Feather Fall Plunging Attack

[ZenBear]

Feather Fall says it reduces your fall speed to 60 ft per round, which is still 10 ft per second and you can drop from 60 ft to the ground in a single turn. Would you allow a player to intentionally perform a plunging attack from up to 60 ft above the target and apply fall damage to their attack without suffering damage themselves if they cast Feather Fall? Seems like a fun and creative way to use an otherwise extremely niche spell.

[Worden]

Several things to dissect here:

1. Point of feather fall is that it slows you down enough to negate fall damage.

2. Allowing this sets precedent transferring fall damage with weapon attacks in general

4. There are creatures that naturally move 60ft per round, and PCs will learn to fly soon. Again at 60 ft per round. If you think 60ft per round is enough to deal extra damage then all those situations would be enough to trigger that

[Lunali]

A better question would be the monk slow fall ability, but still probably no.

[Louro]

That kind of imaginative maneuvers is usually ruled by giving advantage/disadvantage (most of the times including a check before the attack).

[Mordaedil]

Feather Fall says it reduces your fall speed to 60 ft per round, which is still 10 ft per second and you can drop from 60 ft to the ground in a single turn. Would you allow a player to intentionally perform a plunging attack from up to 60 ft above the target and apply fall damage to their attack without suffering damage themselves if they cast Feather Fall? Seems like a fun and creative way to use an otherwise extremely niche spell.

I'd allow it to count as an aerial charge attack, not much more.

[NotPrior]

Several things to dissect here:

1. Point of feather fall is that it slows you down enough to negate fall damage.

2. Allowing this sets precedent transferring fall damage with weapon attacks in general

4. There are creatures that naturally move 60ft per round, and PCs will learn to fly soon. Again at 60 ft per round. If you think 60ft per round is enough to deal extra damage then all those situations would be enough to trigger that

To add to this, anyone who can attack with a bonus action can also do this just by using dash and running at the enemy, no fly needed. Off the top of my head some very low level examples would be quickened booming blade (3rd level) and berserker barbarian (3rd level), as well as the charger feat (4th level, 1st if a v.human).

[leogobsin]

To add to this, anyone who can attack with a bonus action can also do this just by using dash and running at the enemy, no fly needed. Off the top of my head some very low level examples would be quickened booming blade (3rd level) and berserker barbarian (3rd level), as well as the charger feat (4th level, 1st if a v.human).

Also any 2nd level Rogue or Monk could Cunning Action/Step of the Wind and then attack with their action.

[ZenBear]

Fair points. A quick google search turned up this (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall) wiki article about free fall speed. “A falling person at low altitude will reach terminal velocity after about 12 seconds, falling some 450 m (1,500 ft) in that time.” So ignoring any calculations for acceleration, you can fall 1,500 ft in 2 rounds. That’s a much bigger difference than I assumed, so yeah no added damage.

Follow up question for you math buffs, calculating for acceleration, how many feet must a player fall before they reach sufficient speed to cause harm? Based on irl experience I can drop from a second story window relatively unscathed, that’s maybe 12 feet?

[leogobsin]

Fair points. A quick google search turned up this (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall) wiki article about free fall speed. “A falling person at low altitude will reach terminal velocity after about 12 seconds, falling some 450 m (1,500 ft) in that time.” So ignoring any calculations for acceleration, you can fall 1,500 ft in 2 rounds. That’s a much bigger difference than I assumed, so yeah no added damage.

Follow up question for you math buffs, calculating for acceleration, how many feet must a player fall before they reach sufficient speed to cause harm? Based on irl experience I can drop from a second story window relatively unscathed, that’s maybe 12 feet?

In 5e, you start taking damage after 10 feet of falling. Using this website (https://www.angio.net/personal/climb/speed.html) for a fall of 3 meters gives you a speed of 7.67 m/s when you hit the ground (translated into a 5e speed, which if you really want to get down to it are in units of feet/6 seconds, that's 150: totally a reachable speed); the actual question of what damage you suffer depends on your mass: the heavier you are the more energy involved when you hit the ground, which 5e just does not model at all (probably for the best).

[Lunali]

Fair points. A quick google search turned up this (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall) wiki article about free fall speed. “A falling person at low altitude will reach terminal velocity after about 12 seconds, falling some 450 m (1,500 ft) in that time.” So ignoring any calculations for acceleration, you can fall 1,500 ft in 2 rounds. That’s a much bigger difference than I assumed, so yeah no added damage.

Follow up question for you math buffs, calculating for acceleration, how many feet must a player fall before they reach sufficient speed to cause harm? Based on irl experience I can drop from a second story window relatively unscathed, that’s maybe 12 feet?

The grossly simplified version in XGtE has you fall 500ft per round, this ensures that a round exists where you can cast feather fall and not take falling damage.

If you're talking real world falling distance, 10ft is probably enough to cause real harm. The amount of injury taken will vary greatly based on if you're expecting it, what you land on, and how you land. Also keep in mind that abstract hp includes things like getting tired and using up your good luck.

[Mellack]

Fair points.

Follow up question for you math buffs, calculating for acceleration, how many feet must a player fall before they reach sufficient speed to cause harm? Based on irl experience I can drop from a second story window relatively unscathed, that’s maybe 12 feet?

There really is not an answer to this. People have (rarely) survived falling from an airplane and people have died slipping in the bathtub. It depends on so many factors such as falling position and landing surface.