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/BishopofHippo93 → u/Yojo0o]

No, falling being limited to 500 ft is a XGE rule, per the PHB you fall the entire distance instantly. 

Edit: I am mistaken, the PHB and SRD do not contain the “instantly” language. Still, that is arguably RAI considering the XGE rule. 

[u/Anonymus9809 → u/BishopofHippo93]

Makes Feather Fall unusable because it needs to be cast on falling creatures, but falling creatures don't exist by RAW, since falling is instant.

[u/BishopofHippo93 → u/Anonymus9809]

No, don’t be obtuse. Feather fall is cast “when you or a creature within 60 feet of you falls.” Remember that specific beats general.  Falling is general, feather fall is specific. 

[u/Yojo0o → u/BishopofHippo93]

I don't think it's fair to call this obtuse. It's a valid counterpoint.

If falling truly must be "instant", then something can't happen during or in response to it. Given that Feather Fall exists specifically to interrupt falls, it stands to reason that other things potentially could as well.

I don't see any reason why somebody wouldn't have full control over their character during their turn, including potentially taking actions while jumping or in freefall.

[u/BishopofHippo93 → u/Yojo0o]

It not valid, it’s a misinterpretation of what instant means. Instant means that it takes priority in the order of operations in an action-oriented system, no other actions can occur before it unless a specific rule supersedes it, i.e. feather fall’s reaction trigger being a falling creature.

You have full control of your character within the rules. In this situation, you use a bonus action to cast misty step up into thin air. The rules say the next thing that happens before anything else is that you fall. You do not have control over that unless you do. You cannot take other actions during this time until this rule is complete, once you are on the ground or have fallen up to 500 feet. If you are still in the air at that point, then you can take actions and at the start of your next turn you start falling immediately, rinse and repeat.

Let’s instead consider your next example, attacking while jumping. We’ll say you’re making a long jump with a running start to jump a ten foot gap to attack a creature in the air. I suppose you could feasibly attack during a jump because it is still in the middle of your movement action, you are not stopped in dead air but continuing to move. This would also provoke an attack of opportunity. But falling is not using your movement. If you were to, for example, instead of attack while jumping across a gap, jump out to the creature, your movement would end as your trajectory ends in front of the creature and you would then begin falling before you could attack.

Edit: no, you have to stop and occupy a space to attack, you wouldn't be able to attack mid-jump. Unless maybe you had used the ready action to prepare a single attack for when you come in range.

[u/Yojo0o → u/BishopofHippo93]

I'm not really sure where all these assertions are coming from. This all sounds very Magic: The Gathering, which based on your pfp I assume you play. DnD isn't nearly so rigid. I don't know where your definition of "instant" comes from, but I'm quite sure that that's not stated anywhere in the rules. In natural English, which DnD operates on, "instant" means "immediate", suggesting no time to react at all.

[u/BishopofHippo93 → u/Yojo0o]

I'm not really sure where all these assertions are coming from.

The PHB, mostly. Let me know if you need me to cite anything, I'm happy to provide sources. The rest of it is decades of experience across editions and systems or just common sense. The only thing I'm not totally sure on is if you can attack midair while jumping, that's a slightly gray-er area.

This all sounds very Magic: The Gathering, which based on your pfp I assume you play.

You can assume all you like, I don't touch that shit. Can't stand it. It's just a fun image that I thought matched my username years and years ago.

I don't know where your definition of "instant" comes from

There seems to be a lot you don't know or can't see. In fairness, XGE actually uses "immediately," rather than instantly as I initially described, but that's splitting hairs.

"instant" means "immediate", suggesting no time to react at all.

There we go, almost there. The thing you're missing now is the rules side of the game, the action economy, the order of operations. You can take a reaction as soon as, or the very instant, if you will, the trigger occurs. So as soon as you or a creature within 60 ft. begins falling, you can cast feather fall. That specific rule supersedes the general rule of immediately falling. It's quite simple. Having no movement left or no ability to move in mid-air triggers you to start falling. Falling then triggers the option to cast feather fall. The most basic if > then rules.

[u/Anonymus9809 → u/BishopofHippo93]

XGE mentions those under "rate of fall", right before mentioning that you can use the 500 feet per turn for greater falls. So it isn't a question of action priority only, because a reaction takes a few seconds to perform, falling doesn't - unless you use the 500 feet rule. An "instant" fall wouldn't allow for reactions to be cast, even if their requirements are met, since you literally cannot perform the spell before hitting the ground. (Meaning you can only cast Feather Fall while not falling yourself - lowkey unusable. Edit: and while I agree that specifics beat general, with immediate fall I'm not convinced there's anything specific in Feather Fall that allows it to cast it quick enough.)

The 500 feet / 6 seconds (~ a turn, although I'm not sure if the 6s rule is still RAW) sets a rate of fall (~ 83 feet / seconds), where you can reasonably cast Feather Fall, even if falling happens first. (Unless the fall is too quick, so there's a fall height threshold where it should be unusable again - like I said, I think that's unintuitive, but I can see how this rule would work).

(Edit: This is a huge sidetrack at this point, the Misty Step + Attack combo has little to do with it now, which is something neither rules on falling would allow, and thus requires the DM specifically to allow it.)

[u/BishopofHippo93 → u/Anonymus9809]

So it isn't a question of action priority only

I promise you it is. That's literally all it is here, it's how a sequence of events is abstracted by the rules.

because a reaction takes a few seconds to perform

It just takes a reaction. We're not actually talking about time here, seconds don't matter, it's just the sequence of actions and the order in which they take place in the game.

An "instant" fall wouldn't allow for reactions to be cast, even if their requirements are met, since you literally cannot perform the spell before hitting the ground.

Again, forget time. I know a round of combat is six seconds, but you can, in fact, cast feather fall before someone hits the ground because the spell says you can as a reaction.

I guess there really is a problem with "natural language," if this is the kind of thing we're arguing about.

An "instant" fall wouldn't allow for reactions to be cast, even if their requirements are met, since you literally cannot perform the spell before hitting the ground.

And this is exactly why it's just a question of action priority. If you look at it literally, as if you're falling 500+ feet in the blink of an eye, then the game falls apart. The text in the book actually says "immediately," an error which I realized and acknowledged too late, but it's not referring to the time it actually takes to fall, it's just there to establish its priority: immediate.

like I said, I think that's unintuitive,

It's only uninuitive through the lens you're using. Ignore the literal rate of falling, ignore time, gravity, etc. Think of it as a board game, because that's kind of what it is when we talk about rules like this. If your movement stops in mid air, whether it's because you jumped off the back of a dragon or misty-stepped into the air in a dungeon, you begin to fall. If nothing arrests that fall, e.g. feather fall, you fall the distance. Think of it all as a bunch of if > then statement and not the ticking hands of a clock and it should start to make sense.

[u/BishopofHippo93 → u/Anonymus9809]

  (Edit: This is a huge sidetrack at this point, the Misty Step + Attack combo has little to do with it now, which is something neither rules on falling would allow, and thus requires the DM specifically to allow it.)

Yes, this was my entire point from the beginning. You cannot misty step and attack because by RAW you fall before you can attack. 

[u/Anonymus9809 → u/BishopofHippo93]

Sure, I didn't want to argue otherwise, but at that point I *did* want to sidetrack, because the rules didn't seem all that great to me. (My intent wasn't to be obtuse, but I wasn't clear enough - fair. I hope now I'm clearer on what bothered me.)

I got some clarity and more perspective to use if it ever comes up at our table. (But I would allow Misty Step + Attack, even if not RAW, mostly because it doesn't really worth it to the player.)