D&D 5E Party flight at 5th? Druid summoned giant vultures

[MarkB]

Riding vultures bareback, and for the first time in their lives, should require some tough ability checks to avoid falling off. For them to ride the birds safely, they should need to invest in suitable riding tack, which will have to be made bespoke by a dedicated craftsman.

 

[TerraDave]

That’s not clear in the description of the spell in the phb. Is that rule clarified elsewhere?

"Choose one of the following options". It certainly does not say they can choose the particular animal.

 

[Dausuul]

"Choose one of the following options". It certainly does not say they can choose the particular animal.

The text is ambiguous. Both "player chooses the creatures" and "player chooses the CR, DM chooses the creatures" are consistent with the spell as written. However, normally the caster makes all choices about a spell... and the DM has enough to do without combing the Monster Manual for suitable critters mid-combat. So, I favor the "player chooses" reading.

 

[fil512]

Thanks for the help everyone! I’m going to go with Sage Advice.

 

[Afrodactyl]

As others have said, if it becomes problematic then give them a warning shot as a display that flying may not always be so safe. Not to kill the party, but just shake them up. Maybe a wandering wyvern or some perytons take a fancy to a few squishy types knocking about on some birds. It's essentially an easy meal if they can knock a rider from the mount or take out one of the birds.

 

[jgsugden]

PCs are the heroes of a story. They use magic, skill and guts to go on epic adventures. Creative uses of magic should be encouraged when it contributes to a great story... and twisted like a knife when it tells a better story.

In my games, if the druid summoned some vultures to shuttle the PCs across a gorge, I'd make them do a few easy animal handling rolls (or acrobatics, maybe). However, if they started to use it as a crutch, the story demands a little drama to follow... and perhaps a greater chance of a PC to fall... oh...

 

[Reynard]

In my games, if the druid summoned some vultures to shuttle the PCs across a gorge, I'd make them do a few easy animal handling rolls

Just as a point of order, they aren't vultures, they are Fey in the form of vultures that follow verbal orders. No roll should be necessary.

 

[jgsugden]

Just as a point of order, they aren't vultures, they are Fey in the form of vultures that follow verbal orders. No roll should be necessary.

Animal handling is used for many purposes. Most of them focus on what you can extract from the mount - intentions... behaviors ... However, some of them are whether YOU can interact with the mount correctly physically - such as when you do a risky maneuver.

A show horse may be abe to go through a course wth absolute easy, and a trained rider can stay on that horse with absolute ease... but if I tried to ride that horse on that course, it would be a disaster. That would be the animal handling (or acrobatics - see the part of my quote you excluded) roll.

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

I can appreciate that you might have planned for the players to traverse on foot, but I feel that shooting this idea down could lessen the fun for your players. I don't know your table. If people care about the intricacies of encumbrance and how much a fictional giant vulture could carry, then sure, maybe it's not feasible. But if they want to do cool magical stuff and be badass adventurers, taking this away from them or punishing them for creative ways of overcoming obstacles is kinda a jerk move. Let them fly! And then make the flying fun by throwing some flying monsters at them or having a gnarly storm arrive that they have to fly through.

 

[abirdcall]

The text is ambiguous. Both "player chooses the creatures" and "player chooses the CR, DM chooses the creatures" are consistent with the spell as written. However, normally the caster makes all choices about a spell... and the DM has enough to do without combing the Monster Manual for suitable critters mid-combat. So, I favor the "player chooses" reading.

I think the real rule is that each table should do what is best for their game.

When I DM my rule is that whatever a player wants to summon, they better have the stats printed out and have familiarity with what the creature can do (I also make them roll for attacks and such as I am too busy doing other things). I also have veto power if I think the creature will be too disruptive to the game. This is usually in the form of taking too long for its actions.

As for the question at hand...

FWIW Hippogriffs, Pegasi, and Griffons are listed as example flying mounts. They have strength scores of 17,18,18.

The game changes at level 5 as the characters enter into another tier. 3rd level spells are supposed to be game changing. Characters start having access to abilities which can be used to overcome obstacles in many ways.

Getting 2 flying mounts for an hour for a 3rd level spell sounds fine.