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balistafreak
2010-07-25, 06:18 PM
Silly, random question.

You have a fly speed that requires no method of locomotion (pumping arms, running legs, flapping wings, whatever). You are prone for some reason, whether that was getting tripped or to avoid ranged attack.

Can you simply fly up without ever "standing up"? Are you treated as standing up once you're in the air by force of selective gravity/center of gravity?

What happens when such a flier is "tripped" in midair?

Coidzor
2010-07-25, 06:25 PM
I believe tripping has no effect on such a type of flying creature. Since I think it doesn't work on things with perfect maneuverability. I might be misremembering though.

Snake-Aes
2010-07-25, 06:29 PM
Silly, random question.

You have a fly speed that requires no method of locomotion (pumping arms, running legs, flapping wings, whatever). You are prone for some reason, whether that was getting tripped or to avoid ranged attack.

Can you simply fly up without ever "standing up"? Are you treated as standing up once you're in the air by force of selective gravity/center of gravity?

What happens when such a flier is "tripped" in midair?


You can trip an opponent only if it is up to one size category
larger than you. You can’t trip a burrowing creature, an
incorporeal creature, a swimming creature, or a creature that
doesn’t rely on limbs for locomotion.

What happens is that you can't trip someone that doesn't use limbs to move.
Tripping a flying creature also requires the creature to be winged or similarly dependent on limbs to fly, and it doesn't drop the creature prone, it just interrupts movement causing it to fall if its flight depends on a minimum movement.

The creature can still drop itself into a prone position though. There's nothing saying how such prone creature can fly, so my personal take is that it should still spend an action to "stand up".

balistafreak
2010-07-25, 06:39 PM
The creature can still drop itself into a prone position though. There's nothing saying how such prone creature can fly, so my personal take is that it should still spend an action to "stand up".

So your take is that you need to stand up before taking flight again?

But you don't need to move any limbs or anything. What's stopping you from zooming up off of the ground and into the air in a spreadeagle position? :smallconfused:

(Superman pose optional.)

Snake-Aes
2010-07-25, 06:44 PM
So your take is that you need to stand up before taking flight again?

But you don't need to move any limbs or anything. What's stopping you from zooming up off of the ground and into the air in a spreadeagle position? :smallconfused:

(Superman pose optional.)

It just unclear. If you try to analyze it further, this is what likely comes through:

The creature can't be forced into a prone position, but she can turn itself prone. What does that mean? To me it means the creature forces itself into a bad position. This would hinder its attacks and make it a little harder to hit from a far like the Condition states... But nothing is said about movement, which is the cause of its immunity to trips.

So either the creature is completely immune to movement-related prone penalties, or it isn't but just can't be forced into it. I chose the latter because in my head a beholder that shoved its head on the ground would still have to spend some effort setting itself "up" again.