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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Erechel" data-source="post: 7309153" data-attributes="member: 6784868">Like many above said, I don't see a per se problem with flying creatures. I DM a shared Argentinian world (belonging to the FRA), called Fralia, in which an avian, owlesque and alcoholic race called Stolasi, AKA the "partying owls", is one of the main races of the world (a reskinned version of the aarackocra). In almost every table I've dm'ed, at least one player chooses a Stolasi, and so far I've had no troubles at all with them flying. D&D has enough limitations to flying baked in, just to remember:1) A flying creature that doesn't hover with its speed reduced to 0 falls to the ground.2) Strong winds knock flying creatures prone. (You can say that almost every storm does so, and certain altitudes have always stronger winds). Flying characters will always be watching the weather.3) Grappled, Restrained and Unconscious conditions reduce speed to 0.d4) Attacks of Opportunity still apply to flying creatures without Flyby feature or Mobile feat. Melee fighting isn't going to be popular.4) Aarackocras can't fly while wearing medium or heavy armor. (In my world, they instead can't flight when encumbered, which is a bonus to the players picking at least a moderate Strength score). 5) Three dimensions: going up and down costs movement, so if your aaracockra types start in the ground, wants to fly 10 feet up and escape, it would be actually moving 40 feet. Add the cost of going down, and you can move 30 feet.6) Ranged weapons and Focus fire: if a flying, light armored and huge creature starts casting a spell, most ranged enemies will focus fire on it, and when you are flying it is really difficult to find cover. Add a few weapons such as nets or bolas (see the DM's Guild for the Ancient Armoury file), and then you have a killer combo. This is a common sense ruling of any sensible DM playing intelligent enemies. And even stupids that doesn't bring secondary weapons such as javelins can still throw rocks and make 1d4+strength damage (improvised weapons, remember?)7) Earthbind spell.8) Flying doesn't allow stealth. A 2,30 m tall bird in the bright sky is going to be big frickin target in the sky, a particularly awful trait for a Dex character. This was a hard lesson for my Stolasi cleric when he was scouting above an enemy camp and stones and arrows flew. It was even harsher when a green dragon saw him from almost 10 kilometers.9) Unless all the characters have means to fly, most chasms and bridges and such will still be a challenge to overcome.10) Flying monsters.With all this baked in, you still want to nerf them? Let me help you.-Use exhaustion. For every hour of flying, a creature must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution save or gain a level of exhaustion. This save could increase in one step per check, so only frickingly resilient creatures could pass more than 3 hous flying.-Increase food requirements. I require that stolasis eat fresh meat daily, or they get sick (exhaustion again).-Give disadvantage to two handed or/and heavy weapons while flying. The birdman can't take a longbow and fire from above. It still can use a javelin or a spear.-Use Encumbrance instead of limiting the armor. This is a better rule to avoid stupid tactics such as grappling an ogre and dropping it from above. You can still do it with a goblin, if your character is particularly strong.-Rain halves the speed of a flying creature, and increase the weight in 10 pounds.-10 foot wingspan. 15 is way too much.All in all, flying would still be a nice add-on to a creature, specially to casters and scouts, and to overcome many obstacles, but nowhere as broken as it seems. They are nice in battles, as they can use a lot of mobility, but they aren't paticularly heavy hitters. Unless they choose the correct feat/ combo (rogue & mobile give you 120 feet movement and don't trigger OA), they are somewhat fragile.</blockquote>

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