D&D 5E Flying PCs

[humble minion]

I've recently started a campaign with a new group, that's perhaps a bit more character optimisation focused than I'm used to, and with a DM that's a bit more lassiez-faire. Two of the five PCs have turned out to be of races with a natural fly speed.

I'm playing a human artificer, focused on support etc, and honestly, it's not feeling like a level playing field. Flight is such an enormously powerful ability, it makes many encounters non-threatening (so long as you have a ranged attack), and trivialises many exploration challenges. And most races who have it, also have other abilities as well. WotC don't seem to weight it heavily, on the balance scale. Owlin for instance - flight AND free Stealth proficiency AND good darkvision? Honestly, if I were running a game these days I'd be very tempted to put a blackban on it, with a possible exception for things like the protector artificer or hadozee for who it is limited.

What experiences have other player/GMs had with flying PCs. Do you allow them in your games? Do they throw out the balance? Is your PC party full of fairies, aarakocra, owlin, and winged tieflings?

 

[Mort]

I DM'd for my son's group for a bit and it had an aarakocra (flying bird race with a fly speed).

Certain low level challenges weren't. As you say exploration challenges were trivialized unless they were designed with flight in mind/diffently.

Certain monsters (those with no range) became speedbumps IF the group was focused (they were 12 at the time).

Indoor and "dungeon" environs played mostly the same (certain traps were easier, but that was ok).

All in all, it was ok once I kept it in mind - but for MANY groups that itself is a problem. Especially those that run primarily published adventures (as you can't design around an individual).

Will certainly agree that it can cause problems for most groups, especially at low levels.

 

[Oofta]

I don't allow them. I even have a fairly open magic mart but ability to fly is not an option until much higher levels.

As you said, it just changes the nature of the game. As a DM I can counter that with monsters that fly themselves or have ranged attacks but that artificially limits me to picking monsters specifically to counter group abilities. I'd rather pick monsters that make sense for the scenario at hand. The DM can also throw in more underground or indoor encounters. Underground could be fun when the flyers start running into giant spider's webs that otherwise have no impact on the encounter budget. But that gets into adversarial DMing which I try to avoid.

I don't have a great solution other than ask to see if you can get boots or a broom of flying. You will always be at a disadvantage.

P.S. If I were running a game where they were allowed I'd remind the owlin PC that they can't hide when they're literally flying around in the open. There's no reason they're not going to be clearly seen. But that's another issue.

 

[iserith]

When there are flying race options in my campaigns, I don't really see too much of a problem with them. Generally, their inclusion in my games is for thematic reasons. (I don't usually do "kitchen sink" games.) I've never excluded a flying race simply because they can fly.

Monsters with ranged attacks, ceilings in a dungeon, and strong wind in the wilderness level the playing field. You can even make a house rule regarding encumbrance and flying if you want. What I've found is that flying comes with added risk, too. As an example, if you get knocked prone, you're taking falling damage. And if you're dropped to 0 while flying, you hit the ground and auto-fail a death save. That immediately gives you a 5% of death if you're not healed before your next turn.

As for exploration chalenges, sure, you're going to be able to fly over some pits every now and again. But those aren't significant challenges anyway past a certain level, so I wouldn't worry about one PC being able to fly over a pit and secure a rope or the like for others to cross. It's not like they wouldn't have figured out how to circumvent the pit some other way.

 

[Mort]

P.S. If I were running a game where they were allowed I'd remind the owlin PC that they can't hide when they're literally flying around in the open. There's no reason they're not going to be clearly seen. But that's another issue.

Sure, but an Owlin at night, if the opponents don't have darkvision - that could be nasty.

Heck and owlin shadow sorcerer or warlock that can see in his own darkness would be a terror at night - ESPECIALLY to those with darkvision who would not expect to be hampered by darkness.

 

[jmartkdr2]

My experience is a little different - I find that if you run a variety of monsters and challenges flight becomes a situational ability - great outdoors if the enemies don't have ranged options and they won't just flee (or making them flee is good enough).

But that might be a reflection of y style of play - I like to run dungeons where flight is only situationally useful. In an exploration-focused game, it's probably stupidly OP to let pc's fly. Even flying familiars can be a bit much in that situation.

As a player, I rarely ask for flight, and if I do I often temper it. Not because I think a dm can't handle it, but because I know a lot of dm's don't want to and flight is not a character concept by itself. I'm currently playing a winged tiefling, but her whole backstory was about losing her wings and adventuring to get them back - something the dm therefore had control over. She would of course ask any powerful npcs who owed her a favor to help her, but the dm could always just say no until he was ready to say yes. (which has happened in the game. I'm still not the most OP pc in that group.)

 

[Oofta]

Sure, but an Owlin at night, if the opponents don't have darkvision - that could be nasty.

Heck and owlin shadow sorcerer or warlock that can see in his own darkness would be a terror at night - ESPECIALLY to those with darkvision who would not expect to be hampered by darkness.

Any creature that has a longbow and darkvision is going to be at significant advantage against creatures that don't have darkvision when it's dark. That's especially true if they have more than the standard 60 foot darkvision range and environments where they can target enemies from a distance.

Flying compounds the issue because it opens up many more situations where they can attack from range.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

My world has six playable flying species, two that give temporary flight capabilities, three lineages that can gain flight depending on the base species, and another nine that can gain either permanent or temporary flight capabilities at higher level through species feats. That’s about 20 out of 74 possible lineages that have some level of flight.

My world is highly magical and dangerous, and with many races having flight capabilities (some being more populous races too) many enemies have means of dealing with creatures that fly, so it’s not always an overbearing advantage. So I persoanally don’t have an issue with flight in my games.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I've never had any issues because I went in intending to have fliers in my games.

So fights out on the open plains are a sometimes food. Instead, there's trees or the indoors and when we're outside, any monster with hands knows how to pick up and throw things.

Also, I emphasize teamwork on my games nd no one is dumb enough to split the party or charge in ahead because 'flight'.

 

[Stoutstien]

To be fair artificer do get flight via infusions just a bit later.