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I have not completely read the rules for 5e, and my group has played a decent amount of 4e. We recently started 5e.

So my question is, as a Wizard, can I cast the Jump spell on myself one turn, then the next turn jump high into the air and cast Thunderwave straight down? I'm a little unsure of how the actions work in 5e. The point is to hopefully knock a handful of enemies prone to make quick work of them with my group. (We have a house rule from 4e where a successful attack on a prone character is an automatic critical.)

SevenSidedDie
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Constuntine
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  • There is no air time in 5e, just so you're aware. This doesn't deny you the ability to do that, but you should know that you can't be in the air at the end of your turn. – Premier Bromanov Aug 10 '15 at 22:05
  • I'm okay with not staying in the air. I just want to jump, cast, then land – Constuntine Aug 10 '15 at 22:07
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    Thunderwave doesn't knock targets prone. You may be thinking of Destructive Wave, but that requires touching the ground; or Thunderous Smite, but that's only targets you can hit in melee. You may be better off with Grease, which is already a ranged spell and doesn't require jumping tricks to place. – SevenSidedDie Aug 10 '15 at 22:58
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    @sevensideddie while it doesn't knock them prone, it does push them 10 feet. In this case, it would push them 10 feet downwards. The only reasonable interpretation of that in my mind would be that they're knocked prone. Either that, or 10 feet of falling damage. – xanderh Aug 11 '15 at 00:45
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    @xanderh That would be very much a DM ruling situation. It would be equally reasonable to rule it pushes them horizontally until they're 10 feet farther away from the caster than they started. – SevenSidedDie Aug 11 '15 at 00:47

3 Answers3

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Yes, because the system makes no distinction between jumping and any other form of movement in combat.

See page 190 in the Combat section of the Player's Handbook.

On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed. You can use as much or as little of your speed as you like on your turn, following the rules here. Your movement can include jumping, climbing, and swimming. These different modes of movement can be combined with walking, or they can constitute your entire move. However you're moving, you deduct the distance of each part of your move from your speed until it is used up or until you are done moving.

Breaking Up Your Move

You can break up your movement on your turn, using some of your speed before and after your action. For example, if you have a speed of 30 feet, you can move 10 feet, take your action, and then move 20 feet.

Based on the above text, I see no reason rules-wise why you couldn't use half of your speed to leap into the air, use your action to cast your spell, and then use your remaining speed to fall back down and land safely on the ground. In fact, as long as you don't mind taking fall damage at the end of your turn, I see no reason why you couldn't use your entire speed for the jump.

Note that if you are in a space being threatened by an enemy, jumping high enough to leave that enemy's threat range would provoke Opportunity Attacks as appropriate.

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Dyndrilliac
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  • Great answer. In addition to this, the rules say moving doesn't interfere with concentration and therefore with casting times longer than 1 action. It would be very strange if you couldn't cast shorter spells while moving. – Doval Dec 05 '16 at 03:57
  • High jump: "Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement." The amount you move up costs your movement, but falling back down does not use your movement. I do not understand when you say: "use half of your speed to leap into the air, use your action to cast your spell, and then use your remaining speed to fall back down and land safely on the ground". Why are you using your speed to fall? – Kirt Jan 14 '24 at 08:34
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I believe there are no specific rules that mention moving at the same time you do something, normally it considered in move/act/move again basis. With that said, I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with your logic, so it shouldn't be a stretch to be able to cast a spell on the apex of your jump.

Now, I am a little lost in the sense that the manual only mentions long jump and high jump apart (basically moving in one axis at a time only), without any hint as to how calculate a two axis movement jump, but if you can devise a sensible option to calculate you should be peachy (I don't know your STR score, so I leave to you the running of the numbers).

Now, reading thunderwave, specifically as you mention, it says it pushes enemies 10 feet away from you on a failed save, not making them prone (unless you are houseruling that pushing against the ground equals "proning") and that you can't direct it (it is a cube of thunderous goodness centered on you).

In fewer words, no exact ruling in the manual, but completely sensible with a bit of houseruling. Hope it helps.

Renard
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    A cube that originates on you has you on one of the sides. You can choose to be inside or outside the cube, but you will always be on an edge of the cube. Check the chapter on spellcasting for the wording, but that is essentially how it works. – xanderh Aug 11 '15 at 00:48
  • You are are right. My bad. +1 – Renard Aug 11 '15 at 00:49
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Since Thunderwave includes somatic components, I would be careful about that.

Somatic (S)

Spellcasting gestures might include a forceful gesticulation or an intricate set of gestures. If a spell requires a somatic component, the caster must have free use of at least one hand to perform these gestures.

If you go with the rule that the cast must have at least one hand, then maybe you can allow the casting in the air. However, if you try jumping, in real life, you'll notice that you use both arms and you cannot really release the muscle bending in your arms until you land.

Now, if you accumulate the at least one hand and intricate set of gestures, I think it makes it pretty clear that while jumping, it's going to be really hard to cast a spell with a Somatic element, unless that somatic is in link with jumping (i.e. the jump is what invokes the magic of that spell). Either that, or the wizard is going to end up falling instead of landing on his feet.

So, jump, land, cast would make a lot more sense to me.

That being said, you could have some form of house rule that with training the spell caster could do it. Or maybe make that possible by calling it a feat. That means the player has to be human (if you allow them to have a feat at level 1) or reach level 4 to get the feat. The feat could give you a +1 Dexterity and the ability of casting spells while walking, running, jumping, falling... in movement.

Don't forget that if your players can do it, so can monsters.

Alexis Wilke
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    Considering that people play plenty of games that involve jumping and using their hands to do things, like basketball, volleyball, tennis, etc, I would have to disagree with just about everything you wrote down here. using the quote you provided, the forceful gesticulation could literally be as simple as pointing a glass wand (using lightning bolt as an example.) As such, this is extremely easy to perform in mid-air. Remember that the OP made this request and specified while under the effects of a jump spell. This means he could leap straight up 3 times his normal height. – Lino Frank Ciaralli Aug 11 '15 at 15:39