D&D 5E (2014) How did you handle the Aarakocra?

[Mistwell]

People worry way too much about balance. And too much of that concern is theoretical rather than an actual problem at the game table.

 

[fjw70]

People worry way too much about balance. And too much of that concern is theoretical rather than an actual problem at the game table.

Some people worry too much about other people's worries.

 

[Mistwell]

Some people worry too much about other people's worries.

What about my post seemed like worrying?

 

[I'm A Banana]

People worry way too much about balance. And too much of that concern is theoretical rather than an actual problem at the game table.

Ye gods, yes. Folks are too skittish by and large. Running your game in fear of the OP bogeyman is kind of limiting...

 

[Psikerlord#]

Balance is important to most players and DMs ime.

 

[Erik42]

Personally, I think they are kind of ridiculous and I would be less embarrassed to play a winged kobold as a PC than a bird man. I don't have them in my campaign but would consider it if a player really wanted to be one. However, if they just wanted to play a flying character, I'd bring back the Winged Folk and try to sell them on that.

 

[TwoSix]

Rotisserie style, normally.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I thnk the problem is that you are exclusively looking at cramped 10x10 ft dungeon room encounters where they have not much space to fly at all, especially upward.
If that is the only type of areas your PCs will adventure in, flying is no problem. But as soon as the encounter happens outside there is enough room for the flying pc to circle (flying back and forth), making the lack of hover ability a non-issue.

And what you call bauty I call failure, but that is another discussion.

No, I'm not looking at just dungeon/indoor stuff. Outdoor stuff is where an Aaracokra would shine. I guess it's kind of like a Dwarf being underground. Or a Wood Elf in the woods. Or a Human in a city. Or...or...or... you get the point. Aaracokra rock when they have the opportunity to do so... which basically means being outside with ample area to fly. Over the course of an actual game session, being outside, in a situation where flying would be a really nice thing, yeah, they will have an edge. This is not a bad thing.

Why is it that so many players (and DM's) nowadays think that if one class/race/whatever is "overpowered" if it is placed in a situation where all/most of it's benefits come to bare? If something is weak in situations 1 through 5, average in 6 through 17, and powerful in 18 to 20... when it is in situation 18 - 20 it should kick ass, right? In our case, in EVERY situation where an aaracokra can't fly freely, being able to fly is *totally useless*, and everyone's cool with that. But put it in a situation where it can fly freely and everyone suddenly looses their brown stuff.

I mean, what if Aaracokra was a playable race from the Starter Set. In the whole Phandelver adventure, I can think of only a handful of times where being able to fly would have even *remotely* been useful. The detriments to a lone PC flying around in the wilderness would pretty much limit the character to walking with everyone else, perhaps just taking flight every now and then to get a quick look up ahead one or two thousand feet. A scouting thief, wood elf, ranger, etc is nice...and everyone knows, dangerous as hell. Especially for low level characters.

It's been my experience that a flying PC is a nice bonus when the situation allows it to be used effectively. It has also been my experience that the vast majority of play-time isn't spent in such situations. Just like a dwarf underground, it's all circumstancial. Campaign play frequently has the DM saying stuff like "Your party travels along the Old-Iron Road for 3 days, passing by the odd farmhouse, but otherwise not encountering anything dangerous. You arrive in the town of Alderbridge at mid-morning. [Everyone mark off 3 days of food]. The guardsmen barely pay attention to you as you enter the town proper". Now, a campaign that is played with a time scale of hour-to-hour or even day-to-day (such as me, generally) may present more opportunity for a flying PC to "show his stuff". But that also means more potential for direct danger...usually based on player curiosity ("Hey, there's another farmhouse with overgrown fields. Lets go check it out!...").

Sorry guys, I'm still not seeing "flying aaracokra = broken" for any form of campaign play that I've ever been in, and that includes 3.x and PF.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Sunseeker]

Personally, I think they are kind of ridiculous and I would be less embarrassed to play a winged kobold as a PC than a bird man. I don't have them in my campaign but would consider it if a player really wanted to be one. However, if they just wanted to play a flying character, I'd bring back the Winged Folk and try to sell them on that.

This tends to be my problem with them as well, there are plenty of winged-humanoid variants if a player really wants flight, just have them trade one of their better racial features for flying or something. There's Avriel(sp) for elves or potentially Strix, winged Aasimir or Tieflings, you could easily slap some wings on the Dragonborn, etc... Creating a home for an entirely new race in a world is substantially more time consuming than creating physical variants of existing races, since their homes can just overlap.

 

[Fralex]

Why is it that so many players (and DM's) nowadays think that if one class/race/whatever is "overpowered" if it is placed in a situation where all/most of it's benefits come to bare? If something is weak in situations 1 through 5, average in 6 through 17, and powerful in 18 to 20... when it is in situation 18 - 20 it should kick ass, right? In our case, in EVERY situation where an aaracokra can't fly freely, being able to fly is *totally useless*, and everyone's cool with that. But put it in a situation where it can fly freely and everyone suddenly looses their brown stuff.

I think it's that people are used to designing adventures on the assumption that the characters will all be grounded, so a flying PC is seen as so unexpected that it's just kinda assumed it will ruin SOMETHING they've planned. Plus, we're humans, so to us being able to fly has always been viewed as a very special thing. It's a symbol of ultimate freedom to fight the law of gravity. But when you really think about it, a single flying PC doesn't really change very much.

First off, PCs gain access to the fly spell at just 5th level. Heck, my transmuter wizard got access to flight as early as 3rd level with the help of a reduce spell and a flying familiar. Is it really worth it to ban an entire race just to keep players from flying for the first two levels of their adventure? Sooner or later, you're gonna have to take flight into account for your adventure design. Sometimes we slip up, underestimate our players. In 4e I made a pit-filled dungeon puzzle that didn't take into account the fact that eladrin can teleport once every 5 minutes. I was upset, but hey, it's just a puzzle. They solved it in their own way. The dungeon had plenty of other challenges the eladrin couldn't bypass, and I made sure future obstacles took their racial ability into account.

With that in mind, let's see what sorts of things flying players can do that they couldn't otherwise:

• Scouting: They could fly ahead and alert their party to future danger. Sort of like a wizard's familiar can do, only they leave the party behind, put themselves at risk if spotted, and can fly further ahead than 100 feet. So, give one party member a chance to shine, with a few risks? That just sounds fun!
• Pit-based obstacles: Let's be honest, adventurers can usually figure out ways over pits. If not flight, it'll be rope, or the jump spell, or a makeshift bridge. If it's a pit trap, and the aarakocra flies over it while the guy following behind falls into it, that's just funny. I don't care. If it's a giant cliff, there's usually nothing of interest on the other side anyway. It's just the end of the map. And they'd be leaving the rest of the party behind if they wanted to go explore it.
• Movement speed: 50 feet per round IS impressive, but no more impressive than having lightning breath or a free cantrip. Besides, their walking speed is a bit slow. Let them be cool if they can get in the air! And yeah, chases will be easier for them. Good for them! Maybe their friends will get caught and the aarakocra has to go on a solo mission to rescue them? That could be fun!
• Tactical advantages: Flying PCs can just fly way high up and be unreachable by melee attacks. Sort of like the wizard who hangs in the back slinging spells, only in the wizard's case their fellow party members will help protect them from ranged attacks. Again, these are ways the birb guy will feel cool and empowered, but I still don't see how they'd get out of control. Some monsters fly, too, after all.

So what I'm seeing here is not that a flying PC would be overpowered. The only thing that concerns me even a little is that maybe the other players will feel overshadowed, but as the rest of you have already pointed out, they can't fly anywhere. Other PCs should get their moments. That's something a DM should try to enable (subtly) anyway.