How do you show flight elevation in combat when using mini's?

[rom90125]

My group is getting ready to take on the gargantuan black dragon mini put out WoTC and I was wondering how to show flight elevation during combat. I have seen people use stacks of 6-sided dice, but this could be tricky (and not to mention messy if the stacks of dice were to topple over).

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I have the old Dragonlance board game that came with altitude markers (round white discs with little pegs that allowed them to stack nicely) and I use those for flying creatures. You could use any small round counters that could be stacked (1 chip per 5 feet). Or you could use a die with each number representing 5 feet of elevation (I'd recommend that over stacking a bunch of dice).

 

[Stalker0]

this requires a little more math but its easier on the dice. One dice = number of 5 feet altitute. 2nd dice multiples the first result. So 2 5 dice is 125 feet up. This way 2 dice can represent altitute all the way to 180 feet up so you don't need as many die on the board.

 

[Sejs]

If something's flying, their mini gets put on top of a d6.

Altitude gets noted on the hexmap off to one side.

 

[smootrk]

I use d6, with each number representing 5' or 10' elevation. This usually suffices for most situations.

 

[Nadaka]

this requires a little more math but its easier on the dice. One dice = number of 5 feet altitute. 2nd dice multiples the first result. So 2 5 dice is 125 feet up. This way 2 dice can represent altitute all the way to 180 feet up so you don't need as many die on the board.

actually that won't work all the way up, more specifically it leaves very large gaps at the upper range.

6*6 = 180
6*5 = 150
Thats a 30ft difference.

Why not use sum(J=1...K)of(D*(X^J))? Where K is the the number of dice rolled = logX(N), X is the range of the die, D is the value of the Kth die and N is the range of distinct altitudes to be defined?

Example: lets say you wanted to use a d10 as your die type (to keep it simple for those of us used to base 10 number systems) so X = 10. Lets also say that we want to define the height on a range from (1 to 100) * 5ft. so our N = 100. So K =roundup(log10(100)) = 2.

So our display formula is now sum(J=1...2)of(D*(10^J)). So the first die represents the "1s column" and the second die represents the "10s" column.

Of course you don't have to use X=10, it works for any number system. Note that this will work for any N, though the display may be capable of expressing values above N due to the integer nature of values.

What? Why are you looking at me like that?

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Usually I use a clear acrylic dice box. Y'know, the kind that you get your "D&D Set" in from Chessex and the like. They're almost exactly 2"x2" on the battle grid so they fit overtop Medium creatures well. Additionally you can set the flying creature on top and use a dry erase marker to note the elevation on the side.

I also use the black plastic lid, since it is 2"x2", for Enlarge Person and Righteous Might and the like, since you can set your 1" mini inside the lid and he now takes up 2".

---fje

 

[Zamtap]

giant d6 and the dm records the hight in the notes fo the combat

 

[Infiniti2000]

I use 1" wooden cubes where I wrote the altitude on them. I have quite a few premade and you can use multiple ones, either to accumulate the height values or to show the differing heights visually.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

We usually place the mini on top of a d6 and either remember the elevation of (in my case) turn the d6 to 5x the distance from the character's feet to the ground in inches--a five for instance, would mean that my character fills the box between 25 and 30 feet off the ground.