Flight, levitation, and tripping (3.5 rules)

[graeylin]

Short and sweet: Can you trip a person who is levitating? (either because he is in reach of you from the ground, or you are flying yourself when you trip attempt)

Is there any effect at all, if you do? Disoriented, loss of dex for a round, anything? \

I know you can trip a winged creature (if they require momentum to stay aloft). You can trip a mounted creature (even on a flying creature). But, can you trip a levitating person?

[JDL]

All About Movement (Part Five) (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20040706a)

Trip

Most creature using wings or other appendages to fly can be tripped. Incorporeal creatures with perfect maneuverability, and creatures that don't rely on their limbs to fly cannot be tripped when in flight.

Resolving the Trip Attempt: The attacker makes a Strength check. The defender can oppose the attempt with a Strength check or a Dexterity check. Each creature gets a bonus based on its maneuverability rating, as follows: perfect +12, good maneuverability +8, average +4, poor +0, clumsy -4.

Stability bonuses do not apply in aerial overruns.

Trip Results: A successful trip forces the defender to stall (even if the tripped creature doesn't have a minimum forward speed) rather than knocking the defender prone.

Conclusion: A trip attempt against a levitating creature would cause them to stall. Since this would have no effect on a levitated creature, the creature suffers no penalty.

[nedz]

RotG articles are little better than FAQ: go and check out the old Frank v Skip debates.

RAW (at least the SRD) is silent on this — maybe there is something in the RC ?

So you need a house-rule: I guess Skip's are as good as anyone else's on this.

[Psyren]

RC 145 does have the "you can trip flying creature with wings" line. Thus levitating creatures would be safe, as they are not using wings to fly.