D&D (2024) 2024 Wings

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Has anyone had any experience with owlin or fairy flight disrupting games at their table, rather than in theory?

That fact that we've gotten two new flying races in the last year, and one of them getting reprinted almost immediately in Monsters of the Multiverse, suggests that WotC is no longer concerned about this as an issue, making me wonder what has changed.

 

[Charlaquin]

Not to mention that the flight mechanics of Quetzalcoatlus has no real relevance about whether or not Wings should be a cantrip in the context of D&D 5e.

Yeah, sorry, (wo)man-splaining is a habit I struggle to break. Doesn’t help that science communication is a significant part of my job

 

[Aldarc]

Yeah, sorry, (wo)man-splaining is a habit I struggle to break. Doesn’t help that science communication is a significant part of my job

Oh, no. That was not my intention. I just wanted to draw attention back to the issue.

 

[Yaarel]

Yeah, sorry, (wo)man-splaining is a habit I struggle to break. Doesn’t help that science communication is a significant part of my job

Even tho magic is magic, it often helps to keep the reallife in mind, for the sense of reference and perspective.

 

[Yaarel]

Has anyone had any experience with owlin or fairy flight disrupting games at their table, rather than in theory?

That fact that we've gotten two new flying races in the last year, and one of them getting reprinted almost immediately in Monsters of the Multiverse, suggests that WotC is no longer concerned about this as an issue, making me wonder what has changed.

I havent seen a 5e flying race in play yet: aarakocra, fairy, owlin.

But I built a character that specialized in "kiting", and included combat-flight as part of a repertoire that made the character virtually unhittable. The DM trying to "challenge" the character ended up TPKing the entire party.

 

[Yaarel]

After some thought, here's how I would probably handle it for my table. But only if the player specifically asked for a cantrip that would allow their character to fly, and wasn't already a Storm Sorcerer. I wouldn't volunteer this out of the blue.

Spoiler: CleverNickName's Variant

WINGS
Primal, transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 Bonus action
Range: Self
Components: S
Duration: 1 round

You may spread your wings and take flight. Use your action, to fly in any direction at a speed equal to your walk speed. While in mid air, you fall if you cease to fly on your next turn. You remain your size, except you require the space for one size larger when your wings extend to fly. You cannot fly if encumbrance exceeds your carrying capacity. You can use a Bonus action on your turn to cause whirling gusts of elemental air to briefly surround you, immediately before or after you cast a spell of 1st level or higher. Doing so allows you to fly up to 10 feet without provoking Opportunity attacks.

When you gain this cantrip, choose whether your wings appear feathery, leathery, insectile, spectral, or some other appearance. They are part of your permanent appearance. You can fold your wings back in without an action.

At Higher Levels. At 5th level, you gain the ability to hover, thus spending a fly speed to remain in place. At 11th level, you can use your move or your action or both to fly your speed. At level 17, your fly speed increases to double your walk speed. As your level increases, you may fly greater distances. At 5th level, you may fly up to 20 feet with this cantrip. At 11th level you may fly up to 30 feet, and at 17th level you may fly up to 40 feet with this cantrip.

I like the Airborne (?) cantrip.

Wings is intentionally going for the "have wings" shapeshift, whence primal, flavor.

In my eyes, the Fly spell is clearly flight by means of telekinetic force.

There remains a gap in a flavor that emphasizes the elemental flavor of air. The closest is the Gaseous Form spell, which really is aiming for a different kind of effect.



I would be happy for this thread to iron out both the Wings cantrip and the Airborne (?) cantrip. Each strives to actualize a different kind of flavor: animal versus elemental.

 

[Yaarel]

Also of minor note (and I think the issue here isn't your cantrip but the power it's applied to) this cantrip further breaks the Hadozee from Spelljammer. That race, which came out the same week as this playtest, says "You can move up to 5 feet horizontally for every 1 foot you descend in the air, at no movement cost to you." So you use this cantrip to fly 30' up as an action, and now you fly 5*30= 150 feet horizontally at no additional movement cost. Your movement and bonus actions remain. And that's just with your base cantrip and not the "At Higher Levels" part which would be even more ridiculously overpowered.

The hadozee is noncore in the same way that the aarakocra is noncore. The hadozee can glide similar distances by leaping from a wall or a tree. Relating to combat, the hadozee long distance is its own question mark, but is mainly useful to enter combat from a distance.

Note, the hadozee who spends the action to use Wings, no longer has an action for combat. So, it nerfs the use of glide for combat.

Still, the hadozee shows the designers are experimenting with ways to make flight work at level 1.

 

[CleverNickName]

I like the Airborne (?) cantrip.

Wings is intentionally going for the "have wings" shapeshift, whence primal, flavor.

In my eyes, the Fly spell is clearly flight by means of telekinetic force.

There remains a gap in a flavor that emphasizes the elemental flavor of air. The closest is the Gaseous Form spell, which really is aiming for a different kind of effect.



I would be happy for this thread to iron out both the Wings cantrip and the Airborne (?) cantrip. Each strives to actualize a different kind of flavor: animal versus elemental.

Agreed. Like I said in the prologue of that post, this is how I would do it for my table. We tend to go the more arcane, elementalist route with magic, so I reflavored it a bit. And yep, "Airborne" is a better title. I was thinking "Aloft," or "Breeze" might work too.

 

[Yaarel]

Agreed. Like I said in the prologue of that post, this is how I would do it for my table. We tend to go the more arcane, elementalist route with magic, so I reflavored it a bit. And yep, "Airborne" is a better title. I was thinking "Aloft," or "Breeze" might work too.

I like "Aloft" too. You choose.

[Edit]:

For the sake of emphasizing the element of air, I am leaning toward "Airborne". "Breeze" works for air, but feels too light to sustain heavy weight.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I am still trying to wrap my head around how a quad launch gains enough speed to get past the minimum speed required to remain airborne.

The same way a modern bird or bat can launch into the air from a standing start. A bird will jump, and then use a downstroke of its wings for the initial momentum. It's extremely energy intensive and requires huge flight muscles, combined with a build which has shed every bit of weight possible. The animal is essentially having to hold itself aloft via pure muscle power until it gains enough speed to generate lift.

Pterosaurs are the same. Despite appearing to stand the size of a 1,000kg - 2,000kg giraffe, a quetzalcoatlus only weighed ~250kg at the highest. Its entire body was extremely lightweight and filled with air sacks.

Not only that, but quad launch provides a huge advantage over a bird. A bird has to make a constant tradeoff. As it uses its legs for the initial jump, they need to be strong enough to launch it into the air. However as they get stronger, they get harder to carry for the wings, becoming dead weight in flight. If the wings get stronger, the animal becomes heavier and more difficult to push into the air via its hind legs.

Quad launch uses the same limbs for launch and flight. As you make the launching limbs stronger, the flying limbs become stronger.