No Flying World (brainstorming)

[Garfunion]

I’m thinking of alternative world war 1-2 era like world, where flying is pretty much impossible for the humanoid (playable) races.
I would like to use a plausible natural phenomenon that would explain this, before I resort to “magic”.

So my question is; what are some natural plausible reasons why humanoid-kind cannot fly.

[Luccan]

So this is including planes? High altitude* storms, perhaps? Of course, this would have a large effect on the general ecosystem and would prevent even non-humanoids from flying particularly high (unless they were adapted to it, but you probably don't get regular birds in this reality).

This would almost certainly shift the game focus to achieving flight, but dragons and cloud giants might not appreciate the competition.


No flight at all just for a specific range of creatures is difficult to justify if it's assumed physics works pretty much the same as real life unless stated otherwise.

*This assumes you want flight to be possible for some creatures and also don't want high winds/lightning to be a constant threat, even if it might still be cloudy all the time

[PhantomSoul]

Gravity's the go-to, but maybe tied to planar affiliation and/or type to make it interesting. E.g. magic is what actually renders flight possible, and humanoids (vs. fey, giants, demons, etc.) don't have this natural magical affinity or connection to a non-groundlocked ability. If doing that, though, you might want to explicitly add in that birds and the like are affiliated with the Elemental Plane of Air and/or are Elementals [Air].

Maybe this is why high-level sorcerers often get flight, and why Wild Shapes with flight requires level 8 for Druids! (Two levels before turning into a full Elemental in the case of Moon Druids.)

[False God]

I’m thinking of alternative world war 1-2 era like world, where flying is pretty much impossible for the humanoid (playable) races.
I would like to use a plausible natural phenomenon that would explain this, before I resort to “magic”.

So my question is; what are some natural plausible reasons why humanoid-kind cannot fly.

Wait, so you mean like, winged humanoids? Or you mean like flight as in airplanes?

[Garfunion]

So this is including planes? High altitude* storms, perhaps? Of course, this would have a large effect on the general ecosystem and would prevent even non-humanoids from flying particularly high (unless they were adapted to it, but you probably don't get regular birds in this reality).

This would almost certainly shift the game focus to achieving flight, but dragons and cloud giants might not appreciate the competition.


No flight at all just for a specific range of creatures is difficult to justify if it's assumed physics works pretty much the same as real life unless stated otherwise.

*This assumes you want flight to be possible for some creatures and also don't want high winds/lightning to be a constant threat, even if it might still be cloudy all the time

See that is the thing, I still want “tiny” animals like normal birds and insects. I just don’t want the world to have developed flying technology or even flying spells. As for the type of creatures that reside on this world let’s assume (for now) it’s just an alternative version of our earth.


Wait, so you mean like, winged humanoids? Or you mean like flight as in airplanes?
No winged humanoids or airplanes not even hot air balloons.

[Bobthewizard]

Just take out any flying spells, PC races, and mounts you want to remove and you're good. Otherwise the medieval technology that most of us use in D&D didn't have any flying things yet. You'll still have birds and even dragons if you want.

[greenstone]

Just take out any flying spells, PC races, and mounts you want to remove and you're good. Otherwise the medieval technology that most of us use in D&D didn't have any flying things yet. You'll still have birds and even dragons if you want.

+1 for this. Keep it simple. "In this game there is no flying magic and no winged creatures bigger than a Haast's Eagle. Except for rare, extremely magical creatures like dragons and pagasi."

For a metaphysical reason for this, how about the following (off the top of my head).

Many, many generations ago, river god courted sky god. The god of the earth was a jealous god, and plotted against their romantic rival for the attentions of sky god. The plotting got out of control and ended up with the death of river god.

In their anger, sky god vowed "from this time forward, no creature of earth will ever again enjoy the freedom of the sky!" To this day, nothing larger than a crow has climbed more than a few feet into the air without being struck down.

Apart from the dragons, of course. Whether sky god allows dragons to fly because of respect or fear is unknown. Dragon is an ancient and powerful creature, and keeps its secrets close.

[8wGremlin]

Magic exists.
So elementals and spirits exist

Thousands of years ago early humans tried to capture the air spirits and tried to enslave them.
They captured and tortured them, until it was to much for the elemental rules of the air and they intervened. Freeing the air spirits.
Now to this day any humanoid who tries to leave the ground and fly is swamped by angry air spirits seeking justice.

[8wGremlin]

Haast's Eagle.
Damn you beat me to the same concept!
Good on you fellow Kiwi.
Greenstone name and Haast Eagle you got to be Kiwi!