Slow fall spell

[Rubycon]

Hi,
it is often described that it is very difficult to fly with magic. But how about a spell to slowly float to the ground instead of crashing into the turf. It would be a air spell (obviously), but how would you build such a spell?

[Michael Sandy]

The cheapest way is to simply apply a sticky aspect to yourself, ie, a strength 4 maneuver, and enough exchanges to last you to the ground.

Keep in mind that the aspect "falling very slowly" can be tagged by any ranged combatant.

[devonapple]

Rick Neal's DFRPG Magic article here includes an outline for a "Magic Parachute" spell.

[Rubycon]

Thanks for the link, I didn't see this text before...
However, I had something different in mind. Not a spell which can be evoced when you fall, but when you deliberatly jump from a height (house, cliff). Obviously, the feather fall spell would work in this case, too. But I would think that there are other and more "cool" solutions for this. I imagined a wizard who is just floating to the ground slow enough to land without harm.
The duration of such a spell matters indeed, as Michael pointed out. I just didn't got the "sticky aspect" thing. How can I do this whith a spell?

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Thanks for the link, I didn't see this text before...
However, I had something different in mind. Not a spell which can be evoced when you fall, but when you deliberatly jump from a height (house, cliff). Obviously, the feather fall spell would work in this case, too. But I would think that there are other and more "cool" solutions for this. I imagined a wizard who is just floating to the ground slow enough to land without harm.
The duration of such a spell matters indeed, as Michael pointed out. I just didn't got the "sticky aspect" thing. How can I do this whith a spell?

Just decide how much power you want to put into it and add a shift for duration.  Personally, I'd let it default to sticky and scene-long like veils and other non-combat evocation maneuvers.  If you want to get specific about how many shifts it costs, look at YS321.  Default the spell to Terrible and add a shift for each step you want to move on the ladder.  So, three more shifts into power for most adults or a total of five shifts (1 base + 3 extra weight + 1 duration).

Just don't use it around anyone who's likely to counterspell it.  Hilarity and your character's gruesome death would likely ensue.

[Rubycon]

Yeah, that's definitly right. 
And 5 shifts sound reasonable for me...

[Becq]

"There is an art, or rather, a knack to flying.  The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."  -- The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Adapting this to DFRPG, I propose that one way to achieve flight is to cast a block against hitting the ground on yourself.

Ok, that was a joke, but perhaps not entirely.  It seems to me that you could adapt the block rules to basically subtract shifts from the stress you'd normally take from a fall.  So, for example, a 30 foot fall results in 15 stress, but if you put up an 8-shift block against falling damage, then that might reduce it to a 7 stress hit, which greatly reduces the severity of the consequence you'll take.

That said, I think a better way of handling this, which seems to me to be more in line with the way the designers do things, is to use some of the benefits of Thaumaturgy.  Basically, you want to set up a Thaumaturgical 'sprint' to get from the top of the building to the bottom of the building: ie, a sufficiently high sprint result (Athletics simple action) combined with 'Solve Improbable or Impossible Problems' to allow you to ignore the fact that you're running on air.  In short, almost the same as Dresden's escape potion.

So, basically you just determine how many 'zones' of travel you'd need to cover to get to the ground, and this is the number of shifts worth of sprinting you need.  (Well, actually you can subtract one, since the first zone is 'free'.)  Perhaps one zone per floor would be a reasonable rule of thumb.

[ways and means]

Or you could create the aspect magical parachute with a magical maneuver and tag it for effect to bypass the falling rules entirely (as a actual parachute would probably do as well).

[devonapple]

Or you could create the aspect magical parachute with a magical maneuver and tag it for effect to bypass the falling rules entirely (as a actual parachute would probably do as well).

And how many shifts to set up that Magical Parachute aspect? Does it change depending on how high up you are?

Though you do have a good point, actually, since the Difficulty to acquire and use an actual parachute in the same situation would be a good Difficulty guideline for the Thaumaturgical option.

[ways and means]

Well shift wise probably  (4) would probably be enough + what ever the duration of the fall will be (thus longer falls mean higher costs)  though having more shifts of power behind it would make it harder for somewhat to muck about with your spell in mid air and cause you to fall the rest of the distance with standard falling mechanics.

[devonapple]

I'm feel that 4 shifts is not sufficient for such a potentially powerful Aspect, if it is meant to be invoked to completely bypass that environmental threat.

[ways and means]

Aspects as a rule are as powerful as they need to be when invoked for effect with the right invocation of an aspect you can force a mob to flee or get one npc to cave another's head in. If falling was meant to be important to the game then a power to completely bypass the mechanics (wings) would not be only one refresh.  Amusingly if you read the paragraph on falling you could tell the writers only grudgingly provided falling rules for those who wanted greater realism and are very much an optional extra. So for me falling is unimportant story wise (gravity is just not a interesting opponent) and any reason why falling rules would not apply is good enough reason to avoid the stodgy mechanic (rope line, rappel line, water at the bottom and any form of grip or way to slow oneself down such as a parachute aspect).