D&D 5E Flying Races: Limiting Flight

[Xeviat]

Hi everyone. I'm getting ready to run a game in my own setting again, and I have an avian race. I'll probably just give it the Aarakocra stats, but I'd like to give them a little more to round them out. In turn, I also want to limit their flight. Here's some of the ideas I'm milling over:

*Flying is an action until higher levels. Swinging a weapon of firing a ranged weapon is hard while flapping.
*No flight in tight quarters. Size increases to 15 by 15 while flying and no flying if you have to squeeze.
*Grant advantage to hit on rounds you fly. Since your wings are so big, it's easier to hit you.
*3E maneuverability rules. These are complicated and could be simplified.
*Glide speed at low levels. Every round you descend X ft.
*Enhanced jumps. A trade off for these restrictions is the ability to use your wings for larger jumps.

I could have some of these restrictions fade with level, or with a racial feat.

Any thoughts? I won't be running premade adventures, so I won't have to worry about challenges that weren't designed with flight in mind, but one of the players is liking the bird race and wants to play one.

 

[Charlaquin]

You could say they have to end their turn on the ground or fall. Maybe give an extra few feet of flight speed to compensate.

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

I would go with Charlaquin's idea. Maybe mix in the Aarokocra limitation too until they hit a higher level.

 

[Ganymede81]

Replace flight with the ability to slow a fall as a reaction, like a non-magical, at-will Feather Fall.

 

[steeldragons]

Unless you are 15' tall I don't understand how/why you would require 15' x 15' to fully utilize your flight.

I would probably do something like this:
1. You may fly as a means of transportation, at will, indefinitely (or as indefinite as the rules of flying allow), if you have suitable space to do so. I'd say: full speed/movement rate 15' x 5, half speed -but still off the ground, kinda weaving or gliding- 10' x 5'
2. IN COMBAT (unless fully free/outdoors with plenty of space for aerial fighting), you may spend up to HALF your movement rate of a single round off the ground and may end your round either on foot or in the air, from which you must begin and spend a minimum of 5' of movement at the start of your next turn.
3. You do not suffer any damage from falls, ever, unless your wings (not 'you') are grappled, entangled, or otherwise incapacitated (e.g. unconscious, magically paralyzed/held/frozen, etc...).

 

[plisnithus8]

Personally, I don’t have a problem with arrakocra flight at all. That said, I sure hope you aren’t thinking about using many of those.
I can’t recall one instance of a larger creatures.
Other 5e flying creatures do not have a restriction on squeezing, and many real birds squeeze through spaces. I’d definitely allow them to squeeze fly through doorways (and they really don’t descend much when gliding).
Older editions had aarakocra arms as part of their wings; that might make sense to use an action to fly, but 5e they have separate arms.

If you are making your own AP and intend on including flyers, you can purposely avoid many flying issues if you want to.
If yours like aarakocra really only get flight, then nerfing their flight would seem to make them unwantable as a PC.
If you want to nerf them, it’s your game.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

Personally, I don't see a need to restrict flight. Would you further restrict a gnome's magic resistance? There are ways to find time for that ability to shine, as well as cause discord without nerfing it. But that's just my perspective.

 

[bedir than]

I restrict flying PCs by not allowing arrakocra as a player race. If I'm going to nerf a race that much it doesn't belong in the story.

 

[Leatherhead]

If you are going to limit it (and you really don't have to if you can design the encounters yourself), the practical way is to give them an altitude ceiling. No flying higher than 100' off the ground.

That way they are trapped just inside the normal range of Firebolts, Eldritch Blasts, Heavy Crossbows and, Logbows; inside the long range of Blowguns, other Crossbows, Shortbows, Slings, Javelins, and Rocks thrown by giants; and out of reach of most other common forms of ranged attacks. As you can see, it's something that gives more weight to the weapon/cantrip selection of all characters, so it's not entirely a negative idea.


Additionally, such an altitude ceiling would prevent them from flying over exceptionally wide chasms (they would stall out and fall down if they couldn't make it across in one go), scaling incredibly tall walls or cliffs, and possibly prevent them from going above old-growth forest canopies or just flying over oceans.

 

[Sunseeker]

What's the real danger of a flying player that flight needs to be restricted? That is: by restricting flying, what are you trying to achieve?

For the most part, all your "fixes" do is make it more complicated, to the point (especially with 3E maneuverability rules) that people are going to ask: why include a flying race if you're going to make flying so terrible?

It feels like these rules are to solve a problem you're not sure exist. These seem more like heavy-handed counters to players potentially getting "silly". Why don't you see if your players get silly first, and let them know if they start getting silly you're going to tone down flight? Who knows, they might not get silly.