NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 9032363" data-attributes="member: 93670">Don't assume anything & stop looking for GM reinterpretation of the default (and only) flight rules in 5e.  Those rules pretty much assume that  anything capable of flight can do so with the freedom of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xYpyUK6g9k" target="_blank">a star fury</a> without the star fury's non-atmospheric capabilities or its need to counteract momentum. Instead of going from there to justification on why/when it should be limited turn it around and justify how much of the star fury's capabilities are suitable for a flying creature in d&d.  From there maybe start with what conditions justify a method of flight itself having more or less of those capabilities.  Luckily we don't really need to because  that was done in 2e it was with[spoiler="maneuverability classes "]from high and in front, low and to the right side, high andfrom the rear, and even straight down from above. Clearly,standard methods of defense and attack that work on theground are going to do him little good here.There are two ways of running aerial battles: the Tourna-ment rules and the Optional rules. The Tournament rulescan be used in any situation, but rely on the descriptions ofthe DM and the imaginations of the players for much oftheir effect. The Optional rules provide a more detailed sys-tem for fighting aerial battles with miniatures. The Tourna-ment rules begin below.Maneuverability ClassesHow tightly a creature is able to turn is an importantfactor in aerial combat. To measure this, all flying crea-tures have a maneuverability class ranking from A to E(with A being the best). In general, creatures with a bettermaneuverability class can attack more often and moreeffectively.Class A creatures have virtually total command over theirmovements in the air; it is their home. They can maneuver inthe air with the same ease as a normal person on the ground,turning at will, stopping quickly, and hovering in place. Forthem, flying is the same as walking or running.Class A creatures can face any given direction in a round,and are virtually impossible to outmaneuver in the air. Fight-ing in the air is no different from fighting on the ground forthem, so they can attack every round. This class includescreatures from the elemental plane of Air and creatures ableto fly magically, without wings.Class B creatures are the most maneuverable of allwinged creatures, although they lack the utter ease of move-ment of class A creatures. They are able to hover in place,and so are the only winged creatures that do not need tomaintain forward movement in a battle.The creatures can turn 180 degrees in a single roundand can make one pass every round. This class includespixies, sprites, sylphs, and most giant insects. Class C includes most normal birds and flying magicalitems. Forward momentum must be maintained by movingat least half the normal movement rate (although somemagical items are exempted from this). Creatures in thisclass can turn up to 90 degrees in a single round and canmake one pass every two rounds. Gargoyles and harpies fallinto this class. Dragons, although huge, are amazinglymaneuverable and also fall into this class. Class D creatures are somewhat slow to reach maxi-mum speed, and they make wide turns. Forward movementequal to at least half the movement rate is required. Turnsare limited to 60 degrees in a single round. Class D crea-tures make only one pass every three rounds. Pegasi, pter-anodons, and sphinxes fall into this class. Class E is for flyers so large or clumsy that tight maneuver-ing is impossible. The creature must fly at least half its move-ment rate, and can only turn up to 30 degrees in a singleround. Thus, it can make just one pass every six rounds. Thisclass includes rocks and other truly gigantic creatures.Levitation Levitating creatures don’t truly fly, and their movement isgenerally limited to up or down. Levitating creatures that areable to move freely are assumed to be class A. Otherwise,the power does not grant any maneuverability and so is notassigned a class.Altitude The relative elevation of combatants is important for avariety of reasons, but as far as combat goes, it has little realeffect. If flying creatures wish to fight, they must all be flyingat approximately the same height. If one of the creaturesflees and the others do not pursue, he gets away. Simple. Altitude affects the action. The DM should keep the fol-lowing guidelines in mind as he listens to what players wantto do and decides how creatures and NPCs will react. Creatures cannot charge those above them, althoughthose above can dive, gaining the charge bonus. Only creatures with natural weapons or riders with “L”weapons, such as a lance, can attack a creature below them.Attacks from below suffer a –2 penalty to the attack roll, asthe reach and angle make combat difficult.Combat Procedure Aerial combat is based on maneuverability. When flyingcreatures fight, compare the maneuverability classes of thedifferent combatants. If these are all identical, the combat isconducted normally. When maneuverability classes differ,creatures with the better class gain several advantages. For each difference in class, the more maneuverableflyer subtracts one from its initiative die rolls. Its maneuver-ability increases its ability to strike quickly and to strike areasthat are difficult to protect. Breath Weapons are more problematic in aerial combatthan on the ground. Creatures using breath weapons find theirfields of fire slightly more restricted, making the attack harderto use. Dragons, in particular, find it difficult to use their breathweapons to the side and rear while flying forward. Those within a 60-degree arc of the front of the creatureroll saving throws vs. breath weapons normally. Creaturesoutside this arc save with a +2 bonus to the die roll. Missile Fire is also difficult in aerial combat. Thosemounted on a flying creature or magical device suffer all thepenalties for mounted bowfire. Hovering is the same asstanding still and incurs no penalty. Characters using missile fire while levitating suffer a –1cumulative penalty for each round of fire, up to a maximumof –5. Levitation is not a stable platform, and the reactionfrom the missile fire creates a gradually increasing rockingmotion. A round spent doing nothing allows the character toregain his balance. Medium and heavy crossbows cannot becocked by levitating characters, since there is no point ofleverage.Air-to-Ground Combat When attacking a creature on the ground (or one levitat-ing and unable to move), the flyer’s attacks are limited bythe number of rounds needed to complete a pass. A dragon flies out of its cave to attack the player char-acters as they near its lair. On the first round it swoopsover them, raking the lead character with its claws. Sinceits maneuverability is C, it then spends a round wheelingabout and swooping back to make another attack on thethird round of combat. Of course, during this time, its flightwill more than likely take it out of range of the playercharacters.Escaping When a creature tries to break off from combat, its abilityto escape depends on its maneuverability and speed. Crea-tures both faster and more maneuverable than their oppo-nents can escape combat with no penalties. The free attackfor fleeing a combat is not allowed, since the other flyer isalso in motion (probably in the opposite direction). If a creature is faster, but not more maneuverable, it canbreak off by simply outrunning its opponent. The other can-not keep pace. In this case, a free attack for fleeing isallowed. If the creature is slower, regardless of maneuverability, aninitiative roll must be made (modified by the maneuverabil-ity of the flyers). If the fleeing creature’s initiative roll is lowerthan that of the pursuer, the creature has managed to flee,although suffering the usual attack for fleeing.Damage Any winged creature that loses more than 50% of itshit points cannot sustain itself in the air and must land assoon as possible. The creature can glide safely to theground, but cannot gain altitude or fly faster than half itsnormal movement rate. If no safe landing point is avail-able, the creature is just out of luck. Since the circum-stances of a crash landing can vary greatly, the exacthandling of the situation is left to the DM. The falling rulesmay come in handy, though a vivid imagination may beeven more helpfulAerial Combat(Optional Rule) These optional rules provide more preci-sion about just what is happening in an aerialbattle. However, these battles require the useof miniatures or counters and generally takelonger to resolve. All of the aerial combatrules above remain in effect except wherespecifically contradicted below.Movement Movement is measured in inches (1 inch= 10 feet of movement) and the pieces aremoved on the tabletop or floor. The maneu-verability classes determine how far a figurecan turn in a single round. A protractor ishandy for figuring this. Turns can be made atany point in the round, provided the totalnumber of degrees turned is not exceeded inthe round and there is at least 1 inch ofmovement between turns.Climbing and Diving Players keep track of the altitude of theirflyers by noting the current altitude on a slipof paper. Like movement, this can berecorded as inches of altitude. A creature canclimb 1 inch for every inch of forward move-ment. Creatures of class C and worse have aminimum air speed, and they must spend atleast half their movement rate going forward.Thus, they cannot fly straight up and can onlyclimb at a maximum of 1⁄2 their normal move-ment rate. Diving creatures gain speed, earning anadditional inch to their movement for everyinch they dive, up to their maximum move-ment rate. Thus, a creature able to fly 12 could move 24 bydiving for its entire movement, since each inch of divingadds one inch of movement. A diving creature must fly the full distance it gains div-ing, although it need not fly its full normal movement. Acreature with a movement of 12 could not dive 9 and flyonly 6 forward. It must move forward at least 9, the dis-tance it dove.Attacking Since the exact positions of the flying units are marked byminiatures, several abstractions for aerial combat are notused. Die roll modifiers for maneuverability are ignoredThese simulate the ability of more acrobatic creatures gain-ing an advantage over clumsier flyers. When playing withminiatures or counters, this task is left to the players. Likewise, the number of rounds required to make a passare not used, as this becomes evident from the position ofthe pieces. When a diving creature makes an attack, it is considered[/spoiler]But that was drawn from wargaming roots most likely & more involved than needed so 3.x reduced it to a table that kept the important parts as they are relevant to d&d's gameplay down to... [spoiler="about a page"][MEDIA=twitter]1659576629268566018[/MEDIA]Some bits highlighted because linking the same tweet that got linked earlier here[/spoiler]5e left that out and made the flight rules so much of a shield against the GM someone in this very thread felt justified in askiing why arakokra can't fly backwards or upside down.  That question is entirely justified too because 5e built the rules for flight & many other things as if the GM is generally going to be a hostile killer GM the players need protection from.</blockquote>

Verification