Part of an ongoing series of 5e (2014) Rules notes. See the end of the post for notes on 5.5e (2024) rules.
This discussion has very little Rules-as-Written (RAW) basis; RAW really don’t address this.
This actually doesn’t come up very often, unless you have flying characters (insert cat hissing here). But sooner or later, at the very least you will encounter flying enemies — or else you’ll have people shooting down (or up) at you from a ledge in a big chamber, or things like that.
And inevitably the question will be asked: “How far away are you?”
D&D 5e has, as a design goal, relative simplicity, at least from older editions. It’s very easy to add a lot of complexity over a relatively niche cases, but this really does feel like something that we should be able to come up with a way to approach it. It strains (my) suspension of disbelief to ignore altitude differences, and it’s just the sort of thing that players will raise at the moment it becomes contentious that you probably don’t want to improv.
So let’s consider a couple of home-brew approaches, since the question of how to deal with it is, again, not addressed in RAW that I’ve been able to find.
How far away are you?
Let’s assume you are:
- shooting at something that is
- A feet away from you horizontally, and
- B feet above you (or below you) vertically.
For range purposes, what is the actual distance C you are firing/throwing?
1. Pythagoras
Huzzah for ancient Greek geometers! The actual distance C is the square root of (A2 + B2 ).
This is geometrically accurate, but also requires a pocket calculator (or an online right angle calculator).
2. Diagonals
This is actually a pretty clever workaround: C = (A + (B/2)).
This “works” from extending the grid system and using the DMG 252 optional rules for diagonal movement (treat the first diagonal as 5 feet, the second as 10 feet, etc.).
In my games, we don’t use that style of movement because it’s a PitA and the basic grid rules on PHB 192 are fine enough — but for these purposes it makes for an easy head calculation.
But there’s a problem here we’re not talking about (yet)
This is all cool if you are just shooting lasers (or firing spells) — weapons that ignore gravity.
But a lot of these use cases are for when you twang with your bow, or throw something (often pointy).
Gravity is your enemy if you are twanging/throwing upward. It’s your friend, to a degree, when twanging/throwing downward.
Amusing memes aside, the high ground does carry an advantage. But beyond that, aiming at things above you (or below you) isn’t something that most people train on.
So that brings us another suggestion:
3. Simple Math
If you are twanging/throwing at something higher than you, the effective distance C is (A + B).
If you are twanging/throwing at something lower than you, the effective distance C is the greater of A or B.
This takes into account that gravity is a bitch (harder uphill ranges), while keeping things easy and rewarding the high ground.
4. Just fudge something
We’ve focused on figuring out range. A lot of tables just ignore that aspect, count the horizontal squares/hexes/distance (to see how it fits into the weapon range factors), and then apply a modifier to the attack based on high ground or low ground. In 3.5e, height advantage provided a +1. Some tables, in 5e, just apply Advantage for being higher, or Disadvantage for being lower (a rather extreme plus/minus, but 5e is about simplicity).
That’s a bit of a fudge that gives some feel and is easy to do, but it strikes me as a little too simple.
Let’s Test It
| Target | 1. Pythagoras | 2. Diagonals | 3. Simple Math |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 ft away, 30 ft up | 104 | 115 | 130 |
| 30 ft away, 100 ft up | 104 | 115 | 130 |
| 100 ft away, 80 ft up | 128 | 140 | 180 |
| 100 ft away, 100 ft down | 141 | 150 | 100 |
Which is “best”? Whichever one is easiest and feels right. My house rule inclination is to go with Option 3 for everything, or, if you are feeling a bit more adventuresome, use Option 3 for thrown/twanged attacks, Option 2 for magic attacks.
Note that this affects the Bad Guys as much as it does you.
How about 5.5e?
The 5.5e (2024) rules really don’t change any of this. You can find plenty of discussion about house rules for this through your favorite search engine.