Aerial combat tactics and advice?

[RangerWickett]

Mild spoilers for Red Hand of Doom:


My ranger/beastmaster just got a dire eagle (from Races of Stone) animal companion. Seeing as there are flying foes in this module, I'd like your best tips and wisdom regarding fighting in the air.

I don't have the stats fully in front of me, but with the buffing from being an animal companion, my eagle is

HP 53
AC 23 (will be better once I can get some chain shirt barding; just leather now)
Attacks +9/+9/+4 (d8+5/d8+5/d8+2)
Speed 60 (good), or 10 ft. on land
Feats: Flyby Attack, Improved Flight (improves maneuverability), one other

I'm a mounted archer, and I've already been doing pretty well with horse archery, but upgrading to a flying mount is nifty-keen.

I've got one feat left, and I'm trying to decide what to take. Improved Flyby Attack is like spring attack in the air, but the eagle has reach, and I think the only other flying critters with reach would be dragons, which I would not be able to hit effectively with the eagle's attack bonus. I might take Multiattack, but I kinda want to use hit and run tactics (and also, I don't know if my eagle would provide cover against a foe it was attacking if I wanted to shoot at the thing).

I'm slower than dragons but much more maneuverable, and my mount has evasion, so I should be good to fight for a bit in open terrain. I'm a little worried about having to go into any sort of dungeon, but the eagle can hover, so theoretically it could work to just float in place if there was sufficient space.

My teammates also have flying mounts, though not quite as strong. We're a group of seven, and they all have giant owl mounts. How high should we fly? Should we stick close to the ground so falling isn't a huge threat, or should we stay really high so if we fall there's a chance someone can catch up and catch the falling person? What kind of formations are good? What actually worked in real military aerial combat?

I expect to fight a few more dragons, and I want us to be effective as a team. Maybe I could convince the group to start next session with a wargame, practicing combat with nonlethal damage. I imagine tactical combat is going to get a lot more complicated with all this maneuvering and altitude and such. Already in the campaign we all had to learn the rules for mounted combat, and recently we learned the (stupid, irrational) rules for firing into water and the (relatively logical) rules for underwater combat. I foresee a bit of a learning curve ahead of us.

 

[RangerWickett]

Okay. Perhaps this should be moved to rules.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

How closely do you follow the rules for aerial movement? (i.e., min/max turning angles, ascend/descend costs and speeds, hovering, etc.)

 

[RangerWickett]

How closely do you follow the rules for aerial movement? (i.e., min/max turning angles, ascend/descend costs and speeds, hovering, etc.)

With this DM, the rulebooks are as unto the word of God.

 

[Imruphel]

Improved Natural Attack would go nicely on the claws: 2d6+5 (although I can't remember the prerequisites).

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Back at the house I have a spreadsheet that showed the different movement costs for various degrees of elevation...it makes the tactical piece a bit easier to manage. You will still need to find some way to readily identify elevation on the battlefield. A die next to your fig could work, but loses granualarity pretty quick with critters moving as fast as a dragon does...


Depending on how much you want to sink into this, there is an old book-game called "Ace of Aces" Informative Web page here
The airplanes won't exactly match what your mounts capabilities are, but inventive matching {Eagle being a Sopwith Camel, Owls being Neuport 17s, etc..}
In a one-on-one game the books work really easily tracking where each opponent is in relation to each other. In mass combat it gets a bit weird as you need to keep track of one page per opponent...
But, I digres...
There are probably other aerial combat sims out there that could also assist...

Seems we may have found a need for a 'Aerial Combat for Begginners' book

 

[SteelDraco]

It sounds like you've already decided on the archery part for your character, which is a good idea. With turning radius in play, you're only going to be able to make a melee attack every couple of rounds, which isn't all that much fun.

I've played a druid who used his mount (a dire bear, in my case) for a lot of combat. I would recommend taking defensive feats; your mount just isn't going to be as tough as you are, and isn't going to be capable of holding its own against appropriate challenges most of the time. Several times my buffed dire bear took a full attack from a monster, and died for it, no matter how much I did to protect him. (Stoneskin, Bear's Endurance, magic armor, etc)

I would certainly recommend Improved Toughness, and perhaps Lightning Reflexes. I'd really want those if you're expecting to be fighting dragons. Otherwise, you're going to take a breath weapon to the face, then take falling damage as well as your mount dies underneath you. The dragon just chuckles at you at that point.

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend Flyby Attack. Your mount isn't going to be the one doing the damage - you and your archery are. The job of the mount is to move you around the battlefield, and try to survive the experience. Remember, if you're at any kind of height, and your mount gets knocked out, you're out of the fight.

If you want your mount to do some of the fighting, there are some neat choices. Power Dive (from the Draconomicon) is cool, particularly if your GM allows you to knock other mounted foes out of the saddle with it. Improved Sunder can be used to do something similar (sunder the saddle strap, and it'll come apart, dropping anybody strapped to it). I haven't read RHoD, so I don't know if the dragons there have riders or not.

As to group tactics... hmmm. Against dragons, the best would be a couple of people with Ride-By Attack and Spirited Charge. They attack at angles, staying far apart from each other, so that they don't get killed with breath weapons. Archery would be good too, though a dragon might just leap on your mount and eat it, just for the joy of watching people plummet to the ground. In aerial combat, almost nobody will be getting a full attack, which makes charges and fly-by attacks the rule of the day.

You'll be able to see quite far from an aerial perspective, so you probably won't have to worry too much about getting surprised. You can change your formation based on what you're fighting, therefore. Spread out for dragons, of course. It's kind of a tough call as to how high you want to fly. You either want to be close to the ground, so that falling isn't so bad, or really high up, so that you're out of range of attack spells from the ground.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

I would be tempted to go for Exotic Weapon Proficiency Net.

I am not certain what an official ruling would be, but I think that a creature flying under its own power might not be able to fly very well.

Failing that, as other posters have mentioned, the real damage output is going to be your archery.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Goodman's Aerial Adventure Guide?

 

[Klaus]

SteelDraco has a nice notion. Instead of picking a combat-focused feat, pick one that improves your eagle's survivability, like Lightining Reflexes, Improved Toughness, Improved Natural Armor.

If you plan on outmaneuvering your foes, Wingover and Hover are neat feats, too.