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Flying Friggin' PCs
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<blockquote data-quote="BlackSeed_Vash" data-source="post: 7304390" data-attributes="member: 33580"><p>There are several things to consider when dealing with flying as a DM.</p><p></p><p>[1] There are very few sources that provide players natural and/or permanent flight. Usually one needs to be of the right race or acquire a templet to achieve lasting flight. One of the few exception is using Permanency.</p><p>[2] The majority of flight provided by a spell or magic item comes with a limited duration and consumes some kind of resource.</p><p>[3] Almost every source of flight a player uses can be subject to Dispel Magic.</p><p>[4] Depending upon what edition you are running, there are spells for knocking enemies out of the sky.</p><p>[5] Unless a group of adventures are actively trying to hide their exploits, facts about them, including their inclination to use flight to overcome/ignore obstacles will become more common knowledge.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Mountains, chasms, cliffs and whatever else will fit in this category can still cause difficulties. Said area might be the favorite hunting grounds for an extremely powerful flying predator (like an ancient dragon) or a overwhelming number of a more common monster (like a few hundred wyverns). Either way, they would not take kindly to others invading their territory. Or said location is being watched by a minion of the adventure's enemy(s). Flying makes the adventures easily observable, allowing their enemy(s) time to prepare a welcoming comity; advance a timetable; change to secondary targets; go into hiding. Or any number of decisions that end up making the adventures lives harder. As for pit traps, they could easily have a secondary trap attached that attempts to dispel anyone/thing that crosses it.</p><p></p><p></p><p>There are plenty of monsters that can cast spells or use spell-like abilities. There are magic items aplenty that can either harm or annoy opponents whether they are on the ground or flying. In a forest areas, you can give a thick canopy for cover, limiting how high the adventures can fly without breaking line of sight/effect for spells and providing their enemies a cover bonus to AC. You can also provide the bad guys with weaker targets to attack/kill whenever the adventures don't want to come down and play. ("Welp, might as well finish assassinating the crown prince since those annoying adventures won't come down and fight fair.")</p><p></p><p>Several of the things I, or the active DMs I've played with, has done to deal with the over use of flight are as follows:</p><p>* Dispel someone's flight. Have them crash land almost right next to something lethal, like an outcropping of jagged rocks. The more dice you can roll when you do this the better. Let the players see you with a ton of dice, but don't let them see the results. Keep the damage you deal low, but up-play how badly things could have gone, especially with those rocks... and then remind them that someone just took one of their's out of the sky.</p><p>* If your players try to use melee attacks while above their opponents, throw some grapple and disarm experts their way.</p><p>* A group of enemies caring a tarp over their head by 4 poles breaks line of sight.</p><p>* Players flying over the potentially trapped floor? They moving are regular or faster speeds due to not fearing triggering those possible traps... Well they just missed out on a major clue to a later puzzle that flight can't solve.</p><p>* The players like to fly everywhere... well now their enemies always seem to know generally where they are. Constantly try harrying them, especially when they try to rest.</p><p>*Throw enough traps, chasms, etc in a mine/dungeon to consume a full wand of Fly. Space each of these obstacles far enough apart (or other time wasters like combat and puzzles) that it would be unwise to attempt the crossing without another charge. With four players, if they have to take the same path out as in, you only need 7 of these obstacles; otherwise you need 13 total.</p><p>* Permanent anti-magic fields around the balconies of the villan's tower.</p><p>* None magical weather. Nothing like heavy fog, strong winds, torrential rainfall and/or hail to slow, harm and/or separate adventures.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BlackSeed_Vash, post: 7304390, member: 33580"] There are several things to consider when dealing with flying as a DM. [1] There are very few sources that provide players natural and/or permanent flight. Usually one needs to be of the right race or acquire a templet to achieve lasting flight. One of the few exception is using Permanency. [2] The majority of flight provided by a spell or magic item comes with a limited duration and consumes some kind of resource. [3] Almost every source of flight a player uses can be subject to Dispel Magic. [4] Depending upon what edition you are running, there are spells for knocking enemies out of the sky. [5] Unless a group of adventures are actively trying to hide their exploits, facts about them, including their inclination to use flight to overcome/ignore obstacles will become more common knowledge. Mountains, chasms, cliffs and whatever else will fit in this category can still cause difficulties. Said area might be the favorite hunting grounds for an extremely powerful flying predator (like an ancient dragon) or a overwhelming number of a more common monster (like a few hundred wyverns). Either way, they would not take kindly to others invading their territory. Or said location is being watched by a minion of the adventure's enemy(s). Flying makes the adventures easily observable, allowing their enemy(s) time to prepare a welcoming comity; advance a timetable; change to secondary targets; go into hiding. Or any number of decisions that end up making the adventures lives harder. As for pit traps, they could easily have a secondary trap attached that attempts to dispel anyone/thing that crosses it. There are plenty of monsters that can cast spells or use spell-like abilities. There are magic items aplenty that can either harm or annoy opponents whether they are on the ground or flying. In a forest areas, you can give a thick canopy for cover, limiting how high the adventures can fly without breaking line of sight/effect for spells and providing their enemies a cover bonus to AC. You can also provide the bad guys with weaker targets to attack/kill whenever the adventures don't want to come down and play. ("Welp, might as well finish assassinating the crown prince since those annoying adventures won't come down and fight fair.") Several of the things I, or the active DMs I've played with, has done to deal with the over use of flight are as follows: * Dispel someone's flight. Have them crash land almost right next to something lethal, like an outcropping of jagged rocks. The more dice you can roll when you do this the better. Let the players see you with a ton of dice, but don't let them see the results. Keep the damage you deal low, but up-play how badly things could have gone, especially with those rocks... and then remind them that someone just took one of their's out of the sky. * If your players try to use melee attacks while above their opponents, throw some grapple and disarm experts their way. * A group of enemies caring a tarp over their head by 4 poles breaks line of sight. * Players flying over the potentially trapped floor? They moving are regular or faster speeds due to not fearing triggering those possible traps... Well they just missed out on a major clue to a later puzzle that flight can't solve. * The players like to fly everywhere... well now their enemies always seem to know generally where they are. Constantly try harrying them, especially when they try to rest. *Throw enough traps, chasms, etc in a mine/dungeon to consume a full wand of Fly. Space each of these obstacles far enough apart (or other time wasters like combat and puzzles) that it would be unwise to attempt the crossing without another charge. With four players, if they have to take the same path out as in, you only need 7 of these obstacles; otherwise you need 13 total. * Permanent anti-magic fields around the balconies of the villan's tower. * None magical weather. Nothing like heavy fog, strong winds, torrential rainfall and/or hail to slow, harm and/or separate adventures. [/QUOTE]
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