Does Freedom of Movement allow you to move normally in a storm created by magic?

Question

Freedom of Movement States:

This spell enables you or a creature you touch to move and attack normally for the duration of the spell, even under the influence of magic that usually impedes movement, such as paralysis, solid fog, slow, and web.

The control winds spell says:

You alter wind force in the area surrounding you. You can make the wind blow in a certain direction or manner, increase its strength, or decrease its strength. The new wind direction and strength persist until the spell ends or until you choose to alter your handiwork, which requires concentration. You may create an “eye” of calm air up to 80 feet in diameter at the center of the area if you so desire, and you may choose to limit the area to any cylindrical area less than your full limit.

If a character is under the effect of a freedom of movement spell are they still effected by an increase in wind speed that could knock them down or check them or no?

Answer 1

From a RAW Stand point we have this:

1. Freedom of movement prevents effects that would cause you to be unable to move freely, such as solid fog, paralizys, grapple, etc.
2. Freedom of movement does't prevent you from beeing bullrushed, blown away or tripped.
3. The spell control winds allow's you to control the speed and direction of the winds, wich in return is capable of provoking some effects on creatures based on the wind force and the size of said creatures.
4. The checked condition prevent's you from moving

So based on this we have the situation where a creature under freedom of movement would not be checked by the winds, but would be blown away or knocked down provided that the wind is strong enough to do so because freedom of movement doesn't prevent you from beeing moved by other effects, it merely allows you to move freely if something would prevent you to do so.

Also from the 3.5 FAQ:

Can prone characters move?

The rules on crawling would obviously apply here, but this question also includes things like limbless creatures and oozes. If a creature has no motive limbs, you move at your normal speed when prone, otherwise you must crawl.

Answer 2

A storm is likely a difficult terrain modifier, and as such is almost definitely ignored by freedom of movement.

We can get into a deep argument about what raw allows or disallows. Terrain is one that is very typically affected by freedom of movement (and in fact in later editions it was explicitly added in the spell definition)

Answer 3

Hypothetical situation,

character is crossing over wild river. He casts freedom of movement.

Will he cross over, ignoring the strong current of the river or will river carry him away?

I would say he will cross and current will have no effect on him. But why would then Control wind spell blow him away? I mean I tried to cross over such river (IRL), I managed to do it but I was more than hundred meters downstream. Force of water and air are "same", but different element.

In other hand, there is no clear description/rule what forces of nature Freedom of Movement negates.

So, to conclude, I would suggest that your GM/DM should decide what are the limits of Freedom of movement in your campaign.

Answer 4

First of all, I should warn @Khaldhool that this answer is based mostly on speculation and in part uses an absence of a statement (instead of a positive statement) as a proof. But I believe it may be usefull.

Underwater part of freedom of movement spell would be a starting point here. While you move and attack normally under the effect of freedom of movement underwater, it isn't stated you ignore water current.

Now in the air you already move and attack normally, but your question is basically if you can ignore air current. I believe those two are similar enough. So generally wind would affect you.

Checked is probably a specific case, if a creature under freedom of movement isn't a flying one. Checked condition specifically limits your movement on your turn so it should be negated by freedom of movement. Flying creatures just moved back once per turn, and presumably may otherwise act normally, so they don't care if they have a spell functioning on them or not.

To support my point further, creatures under freedom of movement effect aren't immune to bullrush and trip, which are somewhat similar to Blown Away and Knocked Down effects of winds.