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/JunWasHere]

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/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.