

hyphz wrote:

The PCs are high in the sky above the city on a flying vehicle.

They encounter a dragon. A PC crits the dragon with a flail.

Per RAW, the dragon now plunges all the way down to the ground.

Yikes!

A good time for a little philosophy. ;)

[Dork Smurf]

The obvious thing to do would be for the dragon to spend an action to hover, then spend their remaining two actions to ready an action to abort their fall when they take a flail crit to their sensitive bits...EVERY. SMURFING. ROUND.

Clearly, the only alternative is to

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[breithauptclan]

Like hyphz mentioned, Arrest a Fall is already a Reaction available to any creature that has a Fly speed.

[Errenor]

breithauptclan wrote:

Like hyphz mentioned, Arrest a Fall is already a Reaction available to any creature that has a Fly speed.

hyphz also correctly mentioned that it only allows to not take damage (if any), a creature still falls normal distance as written.

[hyphz]

Another thing came up on this - does having Air Walk mean you don’t fall if you’re knocked Prone in the air? Air Walk doesn’t give a fly speed, but lets you “walk on air as if it were solid ground” which may imply that it also lets you land prone on it as if it were solid ground, meaning that having both Fly and Air Walk saves you from falling when knocked prone.

[Errenor]

hyphz wrote:

Another thing came up on this - does having Air Walk mean you don’t fall if you’re knocked Prone in the air?

Yes, you don't fall down and don't need to spend actions to be in the air while airwalking.

hyphz wrote:

Air Walk doesn’t give a fly speed, but lets you “walk on air as if it were solid ground” which may imply that it also lets you land prone on it as if it were solid ground, meaning that having both Fly and Air Walk saves you from falling when knocked prone.

Interesting combination. I think it can work, that way you have two modes of moving: Striding (on the air) and Flying. Though what happens if you don't use a Fly action and fall in the end of round (but don't because of Air walk)? Probably nothing. Still a bit funny.