The Sounds of Magical Flight

[Nifft]

Forked from this thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?537158-question-about-move-silently-and-flight

Having established that magical flight does NOT grant you a free pass on moving silently, it becomes relevant to ask what kind of noises are heard due to the various types of magical flight.

Some ideas from the previous thread:

- Beholders have no Move Silently ability: they are antithetical to natural laws, and their powers & movement causes a sound like radio static.

- Demi-Liches "fly" through the power of the consumed souls in their gemstone teeth, and their flight is accompanied by ominous Latin chanting.

- The Fly spell has a feather as the Arcane Focus, and only provides Good maneuverability -- therefore you get spectral bird wings, with accompanying spectral bird noises.

- The Fell Flight invocation (Warlock) creates a billowing black cape which snaps dramatically in the wind. If there is no wind, this billowing and snapping cape must seem even more dramatic.


What other types of magical flight have interesting associated sounds?

[Westhart]

Phoenix Cloak: The sound of a burning pyre in the distance, just on the edge of hearing.
Alternately the sound of something gliding in for the kill (do birds make sounds when they do that? :smallconfused:; if so it would have to be really quiet...)

[Hellpyre]

I'm fond of the idea that it's mostly just the sound of smacking into bugs and cursing

[Albions_Angel]

Well it doesnt make you immune to wind. So for most casters, the sound of the wind flapping through their clothing would be enough. Ever heard a flag in a stiff breeze? Now you may say "But what if they wear tight fitting clothing?" Well, tight fitting clothing is relatively modern. A lot of the things we have that fit tightly and comfortably are synthetic. Any caster that goes out of their way to make clothes that dont flap in the wind will have to expend resources to do so... and it just so happens that you can get muffled armor and such that helps with that. I would allow those mods to be applied to clothing as well as armor.

Theres also the sound of them just displacing air. Soft, but always there.

[Deophaun]

We already know what it sounds like. Back in the 1950's, special effects were primitive, so Warner Bros actually had to track down a wizard to cast fly on George Reeves while filming Adventures of Superman. Every time he took to the air, this sound like a brass section would go off. They couldn't figure out how to get rid of it, so instead they pretended it was a theme song and added in the sound of rushing wind to hide it later.

[KillianHawkeye]

In general, I imagine it as a "whooshing" sound.

[Feantar]

Forked from this thread:
- The Fly spell has a feather as the Arcane Focus, and only provides Good maneuverability -- therefore you get spectral bird wings, with accompanying spectral bird noises.

Wait, wait, wait. Fly has a focus component of a wing feather from any bird. Is the sound correlated with the bird?

What I am asking is, can I have a wizard that makes the sound of a clucking chicken when he flies? To wit, a spectral clucking at that? A ghost of chickens past?

Can I?

Please?

[SirNibbles]

Well it doesnt make you immune to wind. So for most casters, the sound of the wind flapping through their clothing would be enough. Ever heard a flag in a stiff breeze? Now you may say "But what if they wear tight fitting clothing?" Well, tight fitting clothing is relatively modern. A lot of the things we have that fit tightly and comfortably are synthetic. Any caster that goes out of their way to make clothes that dont flap in the wind will have to expend resources to do so... and it just so happens that you can get muffled armor and such that helps with that. I would allow those mods to be applied to clothing as well as armor.

Theres also the sound of them just displacing air. Soft, but always there.

The sound of air being displaced is not that loud if you're going under the speed of sound. As you get larger it becomes more noticeable but it's still pretty insignificant most of the time.