How Fast is the Flash?

[ExemplarofAvg]

Just like the title says.
I've always wondered in DnD terms, how fast is the flash?

[Deathkeeper]

He might as well be casting Quickened Teleports in place of move actions if you go by certain instances of the comics.

[Kumori]

He might as well be casting Quickened Teleports in place of move actions if you go by certain instances of the comics.

More likely, Greater Teleport, no? Teleport has limited distance and a chance of failure. Quickened Greater Teleport at will is quite a thing for one to have.



Edit
I'm not all that knowledgeable about the Flash, though, so I went to wikipedia and found this:


All incarnations of the Flash can move, think, and react at light speeds as well as superhuman endurance that allows them to run incredible distances without tiring. Some, notably later versions, can vibrate so fast that they can walk through walls, travel through time and can also lend and borrow speed.

"at light speeds" would suggest a speed of 3.00x108 m/s, or in d&d terms, a base land speed of about 5 905 512 000' (1 181 102 400 squares). The "travel through time" bit, according to Einstein, would suggest that the Flash's speed would be more than this amount.

(editted again for bad math)

[grarrrg]

Which Flash?
Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West or Bart Allen? (and if you want to get picky, throw Jesse Chambers in there too)
Jay Garrick is the "slowest" of the bunch.

Which point in that Flashes life?
If you want to throw alternate-futures in there, the Kingdom Come Flash is ALWAYS AT TOP SPEED ALL THE TIME. He _is_ everywhere.

[Golden Ladybug]

Of all the Flashes, I know/care about Wally the most, and he's hit some pretty impressive top speeds before.

On his list of achievements, you have things like outrunning the anthromorphic personification of Death, travelling through time often, using relativity to give his punches infinite mass, moving quickly enough to fool people into thinking both "Wally West" and "The Flash" were in the same room conversing with other bystanders, outrunning himself and accelerating to the point where time seemingly stopped for him after reciting the Speed Formula.

So, I'd probably say faster than Chuck (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19861942/Chuck_E._Cheese), by a few orders of magnitude.

And Barry is even faster.

[Jeraa]

The speed of the Flash is "Plot Device". He travels exactly as fast as he needs to to get where the plot says he needs to be when it says he needs to be there.

(Just like the Hulks strength is "Whatever it needs to be to do what the plot demands.")

Trying to stat out a comic book character is almost pointless, as their abilities can vary widely from comic to comic.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The speed of the Flash is "Plot Device". He travels exactly as fast as he needs to to get where the plot says he needs to be when it says he needs to be there.

(Just like the Hulks strength is "Whatever it needs to be to do what the plot demands.")

Trying to stat out a comic book character is almost pointless, as their abilities can vary widely from comic to comic.

Exactly this, protagonist comic characters are far too inconsistent to be put into game terms. Kind of like how Superman started out just extremely strong, but over the years more and more abilities were added as the plot demanded. He couldn't even fly at first, he just jumped really high! Comic characters and their abilities suffer the same power creep that most games go through the more resources are published for them. You would basically need as many splatbooks as issues of a specific character's comic to have the game mechanics to describe what their abilities have escalated to.

Also, relevant (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j0WZ6zxpfc).

[killianh]

generally though throughout the comics he can at least move around the circumference of the planet in the course of a single second if he really has too book it. So that would work out to 788877978 ft as a run action in a round

EDIT: to show the math: earth is 40075 Km round. that times 6 is 240250 km. That multiplied by 3280.84 (the conversion ratio for Km to feet) equals 788877978 ft in 6 seconds (a.k.a a round)

[SaintRidley]

I think the most useful answer is probably "fast enough."

[Garan]

The speed of the Flash is "Plot Device". He travels exactly as fast as he needs to to get where the plot says he needs to be when it says he needs to be there.

(Just like the Hulks strength is "Whatever it needs to be to do what the plot demands.")

Trying to stat out a comic book character is almost pointless, as their abilities can vary widely from comic to comic.

So which would win in a race, a Starfury from Babylon 5 or The Flash? Both travel at the speed of plot.

[SaintRidley]

So which would win in a race, a Starfury from Babylon 5 or The Flash? Both travel at the speed of plot.

I believe amount of fanboy rage produced by the loss of either side determines which wins when the value for each is plot.

[dascarletm]

I believe amount of fanboy rage produced by the loss of either side determines which wins when the value for each is plot.

Yep, and that is why Batman always wins (almost?) superhero crossover fights.

[supermonkeyjoe]

Yep, and that is why Batman always wins (almost?) superhero crossover fights.

Only if he has time to plan!

3.5 really doesn't do comic book superpowers well, you need to go to something like Mutants and Masterminds for that

[Prime32]

Kezef from Champions of Ruin has a greater teleport SLA, described as it actually running really fast.

That fast.

[Gandariel]

The Flash might be a Planar Shepherd with a homebrew superfast plane and no other druid abilities!

[grarrrg]

So which would win in a race, a Starfury from Babylon 5 or The Flash? Both travel at the speed of plot.

The Flash has gotten to/near the speed of light.
Starfurys are nowhere near that fast (unless you count Hyperspace, which is kinda cheating).

You also need to consider maneuverability.
If going at top speed, the Flash can easily do a u-turn, and be back up to speed almost instantly.
If a Starfury got going that fast, it would take a good while for it to just slow down, let alone start moving in the opposite direction.

[Deathkeeper]

The Flash has gotten to/near the speed of light.


Well, considering the time he ran so fast that he went back in time and beat himself in a footrace, I think it's safe to say he's reached FTL.