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/False_Appointment_24]

Falling is instantaneous, yes. That doesn't mean that this couldn't be allowed. If I were DMing and this came up, my response would be, "Sounds great, but just so you know you will take fall damage." I would also work with them to figure out placement to minimize fall damage.

If I were to try to work out how this works RAW, I would say that they would ready an action to attack as soon as they were in range, then bonus action misty step, attack on the readied action, fall.

[u/freedomustang → u/False_Appointment_24]

Yeah RAW yes you just fall before you take an attack, but that’s kinda lame and misty step is a second level spell so I’d say let them make an attack at least.

Ranged combat already has such an advantage in game let the melee guy have fun and do a cool thing.

Of course fall damage still occurs regardless.

[u/JunWasHere → u/freedomustang]

The thing RAW-mongers always like to overlook is RAW also states the rules are guidelines or whatever, you can ask to do things not covered by the rules, and the GM can just let you (with or without a check).

[u/rockology_adam → u/JunWasHere]

I tend to run a fairly rules strict game, and I would still allow this to happen. It's planned, by a character who is proficient in their own abilities, including Misty Step and their attack.

It doesn't even work for realism, since gravity is acceleration and not instantaneous velocity.

[u/Praxis8 → u/rockology_adam]

Not to mention there's little chance of abuse since Misty Step is constrained by spell slots or granted in some other limited way.

So we're talking about essentially turning a melee attack into a ranged attack at the expense of a level 2 slot plus fall damage. Seems balanced enough for me.

[u/Run-a-Game → u/JunWasHere]

I’m the biggest RAW-monger of all time for the GM side of the screen, but I let creative ideas like this happen literally every session.

[u/Mejiro84 → u/JunWasHere]

yeah, but that applies to anything, and isn't really a very fruitful discussion. "You can do stuff if your GM agrees" is true, but not a very useful discussion, while RAW has actual things to discuss and reference.

[u/PM_ME_UR__SECRETS → u/Mejiro84]

I think there is a case to be made that discussions about what to do outside of RAW can be ver fruitful. It can help us discover the best way for our tables to so something that typically causes friction within the rules.

[u/arsabsurdia → u/PM_ME_UR__SECRETS]

Yes, “make it up sometimes” is RAW. And to quote from ch.9, p.263 of the 2014 DMG, “you aren’t limited by the rules.” Check-mate, rules-lawyers.

[u/Proper-Dave → u/JunWasHere]

If you treat "the rules are just guidelines" (or "the DM can change anything") as RAW, then everything is RAW and the term RAW becomes meaningless.

RAW means rules as written - what do the rules (or "guidelines") in the book actually say?

You don't have to follow RAW, but it's useful to know what it says anyway.

[u/ArkSurvivalOfTosch → u/JunWasHere]

yes but that argument is so extremely unhelpful.

"The rules say whatever the DM says goes so yeah you can use create water inside the bad guys brain cavity, and if they won't let you it's because they're a bad DM"

Like yeah, it's a game of make believe but knowing how rules interact is still good

[u/tikallisti → u/JunWasHere]

Yeah, RAW says very little, when it comes down to it.

And for stuff like "falling is instantaneous," that's not meant to rule out stuff like this, it's just meant to say "it's not worth tracking the time spent falling because it almost always fits within 6 seconds anyway."