D&D 5E How did you handle the Aarakocra?

[pming]

Hiya!

You can still move and perform an action each round even when flying. And instead of hovering and shooting they fly back and forward and shoot.

The real fun begins when they not fight in close ranges but at maximum ranges and take means to increase their maximum range to outstrip most enemies.
And there is the fact that attacking downward has a longer range than attacking upward. Oh, sure the rules ignore that, but nothing stops the PC from dropping stones, alchemical fire or even more nasty things from far above. That wont be effective against small mobile enemies but good against encampments.

Of course, when you are only doing dungeon crawls all this is no problem.

I find this reasoning...perplexing. On one hand, you're saying "they can just fly back and forth, shooting" (basically ignoring things like speed to maintain lift, general gravity effects, amount of space needed to turn around to even go back, etc). And then on the other hand you're saying "the rules ignore some stuff, but the DM should come up with adjudications for those situations", like dropping stones and such.

There are "no rules" for the old 1e Maneuver Class stuff, and there are no rules for dropping stones from various heights. In both cases, it should fall on the DM to decide exactly how those things will work in his/her game.

IMHO, the beauty of 5e's writing style (and "design") is in how much is left up to the individual DM to decide. If the aacokra are "breaking your game"...it's not that the aaracokra is "broken". It's simply that the DM has decided to let it be/get broken by not applying common sense for his campaign world. This is completely the DM's problem and "fault", as far as I'm concerned.

I know in my game I'll be adapting a lot of the flying rules from Hackmaster 4th Edition if and when it becomes a necessity. In general, that means Maneuverability Classes A to E, maximum climbing of 1/2 their move rate, maximum diving of twice their movement rate, and can not fly slower than half their movement rate. With these guidelines, no, you can't just "fly back and forth", because your movement rate would be less than half when you want to "turn back"...ergo, you fall. Of course, in your game, decide what you want and don't want...but don't blame the rules if things suddenly "go south".

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Derren]

Hiya!



I find this reasoning...perplexing. On one hand, you're saying "they can just fly back and forth, shooting" (basically ignoring things like speed to maintain lift, general gravity effects, amount of space needed to turn around to even go back, etc). And then on the other hand you're saying "the rules ignore some stuff, but the DM should come up with adjudications for those situations", like dropping stones and such.

There are "no rules" for the old 1e Maneuver Class stuff, and there are no rules for dropping stones from various heights. In both cases, it should fall on the DM to decide exactly how those things will work in his/her game.

IMHO, the beauty of 5e's writing style (and "design") is in how much is left up to the individual DM to decide. If the aacokra are "breaking your game"...it's not that the aaracokra is "broken". It's simply that the DM has decided to let it be/get broken by not applying common sense for his campaign world. This is completely the DM's problem and "fault", as far as I'm concerned.

I know in my game I'll be adapting a lot of the flying rules from Hackmaster 4th Edition if and when it becomes a necessity. In general, that means Maneuverability Classes A to E, maximum climbing of 1/2 their move rate, maximum diving of twice their movement rate, and can not fly slower than half their movement rate. With these guidelines, no, you can't just "fly back and forth", because your movement rate would be less than half when you want to "turn back"...ergo, you fall. Of course, in your game, decide what you want and don't want...but don't blame the rules if things suddenly "go south".

^_^

Paul L. Ming

I thnk the problem is that you are exclusively looking at cramped 10x10 ft dungeon room encounters where they have not much space to fly at all, especially upward.
If that is the only type of areas your PCs will adventure in, flying is no problem. But as soon as the encounter happens outside there is enough room for the flying pc to circle (flying back and forth), making the lack of hover ability a non-issue.

And what you call bauty I call failure, but that is another discussion.

 

[Shasarak]

Can you really ban something you have to allow access to?

By not allowing access to it?

 

[Shasarak]

Aarakocra are a delicacy to many races, they are often hunted as food.

In the opening scene of PotA the six characters will walk past three hunters that are cooking an aarakocra to underscore this point to the two bird characters, to see how they will react (we start next Tuesday).

If the DM is OK with seeing who can eat the most sentient races then I do not know how the PCs can turn it down!

 

[aramis erak]

I heard people doing different things with this race due to its ability to fly early on from banning it to nerfing it.

A cool thing I heard is to cripple the Aarakocra so hard, they need Greater Restoration. By the time a player's able to cast it, most classes will have unlocked the ability to fly and thus they close the gap that the Aarakocra created.

All my current play is Adventurer's League. WotC banned it from AL play (at least, without a cert)... Therefore, it's not allowed at present.

 

[fjw70]

I would probably ban it.

 

[Paraxis]

I have no issues with the race.

They can fly, creatures have ranged attacks.
They can fly, pits and chasms are problems for the whole party not just one member.
They can fly, but only grab and carry away small creatures.
They can fly, but the world is filled with magic and most of that has a good range of effect.
They can fly, but anything that reduces their speed to 0 or knocks them prone makes them fall to the ground.

So while flying adds a new dimension to most encounters it doesn't make them any less fun.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Obviously. Don't be willfully dense.

I don't design every encounter to circumvent every capability of the party. I build them to challenge the party. Not every encounter or stat block in a prepared module includes ranged weapons for every monster, because not all encounters assume the party can fly.

I'm sorry my comment wasn't unambiguous enough for you because it didn't account for the potential extinction of humanoid races in imaginary fantasy worlds.

Dude. Why so hostile? That post wasn't directed at you personally. I just agreed with you about weapons, and expanded on my reasons for agreeing.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

This^. Unlimited flying PC based on ranged attacks will be pretty broken imo, at least at any table that doesnt dungeon delve constantly, and tries to keep a rough balance between PC power levels.

It's just about exactly as broken as a variant human with Mobile feat and Longstrider or Expeditious Retreat, and only slightly more broken than a straight-up vanilla Rogue. The point is: yeah, it's awesome when it works, but there should be a hefty fraction of scenarios in any campaign where it doesn't work 100%. "The city is under attack! You heroes! Here, escort Princess Jasmine through the catacombs to safety!" Ooops, kiting is now just a way to make sure enemies attack the Princess instead of you. Even just straight-up mechanical traps work as a threat that can't be kited.

You don't do tactical variation because you are trying to nerf your party in particular. You build encounters against the platonic party (various pre-set builds/tactics in your head, not your actual party) so that the PCs can experience the consequences of their choices and be weaker or stronger against certain threats. But the platonic party should definitely include kiters, which is why I think all intelligent humanoids should carry missile weapons.

 

[Remathilis]

I voted banned, but people's discussion has made me reconsider. I might allow one on a case-by-case basis, but no more than probably one per group. (Being rare and all). Thankfully, TotM and looser combat rules makes 3d combat less a hassle...