I didn't ignore that. I specifically said, even if only one player has a flying character, they can break sequence if they are willing to split the party, another thing I prefer to avoid.
And as I've said so before, you can solve it quickly: horror movie. And they know it. Also, it isn't going to be better at level five, when a wizard could pass only one creature at a time, possibly at best two without needing to rest, and spending their most powerful spells.
Sure, I could still use gates, but "you need to fly past this" would not be among the gates at my disposal. Actually, in a party with all flying characters that would probably be fine because it's the expectation from the get-go. But that's not generally how I assume a party is going to be constructed.
Name one. One gate that could be bypassed only by having one creature flying that cannot be solved by a familiar.
The reason I neglect wind is twofold. First of all, it's just not going to be windy all the time in all places where flight might be necessary to pass.
Just how many gates do you place that require fly to be passed by? As you put it, it seems like the only one. Also, Fly is a Concentration spell that gives one creature the ability to fly, not the whole party. And its level three, so the same problem persists at level 5. You could theoretically bypass it with a classical party of four (wizard, rogue, cleric, fighter) at about level 11.
Second, and much more importantly, wind is not something that gaining the ability to fly allows you to bypass. "You can't get there without flying" is a different gate than "it's too windy for you to fly there" and is opened with a different key.
True. It is a rather different approach to a problem. You seem to be using the "only one true key" approach to gating. I've seen way too many times this logic fail, and adventures become stagnant because there is only one possible answer. If no one can learn the fly spell (asume a party of fighters, paladins, rogues and clerics, in one of the many configurations that don't rely on flying: even a wizard could theoretically never find or being interested in learn the Fly spell, because other options are available) the gate will never open. Ever. Because the Fly spell is the only answer to open all the doors of the world. And then, you need them to solve it by other means different of flying, such as giving them a magical item that allows them to cross the bridge. A magical item they could feasibly obtain at any given level.
It feels more like a level 5 tax than a feature.
You assume that I don't have experience with parties including flying characters. This is an incorrect assumption. It is my experience with flying characters that has led me to the decision to disallow flying characters at 1st level. And "brokenness" is, again, not the issue I take.
Again, you haven't explained anything from experience. I'll be trilled to read your experience with flying characters auto-solving entire adventures
I wasn't explaining what gating is to you?
Yes, you were.
This has not been my experience. Gating can be very effective in TTRPGs, it just depends on how you design your adventures. With the right tutorializing, I have found it very easy to teach players that some obstacles cannot be bypassed with their current capabilities, and that when they encounter such obstacles, they can expect to obtain a power that will allow them bypass those obstacles at some point in the future.
So the players could clearly see the rails, because there is only one solution. So much for player agency.
And again, gates and chasms are not necessarily the specific obstacle I would use, just an example of the type of obstacle. But let's assume I have a chasm that is too wide for any tools the players have at their disposal to bridge, too sheer for them to climb, and I decide to use wind to prevent the party aaracokra from flying across it. The rest of the party gaining the ability to fly isn't going to allow them to bypass that obstacle. Unless the wind conveniently stops once they have a party member with the Fly spell, and at that point the fly spell isn't actually the key to the gate.
The rest of the party gaining the ability of flying is one hell specific key to attain, and it is solved, as I've said prior, much later than level 5. If an aaracockra can't fly because there is a lot of wind, it will have to:
a) Solve the problem in any other way or
b) Find a way to control the winds and then fly.
So suddenly all that player ingenuity that was allowing them to bridge the gap without any flying party members disappears?
I've never said so. The problem still needs to be solved somehow. That's a clever challenge: one that needs to be solved creatively. You are the one posting the gates with one and only solution, not me.
I don't punish characters for picking flying creatures. I do not allow players to pick flying creatures. If a player really wants to play a creature that normally has flying anyway, they do so with the understanding that, because I don't allow flying creatures, they will not be able to fly. That's not a punishment for picking a flying race, that's an allowance. If you want to play an aaracokra for some reason other than it's ability to fly (presumably roleplaying reasons), I will allow that, on the condition that you will not be able to fly. Hell, I'll work with you to come up with some other racial bonus to make up for the lack of flying if it's that important to you. If flying is the only reason you want to pick a race, then pick a different one, because 1st level flight is a hard no from me.
You know that it is an arbitrary decision point, don't you? It is just a mater of taste. I natural that people pick a race because of their abilities, and a variant human, EG, is much more powerful.
Yes, and? I'll make aaracokra NPCs with the normal aaracokra racial abilities. They're not normally a playable race in my games, so the flying isn't a problem. If a player insists that the aaracokra race is so important to his character concept that he will take it even if he can't fly, then I'll work with him to make an allowance for that. Maybe his wings got clipped as a hatchling or something, whatever. Just because the player going outside the rules to play what is, in my games, a monster race, doesn't mean all NPCs of that race has to play by the same rules he does.
You said that NPCs and PCs "RAW" play by different rules, not me. I've only pointed out that you are wrong, and quoted why. It was
your point falling apart, not mine.
Again, that's the player choosing to play a race that I don't otherwise allow. Is it punishing a player for choosing to play a half-dragon if I allow him to reskin the dragonborn racial stats to bring him in line with the other PCs instead of giving him the full half-dragon template simply because that's what he chose to play? Is it punishing a player who wants to play a Doppleganger for allowing her to play a Changeling from the Eberron Unearthed Arcana instead of giving them the full Doppleganger statistics? Flying PCs at level 1 aren't allowed in my game. If you want to play a race that normally has a flight speed anyway, you do so with the understanding that it will not have a flight speed at level 1.
Flying is just one trait, with self contained limits. Unlimited shapeshifting is... unlimited. And includes flying, because you can morph wings. Half dragons are not an issue, because they aren't really that powerful besides the breath weapon, that does a dire damage, and is no PC race. Using a dragonborn (a PC race right in the PHB) seems sensible enough for the concept of the character.
As I've said many times, this has not been my experience, and wind doesn't solve the problem because it has a completely different key.
The gate would be the same: cross the chasm at level 5th. You would also need other keys also, such as dealing with the wind first, and then flying to the destination. Fly would still be a key to the conflict, if you ever enlight me with a problem solved by one creature flying that cannot be accomplished by a familiar.
See above. If this isn't a problem for you, do whatever you want. Fact is, flying at 1st level is a problem in my games, it is absolutely self contained, practical, and solved by banning flying races, not by wind.
I do. And so do you. I'm sorry for you if they are such a big deal in your games. But you suggested a massive nerf if someone insists on playing one such character. I suggest using the rules as they currently are.
As I see this conversation, I stated why I don't allow races with flight speed at level 1 in my games. Those reasons had exactly zero to do with how impressive the things you can do with a bird person is or is not, and my solution is not ribboning, it's straight-up banning. And you persist in trying to give me solutions to problems I don't have and argue that I shouldn't be running the game the way I do because of some nonsense about punishing players for making choices I don't allow.
I read the reasons, and I find them petty and easily solved. You said "unrestricted flying", and I've said that it isn't unrestricted, that there are a lot of baked in restrictions. There are only corner cases where this could be a real problem: only if you
need the players to have a fly spell at a very specific level, because you can't "gate" them if they don't, even when you didn't give any problem that wouldn't still be a problem past level 5, or that cannot be solved by a familiar.
And you are in your right to ban races, if you want. I usually ban drows because I find them stupid and racist. But then you said you allow them by nerfing them to near uselessness, because... you feel pity? You bring the necessity to ban races or nerfing them because you can't deal with a flying creature prior to level 5th.
As Angry says "you can play your game in any wrong way you want". I assume that you read its about gating and if you don't, i highly recommend you to read it. It is harder to make effective gates in TTRPGs, and much more making them elegant and not as arbitrary.
