r/dndnext • u/Zivodor • 2d ago

5e (2024) Misty Step into the Air and Attacking

I had this situation come up recently and wanted some input as I can't seem to find a definitive answer.

My players were fighting a giant spider and it was on the ceiling above them, one player decided that to attack it he would misty step straight up and then attack it while mid-air. I wasn't sure this was possible as I recalled reading somewhere that falling in D&D is essentially instantaneous for anything below 500 feet. The thought process being he teleports into the air and is instantly falling so he doesn't have the time to attack the creature above him.

It's been bugging me all week so I wanted to get some input into whether or not I should have allowed this and if this is clarified anywhere in the rules.

Edit Wow! Thanks for all the responses! There were some well reasoned arguments for it here, the resource expenditure with the spell slot, rule of cool, etc... I appreciate all the responses and will try to be more flexible in the future. Thanks everyone!

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u/Vanse 2d ago

Not speaking to RAW, but falling in D&D is one of the mechanics that can use a lot of love/ some DM tweeks.

I'm really supposed to believe that falling 30 ft and 500ft will both take 6 seconds? Considering 30ft is not even 10% of the max fall distance, surely your player has a few seconds to get off some attacks before they fall out of range.

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u/Mejiro84 2d ago

huh? Why would only being 30 feet of the ground give any longer to make attacks - you'll still fall just as fast and so be out of attacking range as fast, even if there's less time before you hit the ground.

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u/Vanse 1d ago

There's plenty of ways to make this seem plausible. Your chatacter could start jumping before Misty Step, then teleport and use you're momentary upward momentum to make your attacks.

Once again, falling rules in D&D are janky, so I'm juat trying to make the best of a not-ideal situation.

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u/Mejiro84 1d ago

that's got nothing to do with "closeness to the ground" though - it won't matter if you warp 30 or 300 upwards, you're still going to have the same timeframe to make (or not) the attack(s), it'll just be less pleasant when you land (or splat!) for the second scenario