ADVENTURES IN THE AIR

To be able to fly is one of mankind's oldest and strongest fantasies. In the world of AD&D, this wish can often be fulfilled. However, travel and combat in the air is often much different from that which takes place in the two-dimensional realm of the earthbound, so much so that it must needs have a special section devoted to it.

AERIAL TRAVEL

Long-distance aerial travel can be accomplished by use of either magical device or flying mount. Certain magic items (such as a broom or carpet of flying) do not have limited duration of use, and thus are the most efficient forms of such travel (though a broom of flying may not be very comfortable to use for hours on end).

Your players may want to know how far they can go in a day on a flying carpet (or other similar device). 

For the purposes of long distance aerial travel, assume every 3" of speed equals one mile per hour. 

Thus, a broom of flying, with a speed of 30", can fly long distances at an average speed of 10 m.p.h., and can cover about 100 miles in a day (assuming ten hours of semi-continuous travel during daylight). The above formula does not necessarily apply to short-distance travel.

FLYING MOUNTS

All flying mounts must rest one hour for every three they fly, and they can never fly more than nine hours a day. 

During their rest periods they will eat as if famished: this means meat for griffons or hippogriffs, and green living plants, preferably of a succulent nature, or fine hay and oats, for pegasi.

To be able to fight while flying any aerial mount requires considerable practice.

To become adept at aerial archery entails at least two months of continual practice (Cf. AERIAL COMBAT, Aerial Missile Fire).

As a final note, remember that heroic aviators who leap into the saddle of their hippogriff and rise to battle without taking a couple of rounds to strap in will tend to fall out in the first round of melee, and it is 1-6 hit points of damage for every ten feet they fall (up to a maximum 20-120 points).

AERIAL COMBAT

Most creatures which can fly do so by means of wings, either natural or magically augmented (as in such inherently magical beings as demons and devils, dragons, griffons, etc.). Most winged creatures must be constantly flapping their wings to provide enough thrust to keep their weight in the air.

Some creatures are light enough and powerful enough to allow them to actually hover in one place, but most must be constantly moving forward. This means that aerial combat is nearly always going to be a swoop and slash, hit and-run affair. 

Grappling of opponents in the air will generally result in both of them plummeting to the ground, unless they are at a high altitude and disengage almost immediately. Even then, it is a risky business. Only beings with the ability to hover (gained either through quick and powerful wings or some form of magical flight) will be able to engage in combat that resembles the round-after-round melee system employed in ground battle.

It will therefore be seen that maneuverability is of prime importance in conducting aerial combat. Flying combatants—whether they are eagles or dragons, men mounted on broomsticks, or hippogriffs—must make attack passes at their opponents, wheel about in the air, and attack again. Those which are more maneuverable will be able to change direction and speed in a shorter time than those which are less maneuverable, and thus have some advantage in pursuit and avoidance. To conduct an aerial battle, a DM must know the speed, maneuverability and attack modes of each creature involved.

MANEUVERABILITY

Naturally, every type of flying creature maneuvers differently from every other type, but in order to make the game playable and aerial combat possible, maneuverability has been broken down into five classes. These vary from A to E, most maneuverable to least maneuverable. Note that the stated amount the creature can turn per round assumes that the creature is moving at full speed.

— Creatures moving at half speed turn as one class better. 

— Winged creatures cannot move at less than one-half speed and remain airborne (except for class B).

CONDUCTING COMBAT

Conducting aerial combat will be much simplified if the DM will remember that most flying monsters simply cannot execute complicated maneuvers like barrel rolls or loop-the-loops. Most can do nothing more than climb, dive and/or turn, and all of these actions are easily simulated and quantified using speed and maneuverability classes.

There are two methods you can use to conduct aerial combat. The first way is simple but less accurate. The second method is more accurate but requires the use of hex paper or a hex map. Though both can be done on paper, the best way to visualize the relative positions of the combatants is to employ miniature figures or paper counters. A running record of absolute (or relative) altitude should be kept, either on a separate sheet or on a small piece of paper under each figure or counter.

The simple method is to move each flyer in the direction they are facing at the beginning of the move, and execute the turn at the end by simply refacing the flyer in its new direction. Speed would be in actual inches of movement, or some ratio thereof.

A more accurate method entails the use of hex paper so that actual are turns can be indicated, and so that these turns may take place at any time during a move.

Turns will actually take place through several hexes (the only exceptions to this are creatures from the elemental plane of air, which can turn on a dime in any direction they wish). A turn need not be executed through consecutive hexes. 

To illustrate, here are possible variant turns for a class B flyer, which can turn up to 120° in one round:

The orders for the first example would read: Straight 1, right 60°, straight 3, right 60°, straight 1.

— Each flyer can move 1 hex per 3" of speed; 

thus, a gargoyle, with a speed of 15", could move 5 hexes, while a griffon, with a speed of 30", could move 10. Keep in mind climbing and diving speed alterations.

In both the simple and complex methods, movement should be simultaneous. If there are several players involved, you may wish to have them write out their moves ahead of time (the DM, of course, is not obligated to do this). It two opponents are clearly making for each other, and it is within their ability to intercept but their written orders would cause them to miss, some slight adjustment should be made.

AERIAL MISSILE FIRE

— For all missiles fired in the air, treat short range as medium (-2 to hit) and medium range as long (-5 to hit) as pertains to chance of hitting. Fire at objects at long range will always miss. 

The above applies to missile firers on flying mounts or using a broom or wings of flying only if they have spent several months in practice. Otherwise, they will not be able to hit at all. The range penalties also apply to missile-firing creatures such as manticores (treat as composite long bow as pertains to range). 

Note that the above applies only to those who are moving. 

Those hovering with a fly spell or on a carpet of flying will suffer no penalties. Those levitating will be penalized as delineated in earlier subsection Attack Modes, Men: Levitation. [See the Flying Creatures subpage.]

Dragons and similar creatures with breath weapons (such as chimerae) will have a slightly harder time hitting other flying creatures. For this reason, moving aerial targets of flying dragons add +2 to their saving throws.

DAMAGE TO FLYING CREATURES

— Any winged creature which sustains damage greater than 50% of its hit points will be unable to maintain flight and must land. 

— Any winged creature which sustains more than 75% damage will not even be able to control its fall, and will plummet to the ground. 

— Feathered wings are not as easy to damage as membranous wings, and in flight should be given an extra hit point value equal to one-half the normal hit points of the creature they support, for the purpose of figuring how much damage need be taken before the creature can no longer fly.

This simulates damage to the wings, as in aerial combat, the wings will be a prime point of vulnerability. 

Thus, a griffon with 30 hit points would add an additional illusory 15 points in aerial combat, for a flight-damage total of 45, and thus would be able to take 23 points of damage before it would be forced to land. 

In contrast, a membrane-winged creature like a succubus with 30 hit points would only be able to sustain 15 points of damage before it could no longer fly. Under no conditions are the extra flight-damage points to be added to the monster's actual hit points for the purpose of absorbing damage. A flying monster will only be able to sustain the normal amount of damage it usually takes in order to incapacitate or kill it, i.e., if the exemplary griffon above takes 31 points of damage from dragon breath, it is dead.