Ascent and Diagonals

[Ruethgar]

So I made a little drakken lizard for 3.P. He has Air Stunt from Spheres of Might, can run on air, but costs 10ft per 5ft ascent at a 45 degree angle. But that would be moving diagonally so would the extra 5ft stack with the extra five feet every other five foot segment?

For example, move forward 10ft and ascend 10ft. First 5ft up and over is at a diagonal so costs 5ft plus 10ft for the ascent so 15ft with the second one costing 20ft as the second in a diagonal for a total of 35ft? Or just ignore diagonal and be 30ft? Or something else?

[DrMartin]

there is a FAQ from 2011 that says you don't count diagonals as 5/10 ft, the speed reduction for the diagonals is abstracted away with the speed reduction you suffer when flying upwards

https://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9o76

[Ruethgar]

That is promising, but Air Stunt is “land” movement not flight. While I think any reasonable GM would rule ‘close enough to flight.’ Others might say it’s worse than flight so double up the penalty. Or even add extra for going up a steep hill.

[Ramza00]

Look up Air Walk, to my understanding it is the same as the FAQ that was just quoted even though Air Walk is not Flight.

[DrMartin]

I would say that is an instance of specific beats general. The talent already states how much movement it costs to go up, and this cost aligns to other spells and abilities that have a similar effect AND with the FAQ about flying, so that's the cost.

[Ruethgar]

Just calculated with worse ruling. 150ft running up and over 30:30 5ft ascent plus 5ft air stunt plus 5ft steep hill 15:5 for ascent. 90ft plus 30ft but it’s at a diagonal so add 15ft for 135ft of his 150ft speed.

Lower it to a slow ascent say 40:20 and you drop it to 40 ascent+40 lateral+10 diagonal(basically only moving diagonally upward every other square)=90ft for a net 60ft movement, only a 50% increase, reasonable.

At that rate he’s better off jumping, easy enough to get automatic 40 for a 20ft lateral 10ft ascent to start then to the uphill battle from there. Costs a mere 20ft.

Even removing the diagonal ascent like the FAQ implies, I would probably keep the up hill part. So a slow gain is less stressful than running up as fast as you can. That would lower the above examples to 120ft for a net 60ft steep hill and 80ft for a net 60ft non-steep hill.