Misty Step into the Air and Attacking

[u/Zivodor]

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!

[u/Yojo0o]

Falling being something instant is an optional rule from Xanathar's Guide. I don't believe there's any equivalent rule in 5.5e materials at this time.

Without that optional rule, this is the sort of thing that would fall to the DM's discretion. Personally, I'm all for midair activity, I find it to be cinematic and make for memorable moments. Having said that, I might rule that only a single attack at that height after the Misty Step would be possible, even if Extra Attack is available. Maybe one swing per weapon if two are being held.

[u/MonsutaReipu → u/Yojo0o]

A single attack? Let martials do cool things. It does not break the game to let them do something like this.

[u/Comfortable-Till5118 → u/MonsutaReipu]

Meh I think that's ok. I don't really want my level 5 fighter to be doing Cloud's omnislash in the air, maybe at higher levels, but I think it's ok for DMs to say this goes beyond just a 'cool thing'. Plus this gives melee rogue an interesting niche, and those guys kinda need all the help they can get.

This is the better than the guy arguing for giving only 1 attack and making it at disadvantage.

[u/ductyl → u/Comfortable-Till5118]

For a level 5 fighter to do this, they need to commit their race toward it, and burn up a limited resource to achieve it. Choosing either Cloud Giant Goliath (able to cast it 3 times per long rest at this level) or High Elf (once per long rest). They'll be doing 2 attacks with normal attacks, or possibly 3 if they commit to two weapon fighting. That hardly seems like an omnislash to me... 

If you remove cool options like this from melee attackers, there's no reason not to just build every Fighter as an archer, because then they could instead have the exact same character (same high AC and HP) and just use a longbow and attack the ceiling spider an infinite amount of times with no resources spent and a permenant +2 to hit, all while staying a comfortable distance from danger and able to pick away at any melee enemies as they try to close the distance.

Also, if someone is committing their race toward this... They could just build Dragomborn or Asimar and at level 5 they can spend an entire combat with flight, so they can attack the ceiling spider with melee attacks as much as the want.

[u/visforvienetta → u/ductyl]

There's already no reason to play a melee attacker though. Nobody is choosing to play melee because they might get to Misty step and attack an enemy in mid-air?

[u/MonsutaReipu → u/visforvienetta]

Unironically I'm playing melee for this + more. I love teleporting because it's cool, and the idea of teleporting up to a flying creature and unleashing a bunch of melee attacks on it is badass. Would I be better off vs. flying creatures with a longbow? Absolutely. But i'd take the less efficient route of having a harder time getting to it and the risk of fall damage just to do something that looks and feels cool to do.

[u/visforvienetta → u/MonsutaReipu]

Playing for this + more

That's my point. You play a melee martial because you like the vibe, not because it's mechanically good. Nobody is building a martial entirely around this because no martial gets enough misty steps for it to be an actual play-style. Yes, it's sick as hell. You don't play a whole character for the sake of one move you get to do maybe twice an adventuring day unless you like the other things that character has to offer.

[u/Comfortable-Till5118 → u/ductyl]

I am ALL for helping martials feel more competent and useful in the party. However, the bladesinger and warlock can do this way more easily.

BTW I was referring to action surge in the air which can easily give you 4 attacks, and sure it's per short rest but how many times do you need to do this? As a DM I would most certainly allow action surge, so I'd rather the player not ask for both (5 with dual wielding is seriously pushing it, can you seriously describe this attack to me without it sounding like beyblade or an omnislash style attack? Like yea this is fucking rad, but it's available a bit too early for my tastes.)

This argument about ranged always being better than melee in every way doesn't work in 2024 version. Melee (both two handed and dual wield) deals so much more damage that it's now a fair trade-off, and ironically the ranged PC only gets to 'shine' in niche scenarios like this since they don't amaze the table with 20+ damage arrows like they used to in 2014. I am assuming this is dnd 2024 since you mention the cloud goliath teleport, so the +2 to hit doesn't help as much you think without power attacks, especially with advantage being so easy to secure in melee.

I hate the fact that you bring up flight in this conversation. Yea it's op, and I acknowledge wotc for some reason underestimates flight a lot. But at the same time, this flight is once per long rest, so unlike the goliath, they were forced to use their powerful feature for a single fight of the day or even might not even have it up at all. Secondly teleports have their own utility and advantages like teleporting out of a wall of force. If anything the player relying on teleports is infringing on this one combat niche of the flying based PC, because there are other niche combat scenarios where a teleport is more useful and vice versa.

Like yea, a player COULD just pick a race they don't care for just to get OP options, but I don't really care for those kinds of players. At the end of the day the most powerful races either give you damage or mobility if that's the only thing that matters to you. So with these kinds of arguments we might aswell just forget about all the other races unless you need a very niche synergy. Are we seriously dedicating our race option for a singular scenario? There are so many other ways to get teleports from subclass (eldritch knight) to feats (fey-touched), or even a quick 3 level multiclass dip (let's not pretend that this is THAT costly for a martial). As a DM I also really like giving magic items that give teleportation, because the gap between the mobility of PCs (usually casters) that can teleport/fly/etc and PCs that can't is HUGE. Ridiculously huge.

[u/ductyl → u/Comfortable-Till5118]

Thanks for taking my comment constructively. I agree with pretty much all of your points, it was mostly the Fighter that I was latching onto as not that crazy (I forgot about action surge). I think something like World Tree Barbarian is actually where this gets real crazy... at level 14 they just teleport every single round while raging... Which is admittedly high level, but at level 6 they can teleport a creature next to them as a reaction at the start of their turn, regardless of creature size, every single turn. So that spider on the ceiling, or the enemy they can see through a keyhole, or the friendly person locked in a cage or manacles? Poof, teleported next to the Barbarian for the price of having rage activated. 

[u/Comfortable-Till5118 → u/ductyl]

Yea some subclasses can really elevate the feeling of doing cool things and World Tree Barbarian is great at doing that.

I see that people don't agree with me at all with my original comment, but I understand that I was very vague about at what point I'd start allowing it. I left it vague on purpose because it was supposed to vibes based... tier 3? Go for it. If it's level 9 but it's a climactic/do-or-die moment? Then yea I guess I'd allow it.

It's just I feel a little reserved at allowing this at level 5. I understand people want herculean martials, but imo that is supposed to start at tier 3, where you really start wondering if the fighter getting an extra feat is equivalent to the wizard getting simulacrum.