I've seen this problem so many times that I just have to address it. Too many times have I seen homebrews with largely overpowered racial flight and too many times have I seen people scream as they try to get a point through that flying at-will, unrestricted, at heroic tier is overpowered. I've been wanting to say this for a long time: YOU ARE BOTH RIGHT! That homebrew should be allowed to fly and THERE IS A WAY TO GRANT A RACE THE FLAVOUR OF FLIGHT WITHOUT MAKING IT OVERPOWERED. Before I go on I want to quote Fireclave's Guide to Race Mechanic Creation. These are his two cents on flight:
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"Flight is one of the things 4e, with its emphasis on short-ranged skirmishes, does not handle very well. Very, very few things in the game grant flight in any form, and fewer still grant at-will flight. What few flight enablers are in the game typically do appear any earlier than mid paragon.
Flight can be very powerful in the hands of a PC. PCs that can fly can ignore ground-based traps and trivialize combat with melee ranged monsters who are left with few, if any, ways of fighting back. This makes it harder for the DM to plan level-appropriate encounters.
As a general rule, PCs races should not start with at-will flight of any type, including overland flight. At most, racial flight should either be granted in very limited duration, most likely in the form of a short duration encounter power, or barring that, a form of flight with a max altitude that does not actually take them out of melee reach.
However, there is precedence for flight at-will flight being available at higher levels. The Scion of Arkhosia path (PH2), the Favored Soul (DP), and the Flying Carpet (PH), all grant at-will flight by 16th level (in the case of the carpet, lvl 16 is the earliest you could find the item in treasure parcels). The former grants a fast at-will overland flight and per encounter flight power, while the latter two grant combat-capable flight. It seems that, for now at least, level 16 is the bench mark for granting at-will flight capabilities.
If you want to grant your race more flight earlier than that, you are either going to have to get very creative in giving the flight limitation, or accept that the race will have a very powerful and potentially very unbalancing ability..."
Flight can be very powerful in the hands of a PC. PCs that can fly can ignore ground-based traps and trivialize combat with melee ranged monsters who are left with few, if any, ways of fighting back. This makes it harder for the DM to plan level-appropriate encounters.
As a general rule, PCs races should not start with at-will flight of any type, including overland flight. At most, racial flight should either be granted in very limited duration, most likely in the form of a short duration encounter power, or barring that, a form of flight with a max altitude that does not actually take them out of melee reach.
However, there is precedence for flight at-will flight being available at higher levels. The Scion of Arkhosia path (PH2), the Favored Soul (DP), and the Flying Carpet (PH), all grant at-will flight by 16th level (in the case of the carpet, lvl 16 is the earliest you could find the item in treasure parcels). The former grants a fast at-will overland flight and per encounter flight power, while the latter two grant combat-capable flight. It seems that, for now at least, level 16 is the bench mark for granting at-will flight capabilities.
If you want to grant your race more flight earlier than that, you are either going to have to get very creative in giving the flight limitation, or accept that the race will have a very powerful and potentially very unbalancing ability..."
However, there are a couple of practical problems. The amound of wind power it takes to project a human in the air means that (as already stated) only a powerful magic user fly, but also doing so is very dangerous - flying in enclosed spaces or near hindering terrain can result in injury or death. Furthermore, summoning the power to fly while underground or indoors is very difficult, because the earth element counters wind magic. (Similarly, an earthcrafter who loses contact with the ground or stone floor can no longer call on his earth furies.)
What this means to me is that:
- Overland flight is probably not broken at early levels, and can be justified through story elements
- Early level at-will in-combat flight may become more "balanced" if risk of combat advantage or damage are involved
Just some thoughts.
Gadren, I've finished looking at your race and I really like it. Expect a big post from me soon, I've got a few comments, praises and ideas to throw in ;)
What this means to me is that:
- Overland flight is probably not broken at early levels, and can be justified through story elements
I have no idea how you reached that conclusion. Thematic justification has absolutely nothing to do with mechanical balance.
- Early level at-will in-combat flight may become more "balanced" if risk of combat advantage or damage are involved
Be very careful of trying to balance bonuses with penalties. Remember, that's the whole reason that races don't have ability score penalties anymore in 4E. It sounds balanced in theory, but the majority of the time, it just leads to racial pigeon-holing.
This is true, whenever a group utilizes a broken or overpowered element the DM finds a way to counter it. If my whole group where flying I would look at it as a challenge more than anything else.
But not all DMs would. Many DMs would look at it as an annoyance and restriction. Seriously, any time a mechanic is so significant that the DM needs to design every encounter and possibly even alter the story around taking it into account, there's probably something wrong with the mechanic.
Funny that not once in that entire post did I ever mention "altitude limiting flight", even the I did quote somone that did.
Happy flying!