D&D 4E Flying in 4e

[Szatany]

One small hint may have been in the Spined Devil preview. The 3e version has a Flight 100 ft (Poor), the 4e version just has Fly 7 (=35ft in 3e terms). So perhaps, 4e flight has no maneuverability but is generally slower?

maybe the whole "maneuverability" thing is replaced by simple Dex checks? Simplest things are best.

 

[Scarbonac]

The new Design & Development update states a Carpet of Flying is appropriate for 18th level adventurers, which tends to indicate to me that flying will be more restricted and a high-level affair. As to the rest I'm not sure, I don't really trust the designers to know what they're doing anymore.

So Aladdin was 18th level?

 

[Simon Marks]

Nah, he was 3rd level but was played by the DM's boyfriend. That's why he got a flying carpet and a lamp of Genie Summoning.

 

[Tzarevitch]

Honestly, they need to get rid of that featherfall effect if fly is dispelled or ends. That'll keep it from getting abused. Also fix the falling damage rules so that a fall from 500' is somthing someone would care about. Lastly, get rid of Overland Flight.

Tzarevitch

 

[HeinorNY]

Honestly, they need to get rid of that featherfall effect if fly is dispelled or ends. That'll keep it from getting abused. Also fix the falling damage rules so that a fall from 500' is somthing someone would care about. Lastly, get rid of Overland Flight.

Tzarevitch

And please, fix the number of levels, cap it to 5, everybody knows no human being can be more powerful than a 5th level character...

 

[Wolfwood2]

But it has sucky AC and HP.

Same here. Sadly in D&D land your flying device needs a LOT of HP otherwise at high level, it's HP is now your HP, since if it leave combat, so do you.

A problem so common I can't believe they won't address it.

The obvious solution is to take what you just said and make it true. Anything you use to fly, its hitpoints are your hitpoints. It can't be taken down until you're taken down.

 

[VirgilCaine]

It'd be an especially big change for wizards, who have to wait another 6 levels to start raining down death from above (paragon = level 11, versus a 3rd-level spell in 3e).

Maybe YOU do, I start at level 3 with Levitate.

 

[AncientSpirits]

Agreed. Flight is for superheroes, not adventurers.

Hmm, I never thought of witches on broomsticks as superheroes in tights. Fantasy motifs have always had flight, from Aladdin to Harry Potter, it's just not "automatic" like superman. Usually a device is needed, and it's sort of clunky. Or more often, the witch or vampire or whatnot turns into a bird or bat (or dragon).

That said, as a DM, I agree about delaying most flight options, as I find flight annoying. Which is why, in my last campaign when PCs finally got some major flight, I made sure that they HAD to fly every friggin minute of the adventure or they'd all die (an no, they weren't on the Elemental Plane of Air!) Let's just say the PCs were very happy to walk from that point onward for nearly the rest of the campaign.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

Hmm, I never thought of witches on broomsticks as superheroes in tights. Fantasy motifs have always had flight, from Aladdin to Harry Potter, it's just not "automatic" like superman. Usually a device is needed, and it's sort of clunky. Or more often, the witch or vampire or whatnot turns into a bird or bat (or dragon).

I'd like it if, to fly, you needed either a flying mount (with all the problems that implies); had to turn yourself into a flying thing; or needed a flight device such as a broomstick, carpet or something similar.

"Superheroic" flight, with no wings or mounts or items I'd be happy to get rid of. (In a past campaign, the somatic component of Fly spell was an out-thrust fist, in the classic Superman pose. )

 

[Gloombunny]

Hmm, I never thought of witches on broomsticks as superheroes in tights. Fantasy motifs have always had flight, from Aladdin to Harry Potter, it's just not "automatic" like superman. Usually a device is needed, and it's sort of clunky. Or more often, the witch or vampire or whatnot turns into a bird or bat (or dragon).

I should've been more specific. I meant flying under one's own power, not by riding something. Particularly flying under one's power as a combat tactic, hovering in the air above the enemies while zapping them with ranged magic and so forth.

Though even with pegasi and carpets, I generally prefer flight as a way to expedite travel, not something you keep using once you get where you're going, if that makes any sense. Unless the point of your adventure is to fight a flying monster, like Bellerophon and the chimera. That's always fun.