During our last session when fighting against Blights our AArakocra ranger flew up about 70 so in the air and none of the Blights I had fighting the party could reach the ranger (who has a longbow).
I don't want one player to be untouchable, so I was thinking of either homebrewing a type of blight that has a longer range than the Needle Blight but does less damage or including a swarm of ravens under control of the Gulthias tree(though I'm kind of iffy on using the ravens since they do so a good amount of damage) so that if the ranger want's to be able to rain arrows from above with impunity they have to kill a couple of specific enemies first.
I was wondering if you think what I have is a good solution or if you can think of something better? Or am I making a big deal out of something really minor? This is the first campaign that I have DM'd and I'm someone with a bit more experience could give me some advice.
I mean, if you’re worried about him being out of reach, I would use the environment against him.
Maybe the trees count as difficult terrain, so he can’t get as high.
Or maybe they obscure his vision to make it less advantageous to fly into the trees.
But you don’t want to punish your player for choosing a flying character.
That's a pretty good Idea, perhaps make it so that if hey fly higher than 20 feet the leaves make it harder to see his target so he attacks with disadvantage, but also put some branches just below that height that he could perch on and attack then move to the other side of the tree into cover. That way he could still take advantage of his flying my begin able to rapidly move from tree to tree at still be hard to target but not be out of reach of the blights.
But you don’t want to punish your player for choosing a flying character.
Actually, flying is one of the most game breaking abilities in all of D&D. If the DM is having problems with a PC that can fly innately, then the DM should not feel bad informing the player that the PC is unbalancing the campaign and something is going to have to give. Players do not have infinite discretionary powers when it comes to selecting their player characters. They can only select from races/classes and even feats that the DM allows in his game. In this case the player chose something that the DM feels is unbalancing. Other DMs might disagree but the final arbiter is the DM *of the game in question* everything else is just noise and blather. That said my advice is to have the player roll up a new PC that *doesn't* fly.
Make some of the plant creatures host to an insect hive. Reskin a swarm of ravens into a swarm of dire wasps, or just add 40ft flying speed to a Swarm of Insects to make some normal wasps.
Some inclement weather perhaps? Strong wind summoned by the powerful whatever Tree makes all air more than 20ft up difficult terrain and applies disadvantage to anyone attacking up there. Or just fog that reduces visibility to 30ft.
Vine blight ambush, specifically targeting the bird with their entanglements. The Tree senses the tactics being used and starts to adapt its defences.
If the encounter is in a healthy forest you could easily say that the tree canopy gives full or 3/4 cover, and "only" half cover when flying in the upper branches (aka well within range), effectively forcing the flyer to stay in reach of the blights using completely natural means that make sense in any setting. Of course, if the flyer has increased speed and can dart up and down through the branches at will, you'll have given them an advantage because they can "hide" in full cover and out of reach, but such is the dangernof having flying characters.
Being 70 feet in the air away from the party seems like a perfect scenario for something awful to happen as a result of the party being so vastly spaced out.
As others you have said use your environment to limit his flight or have things occur that give him pause to move so far away from the party. He is no position to lend aid to anyone or get help with anything he may encounter, so use that.
You could always discourage that by throwing in a wandering, flying monster. A couple of Cockatrice, or a single Harpy, flying along minding their own business when they spot a lone, and distracted, flying Aarakocra above the treeline. Normally they wouldn't even notice or try for things under the tree line as it would hamper their flight tactics.
But now there is easy pickings.
If the Aarakocra flies back into the trees or ground level, then the wandering monster might just move on. Or maybe join the fry but in a way that the rest of the party can help.
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During our last session when fighting against Blights our AArakocra ranger flew up about 70 so in the air and none of the Blights I had fighting the party could reach the ranger (who has a longbow).
I don't want one player to be untouchable, so I was thinking of either homebrewing a type of blight that has a longer range than the Needle Blight but does less damage or including a swarm of ravens under control of the Gulthias tree(though I'm kind of iffy on using the ravens since they do so a good amount of damage) so that if the ranger want's to be able to rain arrows from above with impunity they have to kill a couple of specific enemies first.
I was wondering if you think what I have is a good solution or if you can think of something better? Or am I making a big deal out of something really minor? This is the first campaign that I have DM'd and I'm someone with a bit more experience could give me some advice.
Thanks for reading.
I mean, if you’re worried about him being out of reach, I would use the environment against him.
Maybe the trees count as difficult terrain, so he can’t get as high.
Or maybe they obscure his vision to make it less advantageous to fly into the trees.
But you don’t want to punish your player for choosing a flying character.
That's a pretty good Idea, perhaps make it so that if hey fly higher than 20 feet the leaves make it harder to see his target so he attacks with disadvantage, but also put some branches just below that height that he could perch on and attack then move to the other side of the tree into cover. That way he could still take advantage of his flying my begin able to rapidly move from tree to tree at still be hard to target but not be out of reach of the blights.
Actually, flying is one of the most game breaking abilities in all of D&D. If the DM is having problems with a PC that can fly innately, then the DM should not feel bad informing the player that the PC is unbalancing the campaign and something is going to have to give. Players do not have infinite discretionary powers when it comes to selecting their player characters. They can only select from races/classes and even feats that the DM allows in his game. In this case the player chose something that the DM feels is unbalancing. Other DMs might disagree but the final arbiter is the DM *of the game in question* everything else is just noise and blather. That said my advice is to have the player roll up a new PC that *doesn't* fly.
Make some of the plant creatures host to an insect hive. Reskin a swarm of ravens into a swarm of dire wasps, or just add 40ft flying speed to a Swarm of Insects to make some normal wasps.
Some inclement weather perhaps? Strong wind summoned by the powerful whatever Tree makes all air more than 20ft up difficult terrain and applies disadvantage to anyone attacking up there. Or just fog that reduces visibility to 30ft.
Vine blight ambush, specifically targeting the bird with their entanglements. The Tree senses the tactics being used and starts to adapt its defences.
If the encounter is in a healthy forest you could easily say that the tree canopy gives full or 3/4 cover, and "only" half cover when flying in the upper branches (aka well within range), effectively forcing the flyer to stay in reach of the blights using completely natural means that make sense in any setting. Of course, if the flyer has increased speed and can dart up and down through the branches at will, you'll have given them an advantage because they can "hide" in full cover and out of reach, but such is the dangernof having flying characters.
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.
Being 70 feet in the air away from the party seems like a perfect scenario for something awful to happen as a result of the party being so vastly spaced out.
As others you have said use your environment to limit his flight or have things occur that give him pause to move so far away from the party. He is no position to lend aid to anyone or get help with anything he may encounter, so use that.
You could always discourage that by throwing in a wandering, flying monster. A couple of Cockatrice, or a single Harpy, flying along minding their own business when they spot a lone, and distracted, flying Aarakocra above the treeline. Normally they wouldn't even notice or try for things under the tree line as it would hamper their flight tactics.
But now there is easy pickings.
If the Aarakocra flies back into the trees or ground level, then the wandering monster might just move on. Or maybe join the fry but in a way that the rest of the party can help.