How are melee characters expected to deal with flying creatures?

[talarei07]

avenger has ranged capabilities

 

[Garthanos]

avenger has ranged capabilities

pretty questionable ones... yeah pursuing avenger there dex is a secondary so they can throw rocks at it (simple ranged weapons ranged basic attack only hooo hah for powers)

The other builds of avenger arent even that lucky...

 

[Garthanos]

There are also magic items that grant flight, most notably the Flying Carpet (PH pg 254).

Flying mounts too... want a witch reskin a flying mount as spirit posessed broom ;-).

 

[FireLance]

Agreed, a single melee character will probably find it difficult to deal with a flying creature, but an entire party ought to have some method to handle flyers that will vary from party to party. This may involve some of the following:

Magic items that have pull effects, cause a creature to approach you, or cause a flying creature to fall. Examples: grasping weapon (Level 6+), orb of indisputable gravity (Level 7+), skyrender weapon (Level 9+), magnetic armor (Level 9+), cherished ring (Level 14), ghost chain weapon (Level 25+).

Powers that have pull or slide effects, or teleport enemies.

Once the enemy is within melee range, powers and magic items that immobilize, restrain or stun can be used to keep it there.

 

[bganon]

It's all items. They're generally the best way to get situational powers that your class doesn't grant.

In particular, winged boots are only level 13. There are several other flight-related foot-slot items (zephyr boots, airstriders, etc...), and I think many melee characters are not going to have a much better use for the foot slot.

AV even has freakin' Elixirs of Flying... 9000 gp per use isn't really so much at epic levels.

 

[KarinsDad]

Throwing Shield

Course, the plus to hit is not all that great, but it's better than no ranged weapon at all.

 

[Iron Sky]

Even cheaper, get an Ebony Fly (Level 9, 4200gp). Cheap flight pre-Paragon even.

 

[Shin Okada]

pretty questionable ones... yeah pursuing avenger there dex is a secondary so they can throw rocks at it (simple ranged weapons ranged basic attack only hooo hah for powers)

The other builds of avenger arent even that lucky...

Avenger is one of a class which gains true flight power (not something like you must land at the end of this movement) "Wings of Vengeance". At least, avenger can fly 2 rounds per encounter with this L10 utility power.

And yeah. Even if a melee character can't deal with a flayer, a party should be. having at least one Skyrender ranged weapon in a party is a good thing. Once the flying monster drops to the ground, melee warriors may swarm to it and kill it fast, or at least make them difficult to leave.

 

[Garthanos]

Easiest earliest flight for player characters if the DM allows and wants it are level 4 or 5 mounts.

 

[DracoSuave]

Use available terrain to force the flying monster to fight on their terms.

Melee characters have trouble against flying monsters. This is not news. This is intentional design.

Encounters should be designed to take that into account. But other than that, every Melee character should have a Grasping spear they can through of some sort. This isn't even an optional tool.

'But you're not likely to hit with it.'

Let's examine probabilities here.

Let's say you have a 40% chance to hit with that above Grasping Spear.
Compare that to the 0% chance you have to hit if you don't do something to ground said monster pickin' yer fighter nose.

40%>0%

You don't need to optimize it, you just want to -have- it just in case you get in a situation where you need to do something to something that you can't reach yet. Fighters -definately- require a ranged attack of some sort, because they -definately- want to be able to mark -anyone- at range.