Dealing with Fliers in 4E?

[Rerednaw]

Flying for player characters is a lot more difficult to obtain.

As such how do melee-focused PCs such as the fighter and paladin deal with fliers? I am not referring to paragon or epic level. During the heroic levels there are creatures (flameskull, spined devil) that can hover and blast at range with either an at-will or an at-will with a recharge.

Creatures that can fly but are forced to melee can be dealt with in a more traditional (readied actions) manner but fliers with ranged attacks appear to be problematical.

I suppose this could be one of the situations where the other classes can shine.

Thoughts?

 

[Scribble]

Flying for player characters is a lot more difficult to obtain.

As such how do melee-focused PCs such as the fighter and paladin deal with fliers? I am not referring to paragon or epic level. During the heroic levels there are creatures (flameskull, spined devil) that can hover and blast at range with either an at-will or an at-will with a recharge.

Creatures that can fly but are forced to melee can be dealt with in a more traditional (readied actions) manner but fliers with ranged attacks appear to be problematical.

I suppose this could be one of the situations where the other classes can shine.

Thoughts?

Ranged weapons.
Other classes shine.
Climbing stuff.
Being creative.

 

[nute]

A) They pick up their ranged weapon and resort to ranged basic attacks.

B) They pick up a rock and make ranged improvised weapon attacks.

C) They hang back and support the wizard/warlock/ranger/cleric who has a ranged attack that can make the flier go boom.

 

[Victim]

Melee characters can throw javelins using their STR bonus, so even heavy fighters have decent ranged attacks. Magic throwing weapons automatically return too.

I think that at higher levels, characters are supposed to make more use of flying mounts. The line of thought might be that characters using wingless flight magics as a matter of routine is more super hero than fantasy, so riding on fantastic beasts is prefered. Wyverns and Hippogriffs have attractive Mount features too.