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Flying Characters in Campaigns

“Can I play a character who has a flying speed?”

OK, so most players don’t ask the question that way exactly, but if you’ve ever run a campaign or two, you’ve probably heard the question phrased one way or another.
Aaracokra are the most infamous of the lot, but I’ve known DMs who won’t allow any character who has a regular fly speed; no winged tieflings, not even protector aasimar. A few don’t even allow for more limited flight such as storm sorcerer, although that strikes me as a tad excessive.

Where do I come down on the issue?
I recently (like a day or two ago), had a player ask if he could roll a new character to better fit with the expressed goals of the rest of the party. The group had just finished a module of a fairly large campaign, and as a rule, I will allow players to change characters between modules, so long as it’s not habitual or ongoing, so I said sure.
He got back to me the next day and asked if variant tiefling was OK. I’ll be honest, at first I thought he was talking about the tiefling subraces from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, and it was only when he mentioned winged tiefling that I remembered the variants in a sidebar in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide.
For those unfamiliar with the variant, it allows a player to exchange the hellish rebuke feature with a flying speed of 30 feet.

My answer to him was simple, but probably not satisfying: “I’ll get back to you.”

Fly speed can be a big deal in some campaigns, while in others it’s not really much of an issue. Well, except that you have to keep track of a player in 3 dimensions instead of 2, and all of a sudden you’re glad you remember things like Pythagorean Theorem from math class so you can calculate where the character actually is.

It’s like this: if a campaign has a lot of ground level hazards (running water, pit traps, trap doors, trip wires, green slime, etc.) then having a character who just flies over all of that (especially a strong one) can seriously diminish the threat level of the campaign.
Let’s say that there’s fast running water. The flyer takes a rope to the other side, ties it off to something and the entire group uses it to traverse the obstacle. Pit trap? The flyer takes everyone one at a time across the pit, making extra trips for gear. You get the idea?

In other campaigns, where such threats are less of an issue, it can still unbalance a particular confrontation, particularly if it’s a ranged character and there’s a lot of room to fly out of range (sharpshooter much?). However, overall, it’s unlikely to do much in the long run and that character is probably the first to get attacked by any dragons, rocs, griffons, perytons, chimeras, cloakers, harpies (you get the idea), etc., that might be in the area, possibly even attracting more danger. If you’re a DM and getting ideas, good. There’s nothing wrong with using a character’s abilities to draw more attention to them or risk to the party.In fact, I think it’s a great, organic way to balance a campaign with a character who has unusual abilities.

The campaign that this player is currently in is a bit heavy with traps and similar hazards (no it’s not a big deal to post that here, I think they’ve already figured it out), which means that a flying character could create a balance issue, but I wanted to try to encourage him (at least a little).

To start with, I was honest with him. I told him that in certain campaigns I would have no problem with a winged tiefling.
Then I gave him conditions under which I would allow him to play one in this campaign:
1. Duration of flight would be limited. I know this doesn’t stop certain things, but it does dampen them down a bit.
2. Carry weight when flying is reduced. This actually made a lot of sense to me. If a character can only carry 200 lbs when they’re walking, it doesn’t make sense that they could fly and carry that much since it’s significantly more work. This means that even if he flies a rope across a river, he probably can’t carry other characters across.
3. While he has a fly speed, his default travel mode if still walking. So he’s not perpetually flying down dungeon hallways poking the ground with a 10 foot pole or something like that.

However, he could still:
– fly to higher ground
– get out of melee range (still provoking opportunity attacks)
– attempt to get advantage on stealth checks (since he’s not going to trip on anything in the air – probably)
– get to a hard to reach area
– and much more obviously

A player may or may not appreciate the offer for diminished or limited abilities. Much will likely depend on what their intentions for the build are. They may appreciate the freedom and opportunity that flight allows, or decide that it’s not worth it and they’re going to roll something else and maybe save flight for a campaign where they can more fully utilize it.

It’s worth noting here that a DM is definitely within their job description to homebrew some specific rules about flight. Wings are large and may require a minimum amount of space to use. Dexterity checks indoors might be at disadvantage if space is limited. A flying characters space may be more difficult to pass through because of beating wings. A character flying in the dark might be at risk of being hunted by flying predators or hitting obstacles. Damage sustained to a wing might mean no flying for a few days.

Whatever decision you come to, be honest with your players. If you don’t want to do the extra work to figure out flying mechanics, just tell them. If you think it would unbalance the campaign or diminish the fun for the group as a whole, tell them that. Build a relationship of trust and openness with your players.

Remember: The only time they shouldn’t trust you is when you laugh.

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