I haven't made rulings on all of these, but with 0 to maintain Flight on the way, I will need to.
What happens when you fall?
What happens when you lose consciousness?
What movement effects actually change your Air Move?
What happens when you're stunned and knocked down?
How does posture affect Air Move?
My players especially - any others I'm missing?
I don’t think so, but I will check with Duncan’s player as well. Things that we should probably think about her that I believe we have always been running flight as if it were what I would characterize as “hummingbird flight.” In other words, you can fly and stop on a dime and hover. That seems consistent with the text under the ”Movement Spells” heading in DFRPG Spells p. 56. A good question is what happens upon KO—Apportation says that leaving someone suspended in midair does not require concentration. Levitation cross-references this. Flight does not, which I assume is purposeful. (I assume everything is purposeful unless something just looks absurd and seems like an obvious error).
ReplyDeleteBut overall I agree with the questions. And GURPS Magic does say you can “move and fight normally,” which I suspect means that you don’t fly like Superman, that would be prone. Absent some kind of perk or advantage, I assume that means that you get the same penalties for being prone as normal, although that seems weird to me. It’s CONSISTENT with the rules, but kind of strange. I always envisioned flight as not having any posture penalties, but not from a GAME perspective—it’s just how I visualized it. Seems weird to fly standing up, right?
I agree, it does - but it's what happens. People fly "standing" upright, at - ahem - 20 mph - without any effects. Flying superhero style does nothing at all for them.
DeleteI also think that the lack of cross-reference is deliberate - Levitation is *specifically* a living-beings-only version of Apportation that is cheaper to cast. They're related spells. Flight is not an upgraded Levitation or Apportation but a different spell. It also gives Air Move but not Flight (Cannot Hover), so yes, you can flick around like a hummingbird. So can most flying enemies. Since it doesn't reference Apportation I do not believe that an unconscious person just stays up in the air - not requiring concentration isn't the same as maintains your last position unless acted on by your conscious decision or an outside force.
Multi-level combat is already a bit of a persistent headache - how often does "can I hit that guy if I'm SM 0 and at 2 hexes up and have a 1,2 reach weapon and he's at ground level and my friend in between is SM 0 and is 0.1 yards off the ground?" come up? Like, multiple times per fight? I suspect that this will become the new basic norm, and combats with ground-walking opponent vs. ground-walking opponent will be rare.
And the Wings of Daedalus will just be backup items, now. Sadly.
I agree with all of the above, with the exception that I don’t think it will be prevalent for all fights. I think it’s frustrating for the wizard to be at 13 for all his spells, and it reduces his effectiveness, so I don’t think everyone’s going to have flight. I think it’s more like Great Haste: break it out when necessary but it can’t be on everyone. But I do think the wizard will always be flying, yeah. As far as the wings…I think those are much safer, because they seem to be not affected by no mana zones (although that could just be an incorrect assumption), with the limitation that they are vulnerable to fire. I think I’d still use the wings most of the time, but since you can’t hold anything in your hands, it does require some hard choices.
DeleteI just realized why flight while standing seems so weird to me...it's not aerodynamic at all, which is probably why flying superheroes in movies, tv shows, and comics are always prone. Of course, it's magic, so who cares! In DFRPG, people fly while standing up and being aerodynamic doesn't matter. OK, got it. More like a jetpack situation of sorts, I guess.
DeleteI look at KO or stun to the caster as falls- Desiree Marcell's Aden Vul game had her (OSE) players cast hold monster on a high flying dragon, killing it with falling damage. I play a bunch with NMZ in my game so willbe looking out for this.
ReplyDeleteCaster or subject? The subject controls the flight, the caster only pays the cost every minute to keep it going.
DeleteWhat happens when you fall?
ReplyDelete- the way that I see it, you should be able to recover so long as you aren’t unconscious. Flight doesn’t say the spell turns off when you fall the way that walk in air does.
What happens when you lose consciousness?
I think that since the movement and flight is something your doing consciously, like standing or walking, if you get knocked out you should fall.
What movement effects actually change your Air Move?
Unsure.
What happens when you're stunned and knocked down?
I think you should fall but I still don’t think the spell would go off or fail. I do think you should start falling at gravity rate.
How does posture affect Air Move?
I don’t think it really should as body motions don’t affect how flying works and it’s magical in nature.
I also wouldn’t worry about people always flying because this fight we are currently in is annoying enough at 7 spells up and I don’t intend to make every fight harder on myself as it makes contested spells nearly ineffective. I’ll likely only have flight on Duncan all the time and bust out flight like I do on great haste for fights that require it.