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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 263318" data-attributes="member: 4937">I'm personally of the opinion that flying is in and of itself worth at least +3 ECL, without adding celestial abilities on top of that (which might bring it up to +6 ECL).  I say this from experience.  I'm a guy that spent a large portion of his adventuring career with the Polymorph Other spell running - and it has limited duration.BUT, since the PC has tricked you into allowing him to have an undercosted character, you got to do what you got to do.Basically, you have to consider three things:1) He won't be travelling on the ground.  This means that traps must sense things other than pressure, and must effect volumns not areas.  Gas traps and magical traps are your friends.  (You would not believe how many problems in Tomb of Horrors are solved by a few potions of flying.)2) He won't be falling unless you do something to incapacitate him.  Pits, ravines, cliffs, bridges, and so forth are generally aids to him not hinderences.  These are terrain which he can use to his advantage.  While you might not want to have this totally dictate your dungeon design, you should take into account that intelligent creatures in a fantasy world will design their defences to frustrate fliers as well as mundane troops.  Unfortunately, this means confined or enclosed spaces.  At the very least, keep the ceilings 10' or lower unless the opponent is sufficiently powerful that you don't mind him flying or sufficiently weak that you are throwing it at him to keep him feeling good.  If the battle takes place at longbow range, he's almost certainly going to beat most creatures.3) You have to treat him as any other creature with superior mobility (like a mounted archer).  He will dominate any battle in which the opponent cannot reply with either ranged attacks or equal mobility.  Unfortunately, this means ranged weapons, spells, and flying creatures.  This means that to a certain extent, you must be formulaic.  That's the price you pay for allowing a flying PC into the game.There are a couple of other things you can do other than longbows and lightning bolts though.a) Make use of gaze attacks.  Medusa are particularly nasty to flying creatures (What?!?!  CRASH!) so long as you can keep the target into the severe range restriction.b) Things that can grab can elimenate his mobility advantage before he gets to use it.  Improved grab, grapple, whips, nets, etc. c) You can elimenate some of the advantage of mobility by hiding the enemy well enough that he stumbles upon it.  Invisibility is good in this regard, as is displacement and anything with a reasonably good hide skill.d) Remember that all incorporeal creatures can move vertically as easily as horizontally.e) Anything that can render itself effectively invunerable at a distance can happily play a waiting game with him.  This includes anything that can burrow, meld with stone, swim underwater, is incorporeal, or (depending on his level) simply get 9/10th's cover.  If what they are guarding is worth enough to the flier, then he will have to come to them eventually.f) Sometimes you just can't effect the combat the way you need to from a distance.  What if there are innocents to be saved?  Other party members in trouble?  Then you have to come down to the level of mortals and risk your skin.For myself, I'd want to challenge him in roleplaying ways as often as I challenge him in combat.  Perhaps people don't trust this winged freak, or at the least are envious/afraid of him.  Perhaps he stands out to every evil person in town as something to destroy the way that a Fiend walking about would stand out to every heroic person in town.  Perhaps he attracts alot of shallow admirers, groupies and hangers on who are really worthless at best and irritants at worst (no matter how sincere they are).  Don't forget that people LOVE to see squeeky clean people FAIL completely.  Most people don't like heroes, especially moral ones that make them feel inferior whether they mean to or not.</blockquote>

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