Need to Hover to Cast?

[OddGamer]

Just checking that I'm right on this. If you have Flight with Cannot Hover, that means that while flying you can't cast spells (or do anything else that limits your movement to a 'Step'), correct?

[Stormcrow]

You can cast spells as long as you can take a Concentrate maneuver. That's not usually possible while flying with Flight (Cannot Hover), but if you wanted to you could let yourself fall for a turn while Concentrating. Recovery from the fall might be an issue (see page B398).

[Rolando]

If you can fly without concentration you may concentrate while flying in a straight line, no need to fall.

The same goes for driving a car or other vehicle.

I think somewhere in the book there is an equivalent step maneuver or concentrate maneuver whe you are moving at high speed or while controlling a vehicle.

If you need concentration to keep flying it may be different though.

Edit, I read the B398, yes... under your own power cannot hover restrict movement to 1/4 minimum and cannot step. Stromcrow is on point.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

You can cast spells as long as you can take a Concentrate maneuver. That's not usually possible while flying with Flight (Cannot Hover), but if you wanted to you could let yourself fall for a turn while Concentrating. Recovery from the fall might be an issue (see page B398).

Yeah. I'd probably require a Distraction check to cast a spell while falling.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Yeah. I'd probably require a Distraction check to cast a spell while falling.

I'd allow a Perk to bypass it, too. In case a PC decides to make a habit of the tactic.

[Rolando]

this got me thinking, is there a way to make "no hover" flight to not need concentration, somehow kind of not self powered flight, like with a gadget for example?

that make the non hover flight similar to a piloted vehicle.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Rolando

this got me thinking, is there a way to make "no hover" flight to not need concentration, somehow kind of not self powered flight, like with a gadget for example?

that make the non hover flight similar to a piloted vehicle.

I saw a modifier somewhere that allowed flyers to stay in flight indefinitely, including sleeping while flying. I think it was for a species of aliens. I can't find it right now, though. Might have been in a Pyramid article, but wasn't in the ones I checked...

[Willy]

Do we speak about flying by natural means or do we speak about flying by magic ?

If flying is your natural way of moving from one point to the the other like a bird, I would say no penalities and most surely no freefall! I´ve seen birds do a lot of things some really complicated while flying around, like picking a snail out of it´s shell.

If we speak about magic, and you can´t hover, I would say again no problem you just have to maintain another spell while concentrating and take the penality for this, you just shouldn´t roll a failure because than your GM can say your flight spell fizzles.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Rolando

this got me thinking, is there a way to make "no hover" flight to not need concentration, somehow kind of not self powered flight, like with a gadget for example?

that make the non hover flight similar to a piloted vehicle.

In theory, this would be something like Altered Time Rate with Limitations to only allow for an additional Move maneuver (which might as well be its own Advantage, call it Extra Move or similar), for this Move to not be able to combine with additional movement and only be usable with Flight (that's simply Only While Using <Advantage> -10%).

Of course, the ultimate effect (as you can't combine the movement from this maneuver with other movement) is that you are, roughly speaking, upgrading to always have the benefits (without the cost) of Heroic Charge for Move and Attack, expanding this to allow things like Move and Concentrate(/Ready/Aim/Whatever), and boosting the movement rate of All Out Attack and All Out Defense... but only while using Flight. A Technique that lets you do Move and Attack without penalty costs around [7] ([1] for Unique Technique, and it's a Hard Technique defaulting to Prerequisite-5, for [6]). It's getting a Wildcard treatment, boosting cost to around [21], but it has Only While Using Flight -10%, dropping that to [19]. [20] works alright there (note this implies Move Only, Overrides Movement from other Maneuver, and Only While Using Flight would altogether be worth -80% on ATR, which doesn't sound outlandish), so calling it overall a +50% Enhancement on Flight would probably be alright.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I saw a modifier somewhere that allowed flyers to stay in flight indefinitely, including sleeping while flying. I think it was for a species of aliens. I can't find it right now, though. Might have been in a Pyramid article, but wasn't in the ones I checked...

It's a little old - Pyramid Vol. 3/ 06. The Soaring enhancement, pretty cheap for what it gives.