flying - bonus to move silent?

[Nifft]

When you are walking, you are allowed to use the move silently skill to try to defeat others' listen checks. You said that your fly spells make a noise and "You cannot mask this sound while flying." So your fly spell is doing something else, it is disabling the flier's move silently skill.

Do you think the fly spell is related to your movements?

Would you force a paralyzed Wizard to land? I would not, and that's why IMHO Move Silently is irrelevant.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Whimsical]

I think that a logical house rule is that the fly spell grants +10 to your Move Silently. Just like alter self/polymorph adds +10 to Disguise checks and grease adds +10 to escape a grapple.

But, it would be a house rule.

 

[evilbob]

Yeah, a +2 bonus seems reasonable. If you have wings or you are carrying junk around, you'll still have a chance to make noise... +10 seems heavy, since the spell isn't specifically designed to make you move more quietly. If the spell were "passes without a trace," then I'd expect a +10 bonus, but otherwise I think +2 for "favorable conditions" sounds about right.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

I don't think incorporeal creatures even need to fly, they just move wherever they want, and through whatever medium they want..


Hmm, checked the SRD, and in fact they do have the ability to move at will in any direction, and are not subject to gravity (have no weight), right out of the Incorporeality section of Abilities and Conditions.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

No bonus for having perfect maneuverability. Hummingbirds make more noise than other small birds.

I thought hummingbirds had good maneuverability?

But yeah, fly's already pretty sweet. If you want to make the spell better in any respect, increase the duration, so it's worthwhile to use for out-of-combat situations.

EDIT: Also, since no one's referenced it yet: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0428.html
Depending on your means of flight, there may be other tell-tale signs that make up for lesser sound from movement.