D&D 5E How did you handle the Aarakocra?

[Adam Hill]

My DM came up with a simple solution to make this race fun, afd flavour to a campaign and add fairness, while forcing the player to be inginuitive. The race is similar to the original Aarkrocra in the first or second edition of ttheb monster manual. And these rules apply
-nothing in hands while flying (obviously you can try but the dm then requires a flying check to be made based on str)
-wings include hands at the end. This increaes the PC's reach to 10ft but means the hands sre tied up and cannot be used during flight. If the player wants to fly 100 ft away and kite an enemy from a tree they can, but they will be at disadvantage because you cant dodge well while perched on a tree
-factor in wind speed when considering a flying check
-your going tonbe playing a bird. Not knowing how to roleplay this character and just wanting a powerful combat PC is great. And great xp penalties will follow.
-
Did i leave anything out?

 

[the Jester]

The aarakocra is not an appropriate pc race in my campaign. So I banned it, but it doesn't have anything to do with the flying bit.

 

[Corwin]

The aarakocra is not an appropriate pc race in my campaign. So I banned it, but it doesn't have anything to do with the flying bit.

What are the reasons? I'm not asking as a challenge. Ban away. That's cool. I just like hearing about unique and interesting campaign settings.

 

[Mad_Jack]

For me, personally, flying is probably the silliest reason to ban the aarakocra... If anything, I might buff them up a bit because they're a bit lame - or, at least, they need a better PR department. I've always thought they should be majestic hawk-men rather than anthropomorphic chickens.
I think if you're going to ban them for story-related reasons, i.e., they don't really fit with the flavor of the world, you should probably also disallow tabaxi and dragonborn as well.

I think the next time I play a campaign, I'm going to refluff the aarakocra as flying feathered dinosaur-men.
(Y'know, thinking about it, you could probably rebuild the aarakocra as a subrace of the dragonborn, switching out their breath weapon for flight.)

 

[Corwin]

I think the next time I play a campaign, I'm going to refluff the aarakocra as flying feathered dinosaur-men.

Oooo! Flying Skeksis!

 

[Mad_Jack]

Oooo! Flying Skeksis!

I was thinking more like anthropomorphic utahraptors with wings... I'm of the school of thought that a winged PC race should have their wings as a separate set of appendages from their arms. In my own head-canon, it just seems like a race with wing-hands just wouldn't be as particularly likely to reach a level of cultural sophistication that would produce adventurers.

 

[Corwin]

I was thinking more like anthropomorphic utahraptors with wings... I'm of the school of thought that a winged PC race should have their wings as a separate set of appendages from their arms. In my own head-canon, it just seems like a race with wing-hands just wouldn't be as particularly likely to reach a level of cultural sophistication that would produce adventurers.

But... but... skeksis!?!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My DM came up with a simple solution to make this race fun, afd flavour to a campaign and add fairness, while forcing the player to be inginuitive. The race is similar to the original Aarkrocra in the first or second edition of ttheb monster manual. And these rules apply
-nothing in hands while flying (obviously you can try but the dm then requires a flying check to be made based on str)
-wings include hands at the end. This increaes the PC's reach to 10ft but means the hands sre tied up and cannot be used during flight. If the player wants to fly 100 ft away and kite an enemy from a tree they can, but they will be at disadvantage because you cant dodge well while perched on a tree
-factor in wind speed when considering a flying check
-your going tonbe playing a bird. Not knowing how to roleplay this character and just wanting a powerful combat PC is great. And great xp penalties will follow.
-
Did i leave anything out?

I'd definitely never play with such a DM.

The race works fine as is, other than being a bit weak overall.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

For me, personally, flying is probably the silliest reason to ban the aarakocra... If anything, I might buff them up a bit because they're a bit lame - or, at least, they need a better PR department. I've always thought they should be majestic hawk-men rather than anthropomorphic chickens.
I think if you're going to ban them for story-related reasons, i.e., they don't really fit with the flavor of the world, you should probably also disallow tabaxi and dragonborn as well.

I think the next time I play a campaign, I'm going to refluff the aarakocra as flying feathered dinosaur-men.
(Y'know, thinking about it, you could probably rebuild the aarakocra as a subrace of the dragonborn, switching out their breath weapon for flight.)

I don't understand what ppl dislike about them, thematically. I mean, I'd rather have flying Kenku using 4e fluff (because I can't stand the 5e fluff for Kenku), but that is only because I like corvids, and in my games Kenku have been a popular race.

That said, they are aerie dwelling eagle people. I don't understand what is missing there.

 

[Awesome Adam]

The flying is no more disruptive than a player with boots of flying and there is always the risk of falling out of the sky during combat.

Stone Giant hits you with boulder, and does enough damage to reduce you to zero hit points, make a death save.
You fall 100 ft, would take 10d6 damage, so automatically fail 2 death saves.