My character has a Robe of Stars. Our party is currently fighting an Adult Blue Dragon and the DM has a propensity to grab PCs and fly them to 120 ft in the air and drop them. If my character uses the Robe of Stars, while falling, to enter the Astral Plane, does it continue to fall and take falling damage once it enters the Astral Plane? I assume it would continue to fall once returning to the material plane as it states that you return to the location you left from.
Side note: When the PC returns is the fall damage from the full height of the fall or just the height it left/returned from/to?
\$\begingroup\$
\$\endgroup\$
3
-
1\$\begingroup\$ Related: Do teleportation spells conserve momentum? \$\endgroup\$– KirtCommented Jun 12, 2023 at 3:38
-
\$\begingroup\$ Not really addressing your specific question, but have you considered having your characters hold on to the dragon? Sure, birds of prey crack open turtles this way, but turtles don't have opposable thumbs and the intelligence to use them; non-suicidal adventurers presumably would not just placidly sit there for the round and a half it takes an Adult Blue Dragon to ascend from the ground to 120' altitude. \$\endgroup\$– ShadowRangerCommented Jun 14, 2023 at 22:43
-
\$\begingroup\$ Well, it's not the PC hanging on to the dragon, but the dragon gripping/grappling the PC. I think I WOULD rather have the PC drop while ascending, but a strength check for a weak sorcerer opposed by an adult blue draon is probably a loss 99% of the time. As far as trying to hold on....I'm not sure remaining within the dragon's grasp while it's rending the PC asunder on each of it's turns is a better option. I'd rather it dropped me and then find a way to alleviate the fall damage...like feather fall if the PC had it. That's why I was looking for options for what the Cloak of Stars would do \$\endgroup\$– BrauhnCommented Jul 12, 2023 at 6:15
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
\$\begingroup\$
\$\endgroup\$
12
You'll hit the ground before you can activate the robe
According to the core game's falling rules (p. 183 PHB), when you fall you take damage, there is no time to react and do anything in-between. There are optional falling rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything, but even under those rules
When you fall from a great height you instantly descend up to 500 feet.
So in either case, you instantly drop at least 500 feet. If you are being dropped from a height of 120 feet, that means you instantly take damage. There is not even time to take a Reaction in between, and thus you never will even enter the Astral Plane in time.
The robe says you can use an action to enter the Astral Plane. The only way to even try to use an action as a Reaction to being dropped, would be to Ready an action to do so. However, the rules for the Ready say (p. 193 PHB):
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger.
After the trigger of being dropped finishes, you already have hit the ground, as there is no special language in Robe of the Stars that would allow you to use the ability as a Reaction in a way that interrupts the trigger, like for example the Feather Fall spell has.
If you could activate the Robe
If you dropped from a height greater than 500 feet and your DM was using the optional falling rules, then after falling the first 500 feet, or if you cast Feather Fall as a reaction to the fall, you would have time to activate the robe.
Once you enter the Astral Plane, the laws of the prime material plane cease (DMG p. 46f):
The Astral Plane is the realm of thought and dream, where visitors travel as disembodied souls to reach the Outer Planes. It is a great silvery sea, the same above and below, (...) A traveler in the Astral Plane can move by simply thinking about moving, but distance has little meaning.
D&D is not a physics simulation. There are no rules about the conservation of impulse in the game, and even real world physics tells you nothing about how an Astral Plane of dream and thought would interact with impulse. Whatever would happen when you return from there after falling would be up for your DM to decide.
The rules in Robe of the Stars merely state that
You reappear in the last space you occupied, or if that space is occupied, the nearest unoccupied space.
For this DM, this says nothing about you reappearing at a speed you used to last have in the prime material plane, only that you reappear in the same spot, or as near to it as possible.
answered Jun 12, 2023 at 3:44
-
7\$\begingroup\$ You can use a reaction to cast Feather Fall “1 reaction, which you take when you or a creature within 60 feet of you falls” \$\endgroup\$– Dale MCommented Jun 12, 2023 at 5:07
-
\$\begingroup\$ @DaleM, yes, this is one of the cases where the spell explicitly tells you you can do it - actually a better counterexample than shield, I will update to it. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 5:54
-
2\$\begingroup\$ OP says: "the DM has a propensity to grab PCs and fly them to 120 ft in the air and [then?] drop them". OP seems to be interested only in the second part of that chain of events: they asked if it would be possible to use the Robe "while falling", and so this answer is built with that scenario in mind. But would it be possible to use the Robe during the first part of the sequence, i.e. while the PC is going up? \$\endgroup\$– walenCommented Jun 12, 2023 at 9:59
-
\$\begingroup\$ @walen The second part of the answer applies, whether you are moving up, down, falling or any other kind of movement. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 10:06
-
2\$\begingroup\$ @walen I think what you can do while grappled/snatched by a dragon is another question. Top of my had, I’d guess grappled doesn't restrain you automatically, so you could activate the robe in response to being snatched, but comments are not for extended discussion of other questions. Best make a new question, if you want to explore it. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 14:28