I am less bothered by flying PCs. There are lots of situations where it’s not an advantage: Confined spaces and social situations both come to mind, as would any situation requiring a disguise. I’m also a firm believer in “combined arms” so I tend to make most combats involve some missile or spell enemies enemies. The flyer—who will often be lacking in cover—will typically be drawing some extra fire. In combats they’re not, the grounded allies will be often taking more damage, which is likely to balance out reasonably well.

I do think that for an inexperienced DM this can be a problem, though, so DMs should definitely think twice about allowing a flyer PC, or just try them on a provisional basis, say in a one shot.

Oooh, thanks for cluing me in to those expanded Racial feats. My Kobold just hit level four at the end of my last session, and he’s been having a persistent problem with climbing and mobility…

I get the advantage but I guess I just don’t find it an insurmountable one and would have no real problem allowing an avariel in my game. That said, I’m an experienced DM who always tailors encounters that are written in a published adventure to the party so a noob might want to avoid that.

I just don’t want to be around ultra-entitled players at all.

I hear you on this, and I’d like to see a little advice for DMs and players around how to deal with flying PCs.

BUT– those ultra-entitled players are eventually going to become a problem in your game regardless of the race options, I’d wager. They don’t sound very fun to play with.

Obviously there are scenarios where flight is an incredible advantage, and it takes a bit more work to let those flying PCs feel successful while not circumventing too much or making other characters feel underpowered.

But at the end of the day, flying character races are represented in fantasy fiction, so I’d like a way to include them in my games.

I still remember when someone really wanted to play a Dragonborn in our Birthright campaign. Coming up with the justification for that was pretty fun (we went with an ancient race of humans who were enslaved and modified by a dragon and only recently liberated)

I mean, in my own game, players assume that everything in the PH is legal, and everything not in the PH requires approval, unless I made it myself. As it happens, I’ve written more than a dozen new subclasses and a couple of new classes, so they have tons of options that they don’t need to clear with me. =)

Huh. I really, really wouldn’t do that in a game I was running. For example, if I were running a campaign set in Athas, I’d ask players to meet me halfway and play characters that were appropriate to Athas. Or, you know, the cleric of Pelor just doesn’t get spells or class features, because those things don’t work on Athas. Also everyone thinks he’s just making up new gods and reports him to the templars.

Your mileage obviously varies. =) You do you.