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D&D 5E Party flight at 5th? Druid summoned giant vultures
- Thread starter fil512
- Start date
Swarmkeeper
Hero
Some thoughts:
At 5th level, the Druid can only conjure 2 Giant Vultures for 1 hour which may not be enough to carry the whole party.
Especially if you give them a carrying capacity equivalent to a Pony or even a Donkey (see PHB, 225lbs or 420lbs))
Persuasion check, perhaps DC 15, by each rider to convince the Giant Vulture to allow the PC to climb aboard.
Animal Handling check(s) (DC 15) by the each rider in front to get the Vultures to go the intended direction/distance/speed.
The air is not necessarily a safe place to travel. Wandering monsters might attack OR be seen as prey for the vultures, effectively throwing off the course and/or timing.
Anyway, I wouldn’t outright ban it, but I wouldn’t want it to be a gimme that early in the campaign either. Make it a fun challenge that might result in a partial success. It could get them out of a tight spot here and there - but might land them in some other kind of trouble occasionally, too.
At 5th level, the Druid can only conjure 2 Giant Vultures for 1 hour which may not be enough to carry the whole party.
Especially if you give them a carrying capacity equivalent to a Pony or even a Donkey (see PHB, 225lbs or 420lbs))
Persuasion check, perhaps DC 15, by each rider to convince the Giant Vulture to allow the PC to climb aboard.
Animal Handling check(s) (DC 15) by the each rider in front to get the Vultures to go the intended direction/distance/speed.
The air is not necessarily a safe place to travel. Wandering monsters might attack OR be seen as prey for the vultures, effectively throwing off the course and/or timing.
Anyway, I wouldn’t outright ban it, but I wouldn’t want it to be a gimme that early in the campaign either. Make it a fun challenge that might result in a partial success. It could get them out of a tight spot here and there - but might land them in some other kind of trouble occasionally, too.
Oofta
Legend
Several ways.
Just because they are large, doesn't mean they can carry a person. Use the variant encumbrance rule that they can only carry 5 times their strength for 75 pounds. Rule that encumbered creatures can't fly or are incredibly clumsy (all attacks have advantage to hit).
Target the vultures. They're easy to hit and don't have that many HP. I regularly give intelligent humanoids ranged weapons even if they aren't listed in the book. If a PC can carry half a dozen javelins, so can an orc.
Have your enemy run and hide. I assume not all encounters take place on a large, open plain? Take advantage of that and make your characters dismount. Giant vultures likely won't be much use in a heavy forest or indoors.
How easy are they to ride? These aren't trained mounts, while they obey the druid they don't have to be particularly friendly to the rest of the PCs. That, and they're just big birds. How can you hold on (particularly in combat) without saddles?
Dispel them. Preferably in mid-air. Not high enough to kill the party but high enough to let them know it might not always be a great idea.
Let them have their fun now and then. It's creative. Just don't assume you can't use the tactics above so that it's not just "they can always fly".
Just because they are large, doesn't mean they can carry a person. Use the variant encumbrance rule that they can only carry 5 times their strength for 75 pounds. Rule that encumbered creatures can't fly or are incredibly clumsy (all attacks have advantage to hit).
Target the vultures. They're easy to hit and don't have that many HP. I regularly give intelligent humanoids ranged weapons even if they aren't listed in the book. If a PC can carry half a dozen javelins, so can an orc.
Have your enemy run and hide. I assume not all encounters take place on a large, open plain? Take advantage of that and make your characters dismount. Giant vultures likely won't be much use in a heavy forest or indoors.
How easy are they to ride? These aren't trained mounts, while they obey the druid they don't have to be particularly friendly to the rest of the PCs. That, and they're just big birds. How can you hold on (particularly in combat) without saddles?
Dispel them. Preferably in mid-air. Not high enough to kill the party but high enough to let them know it might not always be a great idea.
Let them have their fun now and then. It's creative. Just don't assume you can't use the tactics above so that it's not just "they can always fly".
That’s not clear in the description of the spell in the phb. Is that rule clarified elsewhere?
It was in a Sage (HAH!) Advice.
If you accept Sage Advice rulings, then yes. It's here in the compendium (p. 6, bottom of col. 1 and over to col. 2).
Yeah, Sage Advice is pretty much worthless at this point. I mean, for pity's sake, casting revivify on a destroyed zombie brings the creature back as a zombie? What gives?
Anyway, to the OP... by the book, a giant vulture can carry 450 pounds (Str 15, x15 pounds, doubled for Large size). If the combined weight of the PCs and their gear exceeds 900 pounds, then even by the book, the vultures can't carry them. If you wanted to be stricter, you could apply variant encumbrance, or just house-rule that a flying creature's carrying capacity is half normal.
However, I would suggest a different approach. Allow the PCs to bypass the first few encounters--and make sure they know that they have successfully bypassed those encounters, so the druid gets to feel clever and cool. But then they get attacked by aerial monsters--and as the enemy approaches, the PCs hear the leader scream, "Kill the birds*!" (This should be a couple of rounds before battle is joined, so if the PCs are flying high, they have time to start descending.)
Your biggest challenge here will be avoiding mass PC death. Giant vultures have AC 10 and 22 hit points; they aren't exactly hardened targets. I'd be generous allowing PC shenanigans to mitigate falling damage. If you can figure out a way to get a scroll of feather fall into the hands of the party wizard ahead of time, that would be ideal. The end result should be that the PCs get a significant benefit out of the druid's spell, but it doesn't let them bypass the entire adventure.
[SIZE=-2]*If the players complain about this, you can point out that it would have been worse if the monsters targeted the PCs. One failed Concentration save from the druid, and the whole party is headed for the ground at high speed. The sky is not a safe place for low-level adventurers.[/SIZE]
Last edited:
Satyrn
First Post
They're probably going to be seen flying in on birds, so they won't be able to come in secretly. That's a tradeoff.
And if the locations they avoided have something useful, they're gonna miss out on that. This could just be sweet loot, but there might be codes to help them enter quietly, or even a secret passage that bypasses even more than flying in could.
Including this sort of stuff means that the players flying in on vultures are both gaining an advantage, and missing out. This makes their choices even more meaningful, and prevents any one choice from being the bezt.
And if the locations they avoided have something useful, they're gonna miss out on that. This could just be sweet loot, but there might be codes to help them enter quietly, or even a secret passage that bypasses even more than flying in could.
Including this sort of stuff means that the players flying in on vultures are both gaining an advantage, and missing out. This makes their choices even more meaningful, and prevents any one choice from being the bezt.
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