To those saying Aarakocra, it depends on how much of the campaign is outdoors. Indoors where flight speed is a lot less relevant, they are not so fantastic.
And even outdoors, fine, the right build flies at 70'. Now, what does the rest of the party do? And apparently there is no cover outdoors for enemies to shield themselves behind or under? And enemies have no ranged weapons of their own?
I get that its something you can design around as a DM (as you can potentially design around just about anything that seems OP), but a fly speed at early level is such a game changer for exploration, especially if you are playing an official module rather than a homebrew setting.
Again, depends on how visible things are from the air. Open sea, sure, but any hostile ship could see them, too and long before the Aarakocra would be able to ID ship ownership. Open plains, again, sure. However both those would be very specific campaign settings.
Forest? Could spot clearings but seeing what is in them would require getting danger close. And the creatures could just retreat into the tree cover if needed.
The Aarakocra character could fly on ahead for a mini solo run, but that is notoriously a bad idea.
We could go on for hours about situations where flying could be helpful/OP and possible ways DM could combat it, but lets just look at it this way:
Fly is very useful and (imo) a must have for casters who can prepare it, if for no other reason that exploration. You can cross ravines or traps or large bodies of terrain without issue. It can be helpful in combat as well, depending on how you use it. Ultimately, though, it will allow you to circumvent most obstacles based around terrain or battlefield layout.
I do not think the spell is overpowered, but now compare it to flying as a racial trait. You do not risk dropping concentration and dropping out of the sky every time you are hit with an attack. You do not need to expend a spell slot and you do not have a time limit. The only thing that makes Fly potentially better than the racial trait is that you can choose to cast it on someone else and multiple creatures for higher level spell slots. Otherwise, for single creatures, being able to fly at will forever without concentration is undoubtedly better than its spell counterpart. Furthermore, you have access to this flight at level one, whereas the spell is 3rd level and would normally require a caster who is at least level 5.
Finally, as you have pointed out there are plenty of ways to (re)design encounters to make sure they are challenging for PCs that can fly, but no other racial trait requires that amount of attention or speculation, so that is what makes it OP.
Again, all outdoors. Not indoors.
Unless the indoor place has, ceilings that are 15ft or higher. Not all buildings for sure, but there are still plenty of "indoor" rooms you could make use of a fly speed well to either avoid melee enemies or traps altogether. Great halls, sanctuaries, ballrooms, theaters, caves/caverns, etc.
Fly at will 'forever.' You and what party? If the entire party are Aarakocra, sure, but then the DM will be writing a campaign for a party of Aarakocra. Most likely there is one Aarakocra. And they cannot strategically airlift the entire party. Nor can they fly 'forever' any more than anyone can simply march forever.
I mean with the new options available now you could feasibly have an entire party of flyers at this point, each playing a different race.
Also, why cant the flying race airlift the entire party? Can they not carry them one by one? As long as they dont dump their Str score altogether, lifting an adventurer isnt that much of a feat. Instead of the party taking the time to try and make skill checks to overcome the obstacle, they can just take a few minutes while the flying PC ferries them all around it.
Finally, the duration an Aaracokra can fly for may not be "forever" but its alot longer than 10 minutes, which is all you get from the fly spell.
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I'm in agreement with many others. Yuan-ti probably has the biggest racial advantages that scale.
I think both Custom Lineage and Variant Human are worth mentioning just for how powerful feats can be and to get one out the gate while most wait for level 4 is powerful. Particularly when you can hand pick any without a different racial pre-requisite to boost your exact build. Custom Lineage, of course, lets you hand pick a stat for +2 which is also crazy good.
Bugbear is very strong with the Gloomstalker, Assassin, Fighter build but people need to go for those exact builds or restrain themselves to a few other very specific builds to pull it off while the Yuan-Ti feels like it's traits apply well to just about anything.
I do see people's problems with the fly speed and how much it can be problematic when DM's are forced to adjust their game to make sure a flyer is accounted for and they don't have an encounter of pure melee fighters getting picked off by the flyer at the PC's leisure while the rest of the party sit back, but I feel like the ability doesn't scale and higher level encounters more easily see a natural flyer turned into a pincushion or target practice for a mage that might think a spell preventing movement could be amusing. Wings being limbs can be tricky for certain spells such as "disguise self" and restrict options there. Between abilities, spells and magic items, most of the party will probably have flying options in later game anyway.
Let's look at the big picture to put an end to this arguement.
A true roleplaying game is a form of sandbox, campaign books are simply supplements. As someone who have been playing since before the purchase of DnD by WoTC, i have almost exclusively been playing Forgotten Realms setting, our games usually contain between from anywhere from none to thirty campaign source books, depending on the time/year and location game takes place.
A race like Aarakocra, could easily become a dominant race, even Avariels could(that is why Avariels were hunted down anyway, since they were seen as a threat by superior races). Then why did not Dragons see Avariel as a threat? Simply because normally a few decades is not enough for majority of people to reach high levels. Humans are known to be the most adaptable race, and even for them a decade or two is rarely enough to reach even level 10 if they take on the path of adventuring as their lfiestyle. That is probably why above 95 percent of humans living in Forgotten Realms is either level 1 or 0 in lore. Then again even in low levels, an Aarakocra society could easily thrive in many regions of faerun. Like mountain systems surrounded by grasslands, Giant's plain, Greenfields, Mulhorand and ofcourse steppes of Kara-Tur are just some examples, think of Aarakocra warbands with archers and a twilight cleric who patrol plains at night, no race can withhold raiding of such parties in steppes. Unless they confine themselves to the safety of a mithral. So yes, Aarakocra are not balanced mechanically, but they do not have to, as they are sentient, and not innately evil, they can be reasoned with, they are not enemy of other good, netural species. Why see it as a threat. They are not interested in nation building either. As they are wise, they understand there are many people who are paranoid and can unite against these flying cuties...
Avariels are a whole different subject, they did try to thrive and was seen as a threat by dragons and was almost gone extinct. Giants made war with Dragons in the early days of realms and result is somewhat uncleari but we can assume Dragons win in a way. Elves warred with Giants and took their Heaven Arborea as their own. So it was only natural that these races could clash at some point, and dragons seen Avariel as the most iminnent threat, and dealt with it. Given the proper time we might assume the result could be different, Avariels were ignorant, as unlike their cousins they weren't aware of their weaknesses and reveled in their ability to fly, as proven by their religion they worship of Aerdrie almost exclusively as she is their patron deity. They worship the deity who saved them from extinction, that sounds reasonable but does not solve their problem, Mithrien's knowledge of Mithral could extend to them if they payed their respects properly, Araleth, Sehanine and Labelas could guide them if they payed their respect properly, Solonor and Corellon could defend them if they payed their respect properly...list goes on. They relied to heavily upon their physical capabilities thus their mental capabilities did not evolve enough.
So when roleplaying an Avariel one must not think like a human, think about how these flying creatures think, their primary reaction to confrontation is first to escape, and most of them are not warlike so they will probably won't return for an attack. Unless something they care is in danger.
Aarakocra, some tribes have warrior cultures so they probably won't hesitate to attack as much as Avariel, but then again, the appendige called wing is fragile and takes great time to heal, and time is valuable for Aarakocra.
Let's look at the big picture to put an end to this arguement.
A true roleplaying game is a form of sandbox, campaign books are simply supplements. As someone who have been playing since before the purchase of DnD by WoTC, i have almost exclusively been playing Forgotten Realms setting, our games usually contain between from anywhere from none to thirty campaign source books, depending on the time/year and location game takes place.
A race like Aarakocra, could easily become a dominant race...
They're discussing rules and game mechanics for races as PCs to play, not the superiority of any race in the fictional storyline or world setting.
Specifically, they're now arguing if the "Flight" property on Aarakocra (and some other races) is OP and broken for a racial benefit.
I'll only note that Adventurer's League pretty much banned "Races with flight at 1st level" for a while, although I don't think I've seen such a restriction since AL Player's Guide 9.1 when there were probably only Aarakocra and Winged Tieflings which were covered by that.
I had some other responses typed out, but in retrospect I think that neither of us stands to gain much by continuing this argument.
It is my opinion that getting flying at 1st level is too powerful. You (and some others) clearly do not share that opinion, and thats fine. The thread is asking our opinions on what the most overpowered races are, and I gave mine. We should just agree to disagree and leave it at that.
Yeah, that is why i said let's look at the bigger picture, rulewise all dnd games are set in a fictional storyline or world setting(cept for some larp perhaps).
Rules are not only about number crunching, roleplaying too has some written rules (like you can not act evil on a whim while writing lawful good on your character sheet, if you are without an ingame reason then you are simply not roleplaying, but just sprouting nonsense in a friendly gathering)
Balance issues regarding the power of races are not really an issue if they write it in a proper way in their culture. For example a race might be too powerful in combat yet might be peaceful and their race might have only a few if any divergents. In this case, players who choose this race as a template for their powerplay character clearly shows their intention is to powerplay rather than roleplay and that they probably have inferiority complexes. I am not at odds with AL about banning flying races tbh, as players do not really need to be able enter the game as any race present in a given setting, but consumption psychology of newer generations again, show itself, as the constantly ask for new playable races without even learning to play one properly, roleplaying a nonhuman race requires to understand how that race respons differently than humans to stimuli, how their culture is weaved, and perhaps a bit of history. Otherwise you are just using it for powerplaying purposes, and by all means this game is called "fantasy roleplaying" not "fatntasy powerplaying".
Immunity to disease and resistance to both poison damage and the Poisoned condition.
+1 to AC and armor that cannot be removed by conventional means. A clever player can easily arrange it so that the Warforged character is near-impossible to totally disarm by anything short of a Charm spell + good Persuasion.
Unless the indoor place has, ceilings that are 15ft or higher. Not all buildings for sure, but there are still plenty of "indoor" rooms you could make use of a fly speed well to either avoid melee enemies or traps altogether. Great halls, sanctuaries, ballrooms, theaters, caves/caverns, etc.
I mean with the new options available now you could feasibly have an entire party of flyers at this point, each playing a different race.
Also, why cant the flying race airlift the entire party? Can they not carry them one by one? As long as they dont dump their Str score altogether, lifting an adventurer isnt that much of a feat. Instead of the party taking the time to try and make skill checks to overcome the obstacle, they can just take a few minutes while the flying PC ferries them all around it.
Finally, the duration an Aaracokra can fly for may not be "forever" but its alot longer than 10 minutes, which is all you get from the fly spell.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I'm in agreement with many others. Yuan-ti probably has the biggest racial advantages that scale.
I think both Custom Lineage and Variant Human are worth mentioning just for how powerful feats can be and to get one out the gate while most wait for level 4 is powerful. Particularly when you can hand pick any without a different racial pre-requisite to boost your exact build. Custom Lineage, of course, lets you hand pick a stat for +2 which is also crazy good.
Bugbear is very strong with the Gloomstalker, Assassin, Fighter build but people need to go for those exact builds or restrain themselves to a few other very specific builds to pull it off while the Yuan-Ti feels like it's traits apply well to just about anything.
I do see people's problems with the fly speed and how much it can be problematic when DM's are forced to adjust their game to make sure a flyer is accounted for and they don't have an encounter of pure melee fighters getting picked off by the flyer at the PC's leisure while the rest of the party sit back, but I feel like the ability doesn't scale and higher level encounters more easily see a natural flyer turned into a pincushion or target practice for a mage that might think a spell preventing movement could be amusing. Wings being limbs can be tricky for certain spells such as "disguise self" and restrict options there. Between abilities, spells and magic items, most of the party will probably have flying options in later game anyway.
Let's look at the big picture to put an end to this arguement.
A true roleplaying game is a form of sandbox, campaign books are simply supplements. As someone who have been playing since before the purchase of DnD by WoTC, i have almost exclusively been playing Forgotten Realms setting, our games usually contain between from anywhere from none to thirty campaign source books, depending on the time/year and location game takes place.
A race like Aarakocra, could easily become a dominant race, even Avariels could(that is why Avariels were hunted down anyway, since they were seen as a threat by superior races). Then why did not Dragons see Avariel as a threat? Simply because normally a few decades is not enough for majority of people to reach high levels. Humans are known to be the most adaptable race, and even for them a decade or two is rarely enough to reach even level 10 if they take on the path of adventuring as their lfiestyle. That is probably why above 95 percent of humans living in Forgotten Realms is either level 1 or 0 in lore. Then again even in low levels, an Aarakocra society could easily thrive in many regions of faerun. Like mountain systems surrounded by grasslands, Giant's plain, Greenfields, Mulhorand and ofcourse steppes of Kara-Tur are just some examples, think of Aarakocra warbands with archers and a twilight cleric who patrol plains at night, no race can withhold raiding of such parties in steppes. Unless they confine themselves to the safety of a mithral. So yes, Aarakocra are not balanced mechanically, but they do not have to, as they are sentient, and not innately evil, they can be reasoned with, they are not enemy of other good, netural species. Why see it as a threat. They are not interested in nation building either. As they are wise, they understand there are many people who are paranoid and can unite against these flying cuties...
Avariels are a whole different subject, they did try to thrive and was seen as a threat by dragons and was almost gone extinct. Giants made war with Dragons in the early days of realms and result is somewhat uncleari but we can assume Dragons win in a way. Elves warred with Giants and took their Heaven Arborea as their own. So it was only natural that these races could clash at some point, and dragons seen Avariel as the most iminnent threat, and dealt with it. Given the proper time we might assume the result could be different, Avariels were ignorant, as unlike their cousins they weren't aware of their weaknesses and reveled in their ability to fly, as proven by their religion they worship of Aerdrie almost exclusively as she is their patron deity. They worship the deity who saved them from extinction, that sounds reasonable but does not solve their problem, Mithrien's knowledge of Mithral could extend to them if they payed their respects properly, Araleth, Sehanine and Labelas could guide them if they payed their respect properly, Solonor and Corellon could defend them if they payed their respect properly...list goes on. They relied to heavily upon their physical capabilities thus their mental capabilities did not evolve enough.
So when roleplaying an Avariel one must not think like a human, think about how these flying creatures think, their primary reaction to confrontation is first to escape, and most of them are not warlike so they will probably won't return for an attack. Unless something they care is in danger.
Aarakocra, some tribes have warrior cultures so they probably won't hesitate to attack as much as Avariel, but then again, the appendige called wing is fragile and takes great time to heal, and time is valuable for Aarakocra.
They're discussing rules and game mechanics for races as PCs to play, not the superiority of any race in the fictional storyline or world setting.
Specifically, they're now arguing if the "Flight" property on Aarakocra (and some other races) is OP and broken for a racial benefit.
I'll only note that Adventurer's League pretty much banned "Races with flight at 1st level" for a while, although I don't think I've seen such a restriction since AL Player's Guide 9.1 when there were probably only Aarakocra and Winged Tieflings which were covered by that.
I had some other responses typed out, but in retrospect I think that neither of us stands to gain much by continuing this argument.
It is my opinion that getting flying at 1st level is too powerful. You (and some others) clearly do not share that opinion, and thats fine. The thread is asking our opinions on what the most overpowered races are, and I gave mine. We should just agree to disagree and leave it at that.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Yeah, that is why i said let's look at the bigger picture, rulewise all dnd games are set in a fictional storyline or world setting(cept for some larp perhaps).
Rules are not only about number crunching, roleplaying too has some written rules (like you can not act evil on a whim while writing lawful good on your character sheet, if you are without an ingame reason then you are simply not roleplaying, but just sprouting nonsense in a friendly gathering)
Balance issues regarding the power of races are not really an issue if they write it in a proper way in their culture. For example a race might be too powerful in combat yet might be peaceful and their race might have only a few if any divergents. In this case, players who choose this race as a template for their powerplay character clearly shows their intention is to powerplay rather than roleplay and that they probably have inferiority complexes. I am not at odds with AL about banning flying races tbh, as players do not really need to be able enter the game as any race present in a given setting, but consumption psychology of newer generations again, show itself, as the constantly ask for new playable races without even learning to play one properly, roleplaying a nonhuman race requires to understand how that race respons differently than humans to stimuli, how their culture is weaved, and perhaps a bit of history. Otherwise you are just using it for powerplaying purposes, and by all means this game is called "fantasy roleplaying" not "fatntasy powerplaying".
Warforged.
No need to breathe, eat or sleep.
Cannot be put to sleep.
Immunity to disease and resistance to both poison damage and the Poisoned condition.
+1 to AC and armor that cannot be removed by conventional means. A clever player can easily arrange it so that the Warforged character is near-impossible to totally disarm by anything short of a Charm spell + good Persuasion.
my caricter has plus 6 to stragth at leval 5 so i might be abel to tell you sumthing damper lineidg gem dragon born race bar barean class