I understand from an existing question that a fall does not trigger an Opportunity Attack, but what happens if the player purposefully initiates the "fall", e.g. the character flies to a position three squares above and one to the side of a target medium-sized creature, and then lets themself "fall", rather than move, so they land in the square adjacent to the target without triggering an OA.
Is this a good hack of the system to avoid OA?
The example is a Monk with the Swift Flight power …
Effect: You fly a number of squares equal to your speed + your Wisdom modifier. If you don’t land at the end of this movement, you fall.
and a Safewing Amulet …
Property When falling, you reduce the distance fallen (for the purpose of calculating damage) by a number of feet equal to 10 × the amulet’s enhancement bonus. You always land on your feet after a fall.
From the Rules Compendium, p209
No Opportunity Actions Triggered:
When a creature falls past an enemy, the creature does not trigger opportunity actions, such as opportunity attacks, from that enemy that are triggered by movement."
Best Answer
Yes, But It Can Be Hard to Set Up
As the rule you cited points out, you do not provoke OAs when falling. The trick is making sure that you're actually falling when you cover those last couple squares, rather than descending in some other manner.
Case 1: Any Flight with Explicit Falling
Different methods of gaining flight act differently. Some powers that let you fly or items that give you a flight speed explicitly say that you fall at the end of the movement if you don't end on solid ground, so obviously you can fly to the point above where you want to be then end the movement, and you'll fall.
Example:
Airstriders(level 25 foot item from Adventurer's Vault)On a side note, remember that when you fall you end up prone and take 1d10 damage per 10 feet you fell (minus any damage you avoid through a trained acrobatics check) unless you have a way of avoiding these penalties (such as the aforementioned Airstriders), which may not always be better than provoking an OA.
Verdict: Does not trigger OAs.
(Thanks wax eagle for pointing out you have to be trained in acrobatics!)
Case 2: Flight Speed with Deliberate Crashing
If you've gained an actual flight speed somehow (such as Zephyr Boots, from Adventurer's Vault 1) then you can move to a point above where you want to be then drop prone as a minor action, which will cause you to crash.
DMG pg47, on Flying:
However...
DMG pg48, on Crashing:
You only start actually falling after this safe descent phase, and since this safe descent appears to count as flight, it provokes OAs as normal. This means that you can use falling to avoid OAs, but the point you crash from must be at least your speed above the spot where you want to start avoiding OAs, which means you'll need at least 1 round to get into position.
Verdict: Does not trigger OAs if you start the crash from high enough up.
Case 3: "Powered" Flight with Safe Landing
The problem is that most powers that let you fly a short distance say that you descend safely if you end the flight not on a safe surface. As with the crashing rules, this safe descent is not falling, and doesn't appear to contain any exemption from OAs. Thus, while falling is in fact a valid way to avoid OAs, not all powers that grant flight will allow you to fall.
Example:
Windwalker(Genasi Windsoul racial power)Verdict: Always triggers OAs.