Levitation?

[GCMorris]

I'm working with 4e and I can't find anything on it but I'm looking to build a mystic who can levitate. He can only go up or down, movement in any other direction must be done by pulling or pushing himself or by some other means. I know I'm not the only person to have a levitating character. How is it done in 4e?

[Hyper-Man]

Flight with a custom Limitation Only To Levitate at whatever value you and/or the GM feel is appropriate.

 

HM

[steriaca]

Flight with a custom Limitation Only To Levitate at whatever value you and/or the GM feel is appropriate.

 

HM

I believed I seen a writeup of a character with Levitation in Mystic Masters.

[bigdamnhero]

6ed Fantasy Hero suggests "Levitation Only" as a -1/2 Limitation for Flight. That seems low to me, especially given that "Gliding" is a -1, but it might be appropriate for a fantasy game where flying is uncommon.

[steriaca]

6ed Fantasy Hero suggests "Levitation Only" as a -1/2 Limitation for Flight. That seems low to me, especially given that "Gliding" is a -1, but it might be appropriate for a fantasy game where flying is uncommon.

The value seems ok to me. Gliding alowes you to go horizontal and down easy, but hard to to upwards. Levitation makes it easy to go up and down, but hard to go horizontal. The difference? You don't pay END to glide, but you need to pay END to levitate.

[dsatow]

I don't know.  A -1/2 for levitation to me is also low, especially since you are still paying 2 for 1 to go up.  Also, two different movement mode might be considered two different half phases.  Hrmmmm.  A question for Steve!

 

Personally, I'd give it -1 too.

[Ninja-Bear]

I swear I remeber that to go only up or down is -1. Gliding your are still moving in 3D.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Given the very limited nature of levitation, it almost doesn't seem like a movement power.  Levitate can mean "I hover x distance off the ground at all times and move normally" or "I can rise or lower but not move laterally."  Its more an elevation change than a movement power.  This and 'slow fall' seems more like a modification to physics than moving.  That is, you're not really flying around or moving, but changing how you can move normally.

 

Maybe Change Environment?  It would be really cheap that way, and be strictly defined.

[bigdamnhero]

I agree -1 feels better to me than -1/2. Change Environment seems like overthinking it IMO. And since you only need to buy a couple meters of Flying, it's going to be pretty cheap as is.

[dsatow]

I agree -1 feels better to me than -1/2. Change Environment seems like overthinking it IMO. And since you only need to buy a couple meters of Flying, it's going to be pretty cheap as is.

Depends.  If you fell out a window and picked up some gravity acceleration, I might have you use your flight to fight your current velocity so a few meters might not save you if you have accelerated to 30m per segment.

[Christopher R Taylor]

That's my problem with using just a little flight: then you're subject to the acel/decel, facing, and gravity rules, you have to work at slowing someone going too fast before they hit the ground, etc.  If you just turn it into a handwave, then you get the results without having to worry about the technical details: it works how you figure it does.

 

Or, alternately, you rule as a GM if someone buys 3m of flight only to slow fall or rise/lower then it works the way it was meant to, and who cares about all the technical details.  I like this better than Change Environment, which is turning into the dumping ground for odd powers as is, but still...

[dsatow]

That's my problem with using just a little flight: then you're subject to the acel/decel, facing, and gravity rules, you have to work at slowing someone going too fast before they hit the ground, etc.  If you just turn it into a handwave, then you get the results without having to worry about the technical details: it works how you figure it does.

 

Or, alternately, you rule as a GM if someone buys 3m of flight only to slow fall or rise/lower then it works the way it was meant to, and who cares about all the technical details.  I like this better than Change Environment, which is turning into the dumping ground for odd powers as is, but still...

I should probably clarify.  If you have flight, you would get for free that you are no longer accelerating due to gravity.  You would just need to cancel the current velocity.  Like you said, there are a lot of factors but there are a lot of instances in comic books where someone is falling to their death and trying to fly upwards to negate impact and the comic(or movie) shows them slowing first and then rising.

[Christopher R Taylor]

 Like you said, there are a lot of factors but there are a lot of instances in comic books where someone is falling to their death and trying to fly upwards to negate impact and the comic(or movie) shows them slowing first and then rising.

 

 

Sure, but thats them using their existing power of flight to do so, which any character who has flight can do.  That's different, in my mind, from a levitation or "safe fall" type power.

[Surrealone]

I tend to favour steriaca's approach on this (as noted in post #5 of this thread, here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/95125-levitation/?p=2576561 ).

[Ninja-Bear]

I nevern worried about acceleration/deceleration. Amd if you need too jist use the adder no acc/decel from teleport power. (I think its an adder).

[Christopher R Taylor]

OK been thinking about this one a bit.  You don't need a lot of movement, anything under 5m is going to be a nice gentle landing and nobody ever levitates very rapidly.  If you put the combat acel/decel advantage on it, you move 1 meter, you can reach max speed or slowest speed no matter how fast you were going originally (with no horrendous g forces).  You can get the effect you're looking for with something like this:

 

Flight 5m; Combat acceleration/deceleration (+¼), No Gravity Penalty (+½) (Active cost 9 points); can only rise/lower or pull self along (-½).  6 pts.

[Ninja-Bear]

Looks good Christopher Taylor.

[Cantriped]

Flight 5m; Combat acceleration/deceleration (+¼), No Gravity Penalty (+½) (Active cost 9 points); can only rise/lower or pull self along (-½).  6 pts.

Combat Acceleration/Deceleration simply replaces the default rate of "5m per Meter" with ​"X​m per Meter" (Where X​ equals the amount of Movement Purchased)... so your example power is paying for a +1/4 advantage that literally does nothing at all. The Flight would need more than 5m of maximum velocity to benefit from Combat Acceleration/Deceleration.

There is a hard limit on the amount you can accelerate or decelerate per phase, as determined by your mode of movement. A character with 5m of Flight can only decelerate by 5m per Phase, regardless of how many meters they can do it in. In addition, the rules for Acceleration, Deceleration, and Gravity (CC 131) appear to indicate that the gravity penalty does not apply to deceleration. Therefore it would take a character at least 12 Phases to decelerate from Terminal Velocity (60m) to Zero Velocity using only 5m of Flight.

 

A spell like Feather Fall (which immediately cancels all falling damage, and then allows the target to float downward at a slow fixed rate), would probably be built something like:

 

Feather Fall:​  Flight 5m (5 APs); No Noncombat Movement (-1/4), Only Downward (-1) plus​ Flight +55m Zero END (+1/2), Combat Acceleration/Deceleration (+1/4) (96 APs); Instant (-1/2), Linked (Flight; -1/4), No Noncombat Movement (-1/4), Only To Decelerate (-2). Total Cost:  26 points (2.2 + 24).

Notes: Costs 1 END Per Phase, can be Aborted to, and immediately reduces the character from 60m of uncontrolled downward velocity to 5m of controlled downward velocity in one meter of distance fallen

 

Which I'll grant is expensive as hell for a "1st level spell"... but D&D spell levels don't actually measure the raw power (active points) of a spell, but rather when the designer wanted characters to gain access to the spell, and how limited its applications were.

[Ninja-Bear]

Cantripied that +55 m is riddiculeous.. Old fantasy hero books have +5 flight only downward and done besides of course any modifiers for spells.

[Cantriped]

An alternative build...

 

Feather Fall II:  Flight 15m, x4 Noncombat Movement, Noncombat Acceleration/Deceleration (+1), Half END (+1/4) (45 APs); Limited (only to decelerate, hover, or float downward at combat speed; -1 1/2). Total Cost: 18 points.

Notes:​ Costs 2 END per phase, can be Aborted to, and can immediately reduce the character from Terminal Velocity to Zero Velocity in 1 Phase and 1m of Distance. The Limited modifier is intended to limit the character to no more than 15m of controlled downward movement, while still allowing them to decelerate from terminal velocity and hover. This version of the spell is also cheaper, simpler, more Framework Friendly, and slightly more versatile than my first build. 

[Cantriped]

Cantripied that +55 m is riddiculeous.. Old fantasy hero books have +5 flight only downward and done besides of course any modifiers for spells.

I am in no way responsible for old books cheating in their power constructs. It is also possible the rules for Deceleration have changed in CC/FHC. Regardless, I built that construct to simulate what Feather Fall does using the RAW for CC/FHC.

A GM is certainly free to declare that in their campaign the Deceleration Per Phase Limit does not apply (or does not apply to 5m of Flight bought to represent Feather Fall style spells).

[Ninja-Bear]

I pull out my 28- breakfall roll for the cheesey win to avoid falling damage!

[Ninja-Bear]

I am in no way responsible for old books cheating in their power constructs. It is also possible the rules for Deceleration have changed in CC/FHC. Regardless, I built that construct to simulate what Feather Fall does using the RAW for CC/FHC.

A GM is certainly free to declare that in their campaign the Deceleration Per Phase Limit does not apply (or does not apply to 5m of Flight bought to represent Feather Fall style spells).

Its not cheating. The point is that your taking into account rules which are optional.

[Cantriped]

I pull out my 28- breakfall roll for the cheesey win to avoid falling damage!

Breakfall (CC 26) only halves Falling Damage, so a Terminal Velocity Fall will still cause an average of 15 BODY and 52 STUN.

 

 

Its not cheating. The point is that your taking into account rules which are optional.

I'm not taking into account any Optional Rules... I'm reading the rules exactly as they are written, and building a construct accordingly.

 "Acceleration, Deceleration, and Gravity" (CC 131) isn't an optional rule, nor are Falling (CC 139), Movement Powers (CC 49), Flight (CC 69), Combat Acceleration/Deceleration (CC 101), or Noncombat Acceleration/Deceleration (CC 111).

What "Optional Rule" did you think I was "taking into account"?

[Christopher R Taylor]

Combat Acceleration/Deceleration simply replaces the default rate of "5m per Meter" with ​"X​m per Meter" (Where X​ equals the amount of Movement Purchased)... so your example power is paying for a +1/4 advantage

 

 

Heh, you're right, its even cheaper!  I don't math gud.

 

But for speeds over 5m, its a useful build.