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

[Mirtek]

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.

hover just means you don't fall when knocked prone. Theres no minimum forward speed in 5e anymore

 

[ExploderWizard]

hover just means you don't fall when knocked prone. Theres no minimum forward speed in 5e anymore

Then why would a creature deprived of the ability to move fall unless they could hover? Speed reduced to 0 results in a fall. It does not matter if that speed is voluntary or involuntary.

 

[Mirtek]

Then why would a creature deprived of the ability to move fall unless they could hover? Speed reduced to 0 results in a fall. It does not matter if that speed is voluntary or involuntary.

because the rules say so. Easy as that. You don't have to move to stay in the air, but you fall when you can't move. Why because its a game.

The difference between a flyer moving 0 in his turn and not falling and some having his speed set to 0 and falling is that the rules say one falls and the other doesn't

 

[ExploderWizard]

because the rules say so. Easy as that. You don't have to move to stay in the air, but you fall when you can't move. Why because its a game.

The difference between a flyer moving 0 in his turn and not falling and some having his speed set to 0 and falling is that the rules say one falls and the other doesn't

Speed 0 is speed 0. If something is hovering magically in the air in my game its because it CAN hover in the air magically. If not it falls. You are free to keep flying things aloft via rulespeak if desired.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

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

I'd describe it as a clarification by necessity: if you have no fliers, canopy is not an issue. If you have a flier and the woods are dense, it's suddenly relevant.

That said, a flier is not an issue. One goblin with a sleep spell and you have a potentially dead flier.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

because the rules say so. Easy as that. You don't have to move to stay in the air, but you fall when you can't move. Why because its a game.

The difference between a flyer moving 0 in his turn and not falling and some having his speed set to 0 and falling is that the rules say one falls and the other doesn't

Not to dive into the interpetationist end of this pool but, some examples of how things could be different:

Flier hit by sleep spell: puts you to sleep (which can't be done while flying without extraordinary evidence) = flier plunges to ground and wakes up on impact if he survives.

Flier hit by Hold spell: probably sustains flier in position in the air since hold person/monster locks them in place, immobile....so suspended, in my interpretation.

Anything which renders a flier unconscious or unable to move under ordinary circumstances would take them out. Anything which prevents movement from a location but doesn't prevent movement within that location (i.e. you're immobile but can still attack, cast or otherwise) probably means hovering is going on.

5E of necessity and by design requires that these things be evaluated on a reasonable basis; they didn't design the game to be fool-proof, having learned from the 3E approach and 4E approach that such ways lead to madness.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

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

If there's a tree, the mage could just climb a tree and cantrip them to death anyways. Don't allow bird dudes if you want to challenge the party mostly with pits, ravines, rivers and monsters with no ranged attacks.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Speed 0 is speed 0. If something is hovering magically in the air in my game its because it CAN hover in the air magically. If not it falls. You are free to keep flying things aloft via rulespeak if desired.

You dont have speed 0 when you dont move. You have your speed, and chose not to move. This isnt X-wing, with its turning maneuver templates. Bird dude just flaps in place. All hover means is you don't fall if proned or reduced to 0 speed. A hold person makes an aarakocra fall. A hold monster does not make a beholder or other creature with hover fall.

 

[TheTurboTornado]

This makes about as much sense to me as a rock that the aaracokra dropped suddenly stops falling because the aaracokra got knocked unconscious/died.

Why would said aaracokra die before the rock hit the ground? Unless the aaracokra was more than 500 feet in the air (I've done research), the rock would hit the ground in his turn. Also, not too easy to kill someone who is 500 feet in the air.

Nevertheless, point made, just wanted to point that out. Well done.

 

[Tinker-TDC]

Speed 0 is speed 0. If something is hovering magically in the air in my game its because it CAN hover in the air magically. If not it falls. You are free to keep flying things aloft via rulespeak if desired.

Hovering, but not hovering as the ability.
If it pleases you, have the player say they are flying directly upward at the same speed that gravity is pulling them down. This seems like it would fit your requirements.
If saying this becomes tiring or drawn-out, let them hover.