How High Can You Fly?

[SociopathFriend]

Simple question. I've a Pact of the Undead Warlock and I have a Broom of Flying. I've no need to breathe and limitless flying time.

How high can I go?

Additional question- how high can a breathing ally/enemy follow before they suffer difficulties? If such difficulties exist- what are they?

[JonBeowulf]

This is 100% in the "ask your DM" zone. It's their world so they get to define all that kind of stuff.

Me, I'd make a quick ruling and let you have your fun. "You fly so high you begin to see the curvature of the world. It's cold but not quite unbearably so. What do you want to do with the passenger?"

I'd let you do this a few times but abuse it and that fancy broom of yours would no longer be a thing.

[Mastikator]

If the DM uses realistic atmosphere then around the 10km (30k feet) it should start being so cold that you take environmental damage. But once you get to (I think) 30km it should start getting hotter, once you're in space (100km) the heat should produce environmental damage.

On the other hand I don't know what space hazards are listed in spelljammer because I don't own that book.

[SociopathFriend]

This is 100% in the "ask your DM" zone. It's their world so they get to define all that kind of stuff.

Me, I'd make a quick ruling and let you have your fun. "You fly so high you begin to see the curvature of the world. It's cold but not quite unbearably so. What do you want to do with the passenger?"

I'd let you do this a few times but abuse it and that fancy broom of yours would no longer be a thing.

To be clear- I'm not kidnapping people. But we're set to fight the Air Cult last and I frankly find the idea of racing their Prophet into the sky very alluring.

Doubly so if I can truthfully mock him/her for being unable to breathe while I am unaffected. I didn't start this fight but punks ran around blowing up Orbs of Devastation so I reserve the right to make them feel bad before I end them.




If the DM uses realistic atmosphere then around the 10km (30k feet) it should start being so cold that you take environmental damage. But once you get to (I think) 30km it should start getting hotter, once you're in space (100km) the heat should produce environmental damage.

On the other hand I don't know what space hazards are listed in spelljammer because I don't own that book.

I know IRL it's something like 10k feet where you can't breathe but I don't know if D&D has rules or not. I don't even know if the Forgotten Realms is round.

[Mastikator]

Without protection from cold you can't live very long at a 10km altitude, even if you don't need to breathe.

Here's a cheat sheet

Just remember that temperature changes 5.4°F/1,000 feet (9.8°C/1,000 meters) if it’s dry and 3.3°F/1,000 feet (6°C/1,000 meters) if it’s snowing.
From https://www.onthesnow.com/news/does-elevation-affect-temperature/

So at dry (best) conditions at the 3k feet mark it starts to get real cold, at 10k feet you need heavy protection (the stuff you'd wear a the north pole). At 30k feet you'd need magical protection from cold.

[Alcore]

Simple question. I've a Pact of the Undead Warlock and I have a Broom of Flying. I've no need to breathe and limitless flying time.

How high can I go?

Additional question- how high can a breathing ally/enemy follow before they suffer difficulties? If such difficulties exist- what are they?

By RAW;

Infinity

Infinity (some exceptions apply below)

Occasionally some varieties of DnD where there is a fort save once you're too high (hasn't come up yet in 5e). Much like cold or heat eventually you'll lose consciousness.


At my table;

to Infinity (once you leave atmosphere you have physically transferred yourself to the astrel plane; yes, you can travel to another planet/plane afterwards)

If they have the magic to give chase they have the magic to keep going. Not all know what extra is needed that high up.

Having access to numerous sci fi d20 games the penalties are numerous... and fatal.

[JonBeowulf]

To be clear- I'm not kidnapping people. But we're set to fight the Air Cult last and I frankly find the idea of racing their Prophet into the sky very alluring.

Doubly so if I can truthfully mock him/her for being unable to breathe while I am unaffected. I didn't start this fight but punks ran around blowing up Orbs of Devastation so I reserve the right to make them feel bad before I end them.


For a one-time "in your face Air Cult Prophet!", the actual distance above the world doesn't matter. You go as high as necessary to do the thing you want to do. Leave the math and science out of it and just narrate it:

You: "I'm taking the prophet for a ride... as high as I can go."
DM: "You race upwards as fast as your broom can fly and reach the upper atmosphere. Other than discomfort from the falling temperature, you're unaffected. Your unwilling passenger, however, seems be having severe difficulty breathing. I'll start applying suffocation damage next turn. What do you do now?"

[JackPhoenix]

To be clear- I'm not kidnapping people. But we're set to fight the Air Cult last and I frankly find the idea of racing their Prophet into the sky very alluring.

Doubly so if I can truthfully mock him/her for being unable to breathe while I am unaffected. I didn't start this fight but punks ran around blowing up Orbs of Devastation so I reserve the right to make them feel bad before I end them.

If the stats are the same as in the published PotA, being unable to breathe would be the least of Aerisi's problems...

Being unable to fly without relying on a spell would be a bigger issue

[Particle_Man]

Another consideration is how magic works in your setting. If you get too high do you fly out of a "magic-high" area of the universe, and your "broom of flying" becomes a "broom of nothing special, actually, oh gods we are falling"? Then you would fall until you are back "in range" of the magic zone and the broom of flying works again. And that would tell you how high you can fly with a broom of flying.

[Leon]

As high as the DM allows. You'd prob want some means of resisting cold tho

[OldTrees1]

As others said this is a case to ask the GM.


I would rule it depends on the plane (especially when gravity differs).

On infinite volume planes with gravity, then flying up would be similar to IRL. Matter sinks so temperatures would decrease and air density would decrease. Eventually you get far enough that we need to consider "how does the broom fly?" because it might start to slow down. Beyond that we might need to consider "does magic continue to work?" because under some world building decisions, you would eventually have impaired magic zones and then dead magic zones.

I would rule the cold and decreased air applies in stages. Safe, debilitating, harmful, deadly. If this were a one off thing then I might improvise or use 5E's exhaustion for cold rules. If it was going to be repeated or prolonged (say flying to the moon) then I would write a more detailed set of stages.


On infinite volume planes without gravity, then flying "up" is indistinguishable from standing while everything else moves "left". You can go as far as you want. There is a question about whether you will fly straight or eventually curve in a great circle due to imprecise flying (similar to humans lost in the woods walking in large circles).

[SociopathFriend]

If the stats are the same as in the published PotA, being unable to breathe would be the least of Aerisi's problems...

Being unable to fly without relying on a spell would be a bigger issue

Huh. The last DM made her fly. I guess he was fudging that.

Guess that means my current book-bound-as-heck DM isn't gonna have her fly.

Gah- why are all the Prophets so LAME?!