Land Ho!

[Ranting Fool]

Can't seem to find any RAW for this answer so was wondering if any of you lot have come across this question.

How far can you (and by you I mean the PC's) see overland?
How far can you see if you fly up high?
How High?

One of the PC's like to flying high (Warlock wings) and get the lay of the land. Granted he only has +3 in spot but it's more "Mountains are THAT way and looks like a Forrest over there"

Any good rule of thumb?:smallbiggrin:

[Pilo]

Human sight can see at 10km max without device (like a telescope), however it is usually restrained by the environment to 5 to 10 km.

[blackspeeker]

Human sight can see at 10km max without device (like a telescope), however it is usually restrained by the environment to 5 to 10 km.

This, although if the pc's in this situation are on a mountaintop they can see further.

[BowStreetRunner]

I have never found anything in the rule books that covers this. So I am assuming the previous two answers come from real-world sources since neither cites a book entry.

[Kelb_Panthera]

There's actually RAW for this in stormwrack printed on page 89 under the expanded use of the spot skill. For other spotting distances, check each of the different types of terrain in the DMG starting on page 86.

[Invader]

If you use the SRD encounter calculator it gives to distances for when PC's can start making spot checks in different environments.

Ex. is open plains at 6d6 x 40, average 800 feet away.

Now that's to see your average monster, to notice something bigger would be significantly easier.

Other than that I'm not sure there's a RAW for how far you can actually see.

[Kelb_Panthera]

For physical ability the only question is "how far away is the visible light coming from?" You can "see" thousands of light-years when you look at the stars*.

What you're looking for is how far away can you spot something, that's dependent on terrain as well as distance and your skill, and that's covered in the pages of the books I've cited.

Successfully spotting something is noticing something you can see. Seeing something is just having it in your LoS.

*Assuming the stars are the same as IRL. Since this is not necessarily the case, asking your DM is probably a good idea.

[Ranting Fool]

For physical ability the only question is "how far away is the visible light coming from?" You can "see" thousands of light-years when you look at the stars*.

What you're looking for is how far away can you spot something, that's dependent on terrain as well as distance and your skill, and that's covered in the pages of the books I've cited.

Successfully spotting something is noticing something you can see. Seeing something is just having it in your LoS.

*Assuming the stars are the same as IRL. Since this is not necessarily the case, asking your DM is probably a good idea.

hehe I am the DM, did look up science type stuff and it seems you can see 20ish miles (depending on the density of the weather/dust) before the curvature of the earth comes into effect. And when looking up at big things (moons/suns/star systems) you can see very very far indeed.

That said standing on my friends balcony on the 11th floor (about 100ft up) can only see a few miles across the city at most (then again there is a lot of air pollution in a modern city)

It's less about spotting people and more about spotting landmarks or buildings by flying high and looking around with a telescope.
Also the world is a Demi-plane so anything can happen :smalltongue:


Which reminds me. How High can you fly without it getting too windy? lack of oxygen. I will get round to searching online but won't have the time till after the next session.

[lucky9]

Pilot's input: It depends on the weather. On a perfectly clear day you can make out landmarks as far as the eye can see(to the horizon). What usually(not always) ends up happening though is that all the debris: dust, dirt, smog, fog, clouds, etc. appears more dense the higher go because you are looking down through more of it. This restricts the extent of one's horizon more and more with altitude. So I would say, very roughly for gaming purposes if I was DMing this, that on a clear day in 'clean air' you'd get optimum visibility at saaay 8000' above the ground; being able to positively identify known landmarks at around 50 miles away. Much further for mountains, skyscrapers, lighted towers, anything projected off of the ground. Again though it ultimately comes down to air quality/weather.

The much easier question to answer is: at what height do you start running into environmental problems?
First off, define too windy? 60mile/hour wind is usually where I personally draw the line for what I don't mind standing out in. When you're flying though it comes down to how fast your flight speed is compared to the wind. If the wind is moving more quickly than you can then you're gonna get blown around. Otherwise you can compensate by altering your flight path. Also note that, generally speaking, the higher you go the stronger the wind is.
The greater danger to a person is cold. Temperature, on average, decreases by 2 degrees Celsius for every 1000' of altitude.
And finally, oxygen: the regulations state that you need supplemented oxygen(tanks or a pressurized cabin, not really applicable here; some kind of breathing spell, very applicable here) starting at 10000' above sea level.

Hope this at least gives you some ideas on how who want to DM it.

[BowStreetRunner]

Which reminds me. How High can you fly without it getting too windy? lack of oxygen. I will get round to searching online but won't have the time till after the next session.

Actually, high altitude is covered in the DMG on page 90, or in the SRD here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#mountainTravel).

[lucky9]

Actually, high altitude is covered in the DMG on page 90, or in the SRD here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm#mountainTravel). Yup that seems like a reasonable set of rules for lack of oxygen at higher altitudes, except the 6hours bit. The effects of hypoxia set in much more quickly. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTNX6mr753w

[Ranting Fool]

Thank you all for the imput, it's been very helpful.

SRD Wind Speeds (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/weather.htm#winds) are important as to how high the characters can fly but need to find a rough guide to how windy it is at what height :smallbiggrin:

[lucky9]

Like visibility, that's a really variable thing... It would be within reason if you increase the SRD wind force category by one from the surface conditions every 3000 or so feet up to severe. Unless of course you want to throw in a hurricane:smalltongue: