Does taking off or landing require an action or any movement speed?

Question

The following examples I think capture the question:

1. Let's say a Giant Eagle is on the ground, walking. It has a 10 foot movement speed on the ground and an 80 foot flying movement speed. In one round, can it attack, then take off and move its full 80 feet of flying movement? Can it attack, move 10 feet on the ground and then fly 80 feet, using all of its allowance in both movement modes in a single move action?

2. If a creature with good or perfect maneuverability (and therefore the ability to hover) simply wants to take its feet off of the ground (because lava or something), does this require an action, or could it do this and then a full attack in a single round?

Answer 1

Your first question is utterly undefined in the rules. I have searched high and low for an answer to that question, and it just does not exist. Any time one move action involves different movement modes (and thus different speeds), how much you can actually move is just one big question mark.

The most “fair” thing is to pro-rate your movement speeds (e.g. you move 10 ft. with your 30-ft. land speed, that’s ⅓, so you have ⅔ of your movement left, so you can fly 40 ft. with your 60-ft. fly speed), but that would be massively tedious to calculate on the fly. This example used nice, neatly-divisible numbers; other situations easily might not (including yours).

I have not come up with a good answer for this, and mostly just try to pretend the problem doesn’t exist. When it comes up, I mostly just eyeball it and call it something reasonable, rounding in the PCs’ favor if necessary. It doesn’t actually come up that often.

For your second question, I would rule that a free action (not a 5-ft. step, which is a free action but can only happen once per turn and prevents other forms of movement), but I do not believe the rules cover that, either. Easier to rule on, though.

Basically, the rules seem to constantly assume that everyone will always use one single type of movement mode for all time, and that’s the end of it. They never address transitioning.

Answer 2

1. Yes, the eagle can use a Standard Action to attack and then a Move Action to fly 80 feet. Or, it can use one Move Action to walk 10 feet, and forego its Standard Action to take a second Move Action and fly 80 feet. It definitely cannot do both of these to move 90 feet with a single move:

   A climbing thief can use part of his speed to climb down a short wall and then use the remainder to hustle toward a foe.

   ^{(DMG, page 20) - emphasis mine}

2. According to d20SRD.org:

   Fly

   A creature with a fly speed can move through the air at the indicated speed if carrying no more than a light load.

   ...

   Flight (Ex or Su)
   A creature with this ability can cease or resume flight as a free action.

   While this certainly implies that creatures that have a fly speed, but do not have the Flight ability, cannot cease or resume flight as a free action, I'm not aware of another rule that indicates what type of action it would otherwise be to cease or resume flight. And I honestly can't think of any justification for using any other type of action for the transition.
   Also, most creatures with Perfect maneuverability would probably never deign to stand on the ground at all, since hovering is as effortless for those creatures as drifting with the currents is for an aquatic creature.

Answer 3

1. No; a creature can change modes of travel so long as its total movement doesn't exceed 100% of all its modes together. If the hawk you describe has movement of 20/fly 80 then walking 10 feet uses 50% of its movement, leaving 50% or 40 feet available for flying.

2. This would be a 5 foot step and it would be able to do a full attack.

Answer 4

Pretty much the only thing that is allowed to attack and have its full movement are the characters/ players. due to the fact they are given a free action, moving action, and other action which is usually an attack. But I'd check the DM's guide and Monsters guide to double check for curtain monsters/creatures