Player Wants to Play a Hawk

[Piratecat]

Oh, I forgot to mention; he's a psionic hawk. As in, a psion perfectly capable of playing his tricks from the air.

I've asked to do that before, too! Of course, with me I was power gaming my ass off, trying to snag an advantage through what I thought was a cool loophole. It's not even awful when you realize that you aren't generally getting magic items. But my motives at least weren't particularly pure.

You shouldn't feel bad about saying no.

 

[Iron Sky]

The way I see it, this is is a problem with a lot of special races, including but not limited to psion hawks, dolphin commandos, sentient bonsi trees and flying vampire unicorns.

Those sound like your typical Gamma World adventuring party. Maybe play a couple sessions of it to get it out of his system?

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Heroes of Feywild is rumored to have a pixie race that will have permanent flight, and that's due in November. You could make a tentative agreement on how the race will work, and at the same time let the player know that you plan to revisit the matter when you see how pixies work.

It'll be interesting to find out whether this rumor is true. I suspect that such a race would have overland or 'must end turn on solid ground' type flight.

Well, if you are not doing inherent bonuses, he is gonna fall behind rapidly in 4E.

Luckily, I do use inherent bonuses. Although, to be perfectly honest, he'd happily flail away ineffectually if I didn't.

I've asked to do that before, too! Of course, with me I was power gaming my ass off, trying to snag an advantage through what I thought was a cool loophole. It's not even awful when you realize that you aren't generally getting magic items. But my motives at least weren't particularly pure.

You shouldn't feel bad about saying no.

Haha, glad to know I'm not the only DM suffering this avian curse.

I just turned down his unlimited unconditional flight, and he's settled for overland flight. I'm still not clear on whether he's intentionally avoiding a flying mount though.

Now I just have to work him into our next session. Fortunately, the party just arrived in Sigil, so even a talking hawk shouldn't be that weird. Relatively.

 

[saskganesh]

Gamma World adventuring party

This is a good thread because I learn something new every time I open it.

 

[Aeolius]

Since it's a water-world, tell him his character would be more powerful and important and special if he plays ... a flying fish! Talking and dancing extra at no charge!

I was thinking of perhaps a Barnacle Goose

"Nature produces [Bernacae] against Nature in the most extraordinary way. They are like marsh geese but somewhat smaller. They are produced from fir timber tossed along the sea, and are at first like gum. Afterwards they hang down by their beaks as if they were a seaweed attached to the timber, and are surrounded by shells in order to grow more freely. Having thus in process of time been clothed with a strong coat of feathers, they either fall into the water or fly freely away into the air. They derived their food and growth from the sap of the wood or from the sea, by a secret and most wonderful process of alimentation. I have frequently seen, with my own eyes, more than a thousand of these small bodies of birds, hanging down on the sea-shore from one piece of timber, enclosed in their shells, and already formed. They do not breed and lay eggs like other birds, nor do they ever hatch any eggs, nor do they seem to build nests in any corner of the earth."

 

[Sammael]

A Psionic Hawk would work in a RIFTS game without much trouble. In D&D, though? Nope.

 

[was]

..just make him play a druid and allow him to change into a hawk..the beast form mechanics are already outlined for that class so you have the book to back you up on your calls

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

We've decided that his next character -- after the hawk dies or retires -- will be a hummingbird ranger with an elephant companion.

..just make him play a druid and allow him to change into a hawk..the beast form mechanics are already outlined for that class so you have the book to back you up on your calls

I doubt he'd go for "You can't play a hawk, but you can turn into one...one that can't fly, that is."

Besides, primal classes are his usual bread and butter, so I'm looking forward to the change of pace.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I've asked to do that before, too! Of course, with me I was power gaming my ass off, trying to snag an advantage through what I thought was a cool loophole. It's not even awful when you realize that you aren't generally getting magic items. But my motives at least weren't particularly pure.

You shouldn't feel bad about saying no.

It was really about the voice, wasn't it.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Man, lots of haters in this thread.

Y'know what? This is 4e. Reskinning is the name of the game. It sounds like the Pixie coming up might be what you're looking for in an ideal world, but lets go with what there is now.

There's two races that have bog-standard flight right out of the gate: Airsoul Genasi and Githyanki. I'm guessing the Airsoul Genasi would be a better match for his idea (Githyanki flight is less far, but it can be done to an ally as well).

If "fly every once in a while" doesn't grab your player, then giving some other race an Overland Flight speed is fairly harmless, as well. It's limiting factor is that you (basically) can't do anything else with it but fly. You could slap this on any race without too much harm, perhaps removing the usual racial power for it. To be a hawk, I might suggest going small -- gnome or halfling.

Those are the Easy Ways.

The Hard Ways generally involve inventing your own flight mechanics. Rules like: "If you take damage, you must land at the beginning of your next turn," or "You can't attack while flying" come in handy, though the later is blatantly gamist, and the former might mean he still rocks in any combat with melee machines...though at that point, almost ANY ranged class keeps their distance, hawk or not.

Flight is workable.