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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iku Rex" data-source="post: 1962408" data-attributes="member: 752">Did you not check the cites I provided? How about a FAQ answer? Q:The entry on flight in the Monster Manual doesn’t elaborateon whether carrying a medium or heavy load actuallyprevents flight, or it simply slows the flyer down below theindicated speed (and in the latter case, it doesn’t explain byhow much the creature is slowed down). Some of themonster entries do make mention of medium and heavyloads in terms of carrying capacity (griffins and spidereaters,for example). Does that mean those creatures can flywith medium or heavy loads? Is it even possible for a flyingcreature to get airborne at less that its listed fly speed.A:  You can use a fly speed only when carrying a light load orless. If your load is medium or heavy, you cannot fly; certainkinds of magical flight, such as a fly spell, don’t have thisrestriction. Check the description of the flying effect to be sure.A griffin or a spider-eater can carry a medium or heavyload, but it cannot fly when doing so.Most flying creatures can get aloft at less than their full flyspeeds, provided that they can maintain their minimum forwardspeeds (see Tactical Aerial Movement in Chapter 2 of theDungeon Master’s Guide). You also can fly when wearingmedium or heavy armor if the weight of the armor (pluseverything else you carry) doesn’t exceed your light loadrating. The armor still slows you down (page 20 in theDungeon Master’s Guide has an expanded table of reducedspeeds). For example, a balor is a Large creature with aStrength score of 35. A light load for a balor is 2,128 pounds.To calculate that, we must use the tremendous Strength rule onpage 163 of the Player’s Handbook and find the light loadrating for Strength 25 (the number between 20 and 29 that hasthe same 1’s digit as 35). This gives us a value of 266 pounds.Since the balor’s Strength is 35, we multiply 266 by 4, whichgives us 1,064 pounds. The balor is a Large biped, however, soits carrying capacity doubles (1,064 x 2 = 2,128). A balor canfly so long as it carries less than 2,128 pounds. A breastplatefor a Large biped weighs 60 pounds (from Table 7–6 in thePlayer’s Handbook), so its weight won’t keep a balor fromgetting aloft when wearing it. Since a breastplate is mediumarmor, the balor’s base fly speed of 90 feet is slowed to 60 feet(from the table on page 20 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide).Since the balor has good maneuverability, it has no minimumforward speed and can easily fly wearing the breastplate. Evenif the balor had poor maneuverability, its minimum forwardspeed would be 45 feet (half its base speed of 90 feet), and itstill could fly at a speed of 60 when wearing the breastplate.If a creature’s base flying speed is greater than listed on thechart on page 20 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, just dividethe creature’s base flying speed into equal parts dividable by 10and then add up the reduced values for those base speeds offthe chart. For example, if a flying creature with a fly speed of150 feet wears medium armor and can still get aloft, it can flyat a speed of 105 feet. (Its minimum forward speed, if it hadone, would be half the base flying speed, or 75 feet.) Thereduced speed of 105 feet was calculated by splitting the flyspeed into 70 feet and 80 feet (70 + 80 = 150). At reducedspeed, 70 feet becomes 50 feet and 80 feet becomes 55 feet (50+ 55 = 105).Note that some creatures in the game cannot fly whenwearing medium or heavy armor, no matter what their loadhappens to be (for example, the avariel from Races of Faerûn),so be sure to check the creature’s description for any speciallimits on its flying ability.</blockquote>

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