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Has anyone put any good house rules into effect that don't make powers inflicting the prone condition kill an exciting aerial combat?

RAW, prone knocks flying creatures to the ground (if they are no higher than their fly speed, i.e. usually no higher than 30-60 feet, they take no damage and land standing). If you're in a high altitude fight, say an airship vs. wyverns or griffins vs. dragons, the prone condition can effectively drop an enemy out of the sky. IOW words it's utility scales off the charts from simply requiring an extra move action to potentially killing an enemy outright or at least dramatically altering the flow of the aerial combat.

Normally I have no problem with this. It's fun to see players feel frickin awesome! However, there are certain dramatic high altitude aerial combats where this is just a game killer.

Any solutions you've come up with?

First, I think they errata'd prone while flying, so that even if you don't have hover, you won't fall to your death.

I would just houserule prone to do something else in high altitude combat. I think if you give it to your players staight they won't mind. It's also in thier interest that prone doesn't make you fall to your death.

 I would recomend that prone be treated just like it would on the ground. You do not fall, but you take the usually penalties from prone. Cinematically speaking, this could be because you are rolling and spinning out of control and you must use your move action to steady yourself. Alternatly, you are danging or are hanging off of your mount/airship, and must pull yourself back up.  (ie. stand up).

If you don't want to get rid of the "dropping" affect, but also do not want damage, then houserule that you fall your fly-speed each round you are prone. If you are high in the air (50-100 squares) then this means they have 5-10 rounds to "stand up" and fly back to where they started. The risk of death from falling is almost none, but cinematically still feels like you are plumbeting, and mechanically costs them a half a round, or a couple rounds at most. Unconscious creatures (such as downed wyverns) obviously would not be able to ever catch themselves, and would hit the ground and die. Because you only fall your speed, if a player becomes unconscious, the leader would double move downward and then heal them, sort of like doing an aerodynamic tuck.

Nov 8, 2012 -- 1:58PM, vitamin_q wrote:

I would just houserule prone to do something else in high altitude combat. I think if you give it to your players staight they won't mind. It's also in thier interest that prone doesn't make you fall to your death.

 I would recomend that prone be treated just like it would on the ground. You do not fall, but you take the usually penalties from prone. Cinematically speaking, this could be because you are rolling and spinning out of control and you must use your move action to steady yourself. Alternatly, you are danging or are hanging off of your mount/airship, and must pull yourself back up.  (ie. stand up).

If you don't want to get rid of the "dropping" affect, but also do not want damage, then houserule that you fall your fly-speed each round you are prone. If you are high in the air (50-100 squares) then this means they have 5-10 rounds to "stand up" and fly back to where they started. The risk of death from falling is almost none, but cinematically still feels like you are plumbeting, and mechanically costs them a half a round, or a couple rounds at most. Unconscious creatures (such as downed wyverns) obviously would not be able to ever catch themselves, and would hit the ground and die. Because you only fall your speed, if a player becomes unconscious, the leader would double move downward and then heal them, sort of like doing an aerodynamic tuck.

Yeah, I'll probably do something like that, where prone force a creature to descend a certain amount (it's fly speed?) and for all intents and purposes they are considered prone.

Nov 8, 2012 -- 7:13PM, vitamin_q wrote:

Nov 8, 2012 -- 3:07PM, aaronil wrote:

Yeah, I'll probably do something like that, where prone force a creature to descend a certain amount (it's fly speed?) and for all intents and purposes they are considered prone.

Yeah, If you make it fall it's speed each round it is prone then that means "faster" more aerodynamic creatures fall faster as they "nose dive". If you want to make it simpler, then just pick a number between 6 and 10, everyone falls that amount each round they are "prone".

Remember if they have a hover speed, they don't fall, even when "prone". You could use that to make an interesting encounter, where the monsters have hover, and prone the party,  forcing them downward.

Also,if they are on mounts, save yourself shenanigans, and houserule that a mount and rider are considered the same creature for prone/push/pull/slide/immobilize while mounted. That way you don't get riders sliding off thier mounts, and mounts falling from under riders. Even though that would be realistic, in DnD it is stupidly deadly.

Nov 8, 2012 -- 4:26PM, mvincent wrote:

Nov 8, 2012 -- 12:22PM, aaronil wrote:

If you're in a high altitude fight, say an airship vs. wyverns or griffins vs. dragons, the prone condition can effectively drop an enemy out of the sky.

- DMG p.44 has recommended height limits.
- After falling 100 squares (500 feet) a creature can attempt to stop its descent by flying again (DMG p.48).

So if you're going to exceed the recommended height limits, you might as well exceed them by a lot.

I think thats a funny number they use. One round is 6 seconds.In real life, an object will fall about 480 feet in six seconds, assuming no air resistance. A flying creature with big wings that create alot of drag, would probably fall about 300 feet in 6 seconds. So according to DnD, if you start falling, you are not allowed to catch yourself the next round, even though you have the flight space, and the actions. By RAW must wait until you have fallen 500 feet, or hit the ground, whichever comes fist.

Not to mention, being 100 squares away from the encounter, means about 8 rounds that you get to do nothing. Either as a player or a monster.

i don't see a problem there, i don't think we need air resistence tables for falls in the game...having 500 feets per 6 seconds is quite close to real life counter part assuming no air resistence, that's enough for me.

I also think it takes you 6 seconds to stabilize yourself again to fly...they are hitting you with something that would knock you off from your feets on land...i think that's enough force to do that.