windlings. why them ?

[Kremlin KOA]

[galafrone]

they dont have nothing like that
they are
1) swordmaster orc 5
2) warrior orc 5
3) scout human 5/ shaman 2
4) thief windling 5

so the windlinglong is the only "air menace"

[ragbasti]

Another nice thing:

let them fight a nethermancer and he can turn a bunch of nightflyers against your windling while dealing with the rest of the group ^^

Fighting 5+ owls/bat/et. should keep him busy

[Bastet]

One other thing I haven't seen discussed as of yet is the fact that windings cannot sustain flight for long periods of time. In Namegivers of Barsaive, "On How Flight Makes a Windling," it says "flight tires them out as much as swimming or running might tire a human or an elf." Players Guide gives 20 minutes and then they start taking strain.

Imagine trying to hold a bow steady or reciting a poem (casting a spell) without panting after running wind sprints...

Cheers!
Dawn

[ragbasti]

true, however which fights last more than 20 mis if a single combat round is ~6 seconds

[galafrone]

exactly my problem, and since i gave him a zoak, the problem he is always "fresh" at combat start.
it's also true that even without zoak the windling could be always fresh, since he can just travel on the shoulder of another PC, or on the saddle of a horse sharing the ride..
so the 20 minutes arent really a problem.
a windling will ALWAYS be fine for all the combat, unless you put up a situation where the combat starts at the 19th minute of continuos flight of the windling

[Flagg]

Any racial ability that provokes long discussions on how to mitigate it is probably un-balanced.

[Penagain]

The only time I ever feared wIndling flight was my very first campaign (so very long ago), where a windling Nethermancer seemed far too easy to get into Spirit Grip position. (Yes, I know. I missed the racial restrictions on my first game. Oops.)

Since then... and the irrational panic I had about it... I don't know, it went away. We play plenty of sessions underground or in forests/jungles, and flight just isn't that useful in those situations. Even in cities, our windlings tend to get into MORE trouble because of flight, not less. Yes, floor and wire traps are less of a pain for them, but there are so any more exciting traps out there

[galafrone]

well, at least the long discussions can be sources for subsequent changes or just for ideas.
i really love the idea that a post i made has transformed in a 4 pages long thread
my windling pc is less happy toh

[thezombiekat]

For combat the simple answer is to always give the enemy’s a ranged option. I do that wether there is a windling or not. It makes sense for the a combat force to keep its options open in this way most horrors and constructs have spells, even gnashers can jump far higher than you would expect, and bows are redaly avaliable. Flying out of range of melee means flying away from most of the cover (unless you’re in a forest)

The windlings ability to scout is very useful but not game breaking. Ok he spots a few ambushes but as often as the enemy hides behind stone walls it will hide under bushes, or see him and shoot arrows at him, windlings don’t have hawk vision or any other way to see things a long way away so if he is close enough to see them they can see him, there is no concealment while flying (he couldn’t spot anything from the clouds)

When the adventure calls for a difficult to climb cliff or similar obstacle the windling can just fly, but that doesn’t get the party up. The windling can’t carry them. He could bring up a rope to make it easier for the others but that’s no different from one player having high climb and doing the same thing.

One thing I would not do is take away his wings, it destroys windlings, and most die from the psychological effects. This game doesn’t have ways to restore lost limbs and there are no prosthetics available for wings so the loss of a wing is worse than the loss of a limb to a human. It’s closer to the crippling of a musician, who has no purpose other than music.

The final point I would make is that at 5th circle flight is not limited to windlings. The illusionist spell flying carpet allows everybody in the party to fly, wizards have a flight spell for there own use and nethermancers have been able to turn themselves into flying creatures for some time.

Edward