Note that all AL events, and virtually all non-AL DMs, will flat permaban forever any form of winged player species. Aarakocra, winged tieflings, any of it. There was one narrow exception in one particular cycle of AL events, but for the most part the winged species options are off limits to everybody.
Note that all AL events, and virtually all non-AL DMs, will flat permaban forever any form of winged player species. Aarakocra, winged tieflings, any of it. There was one narrow exception in one particular cycle of AL events, but for the most part the winged species options are off limits to everybody.
What? I don't know a single DM who'd ban an official race. Variant Tiefling maybe, but Aarakocra? Never.
Players get to fly at level 5 anyways if they have spellcasters.
I don't know about AL, but in home games I don't see a problem with it.
Note that all AL events, and virtually all non-AL DMs, will flat permaban forever any form of winged player species. Aarakocra, winged tieflings, any of it. There was one narrow exception in one particular cycle of AL events, but for the most part the winged species options are off limits to everybody.
What? I don't know a single DM who'd ban an official race. Variant Tiefling maybe, but Aarakocra? Never.
Players get to fly at level 5 anyways if they have spellcasters.
I don't know about AL, but in home games I don't see a problem with it.
DMs ban official races all the time for all sorts of reasons. Aaracokra do not exist in my world, so of course I won’t let someone play one.
I have a character that is a female winged Tiefling, mountain dwarf with the classes Warlock and Warlord, would I be able to play this type of Character in any type of campaign in D&D 5e?
That specific character sounds seven different kinds of homebrew, Darth. The only one who could say whether she would work in a given 5e campaign would be the GM for that campaign, presuming you're not trying to play Adventurer's League. AL will disallow any form of homebrew period. For non-AL home games? Your GM has the final say.
The important thing about Winged Tieflings is that they don't gain access to Infernal Legacy, or whatever various spellcasting abilities are called for the various Tiefling sub-races. So if you choose to have your Tiefling to be descended from any particular bloodline, it's purely a flavor option for roleplay... you don't get your unique spells no matter what your backstory is. You just get the wings.
Yeah, I would (and do) ban lots of official stuff from my world, but not because of anything mechanical per say, at least not most of it. I wouldn’t care if your Tiefling could fly, but there are next to no Tieflings at all in my world, and the oldest are still infants. Aasimar too. Warlocks are super rare, but Artificers are not. Goblinoids, and Orcs are more common in the lands than Dwarves, or Hin, or Gnomes. And almost all of the Elves everywhere are Wood Elves, and currently refugees fleeing from their homeland just lost to their cousins from below thought long lost these millennia. Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, and “Half-Others” are all seen as “human variants,” even Ogrillon (Half-Ogres).
In one nation, Clerics, Paladins and Warlocks are all strictly licensed. Warlocks are a relatively new concern or them since they didn’t exist there until a couple years ago. Half of the government (a mageocracy) thinks they should be permitted since it’s arcane Magic, the other half thinks that makes it worse. The most common Fighter and Rogue subclasses there are Eldritch Knight, and Arcane Trickster. The only community of High Elves in the Known World is found in this land.
In another kingdom, it is illegal to simply be one of “the beastfolk,” a catch-all term that encompasses Aarakocra, Tortles, Grung, Kenku, Rajasthani (Tabaxi), Lupin (dogpeople), Lizardperson, Minotaur, Centaur, Satyr, Kobold, Dragonborn, or any other race/species/whatever that in any way has an resemblance to an animal. Most especially hated are the Gnolls. In that Kingdom, Bards are treated with a particular reverence because of a longstanding cultural tradition of maintaining an aural history. And there are two main churches (the imposed state religion and the traditional cultural religion) and a splinter cult all vying for position within the kingdom.
So I would and do ban all kinds of stuff, but I wouldn’t personally ban a flying race just because it can fly. So what. Does it make some stuff easier for them? Sure. So what? I can aallllways make it harder.
I’m not sure about that “all” al events. Masters doesn’t have a rule against it in its character creation as long as you are playing Candlekeep Mysteries for level 1-5.
Players get to fly at level 5 anyways if they have spellcasters.
The main reason a lot of DMs ban PCs with racial flight is because it makes creating challenges a lot harder and, quite frankly, annoying. And a level 5 full caster can cast fly twice a day, which lasts for ten minutes each time and they fall out of the sky if they take damage and lose concentration. They also can only do this by giving up their most powerful spell slots for that utility, which is part of their class balance. Yes, aaracokra can't with medium or heavy armor (I'm unfamiliar with the variant tiefling but I assume it has a similar restriction) but they can fly literally all day and still have full access to their class abilities. Such as a wizard with the racial ability to fly so they have a better alternative to another wizard flying and they do it without using those spell slots so they fly overhead, safely out of range from attack, and cast fireballs down on their enemies that were hidden behind cover. Or a flying ranger with a bow raining down arrows with impunity. A flying rogue wouldn't need to rely on athletics checks to get up and over walls or a number of other barriers, and why risk a lucky perception check noticing you sneak along a city street at night when you can just fly up in the dark sky and land on a roof or windowsill of wherever you're trying to break into?
Quite frankly, a lot of things players use to finish the sentence "Wouldn't it be cool if I could-" are unbalanced and game breaking by any objective analysis and characters with a flight speed is one of those things. Yes, it can be adjusted for. Yes, it's often a major pain in the DM's backside because they have to make special account for the character that's always going to be flying whenever they get a chance. Or they could set an adventure underground or in an other setting where flight is generally useless because there isn't space for it, and then listen to the player with the flying PC whine that they aren't being allowed to play their character how they want to. And any time they adjust to keep an encounter challenging it's probably going to be apparent that they did so specifically to balance the flier and the player might begin resent the special effort to restrict their character even though doing so is needed to keep the game challenging and fun for the rest of the group. Some DMs might enjoy flying characters and allow them, but to many it's a headache and a pain in the butt and an automatic "no."
I'm currently working on a homebrew world that I will have no objections to characters with flight, but that setting is also going to include airships, fairly accessible flying mounts, and parachutes so everybody normally plans and prepares for fliers when thinking about security, be that for a military fortress or a wealthy noble's mansion full of expensive stuff. A world without such things would be wide open to a bunch of shenanigans from a flying adventurer with any amount of PC class levels and it can easily be extra work for the DM. So don't be surprised if your DM tells you you can't have a flying character.
Players get to fly at level 5 anyways if they have spellcasters.
The main reason a lot of DMs ban PCs with racial flight is because it makes creating challenges a lot harder and, quite frankly, annoying. And a level 5 full caster can cast fly twice a day, which lasts for ten minutes each time and they fall out of the sky if they take damage and lose concentration. They also can only do this by giving up their most powerful spell slots for that utility, which is part of their class balance. Yes, aaracokra can't with medium or heavy armor (I'm unfamiliar with the variant tiefling but I assume it has a similar restriction) but they can fly literally all day and still have full access to their class abilities. Such as a wizard with the racial ability to fly so they have a better alternative to another wizard flying and they do it without using those spell slots so they fly overhead, safely out of range from attack, and cast fireballs down on their enemies that were hidden behind cover. Or a flying ranger with a bow raining down arrows with impunity. A flying rogue wouldn't need to rely on athletics checks to get up and over walls or a number of other barriers, and why risk a lucky perception check noticing you sneak along a city street at night when you can just fly up in the dark sky and land on a roof or windowsill of wherever you're trying to break into?
Quite frankly, a lot of things players use to finish the sentence "Wouldn't it be cool if I could-" are unbalanced and game breaking by any objective analysis and characters with a flight speed is one of those things. Yes, it can be adjusted for. Yes, it's often a major pain in the DM's backside because they have to make special account for the character that's always going to be flying whenever they get a chance. Or they could set an adventure underground or in an other setting where flight is generally useless because there isn't space for it, and then listen to the player with the flying PC whine that they aren't being allowed to play their character how they want to. Some DMs might enjoy flying characters and allow them, but to many it's a pain in the butt and an automatic "no."
Wing Tiefling is even worse as they can use medium armor....but have a slower speed.
Flight is one of those things that you will never win with I have found...
If you ban it because its disruptive you are a bad DM because you can't come up with ways to counter it. (Ignoring the fact that's admitting it requires a counter where as most racial abilities don't)
If you allow it you will have to think about it for literally every encounter all the time and pretty much room will need to be 8ft tall and every enemy will need ranged options to attack.
Gravity puzzles? nope....unless you hard counter the flight person with something and then its obvious what you are doing.
Overall you will not win either way so I just bite the bullet and ban them because I would rather deal with the disappointment up front and get it over with than have to deal with it literally all the time.
Players get to fly at level 5 anyways if they have spellcasters.
The main reason a lot of DMs ban PCs with racial flight is because it makes creating challenges a lot harder and, quite frankly, annoying. And a level 5 full caster can cast fly twice a day, which lasts for ten minutes each time and they fall out of the sky if they take damage and lose concentration.
Just want to reinforce this point. Unlike racial flight, the spell requires concentration. That makes it impossible for the caster to both cast Fly and to make use of other concentration spells while flying. An aaracokra wizard, by comparison, has access to their full arsenal of spells (concentration and non) while flying.
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While I understand the arguments for banning Aaracokra and other races with innate flight, it's not that hard to balance things up - I tend to use rolled stats, and I throw players with significantly lesser stat arrays a bone with additional small benefits anyway so I can easily upgrade the encounters to match the most powerful characters and still meaningfully engage the other ones. To me that makes more sense because in practice a hands-off approach to game balance isn't all that reliable. The classes aren't really balanced, the subclasses certainly aren't and neither are the races (more so if using floating racial modifiers, which I on the other hand prefer not to for other reasons - this incidentally limits aaracokra wizards somewhat, since aaracokra don't get an Int bonus), and I'm sure we're all aware of some of the more excessive synergies some character builds can benefit from.
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Having tried a lowish level game with an aarakocra ally, I will agree that flight is very strong and its justifiable to ban it, but if that feels extreme to you there are several drawbacks a DM can leverage.
For one, when you have a teammate flying 50 feet above you everyone knows when you're coming. A flying PC is extremely exposed and visible to lookouts.
A PC with flight can get over a wall, but maybe there's four archers playing some cards behind that wall. It's very easy to get in over your head.
A flying scout - again, quite visible - has a very predictable sight line. They see no more than a ground-based scout if you consider cover in more than 2 dimensions like forest canopy, overhangs, etc.
You can throw some artillery in most open-air encounters. Archers are available at level 1 and can be placed in a manner to force down the flier without being targetable by the rest of the party.
Anything that can knock prone at range is also going to do some significant damage to a flier as they are knocked out of the sky. Anything that drops movement to 0 - I'm looking at you, Steady Aim - causes you to fall.
It's true that it's more work for the DM, but flight isn't the only PC feature you can say that about. There are enough counters available that I'm ok allowing flight in my campaigns.
Having tried a lowish level game with an aarakocra ally, I will agree that flight is very strong and its justifiable to ban it, but if that feels extreme to you there are several drawbacks a DM can leverage.
For one, when you have a teammate flying 50 feet above you everyone knows when you're coming. A flying PC is extremely exposed and visible to lookouts.
A PC with flight can get over a wall, but maybe there's four archers playing some cards behind that wall. It's very easy to get in over your head.
A flying scout - again, quite visible - has a very predictable sight line. They see no more than a ground-based scout if you consider cover in more than 2 dimensions like forest canopy, overhangs, etc.
You can throw some artillery in most open-air encounters. Archers are available at level 1 and can be placed in a manner to force down the flier without being targetable by the rest of the party.
Anything that can knock prone at range is also going to do some significant damage to a flier as they are knocked out of the sky. Anything that drops movement to 0 - I'm looking at you, Steady Aim - causes you to fall.
It's true that it's more work for the DM, but flight isn't the only PC feature you can say that about. There are enough counters available that I'm ok allowing flight in my campaigns.
Invisible fly boi nullifies that and its a 2nd level spell that is on a lot of lists. You can even pick up as a feat now.
Archers are fine yeah but those are a problem for everyone at range not just the fly guy....the only issue is dropping to 0 then and you can maneuver to be out of sight line or simply out of range.
Getting in over your head is a negative to the ability rather than a plus....it encourages the party to split and thus is disruptive as well. Again if you are invisible then its less of a problem.
I can't think of much that knocks prone at range but you can pick up feather fall as well to nullify that and since its a 1st level spell there are several ways to obtain.
aarakocra in general are bad because of the redic amount of movement....50 ft base speed is stupid to me. That only increases with the right classes and a Aaracockra rogue/monk can move 100ft in a turn no problem....most battlemaps are not that big.
Overall I am glad you find it ok but I also hate the hate DMs get for banning it when its definitely more disruptive than people give it credit for.
Flight in Tier 1 can be powerful. Even experienced DMs sometimes have trouble with it. There are some who won't allow it at all. What I do is let anyone have wings if they like, and if so, they get the same limitation as the Aarakocra. They can't wear any armor heavier than Light. Also, I don't let them hover. I don't care what the Sage Advice Compendium says about that, in this specific case, I'm not taking their advice. That's one of those general rules in D&D. Specific overrides General.
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So how many subraces of Tiefling allow wings?
One, the SCAG variant tiefling has a winged option.
Note that all AL events, and virtually all non-AL DMs, will flat permaban forever any form of winged player species. Aarakocra, winged tieflings, any of it. There was one narrow exception in one particular cycle of AL events, but for the most part the winged species options are off limits to everybody.
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What? I don't know a single DM who'd ban an official race. Variant Tiefling maybe, but Aarakocra? Never.
Players get to fly at level 5 anyways if they have spellcasters.
I don't know about AL, but in home games I don't see a problem with it.
I thought a variant feral tieflings got wings as well.
DMs ban official races all the time for all sorts of reasons. Aaracokra do not exist in my world, so of course I won’t let someone play one.
The variant feral tiefling and the variant tiefling are the same variant.
I have a character that is a female winged Tiefling, mountain dwarf with the classes Warlock and Warlord, would I be able to play this type of Character in any type of campaign in D&D 5e?
How is your character a Tiefling and a Dwarf? Also, the closest thing to a Warlord is, as suggested by itself, the Purple Dragon Knight AKA Banneret.
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That specific character sounds seven different kinds of homebrew, Darth. The only one who could say whether she would work in a given 5e campaign would be the GM for that campaign, presuming you're not trying to play Adventurer's League. AL will disallow any form of homebrew period. For non-AL home games? Your GM has the final say.
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The important thing about Winged Tieflings is that they don't gain access to Infernal Legacy, or whatever various spellcasting abilities are called for the various Tiefling sub-races. So if you choose to have your Tiefling to be descended from any particular bloodline, it's purely a flavor option for roleplay... you don't get your unique spells no matter what your backstory is. You just get the wings.
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Yeah, I would (and do) ban lots of official stuff from my world, but not because of anything mechanical per say, at least not most of it. I wouldn’t care if your Tiefling could fly, but there are next to no Tieflings at all in my world, and the oldest are still infants. Aasimar too. Warlocks are super rare, but Artificers are not. Goblinoids, and Orcs are more common in the lands than Dwarves, or Hin, or Gnomes. And almost all of the Elves everywhere are Wood Elves, and currently refugees fleeing from their homeland just lost to their cousins from below thought long lost these millennia. Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, and “Half-Others” are all seen as “human variants,” even Ogrillon (Half-Ogres).
In one nation, Clerics, Paladins and Warlocks are all strictly licensed. Warlocks are a relatively new concern or them since they didn’t exist there until a couple years ago. Half of the government (a mageocracy) thinks they should be permitted since it’s arcane Magic, the other half thinks that makes it worse. The most common Fighter and Rogue subclasses there are Eldritch Knight, and Arcane Trickster. The only community of High Elves in the Known World is found in this land.
In another kingdom, it is illegal to simply be one of “the beastfolk,” a catch-all term that encompasses Aarakocra, Tortles, Grung, Kenku, Rajasthani (Tabaxi), Lupin (dogpeople), Lizardperson, Minotaur, Centaur, Satyr, Kobold, Dragonborn, or any other race/species/whatever that in any way has an resemblance to an animal. Most especially hated are the Gnolls. In that Kingdom, Bards are treated with a particular reverence because of a longstanding cultural tradition of maintaining an aural history. And there are two main churches (the imposed state religion and the traditional cultural religion) and a splinter cult all vying for position within the kingdom.
So I would and do ban all kinds of stuff, but I wouldn’t personally ban a flying race just because it can fly. So what. Does it make some stuff easier for them? Sure. So what? I can aallllways make it harder.
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I don’t see any rules against a winged tiefling for Masters play. Just need to play your character through levels 1-5 in Candlekeep Mysteries.
I’m not sure about that “all” al events. Masters doesn’t have a rule against it in its character creation as long as you are playing Candlekeep Mysteries for level 1-5.
The main reason a lot of DMs ban PCs with racial flight is because it makes creating challenges a lot harder and, quite frankly, annoying. And a level 5 full caster can cast fly twice a day, which lasts for ten minutes each time and they fall out of the sky if they take damage and lose concentration. They also can only do this by giving up their most powerful spell slots for that utility, which is part of their class balance. Yes, aaracokra can't with medium or heavy armor (I'm unfamiliar with the variant tiefling but I assume it has a similar restriction) but they can fly literally all day and still have full access to their class abilities. Such as a wizard with the racial ability to fly so they have a better alternative to another wizard flying and they do it without using those spell slots so they fly overhead, safely out of range from attack, and cast fireballs down on their enemies that were hidden behind cover. Or a flying ranger with a bow raining down arrows with impunity. A flying rogue wouldn't need to rely on athletics checks to get up and over walls or a number of other barriers, and why risk a lucky perception check noticing you sneak along a city street at night when you can just fly up in the dark sky and land on a roof or windowsill of wherever you're trying to break into?
Quite frankly, a lot of things players use to finish the sentence "Wouldn't it be cool if I could-" are unbalanced and game breaking by any objective analysis and characters with a flight speed is one of those things. Yes, it can be adjusted for. Yes, it's often a major pain in the DM's backside because they have to make special account for the character that's always going to be flying whenever they get a chance. Or they could set an adventure underground or in an other setting where flight is generally useless because there isn't space for it, and then listen to the player with the flying PC whine that they aren't being allowed to play their character how they want to. And any time they adjust to keep an encounter challenging it's probably going to be apparent that they did so specifically to balance the flier and the player might begin resent the special effort to restrict their character even though doing so is needed to keep the game challenging and fun for the rest of the group. Some DMs might enjoy flying characters and allow them, but to many it's a headache and a pain in the butt and an automatic "no."
I'm currently working on a homebrew world that I will have no objections to characters with flight, but that setting is also going to include airships, fairly accessible flying mounts, and parachutes so everybody normally plans and prepares for fliers when thinking about security, be that for a military fortress or a wealthy noble's mansion full of expensive stuff. A world without such things would be wide open to a bunch of shenanigans from a flying adventurer with any amount of PC class levels and it can easily be extra work for the DM. So don't be surprised if your DM tells you you can't have a flying character.
Wing Tiefling is even worse as they can use medium armor....but have a slower speed.
Flight is one of those things that you will never win with I have found...
If you ban it because its disruptive you are a bad DM because you can't come up with ways to counter it. (Ignoring the fact that's admitting it requires a counter where as most racial abilities don't)
If you allow it you will have to think about it for literally every encounter all the time and pretty much room will need to be 8ft tall and every enemy will need ranged options to attack.
Gravity puzzles? nope....unless you hard counter the flight person with something and then its obvious what you are doing.
Overall you will not win either way so I just bite the bullet and ban them because I would rather deal with the disappointment up front and get it over with than have to deal with it literally all the time.
Just want to reinforce this point. Unlike racial flight, the spell requires concentration. That makes it impossible for the caster to both cast Fly and to make use of other concentration spells while flying. An aaracokra wizard, by comparison, has access to their full arsenal of spells (concentration and non) while flying.
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While I understand the arguments for banning Aaracokra and other races with innate flight, it's not that hard to balance things up - I tend to use rolled stats, and I throw players with significantly lesser stat arrays a bone with additional small benefits anyway so I can easily upgrade the encounters to match the most powerful characters and still meaningfully engage the other ones. To me that makes more sense because in practice a hands-off approach to game balance isn't all that reliable. The classes aren't really balanced, the subclasses certainly aren't and neither are the races (more so if using floating racial modifiers, which I on the other hand prefer not to for other reasons - this incidentally limits aaracokra wizards somewhat, since aaracokra don't get an Int bonus), and I'm sure we're all aware of some of the more excessive synergies some character builds can benefit from.
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Having tried a lowish level game with an aarakocra ally, I will agree that flight is very strong and its justifiable to ban it, but if that feels extreme to you there are several drawbacks a DM can leverage.
For one, when you have a teammate flying 50 feet above you everyone knows when you're coming. A flying PC is extremely exposed and visible to lookouts.
A PC with flight can get over a wall, but maybe there's four archers playing some cards behind that wall. It's very easy to get in over your head.
A flying scout - again, quite visible - has a very predictable sight line. They see no more than a ground-based scout if you consider cover in more than 2 dimensions like forest canopy, overhangs, etc.
You can throw some artillery in most open-air encounters. Archers are available at level 1 and can be placed in a manner to force down the flier without being targetable by the rest of the party.
Anything that can knock prone at range is also going to do some significant damage to a flier as they are knocked out of the sky. Anything that drops movement to 0 - I'm looking at you, Steady Aim - causes you to fall.
It's true that it's more work for the DM, but flight isn't the only PC feature you can say that about. There are enough counters available that I'm ok allowing flight in my campaigns.
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Invisible fly boi nullifies that and its a 2nd level spell that is on a lot of lists. You can even pick up as a feat now.
Archers are fine yeah but those are a problem for everyone at range not just the fly guy....the only issue is dropping to 0 then and you can maneuver to be out of sight line or simply out of range.
Getting in over your head is a negative to the ability rather than a plus....it encourages the party to split and thus is disruptive as well. Again if you are invisible then its less of a problem.
I can't think of much that knocks prone at range but you can pick up feather fall as well to nullify that and since its a 1st level spell there are several ways to obtain.
aarakocra in general are bad because of the redic amount of movement....50 ft base speed is stupid to me. That only increases with the right classes and a Aaracockra rogue/monk can move 100ft in a turn no problem....most battlemaps are not that big.
Overall I am glad you find it ok but I also hate the hate DMs get for banning it when its definitely more disruptive than people give it credit for.
Flight in Tier 1 can be powerful. Even experienced DMs sometimes have trouble with it. There are some who won't allow it at all. What I do is let anyone have wings if they like, and if so, they get the same limitation as the Aarakocra. They can't wear any armor heavier than Light. Also, I don't let them hover. I don't care what the Sage Advice Compendium says about that, in this specific case, I'm not taking their advice. That's one of those general rules in D&D. Specific overrides General.
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