Finally, a use for rasts.

[Voadam]

Anybody able to come up with a thematic flavor reason for skeletons to retain magical flying?

It seems an odd thing for them to be able to keep.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Anybody able to come up with a thematic flavor reason for skeletons to retain magical flying?

It seems an odd thing for them to be able to keep.

Because they're inherently magical creatures and, in some cases, the creature wouldn't even be able to move -- alive or undead -- without the flight.

 

[lukelightning]

Worth asking your DM before hand so you don't potentially waste everyone's time during the game.

I did, he's fine with it. I'm actually not expecting this "skelerast" to last long. We're 10th level and it's only a matter of time before it gets wiped out by an area affect, an outright attack, or some party-pooper cleric (perhaps even a fellow party member; I don't know yet what the other players have for characters). If murphy's law has any influence, my wizard's gonna be flying around in Sharn or somewhere else really high, and some cleric is going to destroy the skelerast right out from under him, giving him only enough time to pull out a little sign saying "uh oh" (a la Wile E. Coyote) before plummeting to his doom.

Anybody able to come up with a thematic flavor reason for skeletons to retain magical flying?

"Verily, as many ae philosoph and magister of lore has attested, a bodie's skeleton doth possess a tri-fold nature. Firstlie the skeleton is a structure on whych to build a bodie, similar unto a scaffold. Secondlie it provideth an armor around the inner organ and humor. Lastlie the skeleton is the structure keeps the bodie standing and allows movement and lively action; therefore it is the skeleton which is the true tool of the bodie's locomotion. In such a mannar an undead skeleton can retain its movement despite lacking flesh; a creature which is of a magical flying nature while alive will retain this ability if undead, as the bones hold the power of both locomotion and aerimotion."

 

[GAAAHHH]

Make sure to have Feather Fall prepared.

 

[Voadam]

Because they're inherently magical creatures and, in some cases, the creature wouldn't even be able to move -- alive or undead -- without the flight.

Any examples of creatures with skeletons that can fly but not otherwise move?

I can think of will-o'-wisps as flying only critters, but they are just spongy air things without skeletons.

Skeletal Nightmares can fly but not skeletal dragons or vrocks. Only magical flight is retained, all other magical abilities of the creature are lost. It is an oddity.

 

[lukelightning]

Any examples of creatures with skeletons that can fly but not otherwise move?

Rasts can barely move without flight. Same with ravids; both can only make a single action if they can't fly.

Beholders have a special non-magic flight; I'm not sure if they count as having skeletons (do exoskeletons count as skeletons? Can you make a skeleton giant ant? Back in 1e I had a wizard who animated a humungus beetle's hollowed-out exoskeleton and used it as a tank).

 

[ThirdWizard]

Any examples of creatures with skeletons that can fly but not otherwise move?

Beholder.

 

[heirodule]

"Verily, as many ae philosoph and magister of lore has attested, a bodie's skeleton doth possess a tri-fold nature. Firstlie the skeleton is a structure on whych to build a bodie, similar unto a scaffold. Secondlie it provideth an armor around the inner organ and humor. Lastlie the skeleton is the structure keeps the bodie standing and allows movement and lively action; therefore it is the skeleton which is the true tool of the bodie's locomotion. In such a mannar an undead skeleton can retain its movement despite lacking flesh; a creature which is of a magical flying nature while alive will retain this ability if undead, as the bones hold the power of both locomotion and aerimotion."

Get back to the 12th century where you belong, you flippin' Ars Magica player!

I can't stay and debate now, since I have a lightning rail to catch!

 

[Mouseferatu]

Great idea, Luke.

So does this make you a rast-bastard?

 

[DM Pete]

You know the rast, right? That often-maligned, rarely-used, what-the-heck monster from the MM? I finally found a use for them.

Ahem, though I've not posted here for many a moon, I feel obligated to defend the poor Rast. They are a pretty cool monster...especially if you have players who don't know the MM as well as they think they do, and are the type to grab the holy water as soon as the first blood drained corpse shows up.

(Just like my group...oh the looks on their faces )