Tips for Aerial Combat in general?

[dreaded_beast]

In preparation of PCs with wings, I started reading up on the fly rules, mainly aerial combat, maneuverability, and the maneuverability chart.

I believe I have a better understanding now, but I wouldn't mind some extra tips.

Anything that I should keep in mind, based on your own first-time experiences (thing you tended to forget, things you felt were safe to omit, etc.) or just your experiences in general?

 

[Rashak Mani]

We tend to forget that "going up" costs more movement. Keep tabs on that... it also means less moving around which is good for DMs.

Remember that average flyers SUCK in tight spaces... they turn curves badly too. Remember who has good and perfect maneuver.

We use some extra big d6s where flying characters are put on. Not only does it help distinguish who is flying... we put the the height on the dice too. 1=10', 2=20' until 6 = 60 feet height. Helps in dungeons.

 

[Klaus]

Remember that anything with average or worse maneuverability has a minimum forward speed, so no full-attacks while flying.

As Rashak Mani pointed out, use some token to remind yourself and the players at what height the creatures are flying (I can see some sort of altitude counter coming together in the future).

Unless the creature has Fly-By Attack, it will either move-attack (and thus remain close to its foes) or attack-move (ending its turn away from foes).

Following the rules for aerial combat found in Dragonlance CS, remember to increase the distance between grounded foes and flying ones. Determine the horizontal distance (as if the flyer were on the ground). To this add half the altitude it is flying. That will give you the true (or at least approximate) distance between foes (helps determine missile weapons range).

And flyers get higher ground bonus to attacks! Grounded foes get a penalty!

 

[iwatt]

Prepare a chart to easily convert descent angles into changes in altitude and horizontal Movement. I've attached a quick and dirty excel sheet to help you out. It's pretty simple to modify if you want to add other angles of attack and speeds.

 

[dreaded_beast]

Great responses everyone!

Thanks! Keep em' coming.

 

[TDRandall]

Remember that anything with average or worse maneuverability has a minimum forward speed, so no full-attacks while flying.

Unless the creature has Fly-By Attack, it will either move-attack (and thus remain close to its foes) or attack-move (ending its turn away from foes).

How do these two mix? (May be time for a house rule!) I think by RAW you could move-in and attack on round one, then attack and move-out on round two.

But that seems (to me) to contradict the need for presumeably continuous minimum forward speed. Maybe it could be handwaved away by requiring the bite/beak on the way in and claws on the way out, with the wings (if they have one) taking place of either bite/beak or claws?

Sorry, just pondering.

 

[Klaus]

By the RAW, you can certainly do that:

Round one: Flyer swoops down (move action) and attacks (attack action, +1 from higher ground)). Ends movement in melee range of Groundling. Groundling takes full attack at Flyer (-1 from lower ground).
Round two: Flyer attacks, then moves ahead. This last bit generates an AoO from Groundling (threatened areas extend to all sides, including up!). Afterwards, Groundling has to switch weapons or resort to yelling curses.

Depending on the maneuverability, Flyer needs a few rounds to make another pass.

As you can see, attacking with melee weapons while flying is a sub-optimal choice if your foe has many iterative attacks, or if you have a low AC. Fly-By Attack eliminates this problem. Groundling's only chance is readying an action to attack Flyer if it comes within melee range.

 

[Nail]

Flyby Attack (the feat) does not remove the AoO the groundling will get when you move away. (House rule time!)

I always forget to dive. That extra damage is handy. Don't forget to plan how to recover from that dive, BTW. (Hint, best target square to attack from is the square behind and above the opponent.)

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Flyby Attack (the feat) does not remove the AoO the groundling will get when you move away. (House rule time!)

Huh. I was certain this was wrong, then went to double-check and found that I've been mistaken about this feat for as long as I can remember. I assumed it was like Spring Attack, but it does not, indeed, prevent any AoOs. It merely allows a flying critter to get away again afterward to avoid a counter- full attack.

 

[Eremite]

I write the height at which a character is flying directly on the whiteboard. If the character ends up having to "share" a square then I use one of those clear dice boxes to place them higher than the other character(s) but I still write the height on the whiteboard.

Anyway, simple as that may sound, it really has helped enormously when we need to track flying characters (both PCs and NPCs).