Aerial Combat Tips?

[kalasulmar]

I'm about to run the "final" fight in my group's current quest and it will feature a fairly large scale aerial combat sequence. The pcs will have access to pegasi and be fighting against furies and a cavalier/ antipaladin on a flying mount. Any advice on keeping the 3d confusion to a minimum would be helpful.

[atemu1234]

Unfortunately, there seem to be few responses because 3d combat is always confusing. You could try being description heavy, but be careful. If you branch into advanced trigonometry, you've gone too far :smallbiggrin:.

[kalasulmar]

That's what I was afraid of. Thanks anyway. Maybe it won't turn into one giant math problem.

[Elricaltovilla]

Do you have any stackable chips like poker chips, checkers pieces or something similar? If you use a grid Map, you could stack those under your minis with each chip representing x ft. Of altitude.

[Bane-Wordsmith]

Do you have any stackable chips like poker chips, checkers pieces or something similar? If you use a grid Map, you could stack those under your minis with each chip representing x ft. Of altitude.

I think that's a brilliant idea.

[Psyren]

You can also use dice, if you have a few that are slightly larger than average. D6s or D20s work best for this - put the mini on top, and the upward face * 5 = height off the ground. Scale up as needed for truly large aerial combats. (For example, a d6 could get you 5ft.-30ft. up, while a d20 could get you 5ft.-100ft.)

[Dormammu]

Do you have any stackable chips like poker chips, checkers pieces or something similar?

I had GM who did all his combat minis in Legos. For flying he used stacks of clear blocks under the creatures. It worked great. Just physically measure the distance.

[Agent 451]

There are a few commercial products that help track this as well: http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/elevate-your-game-tracking-airborne-minis/. If you don't have time/money to get an elevation indicator, you can make your own fairly quickly and quite inexpensively using the cardboard rollers from empty paper towel rolls or toilet paper.

Cut the rolls down to whatever size you feel works best, and make four incisions in one end. Fold these inward and glue or tape them together (you can also cut notches in them and slide them together for added support).

Measure and label the roll with height values and lines; this works best if you have four instances written for each height, so it is visible from any angle. Labeling each division a different color from the ones directly above or below it also helps with legibility.

Finally, to keep track of height during a gaming session, just grab a pack of elastic bands with assorted colors, or even multicolored packs of hair bands/elastics.