D&D 5E (2014) Flight ability: Does this make the Aarakocra overpowered?

[Fralex]

Also, for perspective: In forth edition, we had a standard race that could TELEPORT every five minutes. There are ways around every character's strengths.

 

[Stormonu]

Depends on the campaign. It's a practically worthless ability in a dungeoncrawl, can be overpowered in a game where enemies do not have regular access to ranged weaponry.

 

[Dausuul]

My experience is that flight becomes a DM headache when the whole party can do it. If it's just the one guy, and that one guy can't take anybody else along, it's not nearly as big an issue.

 

[Sunseeker]

My experience is that flight becomes a DM headache when the whole party can do it. If it's just the one guy, and that one guy can't take anybody else along, it's not nearly as big an issue.

I would argue that even in a party with a "magic horse" character there are many limitations to such action, especially in combat. Sure, it gives you basically a flying ship that can bypass a lot of ground obstacles, but overland speed is still fairly slow. but it's not something that more than one character wants to ride into combat. Your combat space is limited, the only movement is the movement of the "vehicle" and you're all clumped up together, a great target for AOE, plus if you maintain altitude and the other party members can't fly, if the "plane" is shot down, there goes the party.

I can see say, an entire party of aarackoa being a problem in a fairly spacious game, but I can see a party of long-range snipers being a problem in any game.

 

[Bayonet]

Greetings!

I saw this discussion over on the Wizards of the Coast website so I figured I would bring it here.

Do you think the Aarakocra is overpowered because it has flight?

Discuss.

It's got a lot of advantages, but it's going to be useless in a lot of situations, too. If your party is traversing a goblin cave with ten foot ceilings and tiny tunnels that force Medium creatures to crawl, Fly-Guy isn't going to be too impressive. If your party is up against any creature that can fly, your Aarkocra is logically going to be the first target, so it's as much of a liability as it is a gift.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Not overpowered at all. Useful in exactly one situation: outdoors with normal weather.

Also, I feel I must point out yet again, that having the natural ability to Fly (like an Aarakocra), does not give the character the ability to Hover. So the Aarakocra can forget about just "hovering 30' above ground and shooting arrows into the bad guys"; as soon as he stops to shoot, he falls. Now, how you deal with all that as a DM is up to you. Me? If he stopped, he'd fall. He could shoot while falling...with Disadvantage at a minimum...assuming he doesn't hit the ground first (he'd fall 350' in just under a round...4 to 5 seconds or so). In other words, he'd stop at, say 500', shoot at Disadvantage, with an additional -5 (long range plus falling...more than just 'disadvantage', I'd rule). Then he'd have to make an Intelligence save at DC 20 or go splat after obviously miscalculating his falling distance/speed.

But that's me.

Oh, I'd also not let an Aarakocra Monk add the monk movement to flight. If the player fussed and whined about it though, I'd let him get half the bonus, but NO bonus when he's on the ground (walking).

Yeah, I'm kind of a hard-azz DM. Easier to pull back a lot and give more later than give it all up front and try and claw it back out of the players cold dead hands...so to speak.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Aenorgreen]

Why would he "stop to shoot"? There is no need, he can just make lazy circles and shoot at will. Flight does not require their arms. Just as someone can shoot while running on the ground, so can they in the air. Dragons don't fall out of the sky if they decide to use their breath weapon.

 

[Unwise]

As a DM, I don't like any PC having abilities that mean that I regularly have to tailor encounters and adventures to accommodate them. The same goes with disabilities. I never want a PC to play a centaur, as I don't want to be unable to run an adventure that involves a bunch of climbing, or have PCs executed because nobody bothers to take a centaur captive.

There are any number of design decisions a DM can make to rein in the power of a flying PC, I just have enough to think about already, don't want to have to run every encounter through a filter to see if it is still entertaining due to one ability from one PC.

One of the things I did not enjoy about 4th edition was that my high level PCs in the group I was DMing had such predictable encounter powers. Every fight two of them could teleport a bunch of allies around the battlefield. Another could teleport a bunch of enemies every fight. It just made a bunch of otherwise cool encounters boring, it nullified a lot of terrain and positional tactics.

It is not so much that the ability is objectively OP, it is just that I don't want to have to deal with it.

 

[wedgeski]

There are any number of design decisions a DM can make to rein in the power of a flying PC, I just have enough to think about already, don't want to have to run every encounter through a filter to see if it is still entertaining due to one ability from one PC.

You will have to do that, though, as soon as any magic-users in the party get access to third level spells, not to mention any magic items that might find their way into the group. Just last week I had an entire Underdark spelunking scenario neatly eviscerated by a broom of flying. Such is life!

There is a case for flying races breaking the assumptions governing low-to-mid-level encounter design, but flying, teleporting, scrying PC's always become a reality soon enough.

 

[wedgeski]

Also, I feel I must point out yet again, that having the natural ability to Fly (like an Aarakocra), does not give the character the ability to Hover.

I've heard this before, but I don't think the rules support this reading. What am I missing?