What builds make good use of a winged tielfing or aasimar?

[Rfkannen]

So in adventurer's league season 9, you can play a winged aasimar or tiefling. Basically get rid of the racial spellcasting of tieflings and the transformation power of aasimar, and replace it with a fly speed.

This is a pretty neat thing, letting you play a winged race (I know none of the gms i have played with have ever allowed a flying race)

What are some cool ways to take advantage of it? What types of character use a fly speed well?

[Man_Over_Game]

So in adventurer's league season 9, you can play a winged aasimar or tiefling. Basically get rid of the racial spellcasting of tieflings and the transformation power of aasimar, and replace it with a fly speed.

This is a pretty neat thing, letting you play a winged race (I know none of the gms i have played with have ever allowed a flying race)

What are some cool ways to take advantage of it? What types of character use a fly speed well?

I think Monks in particular are the best flying characters in the game, as:

They naturally deflect a flier's main weakness of ranged attacks.
They are naturally adept at making Saving Throws for effects that would normally make you fall (such as Tasha's Laughter or an effect that'd knock you Prone).
They have Slowfall built into the core class.
They can easily Disengage in case they ever do fall to the ground.
Their ranged attacks can scale with their Martial Arts dice.


Beyond a Monk, you'll probably want something with range, whether that means something with a whip/polearm, or a Warlock's Eldritch Smite. Concentration casters in particular would find it beneficial, since they'll be less likely to be attacked while in the air. Weirdly enough, Druids have an interesting synergy with this kind of concept, since most of their Concentration spells have a fairly limited range.

[prototype00]

Hmm, there is a point to be made that a reach vengeance paladin (or Sorcadin) with a glaive, PAM and GWM is pretty decent.

You attack with advantage from 10ft away for extreme damage, and then just fly up to move out of retaliation range of your enemy.

I need to see the level breakdowns for how long it would take to get all the feats though.

prototype00

[BloodSnake'sCha]

I like a sharpshooter or a warlock with Eldrich spear and spell sniper for 600 ft above the ground cover fire character.

Call him orbital bombardment and ask the wizard to cast telepathic bound so your party will be able to call for orbital bombardment :)

If warlock you can take chain and the invention that gives you infinite communication range with you familiar and use an invisible imp as a radio.

[Mandarblade]

I am playing this right now through Avernus and pretty happy with it.

Currently Level 11 Sorcadin:

8 Levels of Draconic Sorcerer, 3 Levels of Vengeance Paladin. With Mobile Feat and SCaG as my +1 for access to Booming Blade. Planning to get to Paladin 6 next for Aura if campaign lasts that long. There is a whole post about Various Sorcadin builds so won't go much more detail.

Start Sorcerer for Con proficiency, take 2 levels of Paladin to earn Smites, then I went all the way to 8 Sorcerer before that extra Paladin Level. My primary attack is Booming blade as many fiends are resistant to Lightning but not Thunder Damage. Mobile allows for hit and run tactics and can be twinned for a single Sorcery Point to hit multiple enemies at once. Can always quicken it as well in a pinch to get an extra hit off. Thanks to mobile anything you attempt to hit in melee can't make an opportunity attack against you so you fly in hit something(s) then fly up or back to force it to move and take the extra booming damage if they want to hit you. Pairs really well with other hit and run team members if you have them.

Key benefits to this build is a lot more resources to apply to Smites when nearly everything in hell qualifies for an extra 1d8 per smite. Can cast haste on yourself for additional AC/movement/action economy.

To reduce my MADness a bit I took my first rare item drop in the game and traded it with another player for a Belt of Hill Giant Strength (Rare) to set my strength to 21 so only need a 13 base stat for Multi-class purposes. Those items are pretty easy to find so if one of your own characters doesn't have one you can ask around.

Some silliness that can be achieved by Level 11 with the right combination of Magic Items:
Static AC of 24
Half Plate +1 = 16
+1 Shield --> 19
+2 Dex Mod --> 21
Ring of Protection--> 22
Staff of Power --> 24

Hasted AC of 26 with option of 31 using Shield spell (Plan to pick up warcaster next level for component issues with Shield spell/opp attack booming blade)

[Wildarm]

So in adventurer's league season 9, you can play a winged aasimar or tiefling. Basically get rid of the racial spellcasting of tieflings and the transformation power of aasimar, and replace it with a fly speed.

This is a pretty neat thing, letting you play a winged race (I know none of the gms i have played with have ever allowed a flying race)

What are some cool ways to take advantage of it? What types of character use a fly speed well?

GWM Barbarian with reckless attack and a reach weapon is a decent choice. Swing hard and fly out of retaliation range.

[GigaGuess]

Hexblade could be fun, too. Decent armour, lay a Hexblade curse on something, then go airborne, raining unholy damage on the poor critter.

[Evaar]

I think Monks in particular are the best flying characters in the game, as:

They naturally deflect a flier's main weakness of ranged attacks.
They are naturally adept at making Saving Throws for effects that would normally make you fall (such as Tasha's Laughter or an effect that'd knock you Prone).
They have Slowfall built into the core class.
They can easily Disengage in case they ever do fall to the ground.
Their ranged attacks can scale with their Martial Arts dice.



Also, their natural speed boosts do work with flight.

[bid]

As a member of a party, you shouldn't take a role that is supposed to get hit. Enemies don't need an extra reason to concentrate on squishies.

So barbarian or paladin is not a constructive use of the feature.

Monk or rogue can make a great use of flight to harrass their back row without risking OA. Otherwise be a squishie caster.

[prototype00]

As a member of a party, you shouldn't take a role that is supposed to get hit. Enemies don't need an extra reason to concentrate on squishies.

So barbarian or paladin is not a constructive use of the feature.

Monk or rogue can make a great use of flight to harrass their back row without risking OA. Otherwise be a squishie caster.

I disagree that the paladin is necessarily a "role that is supposed to get hit" there is nothing stopping you from being a skirmisher style Paladin either. (Especially if you are limited to medium armor by flight)

[Man_Over_Game]

I disagree that the paladin is necessarily a "role that is supposed to get hit" there is nothing stopping you from being a skirmisher style Paladin either. (Especially if you are limited to medium armor by flight)

I mean, 1d10 hit die, melee range/self healing, auras that don't require Concentration, shields, and a capstone that makes you nearly indestructible.

As far as prime target dummies go, you're on par with most Fighters.

The only real exception I could imagine is something like a Sharpshooter+XBE Devotion Paladin trying to stay in the middle of the team to leverage his Concentration auras, but you don't see anybody doing that.

[Quietus]

Hmm, there is a point to be made that a reach vengeance paladin (or Sorcadin) with a glaive, PAM and GWM is pretty decent.

You attack with advantage from 10ft away for extreme damage, and then just fly up to move out of retaliation range of your enemy.

I need to see the level breakdowns for how long it would take to get all the feats though.

prototype00

I have long wanted to do something like this, personally. Just pure straight Vengeance Pally, with PAM and Sentinel. Opportunity attack anyone who gets close to your party, drop their speed to 0, and step back just far enough to be out of their melee range. Giants are a lot less scary when they can't reach your team. Be sure to start with a 16 in str and cha, because neither one is increasing until level 12.

[Warlush]

IMO
#1 Bard. They get Feather Fall on their list so safety 1st. Most of their awesome spells require concentration, so you'd normally not be able to Fly while using them. Most Bards don't want to be in melee anyway, might as well get vertical. Expertise in Acrobatics could come in handy.

#2 Warlock Pact of The Chain. Like other's pointed out with 1 feat and 1 invocation you can Eldritch Blast from 600 feet away using your familiar to help you see and communicate with your party. Kinda like you're air support in 'Nam.

#3 Arcane Trickster
Another way to be a striker. Plus you can still get Feather Fall.

#4 Abjuration Wizard. Lots of defense to keep you in the air.

[Keravath]

If you can obtain a strength boosting item - Gauntlets of ogre power/belt of giant strength then a paladin works pretty well as a winged Aasimar. AL has a number of modules with strength boosting items from tier 1 to tier 4. The only real constraint is that they have to wear medium armor to fly.

However, both Tieflings and Aasimar boost charisma most so would usually fit best with a charisma based class though you can make anything work.

Since flight is limited to medium armor, most builds will need 14 dex to max armor.

[LordCdrMilitant]

So in adventurer's league season 9, you can play a winged aasimar or tiefling. Basically get rid of the racial spellcasting of tieflings and the transformation power of aasimar, and replace it with a fly speed.

This is a pretty neat thing, letting you play a winged race (I know none of the gms i have played with have ever allowed a flying race)

What are some cool ways to take advantage of it? What types of character use a fly speed well?

Pretty cool. I played a Aasimar Cleric in one campaign who, as was worked out with the GM, had her angelic wings as just part of her. I used this to just "be an angel" as opposed to "be a half angel", which was cool.

I was also an anarchocommunist angel gone to the planes to help inspire the insurrection to overthrow the tyranny of the lords and nobles, so she was a pretty fun character. My drawing of her has a AK-47, a flag, and a belt of ammunition like a propaganda poster [though she didn't have any of those IC].


I played tactical air support mechanically as a tempest cleric. Abusing A: knockback and B: the fact that I could fly. I would alternate between circling overhead and striking with the lightning storm spell or flying so that I could thunderwave enemies off of clifts or into environmental hazards. Pretty fun.

The best ways to use flying are to have ranged attacks or ranged spells. Flying lets you clear LoS to the target, and stay out of reach of melee fighters, so flying into melee anyway defeats the point.

Maybe try an archer fighter build [rain death from above!] or a caster build of some kind that will let you both fly and have concentration on something else like Greater Invisibility so you could be an stealth attack plane.

[Greywander]

I think Monks in particular are the best flying characters in the game, as:

They naturally deflect a flier's main weakness of ranged attacks.
They are naturally adept at making Saving Throws for effects that would normally make you fall (such as Tasha's Laughter or an effect that'd knock you Prone).
They have Slowfall built into the core class.
They can easily Disengage in case they ever do fall to the ground.
Their ranged attacks can scale with their Martial Arts dice.


Beyond a Monk, you'll probably want something with range, whether that means something with a whip/polearm, or a Warlock's Eldritch Smite. Concentration casters in particular would find it beneficial, since they'll be less likely to be attacked while in the air. Weirdly enough, Druids have an interesting synergy with this kind of concept, since most of their Concentration spells have a fairly limited range.
I like the idea of a monk, and as you say they get a lot of things that would be useful for a flying character. What's frustrating is that monks make very mediocre archers. Most of your features require you to get into melee (Stunning Strike and Flurry of Blows, to name a few), and without those you don't really have anything useful to do aside from a small bit of damage. I wonder if the Sun Soul would make this viable, although its Radiant Sun Bolt only has a 30 foot range and doesn't benefit from either Sharpshooter or Spell Sniper. They also get a resource-free weak Fireball with a 150 foot range, so that could also be handy.

[Man_Over_Game]

I like the idea of a monk, and as you say they get a lot of things that would be useful for a flying character. What's frustrating is that monks make very mediocre archers. Most of your features require you to get into melee (Stunning Strike and Flurry of Blows, to name a few), and without those you don't really have anything useful to do aside from a small bit of damage. I wonder if the Sun Soul would make this viable, although its Radiant Sun Bolt only has a 30 foot range and doesn't benefit from either Sharpshooter or Spell Sniper. They also get a resource-free weak Fireball with a 150 foot range, so that could also be handy.

The limitation on range doesn't really matter if you're in the air. 15 feet is about as good as 100, except you take a lot less fall damage at 15. If the enemy wants to spend their attack actions on their 1d8 throwing weapons at you instead of their 2d6 on the Fighter, are you going to complain as you chuck it back at them? You're a Monk, you're likely not going to be buying too many feats in the first place.

If you really want to be a weapon-based archer, just be a Kensei.

[Greywander]

The Kensei is a better monk archer, but still falls behind something like a fighter. What I'd really like to do is a warlock focused on EB. Using Grasp of Hadar to pull an enemy 10 feet into the air so they take fall damage and get knocked prone is not quite as good as Stunning Strike, but it also doesn't cost any resources (except the invocation slot) and doesn't give a save to avoid it. Using Repelling Blast to move enemies around to position them where we want them is also much easier when you're flying. Warlocks make great magical archers, they just don't get anything that help with flying like the monk does.

Looking at the Sun Soul, I can see why people poopoo it, but it actually looks pretty decent. It isn't a long-ranged monk, it's a short-ranged monk, but a ranged monk nonetheless. It seems to specialize in AoE, with a BA Burning Hands and an at-will budget Fireball. The save for no damage hurts, but I think a CON save is actually better if using it as a swarm nuker, as many swarm-type monsters tend to have better DEX than CON (but their HP tends to be low, so even if they save against a Fireball they might still die). Did I mention it was at-will? But the Sun Soul seems to work best when treated like a normal monk who also has ranged and AoE options, rather than a specifically ranged monk.

Thinking about warlock some more, since you're not concentrating on a Fly spell, and warlocks can get Devil's Sight, you could cast Darkness on yourself to give you advantage on all your EB attacks and disadvantage on all attacks against you, plus make yourself untargetable by any spell that requires sight. You might be able to do something better with your concentration, though.

[Daithi]

[snip]Thinking about warlock some more, since you're not concentrating on a Fly spell, and warlocks can get Devil's Sight, you could cast Darkness on yourself to give you advantage on all your EB attacks and disadvantage on all attacks against you, plus make yourself untargetable by any spell that requires sight.

I was going to say basically the same thing as Greywander, but luckily I read his post before posting my own. I'd also multi-class with Sorcerer for Feather Fall and the Distance meta-magic. The Spell Sniper feat and the Eldritch Spear invocation would be a must too. This gives you a range of 1,200 feet.

Since you're prime ability is Charisma, I'd want to focus on Deception, Intimidation, Performance, and/or Persuasion for roll playing flavor.

[Vessyra]

A drunken master monk would work well, using their ability to avoid AoO to swoop into and out of melee; the ability to quickly get up from prone allows you to get back up into the air quickly, if you fall. Any other monk subclass+mobile also works well with this same tactic. Sun soul would undoubtably be the most fun in my opinion, floating above your opponents and hurling radiance down from the sky.