D&D 5E Flight ability: Does this make the Aarakocra overpowered?

[FrogReaver]

Flying is very useful in the exploration phase (scouting/bypassing walls/scaling cliffs). Especially permanent at will flight that doesn't require concentration and that doesn't cost resources.

Flying is very useful for both melee characters and ranged characters. It allows melee characters to cover their worst weakness (they can now engage a flying enemy in the air). It allows longbow characters to easily kite enemies and stay out of virtually anythings range (as long as you are in an open environment).

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I don't think that flying makes them "overpowered". It can ruin certain types of adventures, however. So, if you are a DM who likes to use that sort of adventure, flying can essentially make certain challenges completely moot.

Before 5th level, without aarakocra you can safely create an adventure that does something like "The enemy runs across the bridge that spans the 1000 foot wide chasm. He gets to the other side just as you clear the woods and cuts the ropes on the bridge. It collapses. You can hear him taunting you from the other side as he yells out, 'I guess I win this round! I'm sure we will meet again. Until next time.' as he rides off into the distance."

With an aarakocra in the group, he just keeps flying after the enemy and likely either kills him by himself or follows him back to his base and tells the rest of the PCs where to find his secret hideout. Which, can disrupt the flow of an adventure if you weren't planning on the PCs finding that information until much later.

Any adventure that depends entirely on an impassible ravine is a pretty weak adventure. So what if birdman can follow him back to the lair? As you note, this isnt anything a 3rd level spell cant do. Or a 2nd level spell (levitate) used creatively (build kite wings to propel yourself). Birdman is still on the other side of the ravine from his buddies so at greater risk from Guy McCutsbridge, so is probably going to be stomped unless Guy forgot to pack a bow, in which case, shame on him. If the DM wants Guy McCutsbridge to escape so bad, he shouldn't have designed him like a chump that cant take one member of the party on mano y birdo. I'll also note that Birdman is also down an extra death save should he get reduced to 0HP, as he's gonna take falling damage. Watch your cloaca Birdman!


One man flight lets you avoid some problems that aren't really interesting after low level anyways. Telling different stories is part of why I like being a DM. I don't keep my PC's dirt farmers for 15 levels so I can throw the same pit traps and rivers at them or make them count rations. I don't sweat the small stuff in designing challenges. If I run a campaign and allow Aarakocra, it just shifts the bar of what generally constitutes small stuff to earlier in the level cycle.

I like that 5E just said "Yup, Birdman can fly" as opposed to some kind of stupid chart like they would have had in 3rd edition that grants Flap at level X, then Flutter at level Y, then finally Fly at level Z. I'm hoping when half-giants come out for Darksun they just straight up say "Yup, half-giants are large! Enjoy your +5 strength and smashing stuff!" instead of pretending 7 feet tall is big enough as they would have done in 3E/4E.

I also find it ridiculous to insist that a race of creatures designed specifically to attack from the air loses that ability the moment they become a PC. Ban it if you want, but it seems petty to neuter it by some arbitrary ruling that you can't fly and attack. Manticores also don't have hover and are you going to argue they cant shoot spikes while flying? Hover just means you don't fall when reduced to 0 speed because you're effectively levitating.

 

[Parmandur]

Any adventure that depends entirely on an impassible ravine is a pretty weak adventure. So what if birdman can follow him back to the lair? As you note, this isnt anything a 3rd level spell cant do. Or a 2nd level spell (levitate) used creatively (build kite wings to propel yourself). Birdman is still on the other side of the ravine from his buddies so at greater risk from Guy McCutsbridge, so is probably going to be stomped unless Guy forgot to pack a bow, in which case, shame on him. If the DM wants Guy McCutsbridge to escape so bad, he shouldn't have designed him like a chump that cant take one member of the party on mano y birdo. I'll also note that Birdman is also down an extra death save should he get reduced to 0HP, as he's gonna take falling damage. Watch your cloaca Birdman!


One man flight lets you avoid some problems that aren't really interesting after low level anyways. Telling different stories is part of why I like being a DM. I don't keep my PC's dirt farmers for 15 levels so I can throw the same pit traps and rivers at them or make them count rations. I don't sweat the small stuff in designing challenges. If I run a campaign and allow Aarakocra, it just shifts the bar of what generally constitutes small stuff to earlier in the level cycle.

I like that 5E just said "Yup, Birdman can fly" as opposed to some kind of stupid chart like they would have had in 3rd edition that grants Flap at level X, then Flutter at level Y, then finally Fly at level Z. I'm hoping when half-giants come out for Darksun they just straight up say "Yup, half-giants are large! Enjoy your +5 strength and smashing stuff!" instead of pretending 7 feet tall is big enough as they would have done in 3E/4E.

I also find it ridiculous to insist that a race of creatures designed specifically to attack from the air loses that ability the moment they become a PC. Ban it if you want, but it seems petty to neuter it by some arbitrary ruling that you can't fly and attack. Manticores also don't have hover and are you going to argue they cant shoot spikes while flying? Hover just means you don't fall when reduced to 0 speed because you're effectively levitating.

Amen and Hallelujah

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Totally a campaign-by-campaign decision, of course it can problems, anyone who says different, is selling something.

…yes, I plagiarised…

 

[TheTurboTornado]

Birdman is still on the other side of the ravine from his buddies so at greater risk from Guy McCutsbridge, so is probably going to be stomped unless Guy forgot to pack a bow, in which case, shame on him. If the DM wants Guy McCutsbridge to escape so bad, he shouldn't have designed him like a chump that cant take one member of the party on mano y birdo.

My Aarakocra NPC is now called Guy McCutsbridge.

Edit: I mean, heck, it's not that crazy either! Some places in Britain end with bridge(cambridge), and Mc/Mac means "son of", so far down, Guy's ancestor might have been the Earl of Cutsbridge.

 

[Mirtek]

If dealing with unlimited at will flight means having to come up with ways to limit/deny it, it's obviously broken in some ways.

The pack of wolves is no longer a threat and saying that the canopy is too thick to fly here is just a capitulation before the flying ability

 

[Tia Nadiezja]

I've been running a game with a flying spellcaster since the start of 5e. I ran games in 3e with permanent fliers regularly. I never really had an issue with them.

 

[wrgerdbaad]

Recently published aarakocra campaign monastery. ourcase and later with the amount of speed, but now it is one of the most vulnerable.

 

[ExploderWizard]

If dealing with unlimited at will flight means having to come up with ways to limit/deny it, it's obviously broken in some ways.

The pack of wolves is no longer a threat and saying that the canopy is too thick to fly here is just a capitulation before the flying ability

The nature of that type of flight is limiting enough without inventing anything else. Normal bird flight isn't as perfect as the fly spell. Creatures like aarakocra and harpies have to maintain a minimum flight speed to stay in the air. Check the MM and you will see how few flying creatures get the hover feature. Think airplane and not helicopter.

Most dungeons are too cramped to allow this type of flight. Outdoors it will be of much more use of course but it is a racial ability and it should be useful at times. Unless bird man is also invisible he will be very conspicuous up in the air and difficult to hide.

From a tactical standpoint the first thing a smart enemy will do is eliminate air superiority. That means focus fire on featherbutt until it plummets from the sky.

The pack of wolves in the woods is still a threat to everyone else. If the bird is above the treetops flying then seeing what is happening beneath the trees is extremely difficult. The party is a member down and getting chewed up while the bird remains safe for the moment but unable to help very much.

 

[Noctem]

In my experience the flight 50' is powerful but not game breaking. I played one with the Fighter class with maneuvers and ranged combat. It was powerful and allowed for some very tactical stuff by using the terrain to hinder attacks against me, moving 25' -> attacking at range -> moving 25' was very effective in the right situations for example. But none of that was game breaking.