D&D 5E Sane Magic Item Prices

[tetrasodium]

How far do you think large flying creatures should be able to travel in a day? I generally feel 60-70 miles feels too little; something in the 90-200 miles range seems ok to me. My suggestion above that a 5e adult dragon should have a sustained overland flight rate of around 40 mph might indicate more like 320 miles in a day, though.

I guess a flying carpet doing say 20 mph would be maybe 12 hours of flight before it got too uncomfortable (is a carpet better or worse than a car?) would do ca 240 miles/day.

It depends a lot on how efficient their flight is. Birds start out kind of sprinting equivalent a lot of the time when we see them flapping lots but long distances is different . Apparently an albatross can do about 500 miles in a day

Engineers identify key to albatross' marathon flight

Engineers have developed a new model to simulate dynamic soaring, and have used it to identify the optimal flight pattern that an albatross should take in order to harvest the most wind and energy. They found that as an albatross banks or turns to dive down and soar up, it should do so in...

www.sciencedaily.com

 

[Lanefan]

How far do you think large flying creatures should be able to travel in a day? I generally feel 60-70 miles feels too little; something in the 90-200 miles range seems ok to me. My suggestion above that a 5e adult dragon should have a sustained overland flight rate of around 40 mph might indicate more like 320 miles in a day, though.

I'd say something like a big dragon should be easily able to cover a few hundred miles in a day without much effort, or more - maybe 600 miles - if it pushes itself, but it wouldn't be able to sustain that for more than a day.

A dragon power-diving down onto a city should be easily able to get to 70 mph or more* during the dive. Climb speed won't be nearly as good, though.

* - hence the risk of serious injury should it mess up and crash land, and why it'd be stupid to do this in the dark or thick fog.

I guess a flying carpet doing say 20 mph would be maybe 12 hours of flight before it got too uncomfortable (is a carpet better or worse than a car?) would do ca 240 miles/day.

I don't have flying carpets be quite that fast but they can go 24/7 provided somebody's awake on board to act as pilot. As for comfort: on a carpet, unless it's full of people, you can lie down and stretch out - even take a nap if you somehow tie yourself to the thing so you don't roll off - which you can't really do in any comfort in a car.

 

[Oofta]

I'd say something like a big dragon should be easily able to cover a few hundred miles in a day without much effort, or more - maybe 600 miles - if it pushes itself, but it wouldn't be able to sustain that for more than a day.

A dragon power-diving down onto a city should be easily able to get to 70 mph or more* during the dive. Climb speed won't be nearly as good, though.

* - hence the risk of serious injury should it mess up and crash land, and why it'd be stupid to do this in the dark or thick fog.

I don't have flying carpets be quite that fast but they can go 24/7 provided somebody's awake on board to act as pilot. As for comfort: on a carpet, unless it's full of people, you can lie down and stretch out - even take a nap if you somehow tie yourself to the thing so you don't roll off - which you can't really do in any comfort in a car.

Tell that to these people

 

[Stattick]

How far do you think large flying creatures should be able to travel in a day? I generally feel 60-70 miles feels too little; something in the 90-200 miles range seems ok to me. My suggestion above that a 5e adult dragon should have a sustained overland flight rate of around 40 mph might indicate more like 320 miles in a day, though.

I guess a flying carpet doing say 20 mph would be maybe 12 hours of flight before it got too uncomfortable (is a carpet better or worse than a car?) would do ca 240 miles/day.

Carpet would be a lot worse than a car. You'd be far more prone to windburn, sunburn, cold, dehydration, glare, and sitting for long periods in uncomfortable positions.

 

[Oofta]

When it comes to the flight speed of dragons, you have a couple of options. One is that the speed they have is their normal "walking" speed. The speed that they use when they need to maneuver and engage in combat. That gives us 9 MPH at a slow steady speed which is significantly faster than humans.

But this is flying. Assuming they glide they can probably dash/run for long periods to double their speed. That gets you to 18 MPH. Significantly faster than any way humans would be able to travel barring magic or technology not normally associated with D&D levels of technology.

While dragons are magic and can break the sound barrier if you want them to (do they have afterburners?), I'd compare them to birds for speed. Geese fly at around 40 MPH, albatrosses 50 MPH. I'm discounting diving speeds of birds of prey because that's not sustainable.

But what if we look at a flying creature that's even bigger? Well, pterosaurs may have flown at 80 MPH.

So all I can really say is that when doing long distance flying, they fly as fast as you want them to fly. They're flying because of magic and can ignore the massive not particularly aerodynamic shape through the air with wings that make no sense after all. Personally? I'd probably put it closer to the 80 MPH for long distance travel.

But when it comes to combat engagements? Reserving enough energy to recharge breath weapons, maneuver and potentially attack? Then it's 80 feet every 6 seconds or so.

 

[S'mon]

Carpet would be a lot worse than a car. You'd be far more prone to windburn, sunburn, cold, dehydration, glare, and sitting for long periods in uncomfortable positions.

That would be more my feeling.

 

[Stattick]

When it comes to the flight speed of dragons, you have a couple of options. One is that the speed they have is their normal "walking" speed. The speed that they use when they need to maneuver and engage in combat. That gives us 9 MPH at a slow steady speed which is significantly faster than humans.

But this is flying. Assuming they glide they can probably dash/run for long periods to double their speed. That gets you to 18 MPH. Significantly faster than any way humans would be able to travel barring magic or technology not normally associated with D&D levels of technology.

While dragons are magic and can break the sound barrier if you want them to (do they have afterburners?), I'd compare them to birds for speed. Geese fly at around 40 MPH, albatrosses 50 MPH. I'm discounting diving speeds of birds of prey because that's not sustainable.

But what if we look at a flying creature that's even bigger? Well, pterosaurs may have flown at 80 MPH.

So all I can really say is that when doing long distance flying, they fly as fast as you want them to fly. They're flying because of magic and can ignore the massive not particularly aerodynamic shape through the air with wings that make no sense after all. Personally? I'd probably put it closer to the 80 MPH for long distance travel.

But when it comes to combat engagements? Reserving enough energy to recharge breath weapons, maneuver and potentially attack? Then it's 80 feet every 6 seconds or so.

The other option is for dragons to do strafing runs at speed. They fly over at 60 mph, use their breath weapon, maybe snatch a snack off the back of a horse, and then won't be back for another minute or two, if they come back at all.

 

[S'mon]

The other option is for dragons to do strafing runs at speed. They fly over at 60 mph, use their breath weapon, maybe snatch a snack off the back of a horse, and then won't be back for another minute or two, if they come back at all.

Yeah, I think that needs to be handled away from the grid-based 3e/4e/5e combat system.

 

[Oofta]

The other option is for dragons to do strafing runs at speed. They fly over at 60 mph, use their breath weapon, maybe snatch a snack off the back of a horse, and then won't be back for another minute or two, if they come back at all.

That could be cool, but at what point do you sacrifice accuracy? Imagine driving down the highway at 60 MPH and trying to hit a road side with a paint gun, even one that fires multiple pellets. While driving. In addition, as tough as dragons are, they do have long necks. If they're even slightly off on grabbing that snack and accidentally hit the ground with their lower jaw, they're going to have a really bad day.

All depends on the fiction of course. An eagle snatching a fish is probably going around 20-30 MPH, but in part that's because unlike dragons they have to rely solely on the lift provided by their wings; they have to maintain that speed to stay aloft. Even then, they can only lift about 10 pounds.

 

[S'mon]

That could be cool, but at what point do you sacrifice accuracy? Imagine driving down the highway at 60 MPH and trying to hit a road side with a paint gun, even one that fires multiple pellets. While driving. In addition, as tough as dragons are, they do have long necks. If they're even slightly off on grabbing that snack and accidentally hit the ground with their lower jaw, they're going to have a really bad day.

All depends on the fiction of course. An eagle snatching a fish is probably going around 20-30 MPH, but in part that's because unlike dragons they have to rely solely on the lift provided by their wings; they have to maintain that speed to stay aloft. Even then, they can only lift about 10 pounds.

I'd expect the snatch would be by claws not teeth.